Show us your Work Trains

Great idea, Peter, for a topic. I will post photos or a video later today. Arnold

This looks to be a very interesting thread,  I may post but will follow it.

Ray

Couple of work cars remaining from my late '50s - early '60s trains.

I have 5 work trains that I can run with main line trains. CNJ, LIRR, B&O, SCL and MTA.

No plans to add another other than the long overdue Atlas O SCL hopper.

@SIRT posted:

                                   

I have 5 work trains that I can run with main line trains. CNJ, LIRR, B&O, SCL and MTA.

No plans to add another other than the long overdue Atlas O SCL hopper.

I am not much for weathering but on those woodside cars it looks great.

Ray

Here are a few pics of mine -

Conrail set mth railking

My LIRR train… the 3 cars are special runs from the good folks at the Nassau Lionel Operating Engineers and the engine was a special run from Nassau Hobby. Got to find a LIRR crane!!!

Usually, my Boston & Maine crane and tender are parked in the lower yard of my 12’-by-8’ layout. Recently, I ran them with B&M locomotive #1274 (by MTH with PS3) and caboose #433. Not really an MOW train – but a wreck train…

MELGAR

Here's a work train, led by an MTH PS2 Pennsy VO1000 diesel, hauling modern gondolas with loads and a Postwar Lionel crane car:

IMO, weathering a work train, which I have not yet done, could be a very nice enhancement. Arnold

Just a simple story here:

Early one morning, a C&O sleeper having some inspection problems is eased into the Edgewater Car Shop by a new John Deere tractor fitted with a coupler.   The Master Mechanic came over in his old Chrysler to check it out. While this may save time and the use of a yard switcher, operating Brotherhoods WILL file their grievances about this!

As this is a priority job, the Edgewater relief crane was brought in to assist work on the sleeper's trucks.  The car is inside the shop, on lift blocks.  All should be inspected and ready for a late morning departure with the "West Virginian."  Baltimore & New York office car 100 (in B&O livery as car 935) rolls past on the tail of an inspection train heading west.

The C&O sleeper was built from an American Standard kit and named for the car I rode in on a trip west on the "George Washington" in 1968. The relief crane is a 2-railed, modified MTH unit. The office car is a 1956 Walthers kit I built as a teen. It was rebuilt and modified in the 1980's as a "modernized" division level office car from the turn of the 20th century.  It has truss rods with steel sheathing over its wood body, air conditioning, full interior and underbody detail as well. Also, working track inspection and marker lights that are battery powered, with a cut-out switch in the water tank under the car.         

Imagine that!  It's all part of model railroading.

S. Islander.

New crane tender for BN crane.

Other work train cars

MTH PS3 Great Northern VO1000 hauling logs along the river:

Lionel Nickel Plate Road Work Train set & Expansion Pack.

You load 16 tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

St. Peter don't you call me cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I put together a New Haven work train based on some photos found in the  J. W. Swanberg Papers in the UConn Digital Library - three hyperlinks to prototype photos below.

Danbury Work Train 1

Danbury Work Train 2

Danbury Work Train 3

The RS-3 is a detailed and painted Weaver model, the caboose is stock Lionel, and the gondolas and flatcar are kitbashed from old AHM cars with Weaver trucks. The crawler crane is cobbled together from a Lionel P&H crane, 3D printed treads, and some miscellaneous detail parts.

~Chris

Here's one from several years ago. I was working on the club layout (actual MOW) after hours and had an MOW train running on one main and a "through freight" running on the other.  I looked up and saw what would be a good "pass" and took the video.

While not a work "train" per se, I'm going to throw this one out there:

Tom

Thanks Peter, a good excuse to get the MOW on the tracks.  I had to turn off the lights since the searchlight is amazing at 18 volts.

Excellent contributions, everyone!

Peter

@Mayor Magoo posted:

Couple of work cars remaining from my late '50s - early '60s trains.

Very nice, Steve. The caboose reminds me of my first 1960’s train set, only mine had a 6130. Despite how simple it is compared to the scale offerings of today, it remains one of my all-time favorite cabeese!!!

My Work Train

My first train set was my Christmas gift in 1956, a Lionel “work train” headed by the Lionel 1615 switcher engine. I still have it, I still love it, and it still runs fine.

@WP posted:

My Work Train

My first train set was my Christmas gift in 1956, a Lionel “work train” headed by the Lionel 1615 switcher engine. I still have it, I still love it, and it still runs fine.

A true PostWar Classic!

Here is one I cobbled together from my NYO&W cars.

Have a great day!

Peter

Growing up in walking distance of the old C&O line built on the Kanawha canal route and the James River on the other side, I spent my youth avoiding the Chessie police while crossing the tracks and going for a swim in the river.  Often, MOW equipment was parked at the now forgotten Sabot station.  I pieced together my work train with a combo of Chessie and C&O equipment I remember, with a few liberties, such as the B&O coil car to add play value with the TMCC crane.

(Currently rebuilding my layout so excuse the workbench pic.)

Here are a couple of old pics of a Marx wrecker I am knocking together.  Trying to find a reasonably priced, running S-2 to go with it and maybe a small crane car to back up the Big Hook.

A Penn Central wreck train returning from a clean-up:

Tom

A work train lead by the 6250 Seaboard Switcher, one of my all-time favorites. I love PW switchers!

I  have the "Gandy Dancer" work train cataloged in 1954 that also features the 6250. Need to get the rolling stock out of storage for that one.

A tip to fellow Pennsy fans.  The PRR apparently did not use boom tender work cabooses.  They just slung the crane boons over a flat car or a gondola car.  Back when I bought the MTH PRR Wreck Train Premier set (20-90005) in1999 that had the set prototypically correct except MTH included a red N-8 cabin car.   Later in 2006 they made a yellow MOW N-6b cabin car (20-91222) which is ideal for the wreck train.

Ron

Peter, I agree with Arnold, this is a very interesting topic.  I have liked running work trains since I was a kid (a few years ago!).

Here’s my contribution; MTH NYC 0-4-0 switcher no. 901 pulling a consist of postwar Lionel cars.  Three of the cars are custom, made from cheap flats purchase from under the table at train shows.  Can anyone tell me what car I used to create the reel car?  The K-line reels fit it perfectly.

John

@PRRronbh posted:

A tip to fellow Pennsy fans.  The PRR apparently did not use boom tender work cabooses.  They just slung the crane boons over a flat car or a gondola car.  Back when I bought the MTH PRR Wreck Train Premier set (20-90005) in1999 that had the set prototypically correct except MTH included a red N-8 cabin car.   Later in 2006 they made a yellow MOW N-6b cabin car (20-91222) which is ideal for the wreck train.

Ron

My layout is set in 1949 when the Pennsy painted their work train cars gray (cranes were always black).  I do need to fix the decals on the crane to reflect the late 40s.

Fixing the crane should be easy.  Crain bodies were all black with "PENNSYLVANIA" in white on the frame (like it is here).  So all I need to do is figure out how to get rid of all the yellow. 

FYI.  The Pennsy changed from gray to chrome yellow for the car bodies in 1953.  Also, before 1953, grab irons, ladders, brake wheels, etc. were painted either black or the same color as the car.

@Steam Crazy posted:

Peter, I agree with Arnold, this is a very interesting topic.  I have liked running work trains since I was a kid (a few years ago!).

Here’s my contribution; MTH NYC 0-4-0 switcher no. 901 pulling a consist of postwar Lionel cars.  Three of the cars are custom, made from cheap flats purchase from under the table at train shows.  Can anyone tell me what car I used to create the reel car?  The K-line reels fit it perfectly.

John

No idea on the car with the reels but the loads look super, nice rework of the old cars.

Hokie, thanks for the compliment!  It's fun to take a cheap car and turn it into a realistic model.  I'm going to wait to see if someone can ID the reel car, but I will say it's a postwar car designed for a specific load.  The load was missing when I bought the car.

John

Here's my work train sitting on the Wreck Train track at the engine terminal.

A stock Lionel TMCC crane with a custom boom tender with KLine (Marx) tollboxes and Scale City acetylene and oxygen bottles.

Williams tank an Modernized heavyweight (six wheel trucks and no skirts) crew car with a generator in the baggage compartment.

Weaver supply car and Atlas panel track car,

All painted and numbered for actual Southern work service cars.

My Norfolk Southern (original) 150 ton carne and tender.

The crane is a MTH Rail King completely reskinned with styrene and a Lionel lattice boom.

Tender is a MTH straight sill flat (very odd) with a modified cabin and scratched wheel rack.

Both Painted and lettered for the prototype.

Gray Lackey

@Steam Crazy posted:

Peter, I agree with Arnold, this is a very interesting topic.  I have liked running work trains since I was a kid (a few years ago!).

Here’s my contribution; MTH NYC 0-4-0 switcher no. 901 pulling a consist of postwar Lionel cars.  Three of the cars are custom, made from cheap flats purchase from under the table at train shows.  Can anyone tell me what car I used to create the reel car?  The K-line reels fit it perfectly.

John

Seeing John's work train with the orange generator on one of the train cars reminded me of the Postwar Lionel search light car with the orange generator. IMO, both look like they belong on a work train. Arnold

@CBS072 posted:

New crane tender for BN crane.

Other work train cars

Find a picture of the Railroad's "Big Hook" seating in the yard.

Also a picture from the 1980's of the real 1 to 1 scale "Big Hook" at Woodward, Oklahoma.

A Southern railway crane and gondola in the round house at the NCTM.

Ron