Switcher Saturday -Mark II !! Fourth of July 2020

Thanks for starting early.  I was going to be too busy tomorrow to post anything.

It is July 4th, 1976, and while many folks are honoring America's 200th birthday by having family backyard BBQs and waiting for the evening's fireworks, there are tens of thousands of folks working this day, whether soldiers guarding our freedom, doctors and nurses tending to burned fingers from those fireworks, service industry folks keeping us housed in hotels and fed, truckers moving perishable goods, and railroads keeping shipments moving.

On this day a photographer caught a Conrail GP-38 moving some freight cars to the classification yard.  She had not seen this many cars painted to celebrate the bicentennial at one time before.

Switcher action on the S&Y RR

Corwith, 1976:

Rusty

Happy SWSat! Happy 4th!

Hope everyone has a great day with friends and family. Let's pause to remember all who have served to defend the freedoms we all enjoy

Here's my new to me MPC BAR GP-9 with matching caboose. I bought it a few months ago and what better time than now to break it out.

Moving cars to assemble train for road switcher. 

Good morning fellow switcher fans!  Happy Independence Day!   You guys surely have some terrific looking locomotives & rolling stock decked out in patriotic livery.    Enjoy your weekend everyone!!  Be safe and be well!

Unfortunately I have no red, white, and blue locomotives or rolling stock, however, it's sometime on a July 4 back in the 1950's, the roving rail photographer captured this scene as the Patsburg Vol. Fire Dept. gets ready for the annual 4th of July parade.... Engine No 1 decked out in stars and stripes will lead the parade.  ( click on each photo to enlarge ) 

A B&O GP9 and F3 B unit glide past the tower.

It's a sweltering hot July 4  ... GP9 3414 idles as it's crew waits for a green signal.  As it's the 1950's there is no AC in the cab. Luckily there is a jug of ice cold water on board.  

I took these photos yesterday morning as natural light peered in through my train room's east window.  Here we see a first light freight trundling toward us on the FSJR Mountain Division. 

A deer is scouting out breakfast as the freight is about to cross a small rural road. 

The first ray of sunshine illuminates the face of locomotive. 

Here's a photo from the archives .... a K line Pennsy A-5 crew talks over the next switch move.

The Pennsy A5 .... a work horse for sure. 

                                     Rahway Valley 70 ton G.E. #16 at little Ferry, NJ- Sept. 87'.  

                                            I believe this engine is now owned by UHRS of NJ.

                                                                           MY PHOTOS

Happy Independence Day to everyone...AND it happens to be "Switcher Saturday".  So I searched and found some Red/White/ Blue trains and they turned out to be switchers...so here is my contribution for today.

Here is the Marx 1798 Cape Canaveral Express made from 1959-1964

Here is the same engine on the layout but with the Red/White/Blue "State of Maine" Marx 7" boxcar

Finally here is the modern era, Lionel "Jeremiah O'Brien, Spirit of 1776" GP-9 switcher.

Finally, on this Holiday like every day, "Old Glory" flies over Small Town on the Leonardtown and Savannah, even while shoppers and commuters wait for the mid-day train to the city.  Flag and base is Lionel from 1957 (yes it is a "48 star" flag as it was produced before Hawaii and Alaska became states)

Happy Independence Day everyone...Please stay safe as this virus comes roaring back.

Don

I just posted my input for this week but forgot to add :

Thanks to Trumptrain for keeping us going last weekend

Welcome back to jhz563 and thanks to you for your work in keeping this thread up. 

Don

TALES OF THE DOCKSIDER

This Saturday the Docksider crew has a respite from their usual “rescue” duty.  The NH has brought a cut of Narragansett Beer reefers from the brewery in Providence to Worcester.  X-8688 has been dispatched to haul the cars from the NH yard to the wholesale beer distributor off the B&A.

Regular Docksider readers will recall the fireman, Vasik Semaphorowski, likes to frequent the local watering holes for a few cold ones (never before work).  Seeing those beautiful Gansett reefers makes him really thirsty!  He can almost taste the beer!  He should have no trouble finding a Gansett on tap, because that brew was once the largest selling beer in NE.

As the late, great Red Sox announcer, Curt Gowdy, used to say “Hi neighbor, have a Gansett”.  I hope all you switcher fans get to enjoy a cold one on this holiday!

The San Francisco Belt Railway at work...

Yes everyone, have a great Fourth of July holiday fellows and ladies, beautiful pictures above, and although we’re in the middle of many crisis’s, We will Survive, We will Stand Strong, stay safe, stay healthy, Pray Continually.  Happy Railroading 

Happy Switcher Saturday & Fourth of July from Finland. 

Enjoy this Saturday with trains

US Army on switching duty

               happy "SWSAT" !!!