Midwest Monday

Railfanning in Ft. Wayne:

Tom

OK well MWM fans, here it is another Monday...since I retired, Monday is just another day but to all you working folks its the beginning of a new work week.  Here's hoping this is a successful week for you all.  Today, I have some pictures from my collection archives, I took these a few years ago but have not posted them at least not in my memory.  This is Marx set # 27152 which was titled "Work Train".  It centers around the Illinois Central RR (IC) and was available in 1974-75 so its getting to be nearly 50 years old.  It does contain a couple of unique cars which I will discuss in the pictures.

Here are the trains with their set box.  I apologize for the horrible seal tape over the picture, a prior owner used this packing tape to seal the box lid closed and I have been unable to find a way to get it off without ruining the picture.  The picture does accurately depict the trains inside however.  

Here is a close up of the trains.  Some of the more unique cars are 1) the searchlight car with a yellow generator 2) the flat car with yellow rails 3) the work caboose with the tank and 4) the crane car with an orange cab.  These cars seem only to have been found in this set, although you occasionally see them as individual pieces on e-bay.

Well the IC is my "mid west" RR for today.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Best Wishes

Don

I don't think I can get anymore "Midwest" than this:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

I don't think I can get anymore "Midwest" than this:

Tom

You got that right Tom. Beautiful pic thanks for sharing

Well good morning everyone, I know this is Thanksgiving week so maybe everyone is sleeping late   Thought I might post today to start us off using Marx 6" freight cars.  These were the first toy trains Marx made beginning just after he took over the Gerard Model Works in 1935 so here are a few "midwest" 6 inch cars.

What could be more "midwest" than "Middle States Oil" (Santa Fe) cars.  These are 6" 8 wheel cars, made pre-war only from 1936-1942.  The red base one, has Marx "one way" auto couplers which date it 1937 or later.

The St.Louis Southwestern or "Cotton Belt Route" boxcar.  This is a famous name in our area, the highway that runs next to our development here in Texas is still called the "Cotton Belt Parkway" this car from 1940

Finally two "silver lithographed frame" or "short wheelbase" cars.  These are from the first run of 6" cars Marx made after taking over from Gerard Model Works, these would be dated 1935 or 36.  The Colorado and Southern Refer and another Middle States Oil / Santa Fe car.

Well that's my mid-west post for this week.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, best wishes to all.

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Well good morning everyone, I know this is Thanksgiving week so maybe everyone is sleeping late   Thought I might post today to start us off using Marx 6" freight cars.  These were the first toy trains Marx made beginning just after he took over the Gerard Model Works in 1935 so here are a few "midwest" 6 inch cars.

What could be more "midwest" than "Middle States Oil" (Santa Fe) cars.  These are 6" 8 wheel cars, made pre-war only from 1936-1942.  The red base one, has Marx "one way" auto couplers which date it 1937 or later.

The St.Louis Southwestern or "Cotton Belt Route" boxcar.  This is a famous name in our area, the highway that runs next to our development here in Texas is still called the "Cotton Belt Parkway" this car from 1940

Finally two "silver lithographed frame" or "short wheelbase" cars.  These are from the first run of 6" cars Marx made after taking over from Gerard Model Works, these would be dated 1935 or 36.  The Colorado and Southern Refer and another Middle States Oil / Santa Fe car.

Well that's my mid-west post for this week.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, best wishes to all.

Don

WOW Don great looking cars! The date you put up would make them 30 years older then I am! It's nice to see them still around!

Some run through power showed up today:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

Some run through power showed up today:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

Some run through power showed up today:

Tom

Looks good Tom. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that Engine before.

Here’s a another view of the DT&I Switcher. Happy Monday

Mike g...thanks for the compliments...I'm afraid that the cars only "pre-date" me by about 4-9 years but hey when it comes to trains, we are all just "kids"...

Don

@lee drennen posted:

Looks good Tom. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that Engine before.

Its not mine.  It belongs to the local historical society, Delphos Canal Commission.  I made some repairs and had to "test" it out. 

Tom

Well here it is another Monday morning...hope everyone got off a good start to the week.  I have to go for a "stress test" for my heart this morning so this will be quick...

Here is some Marx Nickel Plate trains for this Monday.  These are Marx 7" 4 wheel cars.  These trains were brought out by Marx to counter the "Unique Lines" trains of the 1950's

Best wishes for Monday

Don

MPC and LTI f3 Illinois Central

Good Luck on your test.

Here's my first contribution to Midwest Monday.  Caprock, Texas, is a mythical town located just off of the caprock, on rolling plains, near the real towns of Dickens and Crosbyton.  (You can look up those locations on Maps or Google Maps.)  It's a small town and home terminal for crews on a line that Santa Fe surveyed, but never built, between Brownwood and Lubbock, via Abilene.  Crews run to Clovis, NM, and Abilene, TX.  Names of my little people are pure Texan, some being real people, and others just having surnames common in the Texas German farm families that inhabit this part of the state.

We're viewing the Second District local, waiting to depart Caprock.  Conductor Fritz Bakkus is in the depot, getting the train orders.  Engineer Will Ochsner has opened his Thermos and is sharing coffee with the Fireman while they wait for the Brakeman to bring the train orders.  It's 1952, and the 2-6-2 steam engine that would have been the locomotive on the local just two months ago, has been replaced by new Fairbanks-Morse H16-44 number 2807.  That's fine with Will.  He does not miss the hot and dusty cab of the steam engine, and the 2807 can really drop cars into facing point spurs.

franktrain - thanks for the "good luck" thought on my heart test, hopefully it will show nothing wrong.  However I now have to wait about a week for analysis and feedback...wait, wait...etc.  By the way, I really like the Lionel MPC IC GP and matching caboose, I love that IC livery.

Number 90 : Really good back story about your mythical town of Caprock.  I note that the line comes near Abilene.  Now that winter is on the way here in central Texas I am reminded what I have been told about Abilene..." Ain't nothin between Abilene and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence!"

Best wishes

Don

Adding to my Illinois Central set I found this 8254 at a estate sale. Someone added a power frame to this non-powered unit. The brake blister had yellowed so i left it off. Ready to roll some freight through the corn fields mpc style.

Well hello MWM folks...today I have one of my favorite collectable cars, the "plug door" box car.  Really not a plug door at all but this is just the term assigned by most collectors to Lionel's simple, inexpensive, 0-27 boxcars.  They used these cars in many of their starter type sets and in many promotional sets with the cars used to picture the sponsor of the set, like a store.

Today, I can't get too much more mid-west than with the Louisville and Nashville Rail Road.  I know one of our normal folks that post on the forum, Leapin Larry, will like this salute to Nashville, which OBTW is the site of this years TCA and LCCA conventions.  So here it is, the Lionel # 7909 L&N boxcar from 1983-84.

Side and quarter view to show entire car.  These are "short" cars, not really scale in most ways.  They were designed to provide a simple box car for starter type sets and to provide a "canvas" for various promotional liveries.

Here is the formal name of the L&N, proving its "mid-west" heritage.

...And the logo of course.

Well here 's hoping everyone gets off to a good start this week .  Best wishes

Don

Well its a fine Monday in Texas today, warmed all the way up to 50!  Today, I decided to post a Marx set, I acquired many years ago , Marx Set # 9452 from the 1950's made up of what have come to be called 7 inch cars.  These 4 wheel cars where rushed to market in 1950 in response to am new marketing thrust by Unique Lines.  As a result of the rush to market there are few road names and even fewer types of cars. There were only two types of freight cars plus a caboose.  Only the caboose came in many road names (8) the others were the gondola (4) and boxcar (3).   As an interesting side light, Louis Marx was close personal friends with the head of Unique and forever after considered their thrust to manufacture trains a personal betrayal.  These cars / trains were started about 1950 but were phased out by the late 1950's.  So what does that matter to MWM...well this set happens to be the Baltimore and Ohio.  Interesting to me because  we lived some 10 years just south of Baltimore and 20 years in Dayton, Ohio.  The B&0, one of the first RR in America, linked the east coast to the mid-west.  So here is Marx Set #9452, the Baltimore and Ohio, Diesel Freight.

First the Marx #62, EMD F-3 , B&O AA units.

The full freight consist of the set, including box car, gondola, and caboose

The #37956 PRR Merchandise Service boxcar.  This is the sliding door variant.  It also came as a closed / lithographed door car and in that form carried several different numbers but the sliding door car always carried #37956.

The Wabash gondola.

The somewhat unique B &O caboose.  These carried numbers C-504 thru C-518

Well that's it for me on this fine Monday.  I hope everyone has a great week

Don

A Penn Central SW8 prepares to cross the main line as the tower operator performs the roll-by inspection:

Tom

Eastbound meets westbound in northwest Illinois on the old IC line to Dubuque:

Rusty

Well I missed both Sw Sat and BxCar Sun due to being on the road (with everyone else on Earth!).  So here is my posting form MWM, on the week before Christmas.  This little guy represented what the Marx folks were offering in 1974-75 just as they were about to sell the operation to Quaker Oats.  Still, in my minds eye, I can see some youngster in that era being surprised on Christmas morning and delighted with their new train.  Continuing my posting from last week, what could be more " midwest" than Baltimore and Ohio....

So here he is the B&O 4 wheel (note the black truck facade's) boxcar from 1974-75.

Best wishes for the Holiday season to all

Don

Merry Christmas everyone! The Wabash here to greet Santa.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

MTH 20-20157-1

Hi fellows...couldn't help commenting

Mike g...BNSF runs very near our home, I have posted pictures of double stack trains passing thru Crawford, Tx  so those diesels of yours are really nice (too big for my layout...but one can always dream!!)

Mike h ...The GM&O F units are beautiful...not seen them before.  Great loco's.  I like cab units because with their A-B-A configuration as opposed to the long length of the more modern diesels, they will actually run on my little layout.  I have the old Lionel Santa Fe, NYC and a Wabash AB.  Those  GM&O's are sure beautiful.

Best wishes everyone

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Hi fellows...couldn't help commenting

Mike g...BNSF runs very near our home, I have posted pictures of double stack trains passing thru Crawford, Tx  so those diesels of yours are really nice (too big for my layout...but one can always dream!!)

Mike h ...The GM&O F units are beautiful...not seen them before.  Great loco's.  I like cab units because with their A-B-A configuration as opposed to the long length of the more modern diesels, they will actually run on my little layout.  I have the old Lionel Santa Fe, NYC and a Wabash AB.  Those  GM&O's are sure beautiful.

Best wishes everyone

Don

Thanks Don, I love the orange colors, but I guess thats what I grew up with mostly. First it was Green and White BN then one day I seen my first orange BNSF and I was like WOW!

Well hello everyone, this is our last MWM in 2021...can't say I will miss that year or the 2020 that proceeded it.  Well for today, I know that lee drennen and others had mentioned that they liked MoPac so I dug through my inventory (a rather large cardboard box !!) and found a Marx MoPac cattle car from 1957.  This guy also comes in Yellow, Orange and Green but candidly I have never seen any of those variants and IAW my references, the Green has a collector value somewhere north of unbelievable...    So today, here is the common but good looking MoPac #54099, Marx Cattle car.  Note this is a "non-operating" version, this car also came with a mechanical trip that opened the door and pushed a "cow" out towards the exit.  No going back in though.

Best wishes to everyone for a grand and glorious, happy and healthy new year!!

Don

Happy and Healthy New Year everyone! Here's a toast from a Marx 3/16 scale boxcar.

MTH 30-20082-1

GM&O Alco RS-1

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

A Penn Central transfer run is being pulled by SW8 8623 (Lionel):

This SW8 is a Nichols Smith exclusive.  They hit it out of the park!  Everything one expects from a Legacy equipped locomotive.  Nice job, guys!

Tom

Rusty

Well here we are on the first Monday in 2022.  So in keeping with MWM, I thought I would post a 42 year old Lionel steamer, the # 8008 Chessie System, 4-4-2 from 1980.  The "Chessie System" was born in February 1973 and included the C&O, B&O,and the Western Md RR.  It made its Headquarters in Cleveland Ohio.  

This little fellow, like many of the 4-4-2 engines made by Lionel in the late 70's and early 80's was not fancy or super detailed.  However, his die cast boiler gave him good traction, he was reliable, he had smoke, 3 position reverse, and a headlight.  He makes a good runner with plenty of pulling power for a layout as small as mine.  His tender reminds me of the "Chessie Steam Specials" that the system ran in the late 70's out of Cincinnati  and where I took my 2 sons, age 6 & 8 at the time.  Complete with open window coaches, lots of smoke and cinders (we wore protective eye wear) and actual trackside run by's.  Great memories.

Best Wishes everyone

Don

A Penn Central freight has a slow order as it crosses Kill Bridge:

Tom

A Penn Central manifest freight led by U23B 2723 (Atlas O) passes through Killbridge:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

A Penn Central manifest freight led by U23B 2723 (Atlas O) passes through Killbridge:

Tom

Tom. I think that’s your best video yet I loved it also liked the Erie Lackawanna Piggyback. Thanks for sharing

@DETROIT posted:

MwM - Minimal commentary this week   

Jim great line up and videos thanks for posting

Here’s mine for this Monday sorry been gone so long thanks for keeping this going. See you next MWM.

Great videos guys! Maybe I will have something for you all next Monday! Just been a little busy around here! I can tell you this, I am really beginning to hate snow! LOL

@lee drennen posted:

Tom. I think that’s your best video yet I loved it also liked the Erie Lackawanna Piggyback. Thanks for sharing

Thanks, Lee!  I just finished the bridge last week so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it in the near future.

Tom

A NYC freight under steam passes through Killbridge:

Tom