Switcher Saturday December 2, 2023

New York Central #9110 is an MTH Railking model (30-21010-1 with PS3) of a Fairbanks Morse H10-44 diesel switcher. The manufacturing quality and operation are flawless.

Fairbanks Morse planned to begin production of switcher locomotives in 1940 but the U.S. Government requisitioned the supply of its opposed-piston diesel engines for use in submarines during World War 2, so the first H10-44 was not produced until 1944. The locomotive had a distinctive high hood due to the extreme height of its unique engine design which had two pistons in each cylinder and two crankshafts – one below the cylinders and one above.

New York Central #9110, one of eleven NYC Class DES-14 locomotives, was built in 1950 and retired in 1967. Its 6-cylinder engine developed 1000 horsepower at 800 RPM. Starting tractive effort was 72,000 pounds with a continuous rating of 34,600 pounds at 8.3 miles-per-hour and a maximum speed of 60 miles-per-hour. 195 units were built between 1944 and 1950.

Photos and videos show the model on my 10’-by-5’ layout running at 20 scale miles-per-hour in conventional operation.

MELGAR

Lionel TMCC Lehigh Valley diesel switcher hauling gondolas with scrap metal, flat cars with heavy freight and oil tankers passed the old ball park:

Switcher is being run conventionally in the above video. Arnold

Good morning SwSat fans!  Winter is fast approaching - maybe it’s already arrived in your area - so railroads in snowy climes are getting prepared to battle the drifts.

Maine Central, anticipating a higher than average snowfall, is taking no chances.  It’s only early Fall, but MEC is servicing and testing it’s snow fighting equipment.  MEC GP7 no. 262 is seen out on the high iron with plow no. 72 and caboose no. 663 near Augusta, ME.  This team will be ready to go!

John

Happy Switcher Saturday. Boston & Maine ALCO S2 #1264 is on duty today doing local switching work at my modul layout.

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Happy Switcher Saturday. Boston & Maine ALCO S2 #1264 is on duty today doing local switching work at my modul layout.

Gorgeous photos, Johan, as usual.

Down at the CN yard this morning.  A K-Line sandwiched by 2 MTH engines.

Have a great day!

MELGAR, I have a question I have been meaning to ask you for some time: how do you estimate the speed of a train running conventionally?  A distance/time calculation?

John

Happy Switcher Saturday!  Here is my oldest engine, an MTH gp38, which is often used for switching on my pike.  She has a 5 volt ps2 board, but operates flawlessly despite being over 20 years old and runs better than many of my newer engines. In fact, when it comes to smoking, she’s the best in my diesel fleet, producing the most smoke of any diesel engine.  Here she is hauling nyc subway cars that were built somewhere in the iron range all the way to NYC. Note the smoke output, which is set to medium or else I would suffocate

-

Live from our display in Richmond Va

Have a great day, everyone!

Peter

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Gorgeous photos, Johan, as usual.

Arnold,

Thank you very much. 🤝

Johan

@Steam Crazy posted:

Good morning SwSat fans!  Winter is fast approaching - maybe it’s already arrived in your area - so railroads in snowy climes are getting prepared to battle the drifts.

Maine Central, anticipating a higher than average snowfall, is taking no chances.  It’s only early Fall, but MEC is servicing and testing it’s snow fighting equipment.  MEC GP7 no. 262 is seen out on the high iron with plow no. 72 and caboose no. 663 near Augusta, ME.  This team will be ready to go!

John

John,

Augusta is a place that has impressed me with its fine railway scenery. In my layout, Augusta will appear at least in some form.

Johan

MTH 0-6-0

@Steam Crazy posted:

MELGAR, I have a question I have been meaning to ask you for some time: how do you estimate the speed of a train running conventionally?  A distance/time calculation?

John

@Steam Crazy,

John,

Yes, just a time and distance calculation.

I measure/calculate the distance (inches) around the outer loop on which the train is running and divide that by 12 to get the distance in feet. In the case of my 10'-by-5' layout there are two 60-inch straights and one complete O-54 circle for a total of 120 + 2*pi*(54/2) = 120 +  169.6 = 289.6 inches = 24.14 feet. Multiply that by 48 to get the full scale distance = 1158.6 feet.

I then take a video (attached below), let the train complete one full circuit and measure the time with a stopwatch. In this case it was 39.5 seconds. The full scale train speed is then (1158.6/39.5) = 29.3 feet/second. The full scale speed (in feet per second)  gets multiplied by 3600 (seconds in an hour) and divided by 5280 (feet in a mile) = (29.3 * 3600 / 5280) to get 20.0 miles-per-hour as quoted in my post above.

The purpose of this activity and my long-winded explanation is to give myself something to do while being retired.

Are you going to today's Hub Division show in Marlborough? I used to attend every year - but not since Covid...

MELGAR

Here's my latest addition to the fleet. MTH 30-20864-1: East Penn #57.

Johan, my daughter lives just outside of Augusta, in Farmingdale.  I was in Augusta last weekend, that was the inspiration for my story.  I will look forward to seeing your Augusta scene!

I recommend you watch "50 Years of Maine Central" on You Tube.  I don't recall any scenes filmed in in  Augusta, but there are quite a few from Gardiner, ME, just South of Augusta.  You will like it.

John

Happy Switcher Saturday!   My first O gauge engine, Lionel #1665 - 0-4-0

Have a great day!

Ray

Here is my Amtrak Industrial Switcher putting another baggage, LCL freight car into a train.

Best Wishes

Don

MELGAR, thanks for the explanation of your speed calculation.  I'd like to try it sometime, but - since I lose interest in math quickly - it sounds like a good project for my wife, the math teacher,

Yes, I went to the Marlborough show.  There wasn't a lot of O there, so you didn't miss much.  I didn't find a switcher, but I bought a nice book by R W Jones about the NYC operating on the B&A after 1945.

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Johan, my daughter lives just outside of Augusta, in Farmingdale.  I was in Augusta last weekend, that was the inspiration for my story.  I will look forward to seeing your Augusta scene!

I recommend you watch "50 Years of Maine Central" on You Tube.  I don't recall any scenes filmed in in  Augusta, but there are quite a few from Gardiner, ME, just South of Augusta.  You will like it.

John

John,

I watched the video, thank you. I've watched it before but I watched it again now. Edwards' industrial building enters the landscape, but in a slightly different version. In addition, at least the Wiseman Bridge will be in the same landscape, so the landscape is at least a mixture of Augusta and Lewinston.

It's a real shame that there are no more trains in Augusta's wonderful scenery.

Johan

Johan, next time you are visiting Maine, Waterville has a big yard, classic bridges and trains moving! Lots of opportunity for train enjoyment!

From what I have seen, It’s kind of old industrial town, it’s a bit funky too! lots of brick factory buildings from the MEC days. You would keep you camera busy.

@Steam Crazy posted:

MELGAR, thanks for the explanation of your speed calculation.  I'd like to try it sometime, but - since I lose interest in math quickly - it sounds like a good project for my wife, the math teacher,

Yes, I went to the Marlborough show.  There wasn't a lot of O there, so you didn't miss much.  I didn't find a switcher, but I bought a nice book by R W Jones about the NYC operating on the B&A after 1945.

John

No worries John, Mel lost me at "Yes, just a time and distance calculation."..........

Thanks for the explanation @MELGAR

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

No worries John, Mel lost me at "Yes, just a time and distance calculation."..........

Thanks for the explanation @MELGAR

Bob

I spent 46 years doing engineering analysis - so I just can't help myself...

MELGAR

@MELGAR posted:

New York Central #9110 is an MTH Railking model (30-21010-1 with PS3) of a Fairbanks Morse H10-44 diesel switcher. The manufacturing quality and operation are flawless.

Fairbanks Morse planned to begin production of switcher locomotives in 1940 but the U.S. Government requisitioned the supply of its opposed-piston diesel engines for use in submarines during World War 2, so the first H10-44 was not produced until 1944. The locomotive had a distinctive high hood due to the extreme height of its unique engine design which had two pistons in each cylinder and two crankshafts – one below the cylinders and one above.

New York Central #9110, one of eleven NYC Class DES-14 locomotives, was built in 1950 and retired in 1967. Its 6-cylinder engine developed 1000 horsepower at 800 RPM. Starting tractive effort was 72,000 pounds with a continuous rating of 34,600 pounds at 8.3 miles-per-hour and a maximum speed of 60 miles-per-hour. 195 units were built between 1944 and 1950.

Photos and videos show the model on my 10’-by-5’ layout running at 20 scale miles-per-hour in conventional operation.

MELGAR

Very nice loco, Mel. I've been considering one as my next acquisition(Gotta' keep up with our host). Along with NYC's, several of PRR's H10-44's were repainted in PC livery per RRPictures Archive:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...px?id=PC&mid=262

There is some information indicating that NYC 9110 became PC 8210 in the 1968 merger, but that may have been "on paper." I had one of these locos in N scale in PC livery by Minitrix as a kid. This brings back memories of my earliest days as a model railroader.

Speaking of FM road switchers, here's my METCA exclusive Lionel H12-44 in CNJ livery from my "archive:"

Again, thanks to @Apples55 for the inspiration to acquire it.

@MELGAR posted:

I spent 46 years doing engineering analysis - so I just can't help myself...

MELGAR

Lol! My dad was an electrical engineer....he never understood how I didn't get his math gene......🤣🤣

@Bill Swatos - I'll take that as a compliment...... the FM units are one of my favorites.

Bob

Good evening fellow switcher fans!   I'm late to the party today but better late than never.  Great posts everyone!  Thanks Bob of starting us off!  

Here are a couple switcher clips.  Have a terrific remainder of the weekend!  

@Bill Swatos posted:

Very nice loco, Mel. I've been considering one as my next acquisition(Gotta' keep up with our host). Along with NYC's, several of PRR's H10-44's were repainted in PC livery per RRPictures Archive:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...px?id=PC&mid=262

There is some information indicating that NYC 9110 became PC 8210 in the 1968 merger, but that may have been "on paper." I had one of these locos in N scale in PC livery by Minitrix as a kid. This brings back memories of my earliest days as a model railroader.

Bill,

The reference I consulted is New York Central System Diesel Locomotives by William D. Edson with H.L. Vail Jr. and C.M. Smith published in 1995. Edson was the New York Central System's Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1965 to 1968.

According to Edson's book, which contains a photo of NYC #9110, it was retired in 1967, but no further history is indicated. Also, it gives a construction serial number of 10L176 for #9110 and shows a build date of February 1950. Your online reference gives different serial numbers for four Penn Central road numbers, three of which had belonged to the PRR, so I don't think any had been NYC #9110.

Edson does show three New York Central H10-44 engines (road numbers 9106, 9107 and 9108) as having been transferred to Penn Central. #9106 was retired in April 1968 and #9107 was retired by (or at) EMD. Nothing specified for #9108.

The MTH model is very nice and runs smoothly at lower speeds than shown in my videos.

MELGAR

Here’s my old tried and true Williams B6 switcher from 36 years ago when the Crown Edition Line started…A freind of mine found for me a Weaver tender lettered for a local short line here in South Amboy and it simply plugged into the Williams locomotive.

Here it is running conventional and silent on the layout pulling a 3rd rail brass chlorine car and 3 Railking die cast stock cars and a Atlas Raritan River Caboose!

@Leroof posted:

Johan, next time you are visiting Maine, Waterville has a big yard, classic bridges and trains moving! Lots of opportunity for train enjoyment!

Pierre,

We did go to Waterville a couple of times, but both times it was quite peaceful there. It would be good to know what time there is activity there, because you don't want to wait for many hours there. Especially the bridges in Waterville were spectacular and in great places, but we couldn't photograph any trains on them. My pics.

Johan

@Leroof posted:

From what I have seen, It’s kind of old industrial town, it’s a bit funky too! lots of brick factory buildings from the MEC days. You would keep you camera busy.

Pierre,

The Finnish Huhtamäki cardboard packaging factory was also found there.

Johan

@cpowell posted:

Here's my latest addition to the fleet. MTH 30-20864-1: East Penn #57.

I've got one, too! When I got this locomotive early this year, I posted about her interesting history on the "PRR Everyday" thread:

https://ogrforum.com/...7#172189672697549127

I re-installed the DCS/DCC switch so I could use my DCC system to operate her. She's got some interesting extra sounds and crew dialog, especially great startup and shutdown sequences when operated using DCC or DCS.

Thank you, Bob, for starting off Switcher Saturday.  Here I am Sunday afternoon with the video of the P&WV 0-6-0 I premiered last week.