Weekend Photo Fun 10-4-24-??

Two New York Central trains are running on my 12’-by-8’ layout for this weekend. GP9 #6001 (MTH 20-20549-1 with PS3) is at the head of a short passenger train and 2-8-0 Consolidation #960 (Lionel 2231120) is leading a freight train.

The New York Central Railroad rostered 176 GP9 locomotives – class DRS-9. They ran with long-hood forward and had a 16-cylinder 567C turbocharged diesel engine with 1750 horsepower. #6001 was built for freight service in October 1956 and lasted into the Penn Central and Conrail eras. The full-sized locomotive could turn on a minimum curve radius of 273 feet, which corresponds to a radius of about 68 inches or O-136 track in O gauge. MTH specifies minimum O-31 curves for the model.

New York Central class G-6i #960 was built for subsidiary Michigan Central Railroad as #7812 by Alco (Brooks Works) in June 1909. Tractive effort was about 45,500 pounds. It was scrapped as New York Central #1195 in 1954. Lionel’s model represents a Southern Pacific prototype (Harriman Consolidation) – not New York Central. On the SP, this type of engine had a Vanderbilt tender and was fueled by oil.

MELGAR

The last two weeks, I was on the Harlem Division of the New York Central……..this week, I moved across the Hudson to the Central’s West Shore line. The New York, Ontario & Western has trackage rights on the line from Cornwall into Weehawken and one of their sleek passenger trains, powered by an F3 ABA (MTH PS2) is headed south. At the same time, two New York Central Geeps (Lionel Legacy) take a freight north up the Hudson…..

Have a great and safe weekend, folks!

Peter

Just one quick video this week…..

Have a great and safe weekend, folks!

Peter

Thanks Scott for getting us going for this fine weekend!   Have a terrific and safe weekend everyone!

Hiking to the top of hill reveals railroad action.  

Finally caved in and sprung for a "new" locomotive in the NYC Dreyfuss from a forum member. Very pleasant transaction. 1st 'new buy' in a long time. Will likely have to post a few items in the FS thread to cover this purchase but I am most pleased. Been dealing with the aftermath of this storm that has left SO much devastation in its wake that it may be awhile before I can give her a run on friend's layouts. Tried to recreate Lionel's 'Smithsonian' art deco poster from some years ago here

RPO car is a MTH 72' Premiere that matches pretty closely in certain light

Great photos to start as they are each week. Thanks all for posting, I look forward to seeing everyone's pics each week interesting seeing all the variety.

With the weather cooling off, not so hot full sun days,  I have been bringing some trains to run on our club garden railway track. Been to hot a summer to wear out my good stuff. Here are some pics from a couple of different days. All BN Green on the outside 2 rail track and my GN all blue on the next O Gauge loop. Most of the freight cars, caboose and F9 are my custom paints for a full blue set.

Another day I brought along mostly steam to run. Loops 1,2,4 I was running 2 rail O scale and loop 3, 5, 6 O Gauge. Some of the items are my custom paints.

This week I have just one image…a PRR N5 caboose bringing up the rear of a mixed freight while paralleling PA Route 103 at Longfellow. Pure central Pennsylvania…

@c.sam posted:

Been dealing with the aftermath of this storm that has left SO much devastation in its wake that it may be awhile before I can give her a run on friend's layouts. T

Sam, good luck with the recovery, That will a challenge for you and your neigbors.  Nice Hudson, by the way.

Here is a look at an older Lionel Vanderbilt I was PMing...

The Spirit of the Century

and it's catalog sibling, The Platinum Ghost.

The original catalog page

And my take on it!

Still no love for the Original Photo Fun on Facebook...

Milwaukee Road mixed freight passing an Iowa farm just outside my town of Ruthven.  The farm couple are having an outdoor meal at their picnic table and enjoyed watching the freight roll by after waving at the engineer.

Enjoy your weekend.

Art

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

The last few weeks I've been showing the 5'x7' elevated area (I call it a "plateau") holding models that I made of my family members' houses.  So far I've featured my daughter's, my son's, and my parents'.  Today is my brother's house.

Overview: his house is the big one 2nd on the right

some closeups:

These were not taken on the layout, obviously, but they are 2 of my favorite pictures of this model, especially the 2nd one shown here.

- walt

@walt rapp posted:

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

The last few weeks I've been showing the 5'x7' elevated area (I call it a "plateau") holding models that I made of my family members' houses.  So far I've featured my daughter's, my son's, and my parents'.  Today is my brother's house.

Overview: his house is the big one 2nd on the right

some closeups:

These were not taken on the layout, obviously, but they are 2 of my favorite pictures of this model, especially the 2nd one shown here.

- walt

Walt - great looking layout!  Your brother's house is most impressive!  Did you build the model?

@trumpettrain posted:

Walt - great looking layout!  Your brother's house is most impressive!  Did you build the model?

Thanks.  Yes, I built all 6 models

walt

Walt, great detail on the homes...nice additions to your layout!

Probably the last weekend for the folks at the town swimming hole...the lifguard will close up his shack for the season on Sunday.  Temps still in the low 70's at dusk yesterday...

My club has been busy over the past several weeks doing setups for local community festivals.  The first up was for Derry, PA's 2-day Derry Railroad Days Festival.  Derry, PA is on the NS mainline between Altoona and Pittsburgh and had a big PRR facility with a roundhouse (all now gone) back in the day.  We were set up in the Derry VFW / American Legion Post.

After closing Saturday night, we did some night running.

This is a compressed model of the Derry Roundhouse on display courtesy of the Derry Area Historical Society:

The theme of this year's festival was "Bigfoot" and this carved statue and plaque was unveiled at the festival and will eventually be placed on a pedestal in the town park.  In the photos above, you can see the results of the Derry Elementary School's coloring contest on the walls for display.

Andy

Our second recent setup was for the Economy Borough Community Day.  This was our second year of doing this show and is a rare outdoors setup for us.

The light breeze we had all day added some unplanned animation :

Andy

Contribution.

Hello everyone,

Great photos today.  I'm getting ready for our big Rocket Fest tomorrow, so here is one from the archives.

Lionel T1, MTH Q2

@walt rapp posted:

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

- walt

@walt rapp

Walt:

Your model is SPECTACULAR!!!!! What did you use for roof shingles, gutters and down-spouts?

Thank you.

@walt rapp posted:

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

The last few weeks I've been showing the 5'x7' elevated area (I call it a "plateau") holding models that I made of my family members' houses.  So far I've featured my daughter's, my son's, and my parents'.  Today is my brother's house.

Overview: his house is the big one 2nd on the right

some closeups:

These were not taken on the layout, obviously, but they are 2 of my favorite pictures of this model, especially the 2nd one shown here.

- walt

Outstanding work Walt! Looks like many hours of building and patience.

Gene

Flyer motor #3015 entered service this week after a few repairs for damage incurred during shipment. Installed a lightbulb, gave it a light oiling, and off we went:

It doesn't care for my prewar Lionel turnouts on the inner-loop, so we'll run it on the outside-loop. The only issue there is the "automatic" direction control lever catches on the supports on the single-span Lionel 270 bridge. Again, not a problem...easily relocated.

PD

@walt rapp posted:

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

The last few weeks I've been showing the 5'x7' elevated area (I call it a "plateau") holding models that I made of my family members' houses.  So far I've featured my daughter's, my son's, and my parents'.  Today is my brother's house.

Overview: his house is the big one 2nd on the right

some closeups:

These were not taken on the layout, obviously, but they are 2 of my favorite pictures of this model, especially the 2nd one shown here.

- walt

Great model, Walt. I presume paper/cardstock construction...just terrific!

PD

Andy……that’s a lot of work…..Bravo to your team!

Peter

Oh, I meant to post this earlier too. I’m into vehicle collecting and I often refer to it as my hobby within a hobby. I have this blue Subaru on the layout and I knew it was prototypical, but uncommon and a bit toylike in that color, but look what I ran into the other day! The model picture is  first.

My wife added an “accent wall” to our spare bathroom. I added an accent to her accent wall before she did the grout. I think I’m still alive only because nobody has noticed yet.

@Chugman posted:

Milwaukee Road mixed freight passing an Iowa farm just outside my town of Ruthven.  The farm couple are having an outdoor meal at their picnic table and enjoyed watching the freight roll by after waving at the engineer.

Enjoy your weekend.

Art

“Is this heaven?” “No, it’s Iowa:”

Arnold

Thank you @Randy Harrison , @Genemed , and @pd , @Capetrainman for the nice comments.  to answer some questions:

@Randy Harrison - The roof shingles are plastic roof shingle sheets.  Don't remember where I got them.  The gutters are just (if I'm using the correct words) "U" styrene strips.  The downspouts are solid styrene strips which I slightly heated to bend them at the top.

@pd - NO, not cardstock or paper.  Everything is styrene.  I love working with it.

This particular model took me almost 2 years to make!  I take zero shortcuts.  I spent 2 weeks measuring everything on my brother's house because, since I fabricate many things, I want everything to be in scale.  That includes things like window frames, mullions, gutters, downspouts, everything.  The styrene sheets for the brick walls -they come in different brick sizes so even picking the correct sheets was part of my planning.  I don't think there is one bought pre-made piece in any of the 6 models that I made.

thanks again

walt

@walt rapp posted:

This particular model took me almost 2 years to make!  I take zero shortcuts.  I spent 2 weeks measuring everything on my brother's house because, since I fabricate many things, I want everything to be in scale.  That includes things like window frames, mullions, gutters, downspouts, everything.  The styrene sheets for the brick walls -they come in different brick sizes so even picking the correct sheets was part of my planning.  I don't think there is one bought pre-made piece in any of the 6 models that I made.

This is incredible.  Great stuff, Walt!

@c.sam posted:

Finally caved in and sprung for a "new" locomotive in the NYC Dreyfuss from a forum member. Very pleasant transaction. 1st 'new buy' in a long time. Will likely have to post a few items in the FS thread to cover this purchase but I am most pleased. Been dealing with the aftermath of this storm that has left SO much devastation in its wake that it may be awhile before I can give her a run on friend's layouts. Tried to recreate Lionel's 'Smithsonian' art deco poster from some years ago here

RPO car is a MTH 72' Premiere that matches pretty closely in certain light

Sam, what size curves does she need? AND, isn't it great to be back on the forum and have contact with the outside world? I just came on and am trying to catch up on everyone's progress. didn't do anything these past two weeks, first all the rain and dark days and then the loss of power for 7 days. I have windows down there but still a bit dark as was my mood over all of this devastation.

Mikki

The switch from the garden railway to the Xmas layout will soon be here. Some videos to share one of the last runs of the year

@walt rapp posted:

This particular model took me almost 2 years to make!  I take zero shortcuts.  I spent 2 weeks measuring everything on my brother's house because, since I fabricate many things, I want everything to be in scale.  That includes things like window frames, mullions, gutters, downspouts, everything.  The styrene sheets for the brick walls -they come in different brick sizes so even picking the correct sheets was part of my planning.  I don't think there is one bought pre-made piece in any of the 6 models that I made.

walt

Amazing work, Walt!

Peter

Thanks @Rider Sandman and @Putnam Division .  Kind words are also nice to read.

- walt