Switcher Saturday: 2017-Sept-09

I've always liked demonstrator units.   They look especially great IMO as switchers!

Yay! SWSat is on!

Good morning Saturday Switchers. I am spending this AM standing outside in the fall weather here in NYC trying to get my kids signed up for swimming classes at one of the few indoor pools around. 

This week the Amtrak trains from the Empire Service returned to Penn Station from thier summer vacation at Grand Central and I can really hear the HEP roar and horns two blocks away. The sound carries. I guess usually I ignore it as normal city sounds. 

This week I am posting some sunrise pics of the UP 44tonner I got from Trainworld as my "birthday" present to myself. UP only had one 44 tonner it ran as shop Switcher at Omaha. Both MTH and Williams have made versions of it. MTH version has Route of the Streamliners in script on the cab and as you see Williams has the later logo. 

I got this as a memento of my actually operating this engine last year for a two hour stint at the Railroad Museum at Danbury CT where they have it preserved and operable in Electric Boat Blue. After it left UP it moved east. So far it is the only engine Switcher or otherwise I have "driven". The Danbury operation is very neat I got a full tour and explanation of how it worked then spent the rest of the time moving it and a Maine Caboose around with an instructor in the cab with me and a conductor in the caboose. At the end of the time I got a nice faximile of the operators manuel for this engine. Very nice operation that I recommend. When Trainworld had its sale on these I could not resist. 

I believe MTH has modeled the NYAR egines. Search the secondary market places.

This is a GP-7 I painted in MBTA livery. 

RSJB18 posted:

Beer Run!

 

This is exactly the kind of beer I would run from. Haha .

I do like that line. MTH has this paint scheme out now on thier SW1500.  In the past they have made the GP38 as well in that scheme. 

                                             don't forget the munchies !!!!!!

great stuff as always guys. and anyone in Florida...hope you left town, toys and houses can be replaced.

Here's 1879 hard at work moving milk cars to be loaded/unloaded...a never ending process.

Silver Lake posted:

RSJB18 posted:

Beer Run!

 

This is exactly the kind of beer I would run from. Haha .

I do like that line. MTH has this paint scheme out now on thier SW1500.  In the past they have made the GP38 as well in that scheme. 

 

LMAO! Me too!

I have always wanted a B&M locomotive in this paint scheme. MTH has done a beautiful job on their GE 44-tonners.

MELGAR

RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSAT!

Today a look at a Shortline RR. Shortlines are the backbone of the railroading industry. They don't get the fame and fortune of the class 1's but provide a vital link between the big guys and local customers.

Here on Long Island the New York and Atlantic Railway shuttles freight across the Island. The NYAR was formed in 1997 when the LIRR wanted to get out of the freight business. As the largest commuter railroad in the nation, freight was always an afterthought. The NYAR runs on LIRR trackage from one end of the Island to the other, unfortunately they have to work around the LIRR's schedules so most of their work is done at night.

I like the color scheme, maybe  somebody will model one

Bob

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...and_Atlantic_Railway

Beer Run!

 

LIRR Blue and White remarked to NYAR

That green looks like one used by the REA!

Happy Switcher Saturday to all. S.B.R.R. Baldwin RF16 #2A "BRUCE" switching LIRR sand hoppers at Cape Shark. 

Bruce has Surfaced!!!!

briansilvermustang posted:

 

http://www.alaskarails.org/pix...er-loco/JF-1718.html

This is a EMD MRS-1. There were 13 made by EMD for "Military Rail Service" and 70 more were made by Alco that have visual differences. There are 5 surviving EMD units including the one you posted shots of. They had narrow hoods, cabs and running boards for use in other countries also they specialized trucks that allowed the wheels to be changed gauge to run on narrow or wide gauge track .

 The San Diego Railroad Museum in Campo,CA has 2 operable units. They had very low mileage and use on them because they spent most of thier time in storage waiting use that never came. They were deassessed  in the 70's. The RR museum uses them in passenger service pulling former Erie Stilwell Coaches in the desert. I've ridden behind these. It is a nice trip. They may be the only tourist train that crosses into Mexico or at least they used to go to the Tecate brewery for tours. 

South of the border, down Clyde Diesel way...

ARR unit at BN's Clyde diesel shop, Cicero, Illinois circa 1976.

Rusty

Steamer posted:

great stuff as always guys. and anyone in Florida...hope you left town, toys and houses can be replaced.

 

Here's 1879 hard at work moving milk cars to be loaded/unloaded...a never ending process.

 

Dave -   Got to love those milk cars!!  Nice!!

I'm late to the party!  Happy SWSAT!!  WOW!! Lots of posts today or does it just seem that way.  Here are some photos of the local freights headed by a B&O SW9 coming into town and the good old B&O C 16 on the Mountain Div. of the Free State Junction Railway.  Have a great and creative week!!  Stay safe Floridians!  

Great stuff this week all, thanks to everyone for posting!  

Stay safe to anyone out there who might be down south (Florida, etc.)....

Didn't have anything new of my own for this week, so here's an 0-4-0 Reading Style.

Here's something a little different!

Ha Ha, I was just going to ask you to post those in this thread lol... Perfect!  I think there are several of us PRR nutz that will like it!

Yes, very nice. Who made it?

Tom 

yes...tell us about that!

that thing is awesome - great find - also curious who made it & when...Rich

Unfortunately I can't tell you who made it. I picked it up off the bay. It was a scale loco - quite possibly an outside 3 rail loco converted to insides 3 rail. It has a brass body and sounds like an egg beater when running as it has an open pole motor.

The worm gear to the drive axle is exposed on the underside and one can see the wheels have scale flanges. The wheels are solid and painted black. It would have been nice to have spoked drivers like the 1:1 but I guess diesel spoked drivers was not available at the time.

I would love to add the "lobster claw couplers"- may have to see if an extra pair of trackmobile couplers could for on it.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Here's something a little different!

Nice find. And it runs too!

Are you going to restore it or leave it in its well worn glory?

If you decide to repower it, an F3 or early Alco power truck might work or you could take a look at a prewar humpback motor with spoked wheels.  I think those are about a 2 -1/4" wheel base.  Sometime we should have a thread with for these old home made creations.  I wish I could buy everyone I see on the bay, but there are just too many.  Here is one I had to let go as the bidding went to high.  Most times the build quality on these isn't too good, but at the same time they have a real charm in that history and knowing that someone built it with a minimum of tools out of left over parts and scraps.

Pretty sweet Dennis. What did it eventually go for, if you know? 

Tom 

Not sure, I want to say $80 plus but I could be wrong.  There was also a home made Hiawatha but I lost my pictures of that one.  I think the Hiawatha went for $100 plus

last time I looked at that switcher is was at least $80.

Sadly I have to report a switcher casualty.  My docksider was doing high speed laps on still in planning Halloween layout, young Stephen at the throttle, when I noticed it was slowing down every loop.  At first I thought it was a Cw-80 thing, however when I got to the throttle and stopped it the loco was smoking.  Unfortunately the smoke unit was turned off!!  Turning it over revealed both the sight and smell of smoking boards, sigh ��.  

I actually had to put it in the garage so it didn't stink up the basement. Oh well, it least it didn't happen the week before Christmas.

That's a bummer.  Is it possible to get a replacement board?

"Gentlemen....we can rebuild him........."

Luckily, I am older and my first 2 initials are T.V.!  

Here he is trying to push his prewar switcher down the track.

Tom 

Ignore all the trains on the main line. For Switcher Saturday, note the S2 "Bang" switcher dutifully trundling back and forth with the fire car. Scene at the

Kensington, MD Train show, National Capital Trackers, Sept. 9-10, 2017.

My docksider is praying for your docksider

Steamer posted:

"Gentlemen....we can rebuild him........."

We can make him better than before!

I can hear the sound effect when his bionics kicked in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV17B8oq_cE