Switcher Saturday: 2015-Sept-05

just got home from working midnight, and getting on long enough to toss on some pics.

 

Late 1800's Pennsy power at Altoona.

 

Tom 

Lionel Spokane Portland & Seattle 0-6-0

 

 

      Bill T

Two NYC Switchers.

Do hope everyone's holiday a safe one.  My 0-4-0 switcher is on the mainline about to exit the Toad Hollow tunnel.

 

Yay! SwSat is on!

I'm posting this from NJTRANSIT train 7829 rolling through Eliabeth NJ on the NEC.

This week I'm posting pictures of an interesting pair of Electric Switchers that both remain together in preservation. The Ponemah Mills 1386 and C. They are early GE engines the 1386 is from 1895 and they are part of the BERA collection. The 1386 is a centercab and may be one of the first of its kind. The C is a small boxcab that had served time as a modified line car but has been restored in recent years to an earlier condition.

Interestingly the Ponemah Mills buildings themselves are being restored and preserved as well.

The Raritan River Railroad was a short line operating approximately twelve miles between South Amboy and New Brunswick, NJ. It dieselized with six SW900s in the 50s and the same six units, numbered 1 through 6, continued to serve the road until its absorption into Conrail in 1980. The RRRR featured some fascinating operations highlighted by the daily drama of moving heavy trains from the CNJ/Conrail interchange at South Amboy upgrade to the yard at Parlin for classification. These movements often required the use of multiple units both fore and aft to reach Parlin. It was quite something to see and hear. 

 

Below are some of my personal shots taken during the later years of RRRR operation. I have included one picture of each unit on the roster. Thankfully, Atlas has released its O scale SW900 decorated for RRRR on multiple occasions. 

 

Enjoy,

Bob

         

This week's entry:

 

Rusty

Got these two for a good price. I am going to repaint them for the Buffalo Creek in Buffalo...........Paul

GBW Alco S2 #201.

It's SWSAT time Baby!!!

 

Wow... this Labor Day weekend is off to a rocky start. Last night my "newest" computer failed. Don't know what it is yet, either hard drive (shudder) or the mother board (preferred).  As I type, the box is at the shop here in town, so I'll find out later today or so. Fingers crossed.

 

ANYWAY... fired up the old clunker that will still spin its hard drive and functions... but is slower than molasses on a cold morning.  HOWEVER... it allowed me to participate in SWSAT and staying up with email... so no complaints!

 

Up first... the model pic of the week!

 

(Scale: HO)

 

The Have's And The Have Not's...

 

"It's the early 1960s as the have's and have not's pause from their toil to chat a bit. The Engineer of the affluent and sprawling Santa Fe is chewin' the fat with the Engineer of the smaller, 'financially embarassed' Kansas City & Gulf and they're both getting caught up on the latest doin's around town. Important stuff like: Will the Kansas City A's make it to the Pennant race this year?  In the background can be seen the roof of AY Tower... of which the crews around KC call 'KY Tower' in reference to a certain jelly that's marketed for select uses and the propensity of AY Tower to hold up a train for what seems like forever... so they feel the term 'KY Tower' quite appropriate!"

 

 

 

 

For this week's Proto Pic:

 

The Kansas City Terminal's "other" first diesels they purchased: NW #61 from the pair of EMC's NW series.  Delivered to the KCT in 1939.  These photos are dated 1955.

 

 

 

Have a great Labor Day weekend!!

My MTH Pennsylvania A5 0-4-0 awaiting departure.............

 

 

Ah shucks... might as well share another pic.

 

Here is a picture of an old friend that's still in service:

 

 

 

Now, let me explain what I meant by that...

 

Back in the late 80s (I think?) Front Range came out with their HO scale GP7/9 series  that had SCALE width hoods. (First ones in plastic.) I immediately begin to buy them by the case (not really by the case, but I bought a lot of them) to rework into Frisco engines for my Frisco theme tri-level layout I had at the time. 

 

It ended up that the only things usable in a Front Range engine was the shell and body parts, and the motor/flywheels/frame. The trucks were JUNK. It didn't take long and I had a system: Retain the motor/flywheels/frame, and mount new Athearn trucks (sporting NWSL 40" nickle silver wheelsets). I also had to do a lot of filing/fitting to make the pop-in non-dynamic roof insert fit properly, as well as sand/fit the cabs to make them sit lower to more properly reflect the prototype, along with other fixes and betterment's.  Turned out those Front Range Geeps were a lot of work!  However, undeterred, I ended up with about a dozen Frisco GP7's in varies Frisco liveries.

 

Then The Great Frisco Sell-Off and the move to the Kansas City & Gulf proto-lanced theme began. My Frisco engines were sold at meets and traveled far and wide.

 

Imagine my surprise a few years ago to have a chap on the Frisco forum I frequent ask if I was the guy that had a tri-level Frisco layout that sold off a bunch of Frisco stuff.  I answered that yup, I was the guy.

 

He then told me he ended up with one of my GP7's a long time ago, and it has served him well, still running ultra quiet and super smooth to this day!  He proceeded to share a pic of it on his layout.  So, what you're seeing is an engine I built a long time ago, and sold nearly 20 years ago... still in service on a layout that that belonged to a guy that I have since become forum friends with!

 

Model Railroading is a small and interesting world full of friends you haven't met yet!!

 

Here is the beautifully restored Kansas City Southern 0-8-0 #1023 on display in Carona, KS.  I visited it on my way to Arkansas in August.

 

What a week!  I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend and their holiday!

 

Instead of a "recap" this week I'll just post another picture, hope you like it!

 

P.S.  The next two Saturdays (Sept 12 & 19) I'll be traveling and unable to start the thread, I'll reach out to Silver Lake to see if he can start it up!

 

 

A little late to the game this week, but seeing some of the Raritan River images prompted me to show a few of my own....