Switcher Saturday: 2016-July-16

Rich, 

 Very nice. Happy Switcher Saturday. My contribution is my Lionel prewar #230 from the front, with the flash, the marker lights look to be lighted.

 I also wrote a little poem to get us started...

Switcher Saturday is here.
The day our locos get in gear...

Switching, shifting--- it's all the same,
Spewing ozone is our game.

Short, squat locos give us smiles,
Our metal rulers measure scale miles.

Some post pictures of their own toys,
Others post the real McCoys.

Anything you post, we have no gripes,
Just minimize those diesels with the wacky stripes!

Thanks Rich for what you do,
Another week of hosting your "Zoo!"

Tom

 

MNCW posted:

Rich, 

 Very nice. Happy Switcher Saturday. My contribution is my Lionel prewar #230 from the front, with the flash, the marker lights look to be lighted.

 I also wrote a little poem to get us started...

 

Switcher Saturday is here.
The day our locos get in gear...

Switching, shifting--- it's all the same,
Spewing ozone is our game.

Short, squat locos give us smiles,
Our metal rulers measure scale miles.

Some post pictures of their own toys,
Others post the real McCoys.

Anything you post, we have no gripes,
Just minimize those diesels with the wacky stripes!

Thanks Rich for what you do,
Another week of hosting your "Zoo!"

Tom

Tom,

This is fantastic, I've read it like 10 times since you posted it a couple minutes ago, actually brought a tear to my eye as I've become a bit attached to this weekly "zoo"!

Thank you so much for posting and have a great Switcher Saturday.

Best...Rich

Murnane posted:

 

MNCW posted:

Rich, 

 Very nice. Happy Switcher Saturday. My contribution is my Lionel prewar #230 from the front, with the flash, the marker lights look to be lighted.

 I also wrote a little poem to get us started...

 

Switcher Saturday is here.
The day our locos get in gear...

Switching, shifting--- it's all the same,
Spewing ozone is our game.

Short, squat locos give us smiles,
Our metal rulers measure scale miles.

Some post pictures of their own toys,
Others post the real McCoys.

Anything you post, we have no gripes,
Just minimize those diesels with the wacky stripes!

Thanks Rich for what you do,
Another week of hosting your "Zoo!"

Tom

 

Tom,

This is fantastic, I've read it like 10 times since you posted it a couple minutes ago, actually brought a tear to my eye as I've become a bit attached to this weekly "zoo"!

Thank you so much for posting and have a great Switcher Saturday.

Best...Rich

It really has become a zoo, hasn't it? Especially the weeks when we all post critters. 

Murnane posted:

Tom,

This is fantastic, I've read it like 10 times since you posted it a couple minutes ago, actually brought a tear to my eye as I've become a bit attached to this weekly "zoo"!

Thank you so much for posting and have a great Switcher Saturday.

Best...Rich

Rich,

 The Surgeon General recommends not reading it too many times as it most likely cause headaches and will definately bring a tear to your eyes, but not for the reason you mentioned. 

Tom 

Hey Tom,

One thing I've been meaning to ask you, have you taken any pictures of these pre-war steamers with the Lionel scale B6 (6-18000 PRR 0-6-0 B6 Scale Steam Switcher circa ~1998)?

I'd love to see how different they are, size, features, etc...

Just curious, thanks...Rich

Good morning and a very Happy Switcher Saturday to all.  As always, thanks to Rich for providing this thread for us. Also, I'd like to express special acknowledgement to MNCW Tom for his contributions to our thread and beloved hobby. He is a "train guy" of the highest order and his level of passion inspires me to greater heights. In our own little switcher corner, his dedication to Lionel's prewar steam switchers is commendable.  I salute you, Sir!

This week, allow me to continue with a vintage Lionel theme as I present my 6220 ATSF bell ringing NW2. Offered beginning in 1949, the model featured an impressive array of detailing and it can still hold its own among many contemporary releases. Here the unit shows its versatility as it works the station switching job. A through freight can be seen changing crews on the adjacent track.

Bob

Murnane posted:

Hey Tom,

One thing I've been meaning to ask you, have you taken any pictures of these pre-war steamers with the Lionel scale B6 (6-18000 PRR 0-6-0 B6 Scale Steam Switcher circa ~1998)?

I'd love to see how different they are, size, features, etc...

Just curious, thanks...Rich

Rich, 

 I will try to take comparison pictures next week unless someone beats me to it. The later version came out in 1989 and the boiler shell was advertised as using the same tooling. 

Tom 

CNJ 3676 posted:

Good morning and a very Happy Switcher Saturday to all.  As always, thanks to Rich for providing this thread for us. Also, I'd like to express special acknowledgement to MNCW Tom for his contributions to our thread and beloved hobby. He is a "train guy" of the highest order and his level of passion inspires me to greater heights. In our own little switcher corner, his dedication to Lionel's prewar steam switchers is commendable.  I salute you, Sir!

Bob,

 Thanks! 

Tom 

Yay SWSat is on!

Thanks Rich for hosting this critter zoo and Tom P. for that inspired poetry. 

This week I don't have much but I can post some shots I got a few weeks ago in Sunset Park,  Brooklyn NY of some of the old street switching there and a pretty horrible through a fence shot of the last surviving float switching operation in New York Harbor the New York New Jersey Rail operation. 

This is a pretty well known building on 41st that trains used to cut the corner of to make the turn now the concrete blocks are there and the street track is much simplified.

This building is why I end up in this area you really can't tell to look at it but it is an vintage Comic Book warehouse. It may be the only comic shop that used to have a rail siding.

This building at the end of 41st is I hope being restored and not demolished but it has/had these amazing scarred brickwork on the corner from 60 foot boxcars. When boxcars got longer they would hit this building when making this turn. I imaging it was pretty freaky to be inside when this was happening. Seems just like a model railroad thing. This ex New Haven caboose was the yard office of the Cross Harbor Railroad and the building with the roll doors was the engine house.

I love this turn right to turn left  track work.

Here is part of the NYNJ rail float operation. You can see the towers of the float bridge and they have an Alco as well as thier new engines. 

Have a great weekend out there in Switcher land. 

great pics guys...Tom great poem.

here a few tank engines, be great to see some of these on the layout.

Here are a few more shots from work.  Some of our hoppers got pretty ripped up by NS and were loaded onto flats to be moved out for repair.  Once loaded they were spotted by one of our critters.

Seneca Foods trackmobile spots a couple corn syrup tank car for unloading.

Lehigh Valley Alco FA-1 #534 switching at Cape Shark.

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTcd03o7yvA

Websites: http://porvoomodelrailroaders.com/

Illinois Railway Museum has just recently secured this little spud, Westinghouse ARMCO steel switcher B-71:

Rusty

As always, neat photos and fun poem.  Here is an older photo that I haven't shared before.  Still looking forward to 3rd Rail's new Southern Pacific 0-6-0 in the fancy passenger paint scheme.  For the first time, last week I had to wait at a crossing for the new SMART commuter train on a trial run.  Should be able to buy, for about $10, a ticket later this summer that will take me about 40 miles down the track.  A sleek green and white modern train that will run on newly rebuilt Northwestern Pacific trackage.

Steamer posted:

great pics guys...Tom great poem.

here a few tank engines, be great to see some of these on the layout.

Is that a baby GS lol?

I was looking through my picture files and ran across one of my MTH RK SW1.  This engine has been in storage and I had forgotten about it.

The SW1 was the first diesel the PRR bought in volume, with a total of 85 purchased.  Nearly all of the engines were purchased after WWII.  Before WWII, the very steam friendly PRR had purchased only 2 diesels, a SW and a NW2.  During the first year of the war, they bought another 16 SW1 and NW2 engines.  It wasn't until 1947 that the PRR started to get diesels in volume, years after other roads, especially those in the west, had mostly transitioned to diesel.

I do not remember if I posted these here before, but if I did you get to see them again. 

My free lanced Allegheny and Connoquenessing "The A/C Line" formally the Lionel D&RG Valcun switchers.

Dennis

Have a great weekend.

Rusty Traque posted:

Illinois Railway Museum has just recently secured this little spud, Westinghouse ARMCO steel switcher B-71:

Rusty

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has one of those engines sitting out in back of the carbarn: 

Hello fellow switchers friends!!  I'm late to the party today.  Thanks for all the great posts!!  Here are some photos I just shot of a switcher I've not photographed before.  It is a Lionel ( NW - 2 ? ) which I bought when I was in 7 or 8th grade.  It still runs and does not pull many cars.  I photographed it today running light on the Free State Junction Railway in Patsburg.  Have a great weekend!!!

Little "backwards thinking" player hits tattle tale at the Saturday night game after switching cars around on my table.

Man, what a great set of posts, thank you to everyone for "coming out to play" and your friendship!

- Tom/MNCW:  The poem is really awesome, thank you for creativity and your weekly contributions!  BTW, if any of you aren't watching Tom's post on his restoration project, you should be!  https://ogrforum.com/t...rewar-steam-switcher 

- Bob/CNJ 3676:  I often see these switchers or their 622 brothers available, I never know what the difference is between the two (besides the math) but I'm glad you posted the picture here because though I've seen them a bunch we haven't had a lot of posts about them here on Switcher Saturday that I can recall.
p.s. I *really* also enjoy your narratives Bob, I learn a ton from you each week and appreciate the time you spend on your posts.

- Andy/SilverLake:  I really love your "pictures from the wild" and I bet there aren't too many people out there combing NYC for the heritage type of pictures like you are, perhaps a book might be in order for you, perhaps titled "NYC Shifting - The Signs of Yesteryear".  Thank you for your weekly contributions and time spent in our "zoo".

- Dave/Steamer:  I swear you must spend hours digging around each week finding these vintage pictures, either that or you found a secret "honey hole" treasure trove of pictures somewhere!  Thank you very much for posting them each week.

- John/JHZ563:   My Uncle Percy always told me "work is work, it doesn't really matter what you do, it's still work" but that being said it must be fun to work somewhere like you are at, especially since you're into the hobby.  Thanks for your posts and pictures each week!

- NYC Z-MAN:  I love that little track mobile, in fact I took some pictures of these guys down in the NC Transportation Museum a few weeks ago, it was funny, everyone else was looking at the big stuff and I'm looking at the critters.  Thanks for posting!

- BAR GP7 #63:  Your modeling is just plain "insane" - like incredibly great.  I bet you could show that picture to a bunch of people and at least half of them would think it was a "real world" scene.  Thank you for posting these, very inspirational.

- RUSTY TRAQUE:  That's a cool little diesel and a good picture, I think I'm going to have to visit that museum the next time I get up towards Chicago for business (who knows when that will be?).  Thank you for posting the picture!

- RUSTYKAMEL:  Rusty, I REALLY love your pictures, in fact I often think of them when I'm doing my pictures in the early Saturday morning hours getting ready for Switcher Saturday.  Thank you for continuing to be one of our "regulars".

- Ron/CAPPILOT:  I love that little MTH you've got there, let's hope it gets out of storage and onto a track real soon.  Also thank you for sharing your knowledge each week too, it's great to be able to learn all this stuff from you!

- EL CLASSICO:  Thanks for your "color commentary" and contributions, I loved your "critters" comment!

- Dennis/HARTMAN:  Good work with those Vulcans!  I really like the color on them and the scene of pulling from the paint shop is perfect!

-DOHERTYNJ:  That's a cool picture, I never get any good pictures of night scenes, thank you for posting it very much.

- PITTSBURGHRAILFAN:  I didn't even know there was a Pennsy Trolley Museum!  I'll have to look it up to see where it is and what they have going on there, thanks for posting!

- Pat/TrumpTrain:  Your layout seem like SO much fun, thank you for your posts and "positive energy".  According to this link, the Post War #602,#611,#613, and #616 are "almost identical, except..." :-)
http://www.olsenstoy.com/cd/locos/loc600p7.pdf

- ADRIATIC:  It's funny you posted this one with the "playing cards" reference last night because I was out at a neighborhood poker game last night, first one I've attended.  Your layout looks jam packed with fun things, thanks for posting the picture.

Hopefully I didn't miss anyone in this wrap-up, if I did let's blame it on my not having enough coffee yet.  Thanks again and here's one more parting picture for you all, found on the bay, no details or info but I thought it was a good one to post here.

Nothing new from my layout this week.  So a couple of archive shots.   The first from here in the garage, the second one of my favorite real-world shots.