Switcher Saturday 04-09-22 !!

Happy Switcher Saturday. I especially like the locomotives of the ALCO S-series and it is nice tat the were also found in the railway companies of Maine. The Bangor & Aroostook railway company also had one ALCO S3 and i try to get one sometimes implemented on my home layout. Before that, however, the EMD NW2 and GE DEY-2 locomotives will be completed. Until then, we have to settle for the B&M and MEC ALCO S2 locomotives, which have already been featured a lot.

Good morning everyone.

One of the yards B6 shifters is picking up a loaded MILW boxcar at the public delivery track.  A reefer consist is passing on the west bound track while a freight is getting ready to pull out with an M1b at the head.

Good morning, SwSat faithful!  Today your Yardmaster captured NYC 0-4-0 no. 901 spotting a Narragansett reefer at the Valley Ice Co.  This icing station will look familiar to Postwar Lionel fans!

John

Good morning fellow switcher fans!!  Thanks JHZ563 for notching out the throttle and getting us rolling this morning!   Love that new switcher of yours ... plus there is nothing more endearing than hearing the sound of children and their k 9 friend while trains are running!  I love it!!

Ron and Johan - wonderful photos and information!

Today I'm showing the Free State Junction Railway steam switcher fleet as they take on water at the tank. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

First off we have a C&O  0-8-0 fresh out of the paint shop.   Brakeman Willy Gill is on the front step and fireman Skeet Marx is doing the honors on the tender deck.

Here we see a Pennsy A5 with fireman Horace Bell on the tender deck and brakeman Barney Bigard on the ground.  Engineer Benny Emm sit in the cab.

B&O Docksider is pulling away from the tank after its' tank is full.  The hogger smoke it up. That's a Western Maryland Consolidation on the sand service/coal track.

Happy SWSat!

Another quiet week (at least on the layout), so a few sleeping switchers seemed appropriate.

Have a great weekend.

GO TIGER!

Bob

Happy Switcher Sat everyone! Looks like we’re off to a really good start with some nice pics.  Time to mix things up with something a little different. For my contribution this week, we’re going subterranean with a subway work train switcher. Normally, subway work trains do their thing in the late of night, not during rush hour like on my layout.  However, these guys took the rig out for a special switcher Saturday spin -

Here is the Yorkville and Western #2 out this morning on my layout.

Chris

Here's my WM 44-tonner moving a reefer into position for unloading. Charlie

Looking great everybody 👍.

I found these images online, reposted here with permission reddit user MVGbear.   This my friends is the motive power of the Jackass and Western.   This was a real railroad, operating within the Atomic Weapons Testing center in Nevada. The units are on display at the Nevada railway museum. 

Apparently the tracks ran through Jackass flats.  These locomotives moved some of the most dangerous loads in the world.

Jhz:  Thanks for the start this morning and thanks for those pictures from Nevada...have never seen nor heard of that road before, although having a rail road on the test center makes sense to move heavy loads.

Today, I am going to post one of those "little" engines that help out on the RR but may not be called officially "switchers"  This is the American Flyer  Type XIX # 612R 2-4-0 sheet metal engine and "Champion" tender from about 1934. I show it with two  5 7/8" one piece sheet metal cars that were catalogued in 1931-32. The # 518 Club Car and the #519 Passenger Car.   Now I acquired these items as a "set" but clearly the years seem at odds with the cars available before the engine and not available when the engine was introduced.  However, the Champion line which was introduced in 1932  ran in some way through the mid to late 30's.  So could this engine and cars have found each other??  Who knows, Pre-War Flyer especially in the low end lines is very confusing plus many of these items were only catalogued periodically and often appeared as uncatalogued or as part of sets offered by one retailer or another.  Well no matter...here is the American Flyer "Champion" 2-4-0 and her train.

Here is a close up of the locomotive.  The sheet metal boiler plus Cu bell, domes, and stack plus the 2-4-0 configuration date this to 1934.

Here is a view showing her "Champion" tender. The lettering under the cab window says "American Flyer" (at least it did once, now its partially missing).

Here she is with her little train

Here is a close up of the #518 Club car and # 519 Passenger Car.  There never was a matching baggage or observation.  OBTW in case you are interested at 90 years old, she still runs headlight working and all !!

Well Happy S.W.Sat to everyone.  Great pictures all.

Best wishes

Don

Gotta start ‘em young! Already a Hostler.
My seven month old grandson last weekend. This is a really neat Fisher-Price circus pull train with lots of action and sounds for baby. Grandpa Dave just HAD to get it!

                                                            MEC 801...

Here’s my Switcher Saturday picture.

Couldn’t resist.

Having delivered the small cut of cars to the Kansas City & Gulf's Riverfront District for spotting by the KC&G's "Alley Cat" (Riverfront District's night job), dusk is about to fade into night as the lone switcher eases along the rails in the KC&G's Riverfront District as it makes its way back to its home rails.

About the above pic...

I was testing some track plan ideas and using the HO scale Atlas "Gold" series Milwaukee Road S-2 switcher I have on hand as the test engine. On a whim, I flipped the house lights switch off to see if "night switching" will be practical on my proposed switching layout. I really liked what I was seeing, so useng my trusty iPhone, I snapped a pic. Not a world beater picture by any stretch, but I liked the mood.

Andre

@laming posted:

Having delivered the small cut of cars to the Kansas City & Gulf's Riverfront District for spotting by the KC&G's "Alley Cat" (Riverfront District's night job), dusk is about to fade into night as the lone switcher eases along the rails in the KC&G's Riverfront District as it makes its way back to its home rails.

About the above pic...

I was testing some track plan ideas and using the HO scale Atlas "Gold" series Milwaukee Road S-2 switcher I have on hand as the test engine. On a whim, I flipped the house lights switch off to see if "night switching" will be practical on my proposed switching layout. I really liked what I was seeing, so useng my trusty iPhone, I snapped a pic. Not a world beater picture by any stretch, but I liked the mood.

Andre

Andre - that is one fine photo!!  It does project that after midnight city warehouse district mood.  Great job!!

@MartyE posted:

Here’s my Switcher Saturday picture.

Couldn’t resist.

Lighting board or sound?

A little Saturday night switcher movie.A

Wow, there’s some really beautiful and unique switcher’s pictured here today, Happy Railroading Everyone

Late to the party but here are a couple of mine.  Click on a photo to see a larger version.

PRR C1 0-8-0 (Weaver model) working the yard lead next to the cabin car (caboose) service track.

PRR FS10 (Fairbanks-Morse H10-44, MTH model) preparing to pull a mail storage car from the US Post Office branch.

@RSJB18 posted:

Lighting board or sound?

Video production switcher.

@MartyE posted:

Video production switcher.

Ah ha! I was close....

Atlas SW9's 

@Bob posted:

Late to the party but here are a couple of mine...

<snip: couple nice pics>

Very good work there Bob, on all counts: Models, scenery, photo, et al.

The above pic I left in the quote box is my favorite of the two. As a lad living in KC, and constantly on the look out for trains, I've seen that scene somewhere.

Maybe it was over east of KC Union Station? Or maybe it was...

Andre

NY Central picking up some fresh Brew. From the Famous West End Brewing Co. Utica, NY

I worked yesterday so today felt like my Saturday sadly it isn’t. Saw these last weekend just outside the Y in Springfield. They have been doing track work during the night. Springfield to Hartford line.

Bartizek - couldn't tell the lower photo from the real thing.  Nice work.

Freight haul arriving...

Running late this week.  Between work and helping some family members pack to move, I haven't had much time in the train room.

I was able to catch Penn Central SW8 8623 (Lionel) as it led a local down some branch line trackage.  The track condition necessitated the train move at a slow pace:

Tom