Switcher Saturday 6-18-22

Happy Switcher Saturday everyone & Happy Father’s Day weekend too!

New CN hopper on my HO switching layout.

I was recently downstairs just browsing and looking at my two model railroads when I noticed an MTH Railking box beneath one layout. I thought it was empty but it was not. It contained a Railking model (30-1111LP) of Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 steam locomotive #244. I had completely forgotten about it. This unexpected finding confirms that I have too many model trains.

Shortly after I returned to O gauge model railroading in 1997, I became interested in the Norfolk & Western Railway and purchased this model, which was offered in the Fall/Winter 1996 Railking Catalog “with or without Proto-Sound” at an MSRP of $379.00. According to the MTH website, it was delivered in March 1997 and was the “first 0-8-0 in Railking.”

After purchasing this model, I ran it for a while but I have no idea why I put it away back in the box. When I opened the box, I could see some paint loss on the cylinders but it otherwise looked new and the pickup rollers showed minimal previous use. Before running it, I opened the tender and saw that the battery had been removed, so I installed a BCR and then put it on the track. The sounds powered-up immediately (first video) and, after at least twenty-two years, it ran perfectly (second video). The third video shows it with N&W caboose #562720.

Norfolk & Western #244 was a significant locomotive. Built by the N&W’s Roanoke Shops in 1953, it was the last steam locomotive built for a mainline railroad in the United States. It was scrapped in 1958.

MELGAR

Even giraffes love switchers:

That's my latest switcher: an MTH Proto3 Philadelphia Bethlehem and New England SW 1.

Arnold

Happy Father's Day!

JHZ, I couldn't help but smile when I watched your video.  That is what its all about!

Penn Central SW8 8623 (Lionel) retrieves a boxcar from a customer:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tom

Happy Father’s Day weekend edition of Switcher Sat, everyone! Time for some more track cleaning on my pike -

MELGAR, That is a nice shot of the water and a great looking tool and die building, very nice

Happy SWSAT.  Wonderful posts from everyone so far.

Good morning, SwSat fans!  Today the spotlight is on Boston & Maine road switcher power.  EMD GP7 no. 1555 and Alco RS3 no. 1518 await service at B&M’s North Worcester, MA facility.

John

@Sitka posted:

MELGAR, That is a nice shot of the water and a great looking tool and die building, very nice

Sitka,

Thank you.

The "water" is supposed to be a shallow creek with a muddy bottom. I prepared the table surface with a thin layer of plaster, several shades of brown paint, real dirt, several shades of brown ballast, and talus. Then poured a thin layer of Envirotex epoxy...

Bridgeport Tool & Die is a scratch-built model of a building that still stands next to the tracks of the former New Haven Railroad (now Metro-North Railroad) in Milford, Connecticut. It was once the laboratory of the inventor Simon Lake, an early builder of submarines for the U.S. Navy

MELGAR

Happy SWSat!

Mel- I need to go shopping under your layout. What a great find! And I think we can all say that we've been there, done that!

Summertime means many things, but for the LIRR it means starting up their SCOOT service from Ronkonkoma, to Greenport at the eastern tip of the north fork of the Island. The Greenport Scoot normally ran with an RS-3 for Eastbound power, and a ALCO PA with cab control for the westbound trip. Due to mechanical issues, today's lead loco is #499 a SW-8. These were no-frills rides in the 70's since there was no air-conditioning in these coaches. Just imagine the fun......a 90 deg. day, hot and sweaty, smelling diesel fumes and cigarette smoke the whole way.....at least when you hit farm country past Riverhead, a whole new variety of odors were presented for your olfactory pleasure.....pass!

Here's 499 bring the PA unit in to start building the train. Today's run will have 5 cars in the consist.

All aboard- here we go to the east end.

And the westbound return at the end of the day.

Have a great weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!

Bob

I picked up this true switcher this week. I have been looking for a smaller one for a while. Most of mine are road switchers.

Charlie

MTH 30-20100-1:  B & O SW1

Don't blink, you'll miss it...

Happy Father's Day & SWSAT to all...Rich

Happy Switcher Saturday from Finland. Maine Central railroad police are taking a coffee break and exchanging news with the locomotive crew.

Good morning Switcher Saturday team.  Here is an ES6 earning its pay sometime in late 1949.

Bought over a period of 8 years, the PRR had 85 of these 600hp shifters, the second largest fleet after the NYC.  This model is an early MTH SW-1.

This morning’s switching session. Have a great Father’s Day weekend!

Great photo and video's everyone.  JHZ I got a real kick out of one of your boys putting his head down next to the tracks to watch the train...how many of us have the same great memories.  Happy Father's day for sure!

Today, I have some early post war action.  The loco in these pictures is marked..."Made in U.S.zone Germany" so since the "zone" system lasted from about 1945-1952 these items are likely from the 1950's.

Here is the Konrad Dressler 0-4-0 clockwork locomotive getting ready to take a small train up the main line.

The locomotive has just coupled up to the small train and is exiting the yard.

Here is our train departing the yard and beginning to move up the line.  The coaches are HWN, Heinrich Wimmer Nurnberg also from the 1950's.

Happy Father's Day everyone.  Play Trains with those children, make memories you will never forget!

Best Wishes

Don

Good morning fellow switcher fans!!  Great content from everyone!!  Thanks JHZ563 for notching out the throttle to get us rolling this morning.  

Charlie Powell - nice photo of the B&O SW1.  My first cab ride, at 3 years old,  was in a B&O SW1 assigned to Camden Station in Baltimore.  Thanks for evoking that wonderful memory!!

For this fine Saturday I've selected photos of mostly the smallest switchers doing their thing on the Free State Junction Railway.   

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!

On the Mountain Division:  B&O Dockside is ready to trundle by Danlilou siding as barrels are readied for unloading from gon to truck.

Plymouth switcher is in charge of a couple ore cars and a Dockside is on the bridge with a log train.

Dockside basks in the early morning light.

Plymouth on the siding at Danlilou as a MA & PA SW 1 is on the main.

A congregation of switchers at Todds Junction includes GP9, SW9, Dockside, and Plymouth.

A Washington Terminal Co. RS1 leads a freight train across the Bollman bridge on the Mountain Division.

Lionel, post-war, Northern Pacific 44 tonner shunting automobile haulers.

PRR A-6 0-6-0 assigned to and tender marked for the Bethlehem Steel company.

The Coca Cola company's diesel switcher receiving some attention at the Great Northeastern Railway's engine service facility.

A New York Central 0-6-0 on the ready track waiting for its next assignment.

Still moving coal on the Utacolzona.

Thanks for looking.    Dennis

Utacolzona Railroad in On30 (2020 - 2022) Update 6/11/22

K-Line Santa Fe switcher picking up some oil, Hope they are bringing it to NY state.  Have a good Switcher of a Saturday!

@cpowell posted:

I picked up this true switcher this week. I have been looking for a smaller one for a while. Most of mine are road switchers.

Charlie

MTH 30-20100-1:  B & O SW1

I have the Great Northern version. They are nifty little guys!  Enjoy.

@MELGAR posted:

Sitka,

Thank you.

The "water" is supposed to be a shallow creek with a muddy bottom. I prepared the table surface with a thin layer of plaster, several shades of brown paint, real dirt, several shades of brown ballast, and talus. Then poured a thin layer of Envirotex epoxy...

Bridgeport Tool & Die is a scratch-built model of a building that still stands next to the tracks of the former New Haven Railroad (now Metro-North Railroad) in Milford, Connecticut. It was once the laboratory of the inventor Simon Lake, an early builder of submarines for the U.S. Navy

MELGAR

Melgar, your stream modeling is truly outstanding - the most realistic I have ever seen!  Great work.

A few yard engines of mine….

Tom

@Dave Warburton posted:

Melgar, your stream modeling is truly outstanding - the most realistic I have ever seen!  Great work.

Dave,

Thank you very much. I appreciate your comment.

This was the first time I attempted "water" on a layout and I was concerned about ruining three years of work on the layout if I messed up the water. My thinking was that for shallow water, the creek bed has to be prepared carefully using varying colors, textures, bumpy terrain, and sanitized real dirt. I think that getting realistic water depends entirely on the preparation and realism of the muddy ground beneath the water. This scene (truss bridge, trestle, tunnel, creek, factories) was planned before I began building the layout. I would like to build one more layout but it's a big effort and space is tight...

MELGAR

From a session earlier today……

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peter

Good evening,

Here is a shot of both pieces of Fernwood Columbia & Gulf’s motive power. The crew is about to pickup the empty GM&O hopper.   FC&G owned some 44 toners but not in the period I model.  During that time these are the only 2 pieces of power they had.  I am building one of the 44 toners just to have one.

Great photos everyone! Switchers are my favorite type of locomotive although I like them all.

Great stuff everybody!  @MELGAR, that's an awesome find- I need to go table shopping!  And @tnkMarx, congrats to you as well, just posting to this thread before Melgar is a feat by itself!

@Hartman I love your loading scene, and special thanks to all the newer folks joining us this weekend.   Have a great weekend everyone!

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

"No officers. You can NOT give me a parking ticket!"

I just could not resist poking a little fun.  Interesting scene.

@Murnane posted:

Don't blink, you'll miss it...

Happy Father's Day & SWSAT to all...Rich

I was waiting for that cable to break and the pipe come off.

@Murnane posted:

Don't blink, you'll miss it...

Happy Father's Day & SWSAT to all...Rich

Rich that's a nifty set of disconnect cars behind that Plymouth.  It went by so quick I'm not 100% sure but they look like tinplate.

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Happy Switcher Saturday from Finland. Maine Central railroad police are taking a coffee break and exchanging news with the locomotive crew.

Johan, did the engineer call the police because his lunch was missing out of the cab?