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Happy Switcher Saturday everyone. I am pitch hitting for our friend Rich Murnane, aka "Super Dad," who has some family duties to take care of. 

Some housekeeping...Here was last week's topic if you missed it:

https://ogrforum.com/...12#85057867689432612

Now, getting down to what really matters, this is Memorial Day weekend, so let's be sure to remember those that did so much for our country, paying the ultimate sacrifice. Without their service, we wouldn't have the freedom we have today.

Below is a picture of an American cemetery in Impruneta, Italy. 

Memorial Day,American Cemetery, Impruneta Italy

Here is my own dad at the onset of WWII, stationed in the Hawaiian Islands for the US Army, soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, in early 1942. Sergeant Panettiere has the guitar in the first photo and is seen in "full combat mode" in the colorized second photo below. After WWII his friend got him a job on the New Haven Railroad. He was a fireman, trained on steam and diesels, but the railroading life was not for him. Dad still supported my train interests,  building my first Lionel layout for me back in the 1960's and would drive me to train clubs in the 1960's-early 1970's. Much of my enjoyment today can be traced back to him. 

IMG_0561IMG_0564

So, in honor of Memorial Day, I took some new pictures of my prewar Lionel #228 (on my only 2 pieces of T-Rail track), al fresco!  The 228's were built from 1939 to 1942, a time when my dad and many others were already serving in WWII. Dad had enlisted before 1941 and his combined Army & National Guard service lasted until around 1980. 

#228 resized May 24 2019 IMG_1332IMG_1334IMG_1336IMG_1337

 So, lets see those switchers!!!

Tom 

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Last edited by PRR8976
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Burnside's bridge, Sharpsville, Antietam, Maryland.  More American's died here, one day, than any other battle that has been fought. 

Another bridge over Antietam Creek, part of the C&O Canal Tow Path, where the creek enters the Potomac river.  There is an informational sign on the bridge. The water ran red with blood for three days.  Canal was still in use during the Civil War, the railroads would put the canal out of business after the war.   Today part of the Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal Tow Path trail, Pittsburgh, Pa, to Washington DC.  

Red

Last edited by Mike CT

Tom,

Thanks for starting SWSAT today and remembering Memorial Day. My dad (kneeling at center) served with the U.S. Army in France and Germany during 1944 and '45. I was lucky. He came home without injury or harm and lived to age 98.

MELGAR_img046

My dad served as a mechanic and repaired vehicles. I keep this Army Jeep on my layout as a remembrance. He bought me Lionel trains when I was four years of age and got to see the layout I completed in 2004.

MELGAR_MENARDS_JEEP_01

Long Island Railroad 1553 is a K-Line model of an Alco RS-3 road switcher that I purchased about 15 years ago. K-Line also made LIRR passenger cars in the same color scheme. This locomotive has a version of Lionel TMCC which must be run at a minimum of 10 Volts for the sounds to operate properly. It is therefore running at about 43 scale miles-per-hour in the video. It runs more slowly at lower voltage but the sounds are intermittent. I still think it runs well.

MELGAR

MELGAR_LIRR_RS3_1553_09MELGAR_LIRR_RS3_1553_07MELGAR_LIRR_RS3_1553_05

 

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Image result for pennsylvania railroad world war two

 

we owe all we have to the men and women who worked in the factories, and on the front lines preserving our freedom.

I've always wondered about scenes like this, these young men, not far from watching their toy trains under the Christmas trees, riding a real train on their way to help defend the world, how many never came home.

Image result for pennsylvania railroad world war two

Happy SWSat!

Thanks for getting us started this week Tom. Great posts and info from everyone so far.

Thanks to all who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day Weekend.

Today also happens to be my birthday! Another year older and wiser - my wife tends to speculate about the second part of that statement.

I've been running my new BEEPS lately along with their respective rolling stock.

Enjoy the long weekend with friends and family.

Bob

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MNCW posted:
Here is my own dad at the onset of WWII, stationed in the Hawaiian Islands for the US Army, soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, in early 1942. Sergeant Panettiere has the guitar in the first photo and is seen in "full combat mode" in the colorized second photo below. After WWII his friend got him a job on the New Haven Railroad. He was a fireman, trained on steam and diesels, but the railroading life was not for him. Dad still supported my train interests,  building my first Lionel layout for me back in the 1960's and would drive me to train clubs in the 1960's-early 1970's. Much of my enjoyment today can be traced back to him. 

IMG_0561IMG_0564

So, in honor of Memorial Day, I took some new pictures of my prewar Lionel #228 (on my only 2 pieces of T-Rail track), al fresco!  The 228's were built from 1939 to 1942, a time when my dad and many others were already serving in WWII. Dad had enlisted before 1941 and his combined Army & National Guard service lasted until around 1980. 

Tom 

Tom,

Your dad served for a very long time... To be respected.

MELGAR

Last edited by MELGAR
MELGAR posted:
MNCW posted:
Here is my own dad at the onset of WWII, stationed in the Hawaiian Islands for the US Army, soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, in early 1942. Sergeant Panettiere has the guitar in the first photo and is seen in "full combat mode" in the colorized second photo below. After WWII his friend got him a job on the New Haven Railroad. He was a fireman, trained on steam and diesels, but the railroading life was not for him. Dad still supported my train interests,  building my first Lionel layout for me back in the 1960's and would drive me to train clubs in the 1960's-early 1970's. Much of my enjoyment today can be traced back to him. 

IMG_0561IMG_0564

So, in honor of Memorial Day, I took some new pictures of my prewar Lionel #228 (on my only 2 pieces of T-Rail track), al fresco!  The 228's were built from 1939 to 1942, a time when my dad and many others were already serving in WWII. Dad had enlisted before 1941 and his combined Army & National Guard service lasted until around 1980. 

Tom 

Tom,

Your dad served for a very long time... To be respected.

MELGAR

Thank you Mel.

Tom

Yay! SWSat is “on”!

I am posting some images of my biggest piece of rolling stock. I am looking for a switcher to pull it but first I’ll have to put back the rails which were pulled up about 60 years ago. That is to say that 60 years ago this would have been sitting on the supply track for the highest capacity double bandsaw mill on the east coast.

A7F1A131-3EB6-4BA1-A58D-661F618CE086386CC6D1-A7E3-4B8E-BAE3-916319BC9A3025597060-A452-4749-80FA-B71E0F2B0A80

I built this starting about 15 years ago from scaling up an O scale craftsman kit. Someday I guess I will actually build the kit. 

Here is what the real one looks like. The GRR had 4 of these. 71-74. #71 was the longest lived and supposedly still exists in a private collection in Vermont. Three had end cupolas and 74 was centered. I built mine as #75 and it is an end cupola.

3C808EF1-142C-4635-A4E3-6F21A5B570A5C334A318-CFC6-4F57-B00A-640C24C5E549

The Grasse River RR had mostly Rod Engines as their “run in” common carrier engines. The lumber or North tram was mostly worked with the Shays but here were home built geared engines and a Climax.  #’s 42 and 43 were matching Brooks small 0-6-0s. Here is 43 with the single combine passenger train.D0E7340F-7F0D-470A-829C-5CBFF895526E

In later years #64 and #68 2-6-0’s were the “big” rod engines.

1AFEE738-2E20-4245-816F-6F96D2B41470

The last engine was this GE #1. By then the trackage was severely cut back from 100 miles plus on the North Tram and 16 miles on the Common carrier to about 5 or 6.978B4281-71B0-4748-B4F1-C4DC5CA62B47

Have a great weekend. I can’t wait to see what you guys post. 

Happy Birthday 🎉 Bob @RSJB18

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Last edited by Silver Lake

The Union Pacific runs a daily local out of the Klamath Falls, Oregon rail yard on a section of the old Southern Pacific Modoc Line. The distance from Klamath Falls is approximately 54 miles heading southeast. Before much of the Modoc was abandoned, the end-of-the-line was Fernley, Nevada. Nowadays, the local runs to a small interchange in California where cars are dropped off by UP and picked up by the Goose Lake shortline railroad. There isn’t a “Y” so the two SD70 locomotives are back-to-back. The condition of the track limits the speed to 10 or 20 mph--the crew consists of the engineer, conductor and a brakeman. The local also services several agricultural accounts along this lonely high desert route. I too am remembering my dad, a China Marine. Have a safe holiday, everyone.0-6-0_mth_water_tank_may_2019

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RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSat!

Thanks for getting us started this week Tom. Great posts and info from everyone so far.

Thanks to all who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day Weekend.

Today also happens to be my birthday! Another year older and wiser - my wife tends to speculate about the second part of that statement.

I've been running my new BEEPS lately along with their respective rolling stock.

Enjoy the long weekend with friends and family.

Bob

2019-05-24 20.15.272019-05-24 20.15.322019-05-24 20.15.452019-05-24 20.16.052019-05-24 20.22.182019-05-24 20.22.31

Bob. Happy Birthday. I like those BEEPS. 

Johan

Good morning fellow SWsat friends!!  Wonderful photos/video and stories today!  

Thanks Tom for sitting in at the engineer's seat, notching out the throttle, and getting us rolling this morning.  Love the photos and story about your father!  Thanks for sharing. 

Best wishes to Rich wherever you are.  Hope you get some train running in

Happy Birthday Bob RJSB18!!  Enjoy your special day to the max! 

Today, I have some photos of a Baltimore and Annapolis SW9 pushing some flat car loads of US Army combat equipment, as well as the C&O  0-8-0 and Pennsy 0-4-0 going about their duties.  Also photos of Freedom Park which is part of my layout.  

In remembering those who served, I certainly remember my own father who landed on Omaha Beach with the Big Red One on June 6, 1944 and who pushed all the way through France and into Germany before he returned home.  I visited Normandy France and Omaha Beach with my dad back in 1998.  As we walked the beach I picked up a stone, put it in my pocket, and brought it home with me.  When I built my layout, some years later, I created a park, Freedom Park, which I dedicated to my dad.  That stone IMG_0009IMG_1576IMG_9615IMG_9623IMG_9624IMG_9570IMG_9585I brought back from Omaha Beach sits in Freedom Park.  My dad got to see the layout ( and Freedom Park ) before he passed in 2014.   So with having Freedom Park on my layout, there is a Memorial Day every day I walk into my train room.  See second photo from top.

Have a wonderful, fun, and safe weekend everyone!!  Enjoy your time  with friends and family and remember those who are serving and those who have served.  

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Last edited by trumpettrain
Mike CT posted:

Burnside's bridge, Sharpsville, Antietam, Maryland.  More American's died here, one day, than any other battle that has been fought. 

Another bridge over Antietam Creek, part of the C&O Canal Tow Path, where the creek enters the Potomac river.  There is an informational sign on the bridge. The water ran red with blood for three days.  Canal was still in use during the Civil War, the railroads would put the canal out of business after the war.   Today part of the Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal Tow Path trail, Pittsburgh, Pa, to Washington DC.  

Red

Antietam/Sharpesburg: September 17, 1862. The bloodiest day in American history. I have stood there and pondered that savage sacrifice. Sobering.

My dad served in the Army’s “Persian Gulf Command” from 1942-45. 

They shipped out aboard several converted passenger liners from the west coast, stopping at Pearl Harbor, Perth, Australia, and Calcutta before arriving at southern Iran. 

Their task and generally never much known was to build and operate a railroad from the Gulf up to the northern border of Iran with the USSR. Working jointly with the Brits and the Russians, they supplied huge amounts of war material from the allied factories to the Russian Army. The Russians then took it west to use against the Germans in defending their country.

while the PGC never gained notariety, it was vital to the war effort in supplying Russia with the tanks, artillery, airplanes and ammunition it needed to repel the Germans.

My dad was a supply sargaent stationed in Tehran. They suffered from tropical diseases, 125 degree temps w/o air conditioning snd a lot more. He came home with his health compromised and never really recovered, dying in 1992.

He did get to see the pyramids and Jerusalem while on leave and worked at the Tehran Conference in 1944 so he got to see Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill there.

My Uncle Roy, his younger brother, landed at Normandy and was killed in action two month later in France. 

That is our family service story. May God bless them and all veterans.

Here one more add on. Found this behind a drawer today in the sawmill office.

0A06787E-AFCC-40FF-BA4E-30E8FD3D0D64ECAC1E36-9F02-41E0-B2EC-DD212B67AC64

This post card dates from the 1920’s and is extremely fragile. This one was never used but has provisions for documenting who cut the wood, who skid it, loaded it, and plenty of other information.

No doubt these would have been among the items filled out on site and later in the caboose to keep the office informed of who was doing what work when payouts were due. 

Emporium Forestry Company is the parent company of the Grasse River RR. As a common carrier GRR could take foreign cars in and send them off into the world while EFCo as an industrial railroad could not, they were also much less regulated.

The name Emporium is from their founding period in PA. They were started in Emporium, PA as Emporium Lumber Co. They moved many of the buildings from PA when they moved to the Adirondacks. The name change to “Forestry” from “Lumber” reflects a philosophy shift to the idea of sustainable wood harvesting and replanting. The reason they left PA was that they had logged out the woods there completely. They wanted to stay longer in one location in the future.

Interesting then new idea for 100 years ago. 

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