Switcher Saturday 5-21-22

Good morning Lee!

I bought this MTH Railking scale SW-1 switcher in 2021 and really like it. It is the first SW-1 switcher I’ve ever acquired and its small size is perfect for SWSAT and my 10’-by-5’ layout. I believe that MTH has sold the SW-1 tooling to Lionel, so future production prospects are unclear. I would like to see an SW-1 model of Boston & Maine #1111.

MELGAR

Mel. That’s a nice looking Switcher. Nice Videos too. Thanks for sharing.

Good morning SWSAT fans!

AC&Y H16-44 (Lionel) heads out with a short train that includes an oversized load from Bradford-Underwood Manufacturing Company. The train takes it slow and easy through the city:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

Good morning SWSAT fans!

AC&Y H16-44 (Lionel) heads out with a short train that includes an oversized load from Bradford-Underwood Manufacturing Company. The train takes it slow and easy through the city:

Tom

Tom. Great video and another different angle I see on the layout. I like that Erie Piggyback Trailer too.

Lee, Thanks for kicking things off. Hopefully JHZ is just catching up on a little rest.  Here is my newest RS3 getting ready to pull a load out -

Happy SWSat!

Thanks for manning the tower for John this week Lee. Nice to have you back.

@MELGAR- that SW-1 looks perfect with the CR caboose. Looks like some new decals are in order for that diesel.
@Tom Densel- May I ask what type of tripod/ stand you use to get your camera down at track level for your videos?

More from the archives, it's been another busy week.

Here's a couple of ALCO's in two of my favorite paint schemes, New Haven and Delaware and Hudson.
The NH is a MTH RS-1 w/ PS-2, and the D&H is a Lionel RS-11 with TMCC/ Legacy.

Have a great weekend.

Bob

@Strap Hanger posted:

Lee, Thanks for kicking things off. Hopefully JHZ is just catching up on a little rest.  Here is my newest RS3 getting ready to pull a load out -

No Problem glad I could help him out this morning I miss being here. Nice pics thanks for sharing.

@RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSat!

Thanks for manning the tower for John this week Lee. Nice to have you back.

@MELGAR- that SW-1 looks perfect with the CR caboose. Looks like some new decals are in order for that diesel.
@Tom Densel- May I ask what type of tripod/ stand you use to get your camera down at track level for your videos?

More from the archives, it's been another busy week.

Here's a couple of ALCO's in two of my favorite paint schemes, New Haven and Delaware and Hudson.
The NH is a MTH RS-1 w/ PS-2, and the D&H is a Lionel RS-11 with TMCC/ Legacy.

Have a great weekend.

Bob

Thanks Bob. Spring and Summer is a busy time for me on my little Hobby Farm sometimes. I do miss posting here. Nice pics from the Archives always enjoy looking at them. I don’t know if this will help but I use my phone to video tape and sometimes I just sit it on top of the layout and prop it up with a Railroad Spike in front of it so it won’t fall forward. lol. Seems to work so far.

Lee, thanks for filling in for JHZ today.  I hope he's clearing out room for a bigger layout at that garage sale.

Mel that Union RR SW-1 is a beauty.  Seems to me it's the right color for the B&M.  If you don't want to wait for Lionel to put out 1111 maybe some re-lettering on that one would fill the bill if you don't mind parting with that sharp livery.

Joe. Thanks I was glad to help John out never done it before and I hope I did OK with it and I hope John sell a bunch for a bigger addition to the layout like you said or buy more Trains lol

@coach joe posted:

Lee, thanks for filling in for JHZ today.  I hope he's clearing out room for a bigger layout at that garage sale.

Mel that Union RR SW-1 is a beauty.  Seems to me it's the right color for the B&M.  If you don't want to wait for Lionel to put out 1111 maybe some re-lettering on that one would fill the bill if you don't mind parting with that sharp livery.

Joe,

B&M #1111 was black with white lettering - delivered in 1939. But, I like the blue color of the Union RR SW-1 and would not repaint it. There's no way I could match the quality of the MTH factory paint, so I shall leave well enough alone...

MELGAR

@RSJB18 posted:

@Tom Densel- May I ask what type of tripod/ stand you use to get your camera down at track level for your videos?

Bob,

I use High Tech photographic equipment when shooting my trains

I shoot video with a Sony Handycam that I just set on the surface of the layout. 

If I need to elevate the camera, I use whatever I find laying around.  In this case a track cleaning block.  I have used Gargraves ties, also.

I do have a tripod from an old VHS video camera that I will sometimes use for video and still shots, but I don't use it very often.

Tom

Tom,

Your videos are great.

For me, the bigger problem is making videos where it is necessary to move the camera (phone) to follow the trains... See my posts above. It usually takes me several tries to get a decent video.

MELGAR

Hi folks,  thanks for getting us going @lee drennen.🙂

I haven't had time to craft my own post today, but I am happy to report a Thomas sighting.  Boy that Switcher gets around!

@jhz563 posted:

Hi folks,  thanks for getting us going @lee drennen.🙂

I haven't had time to craft my own post today, but I am happy to report a Thomas sighting.  Boy that Switcher gets around!

John your welcome glad I could help out.

Custom Paint Atlas SW9's

JHZ (John) - hope your garage sale went well and now you have all those funds for new trains (Yea...right!) Lee thanks for starting us off today, liked your Reading RS-3.  Lee we lived in Ohio for nearly 20 years and had farmers for neighbors.  Knowing how hard those folks worked, its hard to see how you can farm as a "hobby"    Melgar - really neat SW-1 switcher. Tom the AC&Y H16 was neat, we don't see too much of that loco.  Strap Hanger and RSJB18 - your LI RS-3 and other Alco switchers were neat, thanks for posting.  Tom - thanks for sharing how you do your video's.

Well, with all this "diesel smoke" this morning I feel like an outsider sending us back to steam.  My posting today is a long way from the top of the line for Lionel.  In fact, it was a sort of last ditch attempt to try and stop the flow of "red ink" in the 1960's.  The #1062 was made in 1963-64 and cataloged in those years as an 0-4-0 but also available as an uncatalogued 2-4-2 but mine is a 2-4-0 with no evidence of ever having a training truck, so who knows maybe its just lost to time.  This one was not much on Lionel's favored list.  Plastic boiler, 2-position reverse, headlight, one rubber tire on the driver, no cross head on the linkage and the infamous plastic side motor from the Scout series (impossible to repair and unreliable ).  However, this example (by sheer luck) seems to work ok and can still pull a few cars around my little layout.

So here she is :  The Lionel # 1062 from 1963

You are all probably wondering why anyone would bother with such a humble locomotive.  We to me it speaks of Lionel's strategy (not too successful at the time) for trying to salvage their business.  For us Forum folks, I just think its fun to bring to the front some of the less known of the Lionel line, just so folks can see them.  In addition, this one was purchased, fully operating, in my wife's antique shop for $5 !!  What collector can resist a $5 Lionel .

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best Wishes

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

JHZ (John) - hope your garage sale went well and now you have all those funds for new trains (Yea...right!) Lee thanks for starting us off today, liked your Reading RS-3.  Lee we lived in Ohio for nearly 20 years and had farmers for neighbors.  Knowing how hard those folks worked, its hard to see how you can farm as a "hobby"    Melgar - really neat SW-1 switcher. Tom the AC&Y H16 was neat, we don't see too much of that loco.  Strap Hanger and RSJB18 - your LI RS-3 and other Alco switchers were neat, thanks for posting.  Tom - thanks for sharing how you do your video's.

Well, with all this "diesel smoke" this morning I feel like an outsider sending us back to steam.  My posting today is a long way from the top of the line for Lionel.  In fact, it was a sort of last ditch attempt to try and stop the flow of "red ink" in the 1960's.  The #1062 was made in 1963-64 and cataloged in those years as an 0-4-0 but also available as an uncatalogued 2-4-2 but mine is a 2-4-0 with no evidence of ever having a training truck, so who knows maybe its just lost to time.  This one was not much on Lionel's favored list.  Plastic boiler, 2-position reverse, headlight, one rubber tire on the driver, no cross head on the linkage and the infamous plastic side motor from the Scout series (impossible to repair and unreliable ).  However, this example (by sheer luck) seems to work ok and can still pull a few cars around my little layout.

So here she is :  The Lionel # 1062 from 1963

You are all probably wondering why anyone would bother with such a humble locomotive.  We to me it speaks of Lionel's strategy (not too successful at the time) for trying to salvage their business.  For us Forum folks, I just think its fun to bring to the front some of the less known of the Lionel line, just so folks can see them.  In addition, this one was purchased, fully operating, in my wife's antique shop for $5 !!  What collector can resist a $5 Lionel .

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best Wishes

Don

Don thanks for sharing the information on this little switcher. I always learn something from your post. Never feel like you post have no meaning. Without people like you educating people like me that don’t know a lot about the History of this Hobby appreciate it. I have just a Small place 10 acres. I’ve down sized over the years now I have just Chickens and a small Garden and a 3 acre field I plant Winter Wheat in.

@Mike CT posted:

Custom Paint Atlas SW9's

Mike nice job on those Customs

Good morning fellow switcher fans!!  Thank you Lee for pinch hitting for JHZ today!  Hopefully JHZ's yard sale today does not include selling his switching yard .. lol!    

I've really been enjoying all of your posts, videos, and information this morning ... thank you ALL,  for I learn so much from you!!  

Today's group of photos are entitled " At the Junction"   I name parts of my layout ( like many you also do ) after people who have helped me in building the Free State Junction Railway over the years.  The junction is named after my friend Todd Butler who is the FSJR "Vice President of Procurement of Inexpensive Stuff" or know around the railroad as VPPIS.   Todd often checks out thrift stores and will always text me photos of train stuff. If I approve, he purchases the items and I pay him when I pick up those items.   He's saved the FSJR in the high hundreds of dollars ( or low thousand ) plus he gave me some trains that belonged to his dad too.  For those reasons he deserves a junction name after him ... Butler Junction.

May all of you have a splendid weekend!!

A B&O torpedo boat GP9 heads up a passenger train through Butler Junction as a Washington Terminal RS1 does some switching on the team tracks.

Patapsco & Back Rivers VO 1000 about to take the grade.

Santa Fe NW 2 ( leased during a power shortage ) moves through Butler Junction.  This is a Lionel  switcher which I bought when in I was in  7th grade.  I was a big fan of Santa Fe back then ... and still am.  

MA & PA SW1 about to pull a gondola of scrap from a siding.  Leaning over the back deck rail brakeman Willy Johns tells his cohort, Lumpy Larson who is standing on the ground,  that after pulling this gon they are going to lunch.

The diminutive Docksider is a tireless laborer for the FSJR.

C&O 0-8-0 number 75 at the tank getting some more water so she can carry on with her switching assignments.  

Happy Switcher Saturday. "City" module construction advanced tunnel installation. The road to upper level will pass in the middle, after two level crossings to the right.

Awesome looking scenes, and great looking switcher action everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve had a Saturday off. No other way to spend the morning then switching. I had the Lionel CSX genset switching out loaded w/ empty gondolas at the scrap yard. Have a good weekend everyone!

RBBX

Just a quick but of work this morning with the 12 inch scale to get the power car spotted for pick up this week.

Lee - thank you for the kind words, good to have you back.

Regards

Don

Chessie 6010, waits for the green, as it’s driver, Ken L. Reyshun, wonders, not for the first time, why his life keeps going around in circles.

US Army switcher rides CSX mainline to deliver restored C&O caboose to Lee Hall Depot in Newport News VA May 19th.

Have a great SW Sat all, old#41 relocating a U.S.A.F. Minute Man Missile.

@Don McErlean posted:

JHZ (John) - hope your garage sale went well and now you have all those funds for new trains (Yea...right!) Lee thanks for starting us off today, liked your Reading RS-3.  Lee we lived in Ohio for nearly 20 years and had farmers for neighbors.  Knowing how hard those folks worked, its hard to see how you can farm as a "hobby"    Melgar - really neat SW-1 switcher. Tom the AC&Y H16 was neat, we don't see too much of that loco.  Strap Hanger and RSJB18 - your LI RS-3 and other Alco switchers were neat, thanks for posting.  Tom - thanks for sharing how you do your video's.

Well, with all this "diesel smoke" this morning I feel like an outsider sending us back to steam.  My posting today is a long way from the top of the line for Lionel.  In fact, it was a sort of last ditch attempt to try and stop the flow of "red ink" in the 1960's.  The #1062 was made in 1963-64 and cataloged in those years as an 0-4-0 but also available as an uncatalogued 2-4-2 but mine is a 2-4-0 with no evidence of ever having a training truck, so who knows maybe its just lost to time.  This one was not much on Lionel's favored list.  Plastic boiler, 2-position reverse, headlight, one rubber tire on the driver, no cross head on the linkage and the infamous plastic side motor from the Scout series (impossible to repair and unreliable ).  However, this example (by sheer luck) seems to work ok and can still pull a few cars around my little layout.

So here she is :  The Lionel # 1062 from 1963

You are all probably wondering why anyone would bother with such a humble locomotive.  We to me it speaks of Lionel's strategy (not too successful at the time) for trying to salvage their business.  For us Forum folks, I just think its fun to bring to the front some of the less known of the Lionel line, just so folks can see them.  In addition, this one was purchased, fully operating, in my wife's antique shop for $5 !!  What collector can resist a $5 Lionel .

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best Wishes

Don

No apologies needed!  Those Scout-type engines from the sixties are darn cute, IMO. I have several and pulling a few 027 freight cars make a fun little consist. And my samples run OK, too, which after sixty years is actually quite amazing. And a treasured trip back to childhood for me.
We enjoy our trains for what they are and what they represent to us. That’s the key.
Thanks for posting this.

Thank you, Lee for getting the switchers rolling!!

Seeing Mel's Union RR SW1 reminded me I never took any photographs of the one I bought last month from CT McCormick's Hardware.  I saw Jeff at the Model Train Club of Zelienople's Easter display, and mentioned I keep thinking about getting it.  Jeff said his son Steve was still at the store and he had some left.   I went the 2 blocks to the store, returned to the layout, and we gave it an initial run.    We didn't get any photographs that day, but here it is on my layout.

I also want to mention that I have an NW1500 I bought from Jeff in PP&L colors.  On the last Cabin Fever auction of left over MTH stuff, I won an NW1500 shell in Bessemer & Lake Erie colors.  I intend to swap shells and finish decorating the NW1500 for B&LE.  Since the B&LE (now Canadian National) runs through Butler right over the hill from our house and connects to the URR at North Bessemer Pennsylvania, I thought the pair would go well together.  More to come on that project.

@MELGAR posted:

Tom,

Your videos are great.

For me, the bigger problem is making videos where it is necessary to move the camera (phone) to follow the trains... See my posts above. It usually takes me several tries to get a decent video.

MELGAR

Thanks Mel!

I know what you mean about videos in motion.  Every time I try to move the camera it looks like a police body cam while chasing a perp through a rail yard.

Tom

Happy Switcher Saturday!

Here’s a short line’s SW1 diesel electric switcher moving a couple of cars.  

Posted to the wrong week…that’s okay, I have more!

Tom

Sitka - neat picture, believe it or not, I was an AF officer at Wright Patterson AFB in the early 1970's and we actually had one of those missile launching cars (no missile) on a isolated siding behind some of the hangers.  Eventually it was moved (to where I don't know) but it was there for some time. No pictures allowed of course but I still remember it quite well.  Mark, WP fine engines , looking good.  Krieglok- for a guy who's motto sayes "New to O'scale" you sure do have an impressive array of engines.  I really liked the box cab, who made that?

Dave, thank you very much for your comment on my lowly 1062, I agree with you these little Scout jobs are just plain FUN!!

Best wishes everyone

Don

Thank you, Don!

@Tom Densel posted:

Bob,

I use High Tech photographic equipment when shooting my trains

I shoot video with a Sony Handycam that I just set on the surface of the layout. 

If I need to elevate the camera, I use whatever I find laying around.  In this case a track cleaning block.  I have used Gargraves ties, also.

I do have a tripod from an old VHS video camera that I will sometimes use for video and still shots, but I don't use it very often.

Tom

What's a Handi-cam????😂😂😂😂

I remember buying our VHS-C camera when my daughter was born (1998), and couldn't believe how quickly it became old technology...by the time my son was born 6 years later, digital cams were all the rage.

My current setup includes an old 35MM tripod and a clamp to hold my phone in place.

Kreiglok, I posted to the wrong week too!  Let’s try it again, no one should miss those melodious RS1 start up sounds!

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Kreiglok, I posted to the wrong week too!  Let’s try it again, no one should miss those melodious RS1 start up sounds!

John

Music to my ears!

Tom

MTH Alco 539T diesel engine startup sounds on the RS1 are terrific. My New Haven DL-109 has (I think) the same sounds. The rough idle is entertaining too.

MELGAR