STEAMday Sunday (3/23/2025 edition)

New to the layout is a 3rd Rail K2.  Like how close the tender fits and the underside details.

From our run session yesterday........

The young man who owns this engine/consist was celebrating his 14th birthday, yesterday.

Peter

Good morning, StDaySun fans!  Seeing Norfolk &Western steam power has motivated me to change my planned post for today and share with you my trip to the Strasburg RR on October 4, 2019.

The star of the show that day was N&W no. 611, but 4-8-0 no. 475 was steamed up, too.  Shortly after boarding the train for a ride through the Amish countryside, we learned our trip would be delayed because 611’s pilot truck derailed on a movement to come around the train.  Our trip was delayed two hours, but we were able to console ourselves with a beer.  All subsequent rides were canceled and the Strasburg RR gave us a full refund for our fare.  We topped the day off with a 611 cab tour, where I was able to tell a fellow passenger why Lionel’s N&W no. 746 was not numbered 611!

John

MTH PS3 Railking B6 steam switcher hauling boxcars and caboose from Track 2 to Track1:

Thanks Arnold for keeping the firebox stoked and a full head of steam to get us rolling today!   Your Pennsy B6 looks terrific pulling the string of gondolas!

Today I'm showing my scale Williams Brass Camelback 4-6-0 pulling a commuter train.  I bought this locomotive brand new back in 2015 or 16.  It's reliable with plenty of pulling power!  It smokes very well for a Suethe ( sp?) smoke unit.   I got to know Frank Vacek several years before he passed away.  Frank worked for Williams for many years.  He told me William brass locomotives have bronze gears and were made by Samhongsa ( sp?) in South Korea.  

  Williams didn't install whistles or bells in these engines/tenders, so sometimes I place a MTH RailKing work caboose with a digital air whistle behind the locomotive .. but not on this commuter train.

Prototypically these locomotives were impractical to operate ... with the fireman positioned at the  rear of the locomotive, and the boiler separating the headend brakeman and engineer, making  it impossible to call signals to one another.  Plus .. Safety First??  Not so much with the Camelback which  was dubbed the  " Widow maker" because if a side rod became disconnected while running, there was a great chance it would crash thru the floor of the cab thereby killing or seriously injuring the engineers and/or headend brakeman.  

As a modeler, I've always found the Camelback locomotive rather intriguing.  In order to make my story convincing to me ... Although Lackawanna is not one of the railroads I model, this locomotive is being leased to the Free State Junction Railway due to the high volume of freight and passenger traffic.  

Happy STEAMday Sunday

1st up is a Lionel Legacy Consolidation 2-8-0 Custom run by Mr Muffins decorated by Harry Heinkel in PRSL livery with Atlas PRSL passenger cars.

2nd up Lionel Legacy 2-10-4 in PRR Livery with the Broadway Limited. PRR leased 12 of these from the AT&SF.

Appearing 3rd is a Lionel Legacy Consolidation 2-8-0. A custom run by METCA in New Hope & Ivy livery with customized passenger cars by me.

Well today I am going to indulge my interest in the "cheap stuff" over the course of our toy train history.  Marx through out its post war production, constantly sought to make at least one train set that would be within reach of the budget of every family.  In 1952 they began producing the 4 wheel plastic cars...these are molded in one piece and have no floor (except for the gondola)  or trucks but the axles and wheels are inserted by spreading the body and using the "spring force" of the molding to hold the axle in place. The trucks are simply a one dimensional facade created as part of the body casting.  In later years to make them somewhat more realistic looking these facades were painted black.  In 1952 these cars were molded in color but had no names imprinted- there is some uncorroborated information that the set sometimes included some decals to be used on the cars.  In 1953, these cars were imprinted with the name "Marlines" (obviously for Marx Lines) .  In later years real RR names were used.  The set uses the standard type 400 Marx 0-4-0 steamer, wind up, that has wide spread application in the Marx line up and was also widely available in later years as electric. Below is pictured Marx Set 1479 from 1953 but it is missing the boxcar (which I have been trying for years to find ).  The rest of the set is as pictured from 1953.

Well Happy Steam Day to everyone.  Hope your upcoming week goes well.

Don

@trumpettrain posted:

Today I'm showing my scale Williams Brass Camelback 4-6-0 pulling a commuter train.  I bought this locomotive brand new back in 2015 or 16.  It's reliable with plenty of pulling power!  It smokes very well for a Suethe ( sp?) smoke unit.   I got to know Frank Vacek several years before he passed away.  Frank worked for Williams for many years.  He told me William brass locomotives have bronze gears and were made by Samhongsa ( sp?) in South Korea. 

Patrick,

Your spelling is correct.  The name of the company, however, is three words.  Sam Hong Sa.  The owner was See Yong Lee.

Mr. Lee stopped by one York wanting to see if he could get some of Right of Way's business.

Regards,

Lou N

A little smoke on this fine Sunday in March...

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

MTH PS3 Railking B6 steam switcher hauling boxcars and caboose from Track 2 to Track1:

I always get a kick out of the combination and juxtaposition of good scenery, "toy" equipment, plus modern hi-rail equipment and performance. Such is the way I thought my layout looked when I ran it in the 50's. Of course, it didn't.

Here is K-Line #5344 with PS2 moving out of the yard with NYC 'Madison' heavyweights also by K-Line.

Somehow the chuff rate switched to 2 per and the smoke unit needs attention. She is very smooth and has good sounds however and replicates Lionel's 100 Anniversary Hudson set.

Here she is again with the proper chuff rate set traversing Bob's mountain layout

@Lou N posted:

Patrick,

Your spelling is correct.  The name of the company, however, is three words.  Sam Hong Sa.  The owner was See Yong Lee.

Mr. Lee stopped by one York wanting to see if he could get some of Right of Way's business.

Regards,

Lou N

Thank you so much Lou!  Much appreciate your information.   So, was Mr. Lee able to garner any business from Right of Way?

Lionel C&O 2-10-4  under the trestle

@Lou N posted:

Patrick,

Your spelling is correct.  The name of the company, however, is three words.  Sam Hong Sa.  The owner was See Yong Lee.

Mr. Lee stopped by one York wanting to see if he could get some of Right of Way's business.

Regards,

Lou N

Thanks for that Lou,  I never realized that it was 3 separate words either.  Wasn't Mike Wolfe married to his daughter at some point as well?

@c.sam posted:

Thanks for that Lou,  I never realized that it was 3 separate words either.  Wasn't Mike Wolfe married to his daughter at some point as well?

That is an old rumor.  Mike's wife is from Thailand.

Lou N

@trumpettrain posted:

Thank you so much Lou!  Much appreciate your information.   So, was Mr. Lee able to garner any business from Right of Way?

No sir.  All of the business went to Ajin Precision.  They were the best builder.  Overland Models used them exclusively. 

The one exceptions was the Allegheny which was built by Jang Se Ho of Boo Rim.  Mr. Jang was previously the Chief Engineer of Ajin.

There are a lot of relatives and relationships in this business.  I was with Cho Nam Dal (owner of Ajin) in his office and asked him where Sam Hong Sa was.  He casually pointed out his window a few streets over and said:  Over there.

Mr. Cho invited us to see the assembly of the high end locomotives (specifically the Red Swiss Electrics).  The assemblers were 50ish gentlemen all wearing white shirts.  No one spoke a word.  These guys were the top of the line builders.

Lou N