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Welcome to Switcher Saturday 11/30/24 Edition!!



Hello fellow switcher fans and welcome to Switcher Saturday!    I hope everyone had a great week and a most wonderful Thanksgiving!!  The holiday season has now officially begun ... or at least that's the way it was in my household when growing up.  

Yes indeed, this is the thread that celebrates all things switching locomotives or whatever you wish to call them ... switchers, shunters, critters, yard goats, dinky, yard drill, etc.  We think all forms of switchers are pretty darn neat and we invite you to post photos, videos, information related to switchers.  Switcher Saturday is open to all gauges from Z - G and we most certainly invite photos, videos  of 1:1 gauge as well!  

Keep in mind ... post only photos that you have taken.  Be sure to have in writing the express permission of the photo's owner before posting on the OGR Forum.    Posting photos taken by someone else without their permission pose a copyright violation and any individual doingso will be held  liable.  Please refer to OGR Forum Terms of Service ( TOS ) at top of this page to learn more.  

I had a switcher theme all teed up in advance for this week's SwSat however between saving it as a draft earlier this afternoon and revisiting it tonight all the photos I had chosen and inserted into the body of the post had been relegated to the bottom strip and they would not load again to the body of the post.  Hmmmm .... That's the first time I've experienced that.  I'll notify the powers that be.  

I'm looking forward to see all your terrific posts!  After all, you never disappoint!  We learn so much from each other through our posts.   Have a terrific and safe weekend everyone!!  Green signals and clear tracks ahead!  

Instead of the planned content I had for today, here are some pics and a video of my Williams by Bachman Pennsy 44 tonner earning its' keep here on the Free State Junction Railway.  This is a great little switcher for the money!   While it doesn't process all the features of the MTH model, it does look good, has fixed pilots, with decent horn and bell sound.  Its' engine sound could be louder but I'm personally okay with that.  This engine has been running reliably on my layout for many years now.  

This photo shows the mighty little engine pulling a 3 car train which includes  a special  8 axle flat car with a load of a Ma&Pa doodlebug.  Turns out the doodlebug broke down yet again and is being returned to the Lionel Shops.  Good thing the ol' gal is still under warranty!  

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This clip shows the 44 tonner pulling its' 3 car train with the empty 8 axle flat car on its way to pick up the dead doodlebug.  

Brakeman Wiff Kooster rides the deck as the engine shoves a tank car onto a siding.

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Last edited by trumpettrain
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New York Central 0-4-0 #901 is an MTH Premier model (20-3261-1, MSRP $599.95) with PS2 delivered in 2007 and listed as having 1:48 scale proportions.

MTH describes the model as a Pennsylvania A5s with its Belpaire firebox replaced by a standard radial firebox. The builder’s plate on the smokebox of the New York Central version even says “Juniata Shops” – not a manufacturer from which the NYC would have bought locomotives. Photos of PRR A5s in Pennsy Power, by Alvin F. Staufer, also suggest that the model’s tender is taller than scale, probably to accommodate electronics.

I consulted Steam Locomotives of the New York Central Lines, Volume 1 by W. D. Edson, H. L. Vail Jr., and E. L. May, the authoritative reference on New York Central steam locomotives, but found no information on a superheated 0-4-0 switcher like this model. The NYC was buying more powerful 0-6-0 steamers by 1900 and began superheating them around 1915. So, although this excellent model is not prototypical, it’s a good size for the O-36 inner loop and the narrow rock cut on my 12’-by-8’ model railroad.

This little locomotive running through the rock cut on my O-36 loop reminds me of when I was about 12 years old and rebuilt my O gauge railroad into an HO layout with small locomotives and a single track branch line. About a year later, I began to concentrate on airplanes - real and model - and didn't resume O gauge railroading for almost four decades...

MELGAR

MELGAR_2024_1125_43_NYC_901_12X8MELGAR_2024_1125_46_NYC_901_12X8MELGAR_2024_1125_31_NYC_901_12X8MELGAR_2024_1125_40_NYC_901_12X8

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Last edited by MELGAR

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