Switcher Saturday 6-10-23

S.S.

Happy Switcher Saturday!  Our favorite little b6 steamer has been called into service for this weeks pics.  Here are a few videos -

I noticed that MTH announced a new run of these little beauties for under $500 this week. If you’re on the fence, don’t hesitate. They run flawlessly, look outstanding, smoke excessively, and fit right in on any small to mid sized switching layout.

No switching at the Sunrise Coop when I went through South Charleston 2 days ago.  They used to have an S2 but I have not seen it the past few times.  The 2 GP’s were sitting still and they built a new storage silo/elevator.

Happy switcher Saturday!

A little more info:

Former IORY 54, a EMD GP7 built in 1953 for the Baltimore & Ohio.

TANX 1714 a EMD GP9 built in 1956 for the Northern Pacific.

Good morning, fans of the humble switcher!  Today your Yardmaster will be continuing the theme of showing his switchers in the chronological order they were received (or close to it!).

MTH Railking NH RS3 no. 538 was purchased in 2002 or 2003.  She is equipped with the much maligned 5 volt PS2 system, but still runs well today with the addition of a BCR.  She is shown with NH GP9 no. 1205 on a local freight and in the New Haven, CT yard, making up a train for NH EP5 no. 379 to pull to New York.

John

Diesel and steam switcheritis:

Hare are pictures of the S2 switcher that I took over the years(it used to be known as Southwest Landmark).  It was not in good shape back then!  It looks like the headlight was moved at some point over the years.

Update:

Alco S4M built in 1954 for Ford Motors.

Happy SWSat!

The Western Maryland is in action this week. The crew on # 2221 has been assigned to pull an empty and deliver a load to the local warehouse. This model was made by K-line and was done in a different paint scheme than the typical black/ gold lettering, or red/white "circus" theme. Since the WM didn't own any MP-15's this could be a fantasy scheme.
The MP-15 is an engine I often see in action since the LIRR owns many for use as road switchers on their MOW and work trains.
Originally produced with a 1500 hp prime mover and DC generator (MP-15-DC), EMD later switched to AC power and added a rectifier for the traction motors (MP-15-AC). These engines are similar to a SW1200/1500 with the exception that the MP's have Bloomberg trucks which allowed them to run at higher speeds for road use.
Here's more info

One thing I did notice is that I need to re-wire the motors in series. I thought I had done all of my K-lines but I guess I missed this one.

Have a great weekend.

Bob

@Strap Hanger posted:

Happy Switcher Saturday!  Our favorite little b6 steamer has been called into service for this weeks pics.  Here are a few videos -

I noticed that MTH announced a new run of these little beauties for under $500 this week. If you’re on the fence, don’t hesitate. They run flawlessly, look outstanding, smoke excessively, and fit right in on any small to mid sized switching layout.

I saw that too. I'm sitting on the fence, balancing on the edge of my credit card......I wounder how this is gonna end....

Bob

Bob, I recently had a very experienced technician re-wire the motors in my Williams 70 tonner in series.  It runs too slow now and somewhat unevenly.  You seem to have good results; is there a "trick" to this process?

John

Good morning fellow switcher fans!!  JHZ563 thanks for being in the engineer's seat and notching out the throttle to get us rollin this morning!  I love your Docksider pulling a train thru your backyard!   Great looking photos/videos and information everyone!

Today on the Free State Junction Railway pics were taken very early  this morning at first light as a Maryland & Pennsylvania SW1 works sidings along Todds Junction.   Later, as the sun is fully up, there are pics of more activity at Todds Junction by the B&O and Ma & Pa.  Have a most delightful weekend everyone!!

6 a.m. - Ma & Pa number 70 inches forward as it approaches P tower.  Train operator Hank Jenkins stands on the ground ready to hand up the orders to the crew of number 70.   It's going to be a great day on the railroad!

6:18 a.m. Number 70 has already set out a milk car on team track 2.  Sunlight illuminates the back side of P tower and the milk car.  Milkman Gordy Pritzger steps out of his truck to begin the loading process as the platform crew will pull milk crates out of the car and stack them on the platform.  

7: 14 a.m. The sun is shining brightly and Ma & Pa number 70 pulls a string of boxcars past team track one as a load of new Tucker automobiles begins to be unloaded.  Engineer Jake Snurdley slows his engine down to a crawl so he can get a glimpse of the new Tuckers.  He knows conductor Gabby Crossland will have a hissy fit if he stops the engine to gaze at those Tuckers, even for a moment.

8: 02 a.m. A B&O SW 9, running cab forward,  is about to exit east tunnel.

8:16  The SW 9 is assigned to do some switching duties at Todds Junction.  First order of business is to shove a work train back onto a siding.  The work train's power will arrive shortly.   There's that kid Chucky on his bike.  We'll be seeing lots of him now, since school is out for the summer.  Chucky loves him some trains!  

9:39 a.m. - Here we see  engineer Tucker Lawson  being chewed out by work train foreman Mosey Darling.  Darling's high pitched nasal voice can be heard yelling " You mean to tell me that this little Plymounth is all the power they had over at the roundhouse!   Tucker we got work to do here!  I requested a real locomotive not a gol dang toy!"  Tucker, in his laid back manner,  takes it all in stride and replies in his calm gentle way  " Well Mosey, yeah this is all that they had that would be cut out for this job of pulling and pushing your 3 cars around.  I mean Crusty Rodgers, the roundhouse foreman, was not going to assign me one of those E eights or a Train Master to do this job.  And believe you me I'd love to be at the throttle of one of those Train Masters too!   If you got a beef call Crusty but quit yelling at me.  I just do what I'm told."  Tucker shakes his head " Well Ok then.  Lets see what this little toy will do!  Wait till I see o'l Crusty I'm going to chew his ^#*$(!!!  Tucker just gins as he climbs aboard the Plymouth.  

@RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSat!

The Western Maryland is in action this week. The crew on # 2221 has been assigned to pull an empty and deliver a load to the local warehouse. This model was made by K-line and was done in a different paint scheme than the typical black/ gold lettering, or red/white "circus" theme. Since the WM didn't own any MP-15's this could be a fantasy scheme.

Bob - hope you don’t mind my edit for brevity.

Lionel’s 6-18501, from the WM Fallen Flags set, had this same scheme. I find it quite attractive. Wish there was more stuff made with this scheme.

@RSJB18 posted:

I saw that too. I'm sitting on the fence, balancing on the edge of my credit card......I wounder how this is gonna end....

Bob

I think even a blind man can see how this is going down, LOL! You won’t be disappointed. It’s a premier quality engine at railking, pre inflation prices that fits right in on our space deprived layouts.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Bob - hope you don’t mind my edit for brevity.

Lionel’s 6-18501, from the WM Fallen Flags set, had this same scheme. I find it quite attractive. Wish there was more stuff made with this scheme.

That's why I bought mine. I was on a WM kick scooping up all sorts of engines. When I saw this one I just had to have it. Now I need to find that NW-2.

@Strap Hanger posted:

I think even a blind man can see how this is going down, LOL! You won’t be disappointed. It’s a premier quality engine at railking, pre inflation prices that fits right in on our space deprived layouts.

Yea.....I think I've seen this movie before too. Just gotta decide on a road. Beth at Public Delivery is considering a Rutland, and I've seen a Reading being offered too.

Bob

@Steam Crazy posted:

Bob, I recently had a very experienced technician re-wire the motors in my Williams 70 tonner in series.  It runs too slow now and somewhat unevenly.  You seem to have good results; is there a "trick" to this process?

John

John- I've had good success with all of my K-lines and larger Williams diesels. I haven't done my 44 or 70 tonners. Possibly since the motors are bigger on the bigger engines, they have a better tolerance to voltage irregularities.
Sometimes one motor will steal more of the voltage and cause the other to stall, especially at lower voltages.
There is another fix for speedy engines buy building a diode string that reduces the voltage to the motors.

I did a search "diode strings" and came up with a lot of info.

Then there's always the rip out the factory electronics and install ERR boards method.....

Bob

Bob, thanks for your response.  I think I'll just have the tech re-wire it back to parallel.  I still enjoy running it that way.

John

Have a good Switcher Saturday! Pennsy switcher taking a old caboose to the Maintenace shop.

A Lionel 1615 0-4-0 Switcher from 1955-1957 moves a short freight up and away from the Depot area to clear for the incoming passenger trains.

A Dressler loco (clockwork) pulls a duo of HWN coaches, all from Germany up the line as a mid-day local.  All the trains are 1950's era the loco is marked, "Made in U.S. Zone, Germany" hence it would be from 1952 or earlier if the marking is correct.

Best wishes, hope you are having a great weekend.

Don

@trumpettrain

9:39 Engineer Tucker Lawson is being chewed out by work train foreman Mosey Darling.  Darling's high pitched nasal voice can be heard yelling " You mean to tell me that this little Plymounth is all the power they had over at the roundhouse!   Tucker we go work to do here!  I requested a real locomotive not a gol dang toy!"  Tucker, in his laid back manner,  takes it all in stride and replies in his calm gentle way  " Well Mosey, yeah this is all that they had that would be cut out for this job of pulling and pushing your 3 cars around.  I mean Crusty Rodgers, the roundhouse foreman, was not going to assign me one of those E eights or a Train Master to do this job.  And believe you me I'd love to be at the throttle of one of those Train Masters.   If you got a beef call Crusty but quit yelling at me.  I just do what I'm told."  Tucker says while shaking his head " Well Ok then.  Lets see what this little toy will do!  Wait till I see o'l Crusty I'm going to chew his ^#*$(!!! Tucker just gins as he climbs aboard the Plymouth.  

LOL!  I love reading trumptrain’s dialogue every week.  Today’s entry makes me want to take my little Plymouth switcher out for a spin.  I have no doubt it can handle any big load. Too funny!

MTH RK NH GP9

Two of my favorites.

I built the 0-6-0 camelback from a heavily modified Locomotive Workshop brass kit in 1990. I had a B&O diagram and some photos of it and its sister, number 30 as references. It was the very last Staten Island Rapid Transit (B&O's NY Terminal subsidiary for freight operations) steam locomotive in operation by 1945 and was retired in August of that year.   

Yes, camelback engineers frequently sat on the cab windowsill when operating these locomotives.  Cab space was very tight and very HOT as well!

This Alco S-2 is a Custom Brass import of the late 1970's and has had modifications made to more accurately model its prototype.   SIRT 489 was delivered in June 1944 and was the last new locomotive for the SIRT.

S. Islander

@trumpettrain posted:

7: 14 a.m. The sun is shining brightly and Ma & Pa number 70 pulls a string of boxcars past team track one as a load of new Tucker automobiles begins to be unloaded.  Engineer Jake Snurdley slows his engine down to a crawl so he can get a glimpse of the new Tuckers.  He knows conductor Gabby Crossland will have a hissy fit if he stops the engine to gaze at those Tuckers, even for a moment.

9:39 a.m. - Here we see  engineer Tucker Lawson  being chewed out by work train foreman Mosey Darling.

@trumpettrain

I had absolutely no idea that they're still making Tuckers (the cars - not the Tucker Lawsons). I'm amazed that they can meet the Environmental Protection Agency automotive emission regulations... Could they be hybrids or Electric Vehicles? By now, Preston Tucker must have made a fortune on these beauties! Apparently he's been selling them under the radar since 1948.

MELGAR

Happy Switcher Saturday, I am showing the RailKing NH RS-3 30-2321-1

@Don McErlean, I have always loved the little steamers like the 1615, 1656, and now the newer models by K-Line, and the recent Legacy 0-4-0 coming out soon. They are fun to run and look so cool… Happy Switcher Saturday Everyone…

@leapinlarry - Hey friend, thank you for the compliment.  Glad you are home safe from your vacation tour.  Hope you had a wonderful time and saw some great things.

Best Wishes

Don

@S. Islander- Hello, don't hear too much about Staten Island on this thread but your work on the 0-6-0 Camelback is really excellent. My own personal experience with the Island is when as a boy (1950's) my parents would go visit my Aunt (mom's sister) in Totenville.  She lived in a big stone house on the water's high bank just above the ferry landing.  My Uncle was a ferry boat captain.

Thanks for posting, great modeling

Don

My workhorse O&W switcher….

Peter

@Strap Hanger posted:

LOL!  I love reading trumptrain’s dialogue every week.  Today’s entry makes me want to take my little Plymouth switcher out for a spin.  I have no doubt it can handle any big load. Too funny!

Plymouth switcher not up to the job,eh? Well, we'll see about that:

Video from last week, but it reinforces the point

As I promised on yesterday's FEF, here are more views of my new CR "SW1500" from K-Line and some interesting background information on CSAO for which it was produced:

The prototype began service with the Reading Railroad as RDG #2765 in August 1969. She then served in CR livery from shortly after the 1976 formation of CR until she was sold in 1996 to Juniata Terminal Switching Co in Philadelphia and was assigned #9275. I believe she is still faithfully serving there to this day.

Regarding the K-Line model, I believe she came from a special set given to Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) employees to commemorate safe operations during the first full year of CSAO's operation, 2000. CSAO was formed in July of 1999 after most of the trackage of CR had been sold off to CSX and NS concluding in 1999. The remaining trackage became CSAO with 4 divisions, (1) Mt Laurel, NJ, (2) South Jersey, (3) North Jersey/Philadelphia, and (4) Detroit, MI, and is jointly held by CSX and NS and operated as an independently managed entity. The commemorative set consists of a caboose (cabin?) and 3 cars that represent awards for each of 4 quarters of safe operation in 2000 with the locomotive representing the year-end award. Each of the 4 cars also bears the name of one of the 4 above-referenced operational divisions. An oval of track and "power pack" were also included. I acquired the above locomotive and 4 cars from a seller in unopened boxes, but not the whole set. It is possible the individual pieces were given to employees as the year progressed and the complete set was compiled later.

Technically, the locomotive is actually K-Line's version of the later EMD MP15 that several of you have, and that is what inspired me to look for one of these in the first place. As shown above, the locomotive also has a "series/parallel" operation switch, a very nice feature that allows for better low speed operation. As it turned out, however, I got the loco with the added "bonus" of getting the other pieces in new condition at a reasonable price and, in the process, learning of an interesting aspect of CR and CSAO history.

@Strap Hanger posted:

LOL!  I love reading trumptrain’s dialogue every week.  Today’s entry makes me want to take my little Plymouth switcher out for a spin.  I have no doubt it can handle any big load. Too funny!

Strap Hanger it's very gratifying to know you love reading my ramblings!  Thank you  As you and I ( and many others here on SWSAT know ) the Plymouth can pull a pretty long string of cars.   By now i'm sure gandy dancer foreman  Mosey Darling does too .   Hope you had fun taking your Plymouth out for a spin

@MELGAR posted:

@trumpettrain

I had absolutely no idea that they're still making Tuckers (the cars - not the Tucker Lawsons). I'm amazed that they can meet the Environmental Protection Agency automotive emission regulations... Could they be hybrids or Electric Vehicles? By now, Preston Tucker must have made a fortune on these beauties! Apparently he's been selling them under the radar since 1948.

MELGAR

@MELGAR -  I'm happy to report Preston Tucker and his great automobile company still live on within the confines of my layout.  After seeing the movie, Tucker,  back in 1988, I knew then that one day when I finally built my layout I would create a tribute to Preston Tucker and his fine automobiles.  Since  I model the years 1946- 1960, the Tucker 48 fits in perfectly well in Patsburg!  Smith Brothers Auto Sales handles the Tucker sales, as they do Studebaker and VW too.  So I invite you to contact Mr. Peabody ( from the old Rocky and Bulwinkle cartoon show ) and you, Sherman, and Mr. Peabody step into the Way Back Machine and come to Patsburg and purchase a Tucker 48 from Smith Brothers.  You will get a great deal and you can buy a CocaCola for 5 cents!    

In real life I can only imagine what wonderful innovation he would have continued to introduce to the automotive industry.  I'm sure I would have never bought a brand new Chevy Vega back in 1972 ... LOL!!  

The fleet approves......

Aunt Gertrude, in her Model T, has just picked up her 1948 Tucker from Smith Bros in Patsburg, MD.  She is en route to her home in Shrewsbury, MA, having entrusted this valuable cargo to her nephew, engineer Joe Safetyvalvoni, on NYC shop switcher X-8688.

John

@Bill Swatos_ - Thanks Bill, great background story and a really neat switcher.

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

@Bill Swatos_ - Thanks Bill, great background story and a really neat switcher.

Don

Thank you, Don! Your comments are always thoughtful and uplifting. It was actually your Kennecot Copper MP15 that provided the very first inspiration for me to get one. Then I saw the other nice examples from our other friends and the "deal was sealed."