Switcher Saturday 10-16-21

Union Railroad SW1 #475 is a newly-released MTH Railking model with PS3. Both my layouts are small, so I prefer to run small locomotives – which this one certainly is. It is the first SW1 model that I have ever acquired. The MTH manufacturing quality is excellent. I couldn’t find any defects. Running conventionally with a Z-4000 transformer, I timed it at speeds down to nine miles per hour on my layout, but it also runs smoothly at a crawl.

EMD built 661 SW1s between 1938 and 1953. They had 600 horsepower and tractive effort of 49,000 pounds. They were capable of tracking through a curve radius of about 105 feet, which translates to O gauge O-52.5. The model is listed for O-27.

The Union Railroad is a switching railroad that serves the steel industry around Pittsburgh. It owned 22 SW1s. My interest is in the Union Railroad that became part of the Grand Junction branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad.

MELGAR

AC&Y H16-44 #202 (Lionel) ducks into an industrial siding to pick up a freight car:

Tom 

This nice little guy arrived today:

Last weekend we visited the new railroad in town - Norgrove Railway in Arroyo Grande, CA. Here is one of their beautifully restored engines:

Happy Switcher Saturday, everyone! Here’s my little 44 tonner helping out the work crew on the elevated line

Stang, you’re going to love that little engine. Pretty amazing sounds for such a tiny package.  

Happy SWSat!

Let's keep the 44 tonner theme going. Here's mine, a WbB in the Pennsy scheme. These are nice conventional engines with decent sound.

Similar in size and stature, the PRR boxcab electric (K-line)

Have a great weekend!

Bob

TALES OF THE DOCKSIDER

This Saturday, NYC shop switcher has received a special assignment from your Yardmaster.  There is a shortage of road power today, so she will be assisting NYC 0-4-0 no. 901 on a local freight.  The Docksider’s crew is really excited about this job, because they don’t get out on the high iron often.

Making a cameo appearance on the adjacent track is B&M’s “Blueberry Special”!

John

Good morning fellow switcher fans!  Fine photos and videos everyone  Thanks JHZ563 for getting us rolling this morning

Today on the Free State Junction Railway, a Washington Terminal RS1 is pushing long string of tank cars and transfer caboose.  An oncoming train on the opposite track is about to exit the tunnel.  

Yay, SWSat is on track!

Great stuff posted so far guys. I love a good center cab GE. The one and only engine I have ever driven was at the RR Museum in Danbury CT. It was the one and only former UP 44 tonner, they only had one it was the engine house switcher at Sherman Hill and shoved those lame Big Boys around. I have the WBB model of this engine.

This week I spent in Italy on Business. In off hours I walked around and found the RR facilities in the small town I was working in.

I figure some here would like to see what I found in this smaller town with RR facilities dating back to the 1870’s.

This sign was outside the older but still extant station in the town I was in. A nice 0-8-0 bas relief. The next two are work train engines I was able to grab from the train.

These two engines are paused at the station. Of note they have electric mainline freight something that has been gone from the US for 40 years. Also note the 3 trucks under each unit.

Here is a little work critter.

Here is a nice center cab switcher with a short 3 car ballast train.
Here is an engine house that seems to be in transition. Clearly not used as much as it once was but a lot of steam era infrastructure like water towers and switch towers commonly still survive. Also where the town ended there were farm fields. 20 yards from this station were olive groves and not sprawl.
This little engine has a weed spray train. An interesting thing I noticed is that it is common to spray the side (webbing) of the rail silver or white to show defects more easily.

Here is one non train related post but a sample of Medieval town roads.

Here is a model train shop in Rome. When I can I try to visit local shops. They had a nice old fashioned glassed in front display room before you actually enter the store.  There were even frescos of trains that somehow I did not get pictures of. A very nice shop with a lot of scratch building supplies. I got some supplies from Green Stuff World a Spanish company.

Another non switcher posting but a really beautiful High Speed intercity train at the Rome terminal. As a daily public transit rider I really appreciated that I could get to nearly any town with multiple trains daily.

So trying to recover from jet lag today before work again Monday. Have a great weekend. I can’t wait to see what you guys post.

my 44 T project is a switcher!

After all the decorative applications are done (maybe by years end)  I will weather and dull coat MEC #11 before putting it in service.

Bob, Straphanger, Stangtrain, like your 44T’s!

Mel, I really like the SW1! Nice movie!
small switchers are what I prefer as well.

It is November 1947 and a GS4 is moving some boxcars loaded with food and other necessities out to the mainline to be coupled to the Friendship Train.  They will be added to 100s of other cars from around the country headed to New York where their contents will be sent to help the people of war torn Europe.

The 44 tonner is Williams, the X-29 boxcars are Atlas.

Since it seems to be 44 tonner Saturday, I couldn’t resist going to the archives and posting a picture of my Willams engine.  The tank cars are prewar Lionel and the caboose is an MTH model.

John

Would most of you consider this switcher to be better for a layout than the SW1 I posted last week?

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...ture.aspx?id=1951676

Thank you,

Anthony

Okay, while not a true 44 ton (more like 88 ton), here’s Lionel’s switcher repainted and decaled by me into a Lackawanna switcher. I also installed an MRC sound module and speaker.

Very nice work that you did on that switcher Artie. It looks great.

Thanks, Jerry.

@A. Wells, didn't know there was a prototype for that.  Very cool,  thanks for sharing that link!

@jhz563 posted:

@A. Wells, didn't know there was a prototype for that.  Very cool,  thanks for sharing that link!

It would have been great to have gotten Lionel to do a custom run of that Morton Salt SW1200 with their latest batch.

@MELGAR posted:

Union Railroad SW1 #475 is a newly-released MTH Railking model with PS3. Both my layouts are small, so I prefer to run small locomotives – which this one certainly is. It is the first SW1 model that I have ever acquired. The MTH manufacturing quality is excellent. I couldn’t find any defects. Running conventionally with a Z-4000 transformer, I timed it at speeds down to nine miles per hour on my layout, but it also runs smoothly at a crawl.

EMD built 661 SW1s between 1938 and 1953. They had 600 horsepower and tractive effort of 49,000 pounds. They were capable of tracking through a curve radius of about 105 feet, which translates to O gauge O-52.5. The model is listed for O-27.

The Union Railroad is a switching railroad that serves the steel industry around Pittsburgh. It owned 22 SW1s. My interest is in the Union Railroad that became part of the Grand Junction branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad.

MELGAR

Nice! I have the Great Northern version in hand but haven’t unboxed it yet. Looking forward to it. Neat little switcher. Thanks for showing yours off!

Dave,

I'm sure you'll like it.

MELGAR

Andy, with the graffiti on the trains and the apartment buildings in the background I would have thought the first two photos were from a walk around the Bronx if you hadn't said you were in Italy.  I guess graffiti on trains is a worldwide issue.

Sharp looking equipment everyone. I have the GP30 “Switching” on the layout. With college football on the radio in the background. Enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Have a great weekend everyone!

My original: Lionel Postwar 626 B&O 44 ton center cab diesel, which was my 1st diesel:

My most recent: MTH PS3 NY Ontario & Western 44 ton center cab diesel:

Arnold

@A. Wells posted:

It would have been great to have gotten Lionel to do a custom run of that Morton Salt SW1200 with their latest batch.

It's not the same as the prototype but mth did offer this SW-1 recently.   No idea when they will be delivered though.

From some other threads it appears the Morton Salt SW1is now hitting the market.

Keeping with the 44-tonner, here's mine from Nov. 2018.

Charlie

For our fearless switcher leader, JHZ, in case he needs a barn.Halloween puzzles at Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Homegoods

@coach joe posted:

For our fearless switcher leader, JHZ, in case he needs a barn.Halloween puzzles at Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Homegoods

Ha!  There will be a Halloween layout this year,  and yes there will be at least one barn, and yes I love tinplate buildings😁. Thank you for thinking of me!

I have to admit at first I thought the building was a 3d puzzle, now that I see it better I will probably pick one up.  This weekend though I am planted firmly on the couch.  I had a covid booster shot yesterday and it is wiping me out.  Not sick thank goodness, but achey and foggy headed.

I love all the creative shots and great looking equipment you all are sharing.

@MELGAR posted:

Dave,

I'm sure you'll like it.

MELGAR

Mel at, here is a pic I took of the GN livery after seeing yours. I unboxed it, then packed it up again to gift myself at Christmas!

@jhz563 posted:

It's not the same as the prototype but mth did offer this SW-1 recently.   No idea when they will be delivered though.

See my photo of mine from Switch Saturaday last week.

@A. Wells posted:

See my photo of mine from Switch Saturaday last week.

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

My bad.  I forgot where I had seen that.  Sorry man.

It's the Booster Fog!

I hope you shake that off soon

Here’s a Halloween switching operation at the pumpkin patch.  One-foot narrow gauge kiddie train at Descanso Gardens, LaCanada-Flintridge, California. I hope that engineer knows what he’s doing...

@MELGAR posted:

Union Railroad SW1 #475 is a newly-released MTH Railking model with PS3. Both my layouts are small, so I prefer to run small locomotives – which this one certainly is. It is the first SW1 model that I have ever acquired. The MTH manufacturing quality is excellent. I couldn’t find any defects. Running conventionally with a Z-4000 transformer, I timed it at speeds down to nine miles per hour on my layout, but it also runs smoothly at a crawl.

EMD built 661 SW1s between 1938 and 1953. They had 600 horsepower and tractive effort of 49,000 pounds. They were capable of tracking through a curve radius of about 105 feet, which translates to O gauge O-52.5. The model is listed for O-27.

The Union Railroad is a switching railroad that serves the steel industry around Pittsburgh. It owned 22 SW1s. My interest is in the Union Railroad that became part of the Grand Junction branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad.

MELGAR

MELGRA, sure like your Union RR  SW1.  As you may recall I posted an pic of my PRR SW1 stating it was PRR's first diesel purchase back in 38 or 39.  Like to see the SW1 juxtapose to the "Union" type loco the Union's 0-10-2 steam switcher.

One thing I did not understand, the tie between the Union RR in Pittsburgh area (which I passed by many of times in my youth) to the Boston & Albany/ Grand Junction?

Ron

@PRRronbh posted:

MELGAR, sure like your Union RR  SW1.  As you may recall I posted a pic of my PRR SW1 stating it was PRR's first diesel purchase back in 38 or 39.  Like to see the SW1 juxtapose to the "Union" type loco the Union's 0-10-2 steam switcher.

One thing I did not understand, the tie between the Union RR in Pittsburgh area (which I passed by many of times in my youth) to the Boston & Albany/ Grand Junction?

Ron

Ron,

Thanks. I really like this MTH SW1 model. The assembly is perfect, the traction tires don't cause any wobble, and it runs smoothly at very low speeds. I also think that the proportions of the EMD SW1 locomotive cab and hood, including the tool and sand boxes, are the nicest of all the EMD switchers. I don't recall having seen your PRR SW1. Can you post it again here?

I'm interested in the history of railroads around Boston - where there were two railroads with "Union" in their name. The first was the Union Railroad - chartered in 1853 - which later became part of the Grand Junction branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad, and a subsidiary of the New York Central. The second was the Union Freight Railroad which ran for about two miles through the streets of Boston until 1970 using Alco S-2 and GE 44-ton diesel switchers - but never SW1s. If I ever build another model railroad, it will be a small switching layout of the Union Freight - and Union RR #475 will be a stand-in for the SW1s that never were...

So, to answer your question, other than the word "Union," there was absolutely no connection between the Union RR in Pittsburgh and either of the "Unions" in Boston. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but that's it.

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

Ron,

Thanks. I really like this MTH SW1 model. The assembly is perfect, the traction tires don't cause any wobble, and it runs smoothly at very low speeds. I also think that the proportions of the EMD SW1 locomotive cab and hood, including the tool and sand boxes, are the nicest of all the EMD switchers. I don't recall having seen your PRR SW1. Can you post it again here?

I'm interested in the history of railroads around Boston - where there were two railroads with "Union" in their name. The first was the Union Railroad - chartered in 1853 - which later became part of the Grand Junction branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad, and a subsidiary of the New York Central. The second was the Union Freight Railroad which ran for about two miles through the streets of Boston until 1970 using Alco S-2 and GE 44-ton diesel switchers - but never SW1s. If I ever build another model railroad, it will be a small switching layout of the Union Freight - and Union RR #475 will be a stand-in for the SW1s that never were...

So, to answer your question, other than the word "Union," there was absolutely no connection between the Union RR in Pittsburgh and either of the "Unions" in Boston. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but that's it.

MELGAR

MELGAR, thanks now I understand.

My PRR SW1.

Hope you will search for pics of the Union RR 0-10-2 switcher , it was a little monster.  I was wishing some MFG. would make one but would be of little modelers wants.

Ron

Ron,

Which manufacturer made your PRR SW1 model? It is slightly different than mine in that the hood has a two-stage taper where it meets the cab. My MTH version has a single-stage taper. Yours is an earlier SW1 version than mine. The front and rear cab windows also differed between the two versions.

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

Ron,

Which manufacturer made your PRR SW1 model? It is slightly different than mine in that the hood has a two-stage taper where it meets the cab. My MTH version has a single-stage taper. Yours is an earlier SW1 version than mine. The front and rear cab windows also differed between the two versions.

MELGAR

Mine is a MTH RK 30-2746-1 from June 2007.  It is PS2 with 3 volt system.

Ron

@Dave Warburton posted:

Mel, here is a pic I took of the GN livery after seeing yours.

@PRRronbh posted:

My PRR SW1.

Ron

It looks like MTH is making two different versions of the SW1, early and late, with different hoods and cab windows. Dave Warburton's Great Northern model (top), like mine, is current production, and is the early version of the SW1 with two-segment hood where it meets the cab, and the cab windows have curved tops. My Union RR is the later SW1 version with just one sloped section where the hood meets the cab, and cab windows with straight tops... The PRR model also looks like the early SW1 version. I believe the early version was made before WW2 and the later version after the war. Interesting - but who knew?

MELGAR