Switcher Saturday 12-18-21!

Happy Switcher Sat!  Running one of my favorite little switchers on the floor line this AM -

Hello, switcher crew!  Last Sunday we took my grandson for a train ride on the two foot gauge Boothbay RR, part of the Boothbay (ME) Railway Village and Museum.  I expected to see some relics of the old ME narrow gauge roads, but got surprised.

The 0-4-0T in operation that day, no. 7, is a 1938 product of the Henschel Co in Germany.  She was built as a construction engine.  No. 7, along with some sisters, was shipped to the USA when they were no longer needed.  The RR has two more Henschels along with a Baldwin 0-4-0 T, two of which are operable.

Here are some photos.  One of the two diesel (gas?) locos is easy to identify, but I couldn’t find an ID on no. 4.  Does anyone recognize it?

John

Happy SWSat!

Only 7 shopping days left till Christmas!

I did a little shopping at Trainland this week and came home with a Williams 70 ton Rutland # 500. Nice little loco, no surprise from Williams. It has their Tru-blast 2 system. It's a conventional engine, runs nice but the sounds would be better if they added a capacitor to keep the sound running when changing directions. I plan to do a full ERR upgrade with a mini commander and railsounds board. The hand rails are plastic, not a deal breaker but they are fragile. Also it has fixed pilots, nice looking but a challenge on my 027 curves. I'm going to see what I can do about that. (Maybe tear down the layout and go bigger????? )

Here's some shots from around the layout and a short video. Hope everyone has a good week and a Merry Christmas!

Bob

Happy Saturday everyone! Hard to believe it is almost Christmas. Especially here in 80 degree Florida. And on this unseasonably warm Saturday morning the Southern local SD35 sets out some empty rock hoppers in the little yard. Happy Switching everyone!

Good morning SWSAT fans and Merry Christmas!

I caught this Penn Central switcher retrieving a boxcar from the toy factory.  It is being dispatched to the North Pole on an expedited special move.  Don't let the Sant Fe markings on the boxcar fool you.  This car is part of Santa's massive fleet of railcars needed to get presents to the North Pole in time for Christmas.  During most of the year he leases the railcars to some railroad in the western states.

Tom

Pushing a postwar dump car into my revamped siding off a #5 switch.

Good afternoon Switcher fans!  AND Merry Christmas to one and all!! Thanks JHZ563 for notching out the throttle and getting us rolling today  Your Christmas tree tank engine looks terrific  Great posts by everyone

Today on the Free State Junction Railway the Pennsy 44 tonner is still on assignment on the Mountain Division.  Number 9331 spends much of the time on standby at Danlilu siding.  Good thing there is an outhouse at that siding ....  Wally, the brakeman, has a bad case of the trots.  LOL !   Have a terrific weekend everyone

Meanwhile in lower Patsburg it's business as usual for the railroad.  Of course switchers are providing much of the muscle to keep traffic rolling.  Here a WM BL2 crosses Patsburg Ave.

The crew of a Baltimore and Annapolis SW9 make sure to protect the crossing before the locomotive crosses.  

Late yesterday afternoon ....  As horns blain .. a Ma & Pa SW1 pulls a short freight eastbound as a Patapsco and Back Rivers VO1000 is running cab forward as it pulls a string of gondolas.  

@Tom Densel posted:

Good morning SWSAT fans and Merry Christmas!

I caught this Penn Central switcher retrieving a boxcar from the toy factory.  It is being dispatched to the North Pole on an expedited special move.  Don't let the Sant Fe markings on the boxcar fool you.  This car is part of Santa's massive fleet of railcars needed to get presents to the North Pole in time for Christmas.  During most of the year he leases the railcars to some railroad in the western states.

Tom

Great photos Tom!  

I'm glad you gave us the back story on Santa Fe boxcars.  That Santa is one shrewd business man.   I'll bet his leasing invoices to that southeastern US railroad reads Santa Fee at the top of the page .. bada boom! :-)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!  

@trumpettrain posted:

Great photos Tom!  

I'm glad you gave us the back story on Santa Fe boxcars.  That Santa is one shrewd business man.   I'll bet his leasing invoices to that southeastern US railroad reads Santa Fee at the top of the page .. bada boom! :-)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!  

And don't forget to check the the car pool leasing Clause in the contract!

More Christmas trees being delivered.

Happy Switcher Saturday!

“Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings” to all my Switcher pals. I hope that Santa places something nice under the tree for you next week, especially if it’s of the “switcher variety”. I am getting a new Railking SW1 Great Northern.  

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe.

Hi SW Sat fans...I am on the road, along with what seems like everyone else on Earth, traveling to family for Christmas at the end of the week.  However I found this WiFi set up and will try to post my contribution.

Here is my Williams 44 Ton in Southern livery.  Southern is a linking RR to my fictional Leonardtown and Savannah.  Here he is moving some ice cream into town for those Christmas parties in the schools at the end of the week.

HB

Best Wishes for the Holiday season

Don

And here's some switchers (road type) taken on the KC&G's Ozark Sub back in the autumn of 1964!

A rather road weary KC&G #255 sits burbling alongside the engine house at the small town of Ozarka, Arkansas. Ozarka is deep in the heart of the Ozark Mountains and has the distinction of being situated  at the foot of the worst grade on the entire Kansas City & Gulf: The 2.5% - 2.9% climb up through Possum Creek Hollow, then into Buck Hollow, and onto the side of Buck Mountain for the final assault to Piney Gap at the little mountain town of Piney.  Many's been the time ol' #255 has done battle with that grade, and it's sure to get another shot at it soon enough.

KC&G GP7 #409 has got the call to help a Coal Extra North that's due into Ozarka shortly. The day is a bit on the nippy side, but hogger "Goose" Hollum has the windows closed, and his heater purring, so he's warm and toasty in the cab of #409 as Goose and crew await the arrival of Coal Extra North on this autumn day in '64. Once Coal Extra North arrives, they'll hook on the rear, and once whistled off, the battle will begin all the way up to Piney Gap.

Meanwhile, up on top of the the divide at Mountain Springs, resident hoghead J.B. "Biscuit" McHollister eases tired old #412 along the rails headed for the cut of cars at the end of the Apple Track. The crew will be switching out the outbound and re-spotting the cars still being unloaded, or loading, as the case may be. Soon as that's done, they'll be headed over to the depot to go on spot for beans. Seeing as it's Saturday, the crew is hoping to catch some of the Arkansas football Razorbacks on the radio to see how they're doing in today's game. Word is the Razorbacks are in the runnin' to be National Champs this year!

And so it goes: A small slice in time on a fine autumn day out in the Ozarks along the KC&G's "Ozark Sub".

Andre

EDIT: Stupid fingers typed "Buck Creek Hollow"... supposed to only be "Buck Hollow". Reckon I had "Possum Creek Hollow" on my mind as my fingers typed. Sheesh.

Andre, wonderful story!  Love it!

John

Andre - I love your story!!  You make all the characters come to life.  BRAVO!!  

Also I love the weathering job on your switchers!  Is that your weathering job ... if so you do great work

John:

Glad you enjoyed my rambling! Thanks for saying so, too!

Patrick:

Thank you for letting me know you also enjoyed my little mini-photo essay. Below are some explanations and answers to your questions/etc.

Nicknames:

When I first started being around railroading (we're talking decades ago), seemed almost all crew members had nick names. Some of them that I can recall off-hand that I've either worked with myself, or knew, etc:

"Fat Dog" Duncan

David "Grubbsy" Grubbs

"Big Dog" Anderson

John "Sarge" Locke

"Goob" Cooper

"Highball" Hall (Literally had two speeds: Stopped and Run 8!)

"Steeltrap" Stewart

"Junior" Keck (Looked like and sounded like Junior Samples of "Hee-Haw" fame!)

J.R. "Dingleberry" Christenberry (Didn't stand a chance with that last name!)

"Ironhead" Davenport

And more.

SO, given my vivid imagination, it was only natural that I have characters on my layout. Some of the personalities are based on actual railroaders as above, but many were simply created by me. I tried to come with names that "sound" right, though.

Along this same vein: Except for the town names, all locations/feature names on my layout were lifted from topographical maps of the Ozarks, or are places I know of personally. Thus, all locations/features have their basis in reality somewhere in the Ozarks. I intentionally avoided using actual town names on account of I didn't want to mentally associate my layout to an actual town or towns. When I have done so in the past, then the comparisons between my modeled version and the actual place begin in my mind, and I ended up always being disappointed with the compromises imposed by model railroading. Therefore, I chose to avoid actual towns and just reflect the Ozarks.

Weathering:

Yes, those engines were modified, detailed, painted, lettered (decals), and weathered by me. Thank you for your kind words about my efforts.

Confession: Those engines were originally built and painted back during the formation of my "Kansas City & Gulf " freelance theme and were built back in the mid-late 1990s! As it sits, I have another 20+ engines that I've modified and have DCC/Sound installed (as needed) that are still awaiting their turn to be painted!! I'll be forever getting all those engines painted, lettered, and weathered!

FWIW:

My KC&G theme sat idle for a couple of decades as I experimented with other scales and themes. However, I resurrected my KC&G theme and "came back home" to the Ozarks with it shortly after retirement in April 2018, and the rest, as they say, is history. The layout is 100% functional. That is, all track and wiring is in place and "operating sessions" take place with my friends quite often. (Next one is scheduled for Jan 3.)

My modeled portion of my KC&G theme currently fills a 16' x 20' out building. Next series of big projects is to install the backboards for the backdrop, fill/seal/sand the holes/seams, prime, then paint a sky blue color.  I will then tackle the overhead lighting and valance, and lastly install fascia. When finished with this phase, the layout will have a much more pleasing visual presentation and will be ready for areas to start getting scenery. I intend to start these projects come warmer/drier weather and figure it will be at least a month or so before I'm cleaning up the mess left behind and putting the trains back on the layout.

All fer now!

Andre

Switcher Saturday and Sunday!

Western Pacific SW1 switcher doing her job moving some train cars around. My mother-in-law grew up in Colorado. She told me that a mixed freight train with a passenger car included for short journeys was called a “hog and human” train.

We find #255 is still patiently idling in the crisp air of an Ozark autumn as it continues to stand sentinel beside the Ozark enginehouse awaiting the next train that's going to need a shove to the top of Buck Mountain. It won't have to wait long.

The pic...

Spent a few minutes in one of my photo shop programs and patched together the above composite pic. It was fun, and it's kind of neat to see my models with a decent looking backdrop behind it instead of a paneled wall! Thought some of you might enjoy seeing it, too.

Andre

Andre, what a great shot of that Alco! I thought it was the prototype, until I noticed the Kadee “gladhand”! Nice, subtle weathering on your diesels as well.

@laming posted:

We find #255 is still patiently idling in the crisp air of an Ozark autumn as it continues to stand sentinel beside the Ozark enginehouse awaiting the next train that's going to need a shove to the top of Buck Mountain. It won't have to wait long.

The pic...

Spent a few minutes in one of my photo shop programs and patched together the above composite pic. It was fun, and it's kind of neat to see my models with a decent looking backdrop behind it instead of a paneled wall! Thought some of you might enjoy seeing it, too.

Andre

Great pic Andre.

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement.

Doctoring previously shot photos with backgrounds is sort of fun. It's a bit tedious, and the results aren't "perfect"... but like I said, it's fun and it is giving me an idea of how my Ozark Sub layout can look once the autumn backdrops are in place.

I've got another doctored picture I'm finishing up that I'll post shortly.

Andre

Autumn of 1964...

The cold, mist laden, Ozark mountains conspired against the KC&G once again. Along with conditions such this comes the bane of trying to move tonnage on a mountain railroad: Wet rail.  Fallen leafs on the rail is bad enough, but wet leafs... they're like grease.

Into the mist dappled mountains labored train #44 as it struggled against that devil of a grade up to Piney Gap. The engines were pulling their guts out at about 15 MPH as they ground their way alongside tumbling Possum Creek, all the while working their way up the grade toward the summit. The misted wet rail was bad enough.. and the wet fallen leaves were making it worse.

What a terrible time for the sand lines to get plugged with wet sand.

Bereft of the sanders on the trailing unit, #44 didn't stand a chance. Sure 'nuf, they stalled up past the crossing at Jack Fork, just as they were poised to round Gobblers Knob and head into Buck Mountain Hollow.

The Mountain had claimed another victim.

The call went out from #44 to the 'Spatcher: "We've laid down... got anybody that can give us some help or do we need to try doubling up to the top?"

Doubling to the top would have been time consuming for sure... IF the engines could even handle that task with one engine not laying down sand. After all, they were supposed to meet passenger train #11 up north of Mountain Springs. Though #11 isn't much of a passenger train anymore,  it would still be a bad deal to hold it up. (The KC&G is trying to get out from under the financial load of passenger service... but that hasn't been approved yet.)

Fortunately, the Jack Fork Turn was still in the small yard at Ozarka just finishing switching up their train. Sure enough, the Dispatcher hollered at them, and the Jack Fork Turn's planned day was changed. They were now "Extra 412 North", and would be taking their GP7 out of town light, and head out into the misty mountains to assist stalled #44 up to Piney Gap.

This they did.

Tacking on to the rear of #44, it was quite a bit of doin' to get the stalled train moving again... but do it they did. At the grand speed of about 8 MPH, #44, with GP7 412 shoving on the rear, slipped and clawed their way to the top of Buck Mountain to Piney Gap.

However, the struggle was behind them now. Engine 412 was cut away, and train #44 was on its way to keep an appointment with Psgr #11.

Now it was just engine 412, and their next task would be to gingerly ease down the treacherously slick rail with a light engine and make it back back down to Ozarka to resume their scheduled job. No doubt, they would be using sand at times on the descent to keep from sliding down the rail at the worst sections. But under the capable hands of Hogger Extraordinaire "Hotshot" Chadwick, there was little cause for concern.

Besides, "Hotshot" had been in such situations countless times. No, today was simply an all too familiar part of railroading on the KC&G.

Engine 412 idles its EMD chant in front of the little depot at Piney. That wood stove feels pretty good to the crew inside as they take pause for a hot cup of coffee before easing back down The Mountain as Extra 412 South.

Andre

FWIW:

The above essay that accompanied my last photo-chop job wasn't total concoction. It's actually based on a situation that happened at the last op session (Dec 13) with a friend. Happened like this...

I was running #44 and was headed up to Piney Gap. My set of power SHOULD have made it... but some of the cars were a bit heavier than expected, so as soon as I hit the grade (the long climb begins immediately after the north main switch at the town of Ozarka), I realized it was going to be "close".

Sure enough, the train pulled down before I got to Sawmill Spur to the point it was literally crawling along at 1-2 MPH (and slipping). It would even stop and sit, wheels still spinning, then get a bite and start creeping upgrade again. It did this 2-3 times (getting up to maybe 5 MPH at times) as I struggled on my way, running alongside Possum Creek to Jack Fork (a town).

However, just as the head end bent around Gobbler's Knob to enter Buck Creek Hollow... down it went and I couldn't budge it.

At that point I made the call for help, and Jimmy (my friend) was working the Jack Fork turn, so he came up out of Ozarka to help me on up to Piney.

SO... as you see... the above yarn wasn't total BS... it actually happened in model form! From there I took the actual event, and extrapolated the incident so it was viewed from a prototype perspective. (I really enjoy doing that.)

So... now you know... the REST of the story! (Said in my best Paul Harvey voice!)

Andre

laming - great stories and great modeling.  Thanks for sharing

WP - must admit the "hog and human" quote gave me a laugh on this dreary morning.  Thanks

Best of wishes to all

Don

@laming - thank you for the incredibly entertaining stories and photos. (Images maybe, since photoshop is involved?)

All - BIG announcement !!

For one weekend only, Switcher Saturday is moving to Sunday.  Christmas is on Saturday this year and like many of you I have much to do and some serious red suited duties to perform.  So for this weekend only, Switcher Saturday will be "closed for Christmas".  Will still do it on Sunday though, I suspect there may be some new motive power to show off!

Merry Christmas and Glad Tidings to you one and all - JHZ563 

@jhz563 posted:

@laming - thank you for the incredibly entertaining stories and photos. (Images maybe, since photoshop is involved?)

All - BIG announcement !!

For one weekend only, Switcher Saturday is moving to Sunday.  Christmas is on Saturday this year and like many of you I have much to do and some serious red suited duties to perform.  So for this weekend only, Switcher Saturday will be "closed for Christmas".  Will still do it on Sunday though, I suspect there may be some new motive power to show off!

Merry Christmas and Glad Tidings to you one and all - JHZ563

Sounds like a good idea.
Merry Christmas to all of our SWSat friends.

Laming - beautiful paint and weathering.  I like them.  Your photo artistry is also great, as is your realistic trackwork.

Merry Christmas and Happy Switcher Saturday on this rainy Saturday in upstate NY. PW U.S. Army #41 Helping Santa.

Merry Christmas Everyone, also there’s a lot of beautiful switchers posted on this fun to review thread. Great thread, Happy Railroading Everyone