Switcher Saturday: 2019-January-05

Great photos! I haven't participated for quite some time. The Huber Breaker Preservation Society in Ashley Pa is applyibg for a grant to acquire a Vulcan 0-4-0 Lokie that was used by the Glen Alden Coal Co. to move loaded mine cars from the mine slope entrance to the processing facility. It was also used to haul timbers and other mine related material. The #9, which we are trying to purchase was built in 1915 at the Vulcan plant in Wilkes-Barre Pa. It last saw service in 1961. Our goal is to restore it to full operation. Although it was not used at the Blue Coal facility in ashley, it was part of the Glen Alden conglomerate, and will be at home at Miners' Memorial Heritage Park adjacent to the site of the former Blue Coal operations. This is a 3 foot gauge engine that saw service in nearby Wanamie and Hanover Twp. The Blue Coal engines ran on 42" gauge. Our prospective lokie currently resides in Grand Rapids Michigan at Vierson Boiler. It is our hope that the boiler work can be done by Vierson, although at this time, they are too busy to take on the project. 

Those Thomas switchers and Consolidations are not as rare as one might think.  They also made tank car kits, and not sure, but I think a line of open platform passenger cars.  All the dies were apparently lost in a fire.

The tank cars can be built into nice models with a bit of reinforcement inside the .010 brass tank wrapper.

I am not a big fan of Thomas, but some day I might have to have a B&O C-16 saddle tank in 17/64 scale.  I really do have a Mantua Shifter in 17/64, as well as a Bowser K11 in 1/4" scale.

Happy to say I recently picked up one of my favorite PW Switchers, the 6250 Seaboard. Runs like it's new and only issue is need to replace front light bulb.

Since we had several Switcher Saturday posters show up at the last Toy & Train Show here is the info for the next one on Sunday, January 27th:

https://ogrforum.com/...y-jan-27th#lastReply 

Tom 

A short Shark Bay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6AQqPp0z4k

Fellows, you all have neat switchers and fine layouts, great thread, Happy Railroading.  

I posted this before under Buy Anything Cool Lately, but here it comes again.

https://youtu.be/YFrGfxljkFg

Dan,

  Nice layout, especially your catenary system.

 Tom  

A few more turns for the Christmas Special 

I had not planned to buy any engines for some time, but when I saw this one for sale, I sold the farm to get it.  Well not quite, but I won't tell you what I have sold to get the money for it.    I have great plans for this engine!!

An MTH SW1500 pauses in the newish yard at Summit on the D.A.R.E. Model Railroad Club's West Penn O gauge layout, while hauling a short commuter train. 

So many great photos and videos! Wow. I absolutely enjoy Saturdays with this weekly thread. So here's my first entry.  finally I had the time to unearth a couple of my weathered switchers  for a couple of photos.  These are dedicated to Melgar and Brian particularly.

Boxcab by the waterfront

Mark Boyce posted:

I had not planned to buy any engines for some time, 

you condemned yourself to failure as soon as you uttered that thought Mark

Steamer posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

I had not planned to buy any engines for some time, 

you condemned yourself to failure as soon as you uttered that thought Mark

Yes Dave, I realize my grave error!    I failed; but I now own a this Shay.

and she's a beauty!

Great Switcher Stuff this week everyone - thanks for posting and "see you" next week!

Another great week everyone. Thanks again as always Rich.

Leeroof- you've been holding out on us. Those are all beauties. Please keep digging and share more.

Mark- I don't have to tell you any more about the slippery slope you are on but I think I would have done the same thing. When an opportunity presents itself we get creative. Can't wait to see that Shay on your new layout!

JHZ- love the pink Vulcan set.

Thanks for sharing some more photos of your beautiful layout Larry.

Dan P- nice additions to the fleet. That A5 is a beauty.

Dan Pittsburgh- welcome to the Switcher fest. Please share more, looks like a nice layout you are building.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks.

Bob

Pierre fine weathering jobs.  What's the story on the ship in the background?

MELGAR posted:

Silver Lake posted:

I won another C16a in a surprise eBay win

I ... found markings for Thomas Industries. So it was first offered in 1950 as a very simple kit

it is very heavy being all cast

The drivers are even sprung

Very interesting, Andy. Die cast with sprung drivers!

Even back in 1950, it must have been costly to make a set of dies to cast this model. There cannot have been many produced, so how did the manufacturer think this would be a profitable venture? Especially as a kit. And they were competing against Lionel, who dominated the market and made similar engines ready to run. I guess this is indicative of the manufacturing environment in the USA after WW2. People thought they could achieve anything. It's too bad that no one makes products like this in the US today.

MELGAR

The Thomas 0-4-0 was priced rather competitively as this ad from 1948 shows:

Granted, in 1948, 40 bucks was a good piece of change, but how much were equivalent Lionel trains going for?  Even HO wasn't cheap, witness the MDC HO 0-6-0 kit from the same year:

(By 1976, the price of the MDC 0-6-0 dropped to $19.98...)

Plus, the Thomas 0-4-0 was also available with scale wheels and also shared some its components with the later 2-8-0. 

A brief history of Thomas Industries can be found HERE.

Rusty