Switcher Saturday - Mark !!, 5/2/2020

A pair

KCS switcher doing yard work

Yay! SWSat is on!  
We are off to a great start this week. I love a good little saddle tank steamer. 

This week I am posting some posed projects of mine. I really like electric switchers and I have three of them as projects in various states. I am converting the Lionel S2 motor to two rail but it is a ways back in the project line. Not pictured is my favorite, a Tri-Power (battery/electric/diesel) that one needs a lot of work.It is in incomplete pile of bronze castings form. Finally we have a never finished sand cast bronze Baldwin Model Works (I think) kit of an R2 motor. It needs a new motor and lots of finishing work.
The R2 and the Tri-Power models are so old they are 17/64 scale. They are freight switchers that saw a lot of use on Manhattans Westside freight line (which my apartment is two blocks from) and the High Line. The S2 motor was built as a passenger engine but was eventually moved to passenger switching duties. 

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

Happy SWSat!

Great posts gents. Lot's of switchers big and small doing what they do.

This week the crew on WM #23, a GP-9 from Lionel, is spotting some loaded cars and pulling a loaded car of merchandise from the new business in town. The company has been deemed essential during the Covid-19 crisis so they have been busy filling orders. The crew pulled the outbound car first and dropped it on the ready track in the main yard in town. Then the picked up the two inbound cars as delivered them to the siding. The crew is happy to have more local business to serve, especially now when freight service is down.

Everyone have a great weekend. If you live where shutdown's have been lifted then I hope you get out and support your local businesses who have been suffering.

Bob

Happy SWSAT, everyone!

I recently caught Penn Central GP38 #7692 (K-Line) working about the industrial area:

I heard the throb of the Diesel engine before I caught a glimpse of its long hood peeking out behind a building

The loco shoves a cut of coal hoppers into the coal distributor's siding.

The next chore is to spot a gondola load of steel coils at a manufacturing plant.

The crew slowly eases the car through the congested facility.

The car is finally tied down at the end of the long siding.

A couple of pipe loads are set out at another customer's siding.

The crew cautiously goes about their work.

The 7692 returns to pick up its cabin.

The day's work complete, the Geep and its bay window cabin begin their journey back to the yard.

Stay safe, everyone!

Tom

Well my contribution today is just a picture of one of my favorites.  Its the Lionel Burlington GP-7 number 2328 and the picture I have is from my shelf.  However, this loco has now transitioned over to pulling a set of the small streamlined passenger cars with the red center stripe.  This combination looks good, although the cars are modern re-issue by Lionel not the original post war variety, but they look good behind this silver / red engine.  By the way although with only one motor but magnetraction, this GP pulls like mad at least on my mostly level lay out and it runs really smooth. 

Happy SWSat everyone.

Don McErlean

                         happy "SWSat" !!!

                                         have a great weekend everyone !

Rail Fan Fred went out to shoot the Plymouth switcher at Park curve. To his surprise, Jenny Jogger appeared at the same time as the train.

Switching a few cars with CBS railroads new slug...

Lots of great switchers everyone!!  I can't explain why I haven't been here the last few Saturdays.  

I don't think I have posted this one before of my two Western Maryland RS3s; one in Fireball and one in Speedletter.

Good morning fellow switcher fans!  I'm really enjoying all your photos and information!  Today I decided to take a trip in the "Wayback Machine" ( digging in my SWSAT archives for the last 6 years )  and feature photos representing all of the railroads which make up the fictitious Free State Junction Railway.  Of course I have switchers for all of these roads and here there are.   I hope all of you and your families are well and safe!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  

Pennsy switching duties in handled in part by this venerable weather beaten A -5 O-4-0.  This is a K line model which I bought new and later weathered.  

A B&O Dockside shares some of the B&O switching duties.  Here she is on the service track.   A Lima Locomotive Co. 0-8-0, in C&O  livery , does the N&W switching chores.   N & W purchased about 30 of these, then 2 year old,  switchers from C&O. N&W shops created larger tenders so these locos could be used for road work.    My story is; this photo was shot as the N&W was" test driving" the C&O  0-8-0.  The loco is on loan to the N&W completer with a C&O crew who keeps house in the caboose.  

A Western Maryland BL-2 at the point of a coal train. 

Ma & Pa SW 1 on the locomotive service track as hostler fills the sand boxes. 

Ma & Pa Sw 1 gets it's fuel tank topped off. 

A Reading  Fairbanks Morse Train Master is destined to couple to it's train shortly.  I include the Reading on the FSJR because it had trackage rights over parts of the Western Maryland.  This is the only Reading loco on the FJSR and it performs both freight and passenger duties. 

A Kennecott Copper Corp. end cab switcher is also part of the FJSR locomotive fleet as is the center cab switcher.  K C C had a copper refining plant in Curtis Bay area of Maryland.  My Uncle Leon was the traffic manager there.  He dealt with all the railroad routings between Maryland and the western US where the mines were located. ( He also dealt with trucking companies and steam ship lines )  He always had good stories to tell as he often rode with the B&O switching crew at the plant.   The KCC did at one time own the Nevada Northern Railroad  ,however, I don't think they owned a railroad which  bore the name Kennecott.  At some point in the 1970s ( I believe ) Kennecott merged with Peabody Coal which did have it's own railroad ... the Peabody Short Line.  

Ma & Pa SW 1  pushes a Peabody Coal 50 ton hopper. 

The Canton Railroad  still operates in East Baltimore to this day. 

The Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad  SW9 with caboose. 

Again the KCC 

B&O SW 9 and WM BL2. 

The Patapsco and Back Rivers Railroad  Baldwin VO-1000.  The PBR ( affectionately nick named the Push Bump and Ram by it's employees ) served the once huge sprawling Bethlehem Steel Co. complex just outside Baltimore.  The PBR was one of several switching railroads owned by Bethlehem Steel Corp. The Pennsy switching chores are handled in part by this GE 44 tonner.  That's Jake, the brakeman riding the front deck.  

Nothing says general purpose like a GP locomotive by General Motors Electro Motive Division ( EMD ).   This loco, who some nickname a " torpedo boat" because of the rooftop air tanks which allow for a under frame water tank for steam generator/passenger service.  This locomotive handles is all on the FSJR ... industrial switching, road freights, and passenger service.  If I ever had to downsize and keep one locomotive ...the GP9 would be the one I keep due to it's versatility.  

B&O SW 9 round the bend at Butler Junction. 

Burlington GP working the rails on the S&Y RR

                                                                        Easy does it.......

@AZGARY posted:

Rail Fan Fred went out to shoot the Plymouth switcher at Park curve. To his surprise, Jenny Jogger appeared at the same time as the train.

Sometimes you just get lucky!

The Alco RS3 is handling switching duties today.

Some awfully nice photographs today--thanks! Here is a new one picturing my favorite switcher.

Great stuff today as usual! thanks to you all.

Monsieur Silverlake, the motors in rebuild progress are great to see. I am also a big fan of the high line NYC era and warehouses and rail marine stuff as you know.

BIG  switchers !  R2 and Tri-motor are well worth refurbishing! I remember seeing those models at early scale shows in the 80’s. Currently referred to as the doorstop models, which I think is sad. But they are heavy and a lot of work. There was a guy (was it Mike  Lorenz?) in English town NJ that did some conversions of these from outside 3rd rail to two rail I believe. He had a show on occasion  in his machinist shop property where there were dozens of set up tables and had a train flea market. There were parts galore, table upon table of cardboard boxes for these vintage motors, and of course locos of all description. really cool stuff back in the day. There were many bronze shells, chassis, motors, and finishing parts.  Aside from this I remember There was a big sign over the machine shop door , do Not  feed the dog doughnuts!    Any body remember this annual meet? I bought my first All Nation NW 2 switcher with one powered truck. 

the Lionel S2 is certainly a great candidate for scale conversion. Joe F. Has done a few of them. Great! 

Thanks @Leroof. I was very happy to find these. I know there is still a Q motor out there that needs me to find it.

That New Jersey machine shop show sounds amazing. I wish I could hop in the DeLorean. Hope you are well. Post some of that harbor front layout soon.

Hey Silverlake, I dismantled the waterfront layout years ago. I am in the planning stages of a modified rebuild. I have all the equipment and structures in boxes. Will post photos certainly when building.

thanks, doing well for now, hope you and your family the same.

Somehow,  somewhere there is a Q motor with your name on it.

Sometime in the future, ask members of NYSME if they Remember the name Jan Lorenz. I think that’s the name(?) of the machinist in O scale circles in Englishtown NJ. 

Hop in the Delorean? Time machine travel!

Thank You @Leroof. Family is well but very bored and a bit stir crazy. Hope yours is good as well.

I will ask around the club about Jan Lorenz. I can think of a few who may remember. As you can guess I have not been able to get out there in months. I am in the middle of a big coal breaker build that I have not been able to make progress on in far too long.

While I am sad to hear about the state of the Waterfront layout the rework sounds very interesting, Last night I watched a great Facebook Live layout tour on Facebook about an HO scale layout called the New York Harbor layout. He included the many of the small yards on he far west side of Manhattan around the 20's and 30's blocks. He had the full Erie Yard the Lehigh Yalley yard, those float bridges, Terminal stores and a lot of New York Centrals 34St yards. Very nicely done.

Here is a link to the video. https://www.facebook.com/15055...eos/891829377995588/