STEAMday Sunday 7/7/2024 edition

Northern Pacific steam 2-8-8-4 #4501pulling a long string of freight on east end of layout.

Good morning, steam fans!  Thanks, Arnold, for getting a head of steam up; I like your selection of videos today!

Last Sunday I promised to post my postwar Lionel no. 736 2-8-4 Berkshire taking the challenge of pulling my seven car MTH Railking B&M passenger train.  You’ll recall I has some misgivings about the ability of my no. 2035 steamer to handle the train last Sunday, but I had more confidence in the big Berkshire.  Not only did she not disappoint me, but I thought she looked quite good with those semi scale passenger cars.  I never thought about running the 736 with those cars before,  but I’ll do it again.

John

@Captain John posted:

Northern Pacific steam 2-8-8-4 #4501pulling a long string of freight on east end of layout.

Very nice, Captain John, that’s one behemoth of a steamer.

Photos and videos show my Weaver die-cast model of Maine Central Class W 2-8-0 Consolidation #501 on my 12’-by-8’ layout pulling a freight train with cars from Maine and Vermont. The model was made in 2007. Atlas O acquired the Weaver tooling and recently announced production of 2-8-0 models with PS3 electronics and DCS for delivery later this year.

Maine Central #501 was built by Alco Schenectady in 1910 but the model’s prototype is actually a Baldwin 2-8-0 locomotive that looks similar.

Tractive effort was 37,000 pounds, locomotive weight was 198,000 pounds and total weight (loco and tender) was 348,000 pounds. #501 was retired in 1958 and is currently under restoration at the Conway Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire.

MELGAR

@Steam Crazy posted:

Good morning, steam fans!  Thanks, Arnold, for getting a head of steam up; I like your selection of videos today!

Last Sunday I promised to post my postwar Lionel no. 736 2-8-4 Berkshire taking the challenge of pulling my seven car MTH Railking B&M passenger train.  You’ll recall I has some misgivings about the ability of my no. 2035 steamer to handle the train last Sunday, but I had more confidence in the big Berkshire.  Not only did she not disappoint me, but I thought she looked quite good with those semi scale passenger cars.  I never thought about running the 736 with those cars before,  but I’ll do it again.

John

Steam Crazy John, the 736 is one of my favorite Postwar steamers too. Yours looks great pulling those passenger cars.

@Arnold D. Cribari,

Arnold - I like the 3 videos you posted today. Can you tell me the brand of the CNJ 0-6-0 switcher in your videos? I think it's MTH Railking Imperial. Is that correct?

@Steam Crazy,

John - That's quite a long train for a 736 steamer that doesn't have traction tires! When we ran Lionel trains in the 1950s, we didn't think about such things. We just put the cars behind the engine and powered-up the transformer. I'm curious as to the curves on the outer loop of your layout. O-31 or O-36?

MELGAR

Mel, the answer to your question is neither!  My outer loop is O-42 and the inner is O-31.  I started out with O-31 on the outer, but installed O-42 to accommodate larger engines.  That turned out to be a good decision, because I have quite a few engines that won't run on O-31.

Postwar Lionel engines with Magne-Traction are strong pullers, comparable, I believe, with traction tire equipped modern engines.  I think the 736 is up to pulling more cars and I just may give that a shot!

You can probably tell from my posts I have a small layout, but I don't think I ever gave you the dimensions.  It's 13' long, 6 1/2' on one end and 5' on the other end.  Future plans (if I ever get to it) are to widen the narrow end to 6 1/2', then I could use O-72 on the outside and O-54 on the inside.  I would switch to Ross or Gargraves track, too.

BTW, I'm sure you also noted I run longer trains than you.  I still think you could run longer trains on your layout and they would look fine.  Give it a try!

John

An MTH 6-8-6

- walt

June 2011……two scale Lionel steamers: a 4-6-0 and a 2-8-0 with an MTH RailKing 2-10-0 Decapod waiting to pull out on the old layout…..

Have a great and safe week, folks!

Peter

@MELGAR posted:

@Arnold D. Cribari,

Arnold - I like the 3 videos you posted today. Can you tell me the brand of the CNJ 0-6-0 switcher in your videos? I think it's MTH Railking Imperial. Is that correct?

MELGAR

Mel,

I got the MTH 0-6-0 in a trade about 3 years ago, and assuming I have the box, I would need to search for it in my house to tell you the model for certain, but I believe it’s a Proto 2 Railking Rugged Rails model.
It runs very well on my layout with 031 curves and 022 switches,

Arnold

Mel, that Jersey Central 0-6-0 came with 6 MTH Jersey Central semi-scale Madison Heavyweight passenger cars. I will post a video of that steamer pulling those passenger cars later today.

Here is the MTH Railking Jersey Central 0-6-0 steamer hauling 4 MTH Railking Jersey Central Madison Heavyweight passenger cars:

Arnold

OK, steam crazies, you asked for it, you got it!  Here’s my 736 Berkshire pulling twelve (12) Railking passenger cars at about 15 volts!  There was a bit of wheel spin at start up, so I’m guessing this is about as much train as the old Berk can handle.  Lionel didn’t call the motors in postwar engines “Pullmor” for nothing!

John

A tired tank engine from a visit to Steamtown a few years ago…

And some New York Central steamers on the layout…

One of the great toy manufactures in the post war period, in the U.K. was Brimtoy.  This set comes from the early 1950's and consists of an engine, tender, 2 passenger coaches and a small oval of track that also contained a gated road crossing.  This example with the coaches in the commonly called "blood and custard" livery scheme plus the red engine.  The tender as can be seen in the second picture carries the initial postwar nationaliztion livery with the "Lion and Wheel" logo.  She is clockwork and runs fine around her little circle of track.  

Best wishes everyone

Don

Thanks Arnold for getting us rolling today!!   I took these photos today when visiting the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.  

N&W Consolidation.

Well it’s still Sunday, so here are my steamers for this Sunday. A Lionel MPC BLUE COMET, and a Lionel Kughn era N&W Class J # 611.

My Postwar #726 and my Lionmaster Big Boy:

Patrick, I love those 1880’s era steamers!  The N&W  Consolidation looks a lot like Pennsy’s H3 model, even down to the Belpaire firebox.

I believe the PRR engines were built in the road’s Juniata Shops.  Did you happen to notice the builder of no. 4?  I enlarged the photo, but still couldn’t read the builder’s plate.  Photos of the prototype taken at the RR Museum of PA.

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Patrick, I love those 1880’s era steamers!  The N&W  Consolidation looks a lot like Pennsy’s H3 model, even down to the Belpaire firebox.

I believe the PRR engines were built in the road’s Juniata Shops.  Did you happen to notice the builder of no. 4?  I enlarged the photo, but still couldn’t read the builder’s plate.  Photos of the prototype taken at the RR Museum of PA.

John

John - that's a great looking Consolidation you have there!  I agree those late 19th century steam locos have a charm all their own!  

The photo's I posted while at the VMT are unintentionally  misleading.  Number 4 is an N&W 0-8-0 switcher while number 6 is the N&W Consolidation.  I will show number 4  along with its' historical/mechanical  facts in the upcoming edition of Switcher Saturday.  

Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of numbers 4s' historical and mechanical info.  A few minutes ago I  did a check of the VMT website and no info was given on number 6.  It seems that 611, being the glamor girl that she is,  receives all the attention at VMT.    Although my initial intension yesterday was to photograph as many VMT switchers ( both steam and diesel ) as possible I did capture the Consolidation number 6,  Class A 2-6-6-4 and the Class J 611.  I'll share the others in upcoming editions of Steam Sunday.  

Google is your friend!  Locomotive Wiki says no. 6 was built by Baldwin in 1897 for helper service.  It was sold to the Virginia Carolina RR in 1917 , but not retired until 1955!  It was then donated to the City of Bluefield, WV and was on display there until it was acquired by the VMT.

I was wrong about the build location for the PRR H3, it was Altoona.  No. 1137 at the RRM of PA was built in 1888.  The H3 was the first PRR locomotive to use a Belpaire firebox; the Belpaire ended up being standard for PRR until 1946.  I wonder if 1137 was originally numbered 437 like my model.

It seems likely the PRR design was influenced by Baldwin, or vice versa.  They just look so similar to me.

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Google is your friend!  Locomotive Wiki says no. 6 was built by Baldwin in 1897 for helper service.  It was sold to the Virginia Carolina RR in 1917 , but not retired until 1955!  It was then donated to the City of Bluefield, WV and was on display there until it was acquired by the VMT.

I was wrong about the build location for the PRR H3, it was Altoona.  No. 1137 at the RRM of PA was built in 1888.  The H3 was the first PRR locomotive to use a Belpaire firebox; the Belpaire ended up being standard for PRR until 1946.  I wonder if 1137 was originally numbered 437 like my model.

It seems likely the PRR design was influenced by Baldwin, or vice versa.  They just look so similar to me.

John

Thanks for this info John!  It never occurred to me to check Wiki.  I just learned a good lesson from you!  Many thanks!

@Don McErlean posted:

One of the great toy manufactures in the post war period, in the U.K. was Brimtoy.  This set comes from the early 1950's and consists of an engine, tender, 2 passenger coaches and a small oval of track that also contained a gated road crossing.  This example with the coaches in the commonly called "blood and custard" livery scheme plus the red engine.  The tender as can be seen in the second picture carries the initial postwar nationaliztion livery with the "Lion and Wheel" logo.  She is clockwork and runs fine around her little circle of track.  

Best wishes everyone

Don

@Don McErlean A steamer for you Don!

https://ogrforum.com/...c/185424414301100784