Switcher Saturday: 2016-Feb-20 - 1 Year Anniversary

p.s.  I can't seem find any original/historic pictures of any NYC 0-4-0 steam switchers, anyone have one they can post?

wow, can't be a year already!

Happy one year anniversary, Rich and everyone!

I have a very special post for the anniversary edition of Switcher Saturday. I'm a third generation railroad enthusiast in my family. My grandfather started it all, he got my father interested and then my father hooked me. One of my father's favorite locomotives was the Lionel 228 Pennsylvania B6sb which he received for Christmas in 1941. At the time, the Pennsy 0-6-0, along with the New York Central 700E, was among the most well detailed and realistic of Lionel's offerings and, as my grandfather and father, were very prototypically minded three rail O gaugers, the locomotive became an instant favorite and saw a lot of service on their railroad. When Lionel introduced more realistic rolling stock after the war, they had the locomotive converted to knuckle couplers to make it compatible with the new generation of equipment. The locomotive has been extremely reliable during the ensuing decades. In fact, other than running inspections and maintenance, I can recall only one instance in which it required a trip into the shop for repair. That's longevity.

Unfortunately, we lost Dad on New Years Day. He had a long, fabulous life and, thanks to our passion for railroading, he and I developed a bond which not many parents and children have a chance to experience. In fact, he and I were a real life example of those father and son scenes in the Lionel catalogs. My father was a rail enthusiast of the highest order and our hobby has suffered a tremendous loss with his passing. That said, as our community's elder statesmen continue to pass on, there must be one heck of a model railroad and steam excursions running every day of the week waiting for us on the other side.

So, in honor of my father, I present to you pictures of his B6, received by him for Christmas 1941. Here we see the 8976 being prepared for the day's work. In the third and fourth images, the crew has backed in under the water plug to fill the tank. Note the tender still has its original front truck as it was not replaced when the locomotive was converted to knuckle couplers. A K4 waiting to back down to its train can be seen in the background to give the picture a true Pennsy feel. An enthusiastic PRR fan, my father would approve! 

This post is for you, Dad. Thanks for everything.

Bob ("Robert" to my father) 

Hey Steamer Dave, great pictures as always, I had to google for N. de M. to see what it was!  Thanks for being one of the regulars here, it's been a great year.

Bob/CNJ..., Thank you very much for sharing your story and pictures, I'm sure your dad would be proud of your comments and I bet your dad would have loved showing off that great switcher here on Switcher Saturday!

Enjoy your weekend...Rich

Haven't been out in the garage lately due to a foot injury that's got me hobbled.  Meantime, here's a switcher I'd like to see on my layout someday.  (And when will someone make those green Procor tank cars!!)

Happy Switcher Saturday!

Bob, I'm glad you posted the picture of your Dad's B6. Great looking loco. Your Dad had good taste! Take care of it and it can have at least another 100 years going forward.

I may have told thisstory before...the story behind this #233 locomotive involves dragging my wife off to New Jersey to pick it up right before a blizzard hit the New York City Metropolitan  area. As luck would have it, we (I) got lost and ended up getting stuck in the beginning phase of the storm. It all worked out well. All made it home safely. 

Tom

Mike, Thanks for sharing and I hope your foot heals up quickly!

Tom/MNCW, great picture and welcome back!  I hope you are feeling better and ready to roll.

Looking forward to another year of Switcher Saturday with you guys!  Best...Rich

Bob (CNJ 3676), great story about you and your Dad.  Thanks for sharing it with us!

Congratulations Switcher Saturday for a fun filled year.

Yay! SW Sat is on!

Congratulations Rich and everyone here on a full Year of Switching Saturdays. This is my favorite recurring post on the forum here and it is due to the great community here that makes it happen week after week.

This week I am posting images of the relatively new Tractive Power Corperation of Canada's TP-56 switcher. I'm a fan of little switchers and I'm happy to see that a few are still being made.

These switchers started being made in 2014 and I don't think too many have been made. One of the neat features is the recycled use of SD40 trucks as the units drive truck frame. I think this could be a fun switcher project to kit bash. I even found a great measured drawing set with measurements that could help make your own in O scale.

I appologize for the crazy color on this but the drawings and measurements are worth the eye strain.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rich/Tom/Joe:

Thank you for your very kind comments. Thanks largely to railroading, I was certainly extremely fortunate to have enjoyed the strong relationship I did with my father.

Continuing with the theme of the Lionel B6sb, I recall my father telling me it was accompanied by rolling stock. I believe he received it as part of Outfit 243B as we also have the two freight cars and caboose which were catalogued as part of this set. Below I've included an image of the catalog page and photograph of the outfit components from the website of The Train Station in Mountain Lakes, NJ.

Bob

Happy anniversary Switcher Saturday

Rusty

CNJ 3676 posted:

 

 

This is really cool!  Did you ever think about picking up the other pieces to make "the set"?

Doesn't really matter much, but one thing I find interesting is how the advertisement says "scale" when I thought the only non semi-scale pre-war B6 engines were the #701.  I pretty much use Tom's page as a bible for these things:  http://steamswitcher.com/trains.html

Hey Andy (Silver Lake), that switcher is really neat!  I grabbed your picture and tried to clean up some of the green, it's a little bit better I think.  Thanks for "coming out to play" every week, I always look forward to see what you have to post!

Best...Rich

Hey RUSTYKAMEL, the Russian River Rapids Shortline Railroad pictures never disappoint! Great picture!

Rich,

    I just added another unique O Guage Switcher to my Christmas layout, the old 1980's Conventional 2224 pulls the K-Line Coke Train nicely, runs real well with the DCS TR function.  The 2224 will make a good addition to our Christmas layout, the colors are perfect.  I am also looking for some original Santa CoCa Cola decals for the Train, keep an eye out for me!

PCRR/Dave

A well used Texas Crushed Stone switcher in Georgetown Texas (taken 2005). 

Murnane posted:

CNJ 3676 posted:

 

 

This is really cool!  Did you ever think about picking up the other pieces to make "the set"?

Doesn't really matter much, but one thing I find interesting is how the advertisement says "scale" when I thought the only non semi-scale pre-war B6 engines were the #701.  I pretty much use Tom's page as a bible for these things:  http://steamswitcher.com/trains.html

Hi, Rich.

Yes. We already have the two cars and caboose so, being my father once told me the locomotive came with rolling stock that Christmas, I believe he was given that specific set. One day, I'll have to pose the locomotive with the entire consist for a portrait to be posted on a future "Switcher Saturday".

All the best,

Bob  

Happy Anniversary Switcher Saturday.  Nice recurring post Rich.  This week I'll add some Pics of NASA's switcher fleet.

great story CNJ. and those Prewar trains are a work of art. I'd love to get one.

Good story CNJ 3676.

Coach Joe those NASA switchers are great. I think the Helium Cars in the first pic have been made as craftsman kits in a few scales. Cool looking cars.

SWise I really like that Gravel Switcher. In my image file I have some gravel switchers that have little roofs on them like the one in your shot. I think these must have been done to protect the intakes from gravel from loading falling right into the fans.

I remember seeing a Vulcan Gravel Switcher in this paint scheme off of Eisenhower Road in Alexandria VA when I was in High School growing up there in the early 1990's. The units I remember from then there did not have this wild turtle shell portable engine house on top though.

CNJ 3676 posted:

 

Bob, 

  Too bad we could get all of that today for $71! 

  I reread your story after getting back from work. I had to do two college financial aid presentations this morning, so I had to originally read it fast as I was going out the door. The 228 is a nice engine. Glad that you will always have those great memories with your dad, my friend. 

Rich,

  Thanks for hosting our weekly switcher fix! Glad you like my website. I had most of the typos fixed recently and there are some other photos hopefully going on later this year.

Tom 

Murnane posted:

p.s.  I can't seem find any original/historic pictures of any NYC 0-4-0 steam switchers, anyone have one they can post?

Steamlocomotive.com doesn't list NYC as having any.

Happy one year anniversary. B&M S2 #1264 switching some coal hoppers.

Alright Rich I found a NYC 0-4-0 but I'm not sure it would be considered a switch engine......

......Built for the NYC predecessor Mohawk and Hudson the Dewitt Clinton.

The reproduction was built bythe NYC and lives at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. 

I was in Colorado two weeks ago and we stopped by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad's station and museum.  While there I got to watch their small diesel do some switching as they got ready for the afternoon run.  I have no idea what make the diesel is, but it was easily pulling a long string of cars.

A few more BS images.

Don

Very well done Andy!  I was laughing pretty hard for a few minutes when I saw that one!

Cap pilot Ron:  Great video and pictures, Wikipedia has that switcher as follows: "Diesel engine #9 was acquired in March 2006 and is a 92-ton center cab diesel."

Steamer Dave:  thanks for looking into the 0-4-0 NYC, looks like Andy (Silver Lake)'s Google-Kung-Fu is a little bit better than yours (joke of course).

BAR GP7 #63: I love your pictures, looks like you do a great job on your layouts!

Coach Joe:  Thanks for posting the pics of the NASA switchers, I'd love to see one pulling a rocket ship or the space shuttle!

BAR GP7 #63:  I also have a little thing for Coke trains, though I think I only have a trolley and a boxcar, the trolley is a permanent fixture on my itsy-bitsy tabletop layout.  Nice that you have a Christmas layout all year (assumption here).

Swise:  That switcher just plain old looks "tough", I was wondering what the tent on top was until Silver Lake chimed in, thanks guys.

Have a great rest of the weekend and all the best...Rich

Rail:  I like those BS RR pics, found another you might like...Rich

CNJ 3676 posted:

Happy one year anniversary, Rich and everyone!

I have a very special post for the anniversary edition of Switcher Saturday. I'm a third generation railroad enthusiast in my family. My grandfather started it all, he got my father interested and then my father hooked me. One of my father's favorite locomotives was the Lionel 228 Pennsylvania B6sb which he received for Christmas in 1941. At the time, the Pennsy 0-6-0, along with the New York Central 700E, was among the most well detailed and realistic of Lionel's offerings and, as my grandfather and father, were very prototypically minded three rail O gaugers, the locomotive became an instant favorite and saw a lot of service on their railroad. When Lionel introduced more realistic rolling stock after the war, they had the locomotive converted to knuckle couplers to make it compatible with the new generation of equipment. The locomotive has been extremely reliable during the ensuing decades. In fact, other than running inspections and maintenance, I can recall only one instance in which it required a trip into the shop for repair. That's longevity.

Unfortunately, we lost Dad on New Years Day. He had a long, fabulous life and, thanks to our passion for railroading, he and I developed a bond which not many parents and children have a chance to experience. In fact, he and I were a real life example of those father and son scenes in the Lionel catalogs. My father was a rail enthusiast of the highest order and our hobby has suffered a tremendous loss with his passing. That said, as our community's elder statesmen continue to pass on, there must be one heck of a model railroad and steam excursions running every day of the week waiting for us on the other side.

So, in honor of my father, I present to you pictures of his B6, received by him for Christmas 1941. Here we see the 8976 being prepared for the day's work. In the third and fourth images, the crew has backed in under the water plug to fill the tank. Note the tender still has its original front truck as it was not replaced when the locomotive was converted to knuckle couplers. A K4 waiting to back down to its train can be seen in the background to give the picture a true Pennsy feel. An enthusiastic PRR fan, my father would approve! 

This post is for you, Dad. Thanks for everything.

Bob ("Robert" to my father) 

      

Great tribute, Bob.....so ssorry for your loss.

Peter

Thank you, Rich....a great year.....

Here is a 44 tonner from Williams in action....

This little beauty rocks.......and a thanks to modular group member Ken W for bringing his new Williams engine to our display today...

Peter

Happy Birthday, let's start a 2nd year and let's move a few cars.

Murnane posted:

Very well done Andy!  I was laughing pretty hard for a few minutes when I saw that one!

Cap pilot Ron:  Great video and pictures, Wikipedia has that switcher as follows: "Diesel engine #9 was acquired in March 2006 and is a 92-ton center cab diesel."

Steamer Dave:  thanks for looking into the 0-4-0 NYC, looks like Andy (Silver Lake)'s Google-Kung-Fu is a little bit better than yours (joke of course).

BAR GP7 #63: I love your pictures, looks like you do a great job on your layouts!

Coach Joe:  Thanks for posting the pics of the NASA switchers, I'd love to see one pulling a rocket ship or the space shuttle!

BAR GP7 #63:  I also have a little thing for Coke trains, though I think I only have a trolley and a boxcar, the trolley is a permanent fixture on my itsy-bitsy tabletop layout.  Nice that you have a Christmas layout all year (assumption here).

Swise:  That switcher just plain old looks "tough", I was wondering what the tent on top was until Silver Lake chimed in, thanks guys.

Have a great rest of the weekend and all the best...Rich

Rich,

Thank you very much. Let´s keep coke trains running.

Johan/BAR GP7 #63

rail posted:

A few more BS images.

Don

By the way, happy anniversary Switcher Saturday!  I noticed after seeing this photo a few more times from some likes, a distinct difference in color between the lead unit and the other two. Even though the stripe is missing , this is a clear indication that paint colors can be different. The next time someone posts that a manufacturer got the color wrong, it just may not be the case! A lot of great photos in this weeks edition.

Don

This lovely little model was scratch built  by a Mr. Winther in 1934(?). It is an OO scale model, which he lettered for his own road. I present a vintage photograph of the locomotive, and one of it not long before it was accepted into the TCA museum, alongside a great many of his other models.

Happy One Year Birthday Switcher Saturday!!!  Thanks Rich for creating this thread and for keeping it going!  I look forward to it each week!  Here is a video of a B&O freight, led by a GP9. leaving Patsburg yard.  Great Photos and videos everyone!!!

Here's another in celebration of SS one year anniversary!

In celebration of this great SS thread, I'm going to do my best to make one SS post each day this week.  Thanks again Rich for creating this thread and keeping it going each week!

Andy,

I was thinking about modeling some helium cars to go with the NASA stuff I have.  I remember a post from a few years ago when another member made some shorty flatcars so I was going to start with that but I lucked out at a local train show show yesterday and came away with three already shortened flatcar frames.  I figure adding some trucks and Lionel bulkheads to the ends all I'll have to do is come up with something to use for helium tanks and re-spray to the proper color.

Joe