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Happy Switcher Saturday everyone! 

I am pitch-hitting, for our friend Rich Murnane, aka Super Dad, who is busy with train club duties today and will check in later in the day/weekend.

First is our humble creed: 

We are a bunch of humble, switcher-loving, do-gooders who love all things switcher-related. So, if you have a switcher, have a picture of a switcher or smell like a switcher, post your switcher pictures, here!  

We are "bookended" by the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad (who doesn't love Big Boy 4014?)  on Friday and Mother's Day on Sunday. Be sure to remember your moms!

So...In honor of these two important events, I thought I would show one of my favorite pictures that I have taken. Here is my most recently acquired #228 in a "panning" shot where the locomotive is in focus, but what should be round peg holes are seen as being oval. Note too that the rods are in the socially acceptable down position!

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A prior owner has swapped the prewar couplers for postwar couplers....

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Before my other friend Dave/Steamer points out my peculiarity (yes, one of many!), that I have more than one of the number #228's, I need to again state that I do not own more than 0.026666666666667% of the production run of Lionel’s 15,000 #228’s. Boy, if I did, that would really be a problem! 

So, lets see those switchers! 

 Tom 

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Thanks to Tom for posting today's SWSAT. I look forward to it every Saturday morning. Four #228s - no problem...

There has been recent discussion on the Forum about the MTH Premier GE 44-ton diesel-electric switcher model’s performance through certain switches at low speeds, with some operators saying they have been encountering stoppage due to loss of electrical contact and trying to remedy the problem. I have been running my New Haven 0807 locomotive since 2017 without any issue on my layout with Atlas O track and O-54 switches. The video shows a short New Haven consist running at eight scale miles per hour.

MELGAR

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Trains from Czechoslovakia are better known since there is a good train manufacturer in the country, ETS. this little boxcab loco is based on a real model and is very representative, the matching passenger cars have more a tinplate look but it makes a nice train. Electric boxcab locos have been popular in Europe and this one is particularly nice.

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have a nice weekend,  Daniel

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Happy SWSat!

Thanks for getting us started this week Tom.

Great photos so far everyone.

A brief study in scale sizes this week. I picked up a couple of State of Maine box cars for my new BAR BEEP. Amazing how different they are in size. Both are Lionel, still nice looking cars though. The first one fits better with my rolling stock. The second is closer to scale size I guess. I'm about as far from a rivet counter as one could get so please share more info if anyone has.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there.

Bob

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Good morning fellow SWsat friends!  As always, you guys have a wonderful display of information, photos, and videos.  ( MELGAR - love that 44 tonner video ... hope the railroad police doesn't spot those folks riding inside the boxcar. ) 

Tom - Thanks so much for taking the throttle for Rich this morning!  Love that switcher loco too!  

This week did not allow time for the taking of new photos.  Instead, I've tapped the archives and came up with this variety of switchers doing their thing on the FSJR. ... SW 9, 0-8-0, RS1, VO- 1000, BL2, GP9, and 44 tonner. 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and lets remember our Moms in a special way tomorrow!!  

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I was doing some additional research on the Alco GE Ingersoll-Rand Box Cabs and found that there are apparently two survivors -- one in the Illinois Railway Museum and the other (the original demonstrator) in the Henry Ford Museum. The white unit is in Illionois after being donated by Ingersoll-Rand (who painted it), and apparently it was running when donated. The others saw a long period of service before being scrapped.

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MELGAR, great NH 44 run in scale speed. Thanks for the video.

RSJB18, that Bangor Aroostook Blue BEEP is beautiful with the state of Maine cars. i have postwar Lionel 027 ones with operating blue man.

BAR GP7 # 63. Great B&A & MEC action indeed.

AGHR MATT, those ingersol rand boxcars are always a favorite of mine

ANDEY SILVER LAKE, thanks for the scale stuff. 

Not home this weekend. 

Can send some repeat photos on my I pad.

thanks guys, great Saturday switcher as usual.IMG_0173IMG_0172IMG_0175

These are repeat Shelfies, in keeping with current interests.

MNCW, you are a historian with lots to share. Thank you Tom for hosting his week.

btw: if that 228 with the postwar couplers needs a new home I am in line!

FRENCH TRAINS, bien sur avec les ETS!

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Leroof posted:

 

MNCW, you are a historian with lots to share. Thank you Tom for hosting his week.

btw: if that 228 with the postwar couplers needs a new home I am in line!

FRENCH TRAINS, bien sur avec les ETS!

Hi Leroof,

Thanks for your comments.

As far as giving up one of my 228's...To reduce my fleet of #228's would cause a squad of scientists to needlessly recalculate the complicated percentages that I provide to show how many I own of the overall Lionel production of 15,000 228's.

Here was today's calculation. No short cuts are ever taken in order to provide an accurate percentage. 

228 caclulation revised

Tom

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Leroof posted:

 

MELGAR, great NH 44 run in scale speed. Thanks for the video.

RSJB18, that Bangor Aroostook Blue BEEP is beautiful with the state of Maine cars. i have postwar Lionel 027 ones with operating blue man.

BAR GP7 # 63. Great B&A & MEC action indeed.

AGHR MATT, those ingersol rand boxcars are always a favorite of mine

ANDEY SILVER LAKE, thanks for the scale stuff. 

Not home this weekend. 

Can send some repeat photos on my I pad.

thanks guys, great Saturday switcher as usual.IMG_0173IMG_0172IMG_0175

These are repeat Shelfies, in keeping with current interests.

MNCW, you are a historian with lots to share. Thank you Tom for hosting his week.

btw: if that 228 with the postwar couplers needs a new home I am in line!

FRENCH TRAINS, bien sur avec les ETS!

Leroof. Thanks. Your engines looking really good, specially i like that weathering.

Johan

Thanks for the kind words @Leroof. Who made that great looking boxcab? Somehow these pictures are new to me so thank you for posting them. The boat in the background looks really great. (Us scale guys have to represent and convince others here to lift up that center rail and swinging pilots.)

Rich @Murnane congratulations on what looks like a fun run at the museum. I think that Museum was the last one to open before I moved away to go to college. I liked the ex-Southern RPO they have displayed. The video looks like you have quite a group of young audience members. 

A big question I have for you is the two Jeep DJs in this close up. Are they 1/43? I have been long looking for some of these. They were once so ubiquitous but since they are not from the most popular period you just can’t find them.

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@PRR8976 have you calculated how many of those 15,000 units are still extant. There must be a formula. Your ownership percentage will probably go up. 

 

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MNCW posted:

As far as giving up one of my 228's...To reduce my fleet of #228's would cause a squad of scientists to needlessly recalculate the complicated percentages that I provide to show how many I own of the overall Lionel production of 15,000 228's.

Here was today's calculation. No short cuts are ever taken in order to provide an accurate percentage. 

228 caclulation revised

Tom

Tom,

I think you should have an integral in there somewhere... Either I have forgotten all my electrical engineering or that stuff looks somewhat suspect... Is this the proof that you still don't have enough #228s?

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:
MNCW posted:

As far as giving up one of my 228's...To reduce my fleet of #228's would cause a squad of scientists to needlessly recalculate the complicated percentages that I provide to show how many I own of the overall Lionel production of 15,000 228's.

Here was today's calculation. No short cuts are ever taken in order to provide an accurate percentage. 

228 caclulation revised

Tom

Tom,

I think you should have an integral in there somewhere... Either I have forgotten all my electrical engineering or that stuff looks somewhat suspect... Is this the proof that you still don't have enough #228s?

MELGAR

Mel/MELGAR,

  After a significant analysis of the data, that is EXACTLY what the outcome was! 

  This was the moment when the results were finalized (notice the first 2 drivers of the #228 can be seen on the blackboard) and they were satisfied with the decision:

228 scientists

Tom 

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