Weekend Photo Fun 2-17-23-??

This week, some railfan photos from my younger days in the Conrail era…

Heading east on PA 103, I spotted this Conrail TV train headed towards Enola hauled by a consist of EMD GP’s. Carlisle Gap is in the distance. These units had some of the early CR paint jobs, including the lead engine without the “can opener” and the third unit still painted in PC black, but with “CR” lettering:

Had to step on the gas to keep up with it, and caught it here at the Anderson Road grade crossing a few miles west of Lewistown:

Then got a couple shots of it as it blasted through the hamlet of Longfellow right along Route 103:

OK, just a couple of modeling notes on the last three pictures. The house was a limited run of a standard Lionel structure upgraded by Lionel using a design by Harry Hielke complete with mortared joints, awnings, downspout, shrubbery, and more. Beautiful, and very realistic structure. Good luck finding one today.  I added the foundation and integral garage. Note the scratchbuilt short highway bridge typical of rural Pennsylvania, and used extensively from the 1930’s through 1950’s. Finally, note the former four track Pennsy mainline is down to two tracks with an adjacent MOW road.  The 1950's type cable guard rail mounted on I-beams painted white was still in place and would not be replaced by today's "W-Beam" guardrail for many years. The line poles were my product and marketed as a Weaver product. The real ones would be coming down shortly after this shot was taken as CR switched to fiber optic cables. I kitbashed some of them into utility poles which sit right along the shoulder of Route 103. See the next picture for an unobstructed view of the scene:

That’s it till next week when I come up with something else. Enjoy!

As a youngster during the 1950s, I had an ABA set of Lionel Santa Fe F3 diesels that I ran on my 4’-by-8’ plywood central layout. After returning to the O gauge hobby in 1997, I wanted to have something “Santa Fe,” so I purchased a new AA set of E8 diesel locomotives – Santa Fe road-numbers 4 and 5 - by Weaver Quality Craft Models. These engines have been kept in my son’s upstairs bedroom and had not been run until today, when I cleaned and ran them on my 12’-by-8’ layout.

The models were made by Samhongsa in South Korea with two Pittman motors in each unit. They are very heavy. The box says they are “weighted for pulling power” but there are no sounds and the horn and bell are inoperative. Each unit has a two-position reverse lockout switch, so getting them to run as an AA pair required some experimentation. Although I have other Santa Fe steam and diesel locomotive models, these are the first ones to run on either of my railroads. Photos and a video follow.

MELGAR

Stuck in a garage....somewhere near the swamps of Jersey.

This week another quarter of O gauge models bid farewell to the cold dark place they've called home for the last 17 years.  Lionel's Santa Fe GP7, MTH Conrail E8s, a Rail King Long Island RR RS3, and another Rail King, a Seaboard MP15AC.  Before entering their cabs for their final laps, one crew remembered a terrifying night in the summer of 2011 when a sparrow didn't quite make it out when the garage doors closed for the night, leaving terrified workers cowering for 12 hours when a "40 ft. bird" flitted about the town and tracks.  "Like Mothra from one of those old movies from the '50s." according to one!  

And a shot from the vaults, 2010.

A 2022 CHristmas Layout memory

Another mini-scene in the back right quadrant.  A school's playground with visiting clowns.

- walt

First, here's the small school.

Overall view: OH NO: No safety fence between it and those marvelous trains

Happy Friday everyone.

Here’s a shot taken on my old layout almost 10 years to the day. I’m a Pennsy guy, but can admit the NYC lightening scheme looks great on the K-line RS3 and Lionel GP7!

I tried to make this section of they layout as realistic as I could, ballasting the realtrax and painting the bricks on the engine house.

Thanks Scott for getting us started for this fine weekend!   Here are a trio of photos of the fun kind.  Have a delightful weekend everyone!  

Mel, I guess the New Haven must be leasing those war bonnets to test the E units for passenger service.  The B&A could have just borrowed from the Central.

Mike which crew spent that terrifying night manning it's train?

Patrick, it's always busy on the FSJ.

Patrick W: I've been curious about this for a while: Do you set  up little scenes just to take pictures each week or are all of these, and there are a lot, scenes permanently exist on the layout.

- walt

@MELGAR posted:

As a youngster during the 1950s, I had an ABA set of Lionel Santa Fe F3 diesels that I ran on my 4’-by-8’ plywood central layout. After returning to the O gauge hobby in 1997, I wanted to have something “Santa Fe,” so I purchased a new AA set of E8 diesel locomotives – Santa Fe road-numbers 4 and 5 - by Weaver Quality Craft Models. These engines have been kept in my son’s upstairs bedroom and had not been run until today, when I cleaned and ran them on my 12’-by-8’ layout.

The models were made by Samhongsa in South Korea with two Pittman motors in each unit. They are very heavy. The box says they are “weighted for pulling power” but there are no sounds and the horn and bell are inoperative. Each unit has a two-position reverse lockout switch, so getting them to run as an AA pair required some experimentation. Although I have other Santa Fe steam and diesel locomotive models, these are the first ones to run on either of my railroads. Photos and a video follow.

MELGAR

WOW!!  You must have an amazing amount of will power not to have run these  very fine looking locomotives before now MELGAR!  They run very smoothly over your layout and of course look fantastic within the context of your wonderful scenery!   Every railroad needs to lease some foreign power every now and then ... at least that's my view.   I've always loved the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme.  I've been thinking of purchasing a pair of F or E units myself as the Free State Junction Railway needs to lease foreign power once in a while .. lol !  Your sharing of your beautiful Weaver E units has given me further incentive to do so.  Thanks so much for sharing and enjoy running those beautiful locomotives!

@coach joe posted:

Mel, I guess the New Haven must be leasing those war bonnets to test the E units for passenger service.  The B&A could have just borrowed from the Central.

Joe,

That's a good explanation! But, after all, it is just a model railroad. Reality does not always have to intrude.

MELGAR

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

This week, some railfan photos from my younger days in the Conrail era…

Heading east on PA 103, I spotted this Conrail TV train headed towards Enola hauled by a consist of EMD GP’s. Carlisle Gap is in the distance. These units had some of the early CR paint jobs, including the lead engine without the “can opener” and the third unit still painted in PC black, but with “CR” lettering:

Had to step on the gas to keep up with it, and caught it here at the Anderson Road grade crossing a few miles west of Lewistown:

Then got a couple shots of it as it blasted through the hamlet of Longfellow right along Route 103:

OK, just a couple of modeling notes on the last three pictures. The house was a limited run of a standard Lionel structure upgraded by Lionel using a design by Harry Hielke complete with mortared joints, awnings, downspout, shrubbery, and more. Beautiful, and very realistic structure. Good luck finding one today.  I added the foundation and integral garage. Note the scratchbuilt short highway bridge typical of rural Pennsylvania, and used extensively from the 1930’s through 1950’s. Finally, note the former four track Pennsy mainline is down to two tracks with an adjacent MOW road.  The 1950's type cable guard rail mounted on I-beams painted white was still in place and would not be replaced by today's "W-Beam" guardrail for many years. The line poles were my product and marketed as a Weaver product. The real ones would be coming down shortly after this shot was taken as CR switched to fiber optic cables. I kitbashed some of them into utility poles which sit right along the shoulder of Route 103. See the next picture for an unobstructed view of the scene:

That’s it till next week when I come up with something else. Enjoy!

Neal now be honest are they Live shots or your layout shots? Living in that area it never looks that pristine!!!!!

@trumpettrain posted:

WOW!!  You must have an amazing amount of will power not to have run these  very fine looking locomotives before now MELGAR!  They run very smoothly over your layout and of course look fantastic within the context of your wonderful scenery!   Every railroad needs to lease some foreign power every now and then ... at least that's my view.   I've always loved the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme.  I've been thinking of purchasing a pair of F or E units myself as the Free State Junction Railway needs to lease foreign power once in a while .. lol !  Your sharing of your beautiful Weaver E units has given me further incentive to do so.  Thanks so much for sharing and enjoy running those beautiful locomotives!

Patrick,

Thanks. Glad you like them.

In my early days of the hobby, I bought interesting locomotives from railroads throughout the USA (can you say Duluth Missabe & Iron Range?) but quickly realized it would be advisable to focus on the northeastern railroads for reasons of cost and space. So, locomotives of the far-away railroads are mostly just displayed. Also, since my layouts are small, I run small and medium-sized locomotives. The Santa Fe E8s are nice but quite large. Almost too big for the layout.

MELGAR

It is late 1949 and our photographer was at her favorite train spotting location waiting for the Broadway Limited to come by.  She was hoping to get some good shots of the passenger car consist as this train was one of the last Pennsy trains with all matching cars.

While waiting a Pennsy express came thundering by with a T1 in the lead.  It had its normal consist of R50b, various B60 (even a B60 still with the rectangular windows), B70, and BM70m cars.  What she found interesting was the various non-PRR cars that were in the consist.  She had her movie camera running but it will take time to develop the film so it will be posted later.   Here are photos of some of the non-Pennsy cars.

An almost new ACL steel sliding plug door ice-bunker 55' car built by AC&F.  ACL bought 50 of these cars 1947-1948.

A Reading Company 50' wood reefer still in the old P&R paint scheme.  

The same car as the ACL car above, but in REA colors.  The REA bought 500 of these cars in the short-lived green and aluminum paint scheme.

A B&O C-16 still in express service. It will soon revert back into its original M-53 freight configuration.

@walt rapp posted:

Patrick W: I've been curious about this for a while: Do you set  up little scenes just to take pictures each week or are all of these, and there are a lot, scenes permanently exist on the layout.

- walt

Walt -  I think of model railroading as an art form.  Art imitates life and of course life is always in change.   I do change scenes every now and again and allow them to exist for several weeks or even months.  I enjoy photographing the scenes as much as I enjoy creating them.  

Back in 2016 I created and hosted the weekly thread " Team Track Tuesday".  The thread ran for 2.5 years with me ( and other's who freely participated ) creating new scenes on my layout's team track each week .  My purpose in creating the thread was to inspire others to have fun with creating new team track scenes on their layouts as well.  Sometimes the same scenes on a layout can become boring, at least to me, so making changes periodically help to keep the creative juices flowing and give the layout a somewhat fresh look just by changing a small scene ... be it team track, a farm, downtown, etc.  Also reoccurring visitors to the layout enjoy the scene changes as well.  

Since 2015 I have taken nearly 12,000 photos of scenes I've created on my layout which btw is only 100 square feet ... lol!  AND I'm still creating new scenes and taking new photos too!  The photos I share here on the OGR Forum are scenes created since 2015 ... and I continue to take new photos.  I'm currently changing the west end of my layout with new track plan for Todd's Junction, rearranging industrial spurs for the Brewtown neighborhood and  re-imagining the elevated " West End Neighborhood ".   I do have future plans to enlarge the layout by a few more square feet to add a small yard ... and I can't wait to build the scenes inspired by these few square feet, because the initial scene will change many times over ... just like life.  

@trumpettrain posted:

Since 2015 I have taken nearly 12,000 photos of scenes I've created on my layout which btw is only 100 square feet... lol!

Patrick,

Your layout has always seemed much larger to me than 100 square feet. My 12'-by-8' layout is almost the same but seems much smaller - probably due to the rectangular footprint. I wanted to have an O-72 outer loop so my tracks are basically just ovals. Smaller radii and multiple levels can make for a more interesting track plan. What radius are the curves on your layout? They look just right in your photographs.

MELGAR

@trumpettrain posted:

Walt -  I think of model railroading as an art form.  Art imitates life and of course life is always in change.   I do change scenes every now and again and allow them to exist for several weeks or even months.  I enjoy photographing the scenes as much as I enjoy creating them.  

Back in 2016 I created and hosted the weekly thread " Team Track Tuesday".  The thread ran for 2.5 years with me ( and other's who freely participated ) creating new scenes on my layout's team track each week .  My purpose in creating the thread was to inspire others to have fun with creating new team track scenes on their layouts as well.  Sometimes the same scenes on a layout can become boring, at least to me, so making changes periodically help to keep the creative juices flowing and give the layout a somewhat fresh look just by changing a small scene ... be it team track, a farm, downtown, etc.  Also reoccurring visitors to the layout enjoy the scene changes as well.  

Since 2015 I have taken nearly 12,000 photos of scenes I've created on my layout which btw is only 100 square feet ... lol!  AND I'm still creating new scenes and taking new photos too!  The photos I share here on the OGR Forum are scenes created since 2015 ... and I continue to take new photos.  I'm currently changing the west end of my layout with new track plan for Todd's Junction, rearranging industrial spurs for the Brewtown neighborhood and  re-imagining the elevated " West End Neighborhood ".   I do have future plans to enlarge the layout by a few more square feet to add a small yard ... and I can't wait to build the scenes inspired by these few square feet, because the initial scene will change many times over ... just like life.  

I am totally with you! I refer to the hobby and layout building as "painting in three dimensions." I too am constantly taking pictures of the layout from new angles to see what I can create.

@MELGAR posted:

As a youngster during the 1950s, I had an ABA set of Lionel Santa Fe F3 diesels that I ran on my 4’-by-8’ plywood central layout. After returning to the O gauge hobby in 1997, I wanted to have something “Santa Fe,” so I purchased a new AA set of E8 diesel locomotives – Santa Fe road-numbers 4 and 5 - by Weaver Quality Craft Models. These engines have been kept in my son’s upstairs bedroom and had not been run until today, when I cleaned and ran them on my 12’-by-8’ layout.

The models were made by Samhongsa in South Korea with two Pittman motors in each unit. They are very heavy. The box says they are “weighted for pulling power” but there are no sounds and the horn and bell are inoperative. Each unit has a two-position reverse lockout switch, so getting them to run as an AA pair required some experimentation. Although I have other Santa Fe steam and diesel locomotive models, these are the first ones to run on either of my railroads. Photos and a video follow.

MELGAR

Melgar,

I really do enjoy your weekly posts and how you talk not only about the models, but the prototypes upon which they are based.

@RJT posted:

Neal now be honest are they Live shots or your layout shots? Living in that area it never looks that pristine!!!!!

My layout, of course! Here is a picture from just a few miles away from the scene that I modeled. You can be the judge as to how pristine the scene is.

Picked up this little guy at my LHS a couple of weeks ago.

Although I am mostly into steam, I have a soft spot for local-to-me stuff, and this one is about as local as it gets for me.  The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad ran from Export, PA through Murrysville, PA to Trafford, PA where it interchanged with NS.  About a 10 mile line (now a bike trail).  I spent a lot of time in this area growing up as my grandparents and a big chunk of my mother's family lived in Murrysville, and our church was near Export.  I've seen this locomotive parked in Export when it was still in service on the TCKR, and may have even seen in run, but that was 40+ years ago.  This loco is still in service at Dura-Bond (the owner of the TCKR) in Duquesne, PA.

Andy

@MELGAR posted:

Patrick,

Your layout has always seemed much larger to me than 100 square feet. My 12'-by-8' layout is almost the same but seems much smaller - probably due to the rectangular footprint. I wanted to have an O-72 outer loop so my tracks are basically just ovals. Smaller radii and multiple levels can make for a more interesting track plan. What radius are the curves on your layout? They look just right in your photographs.

MELGAR

MELGAR -  I think folks may be disappointed if they saw my layout in person.  Given the number of photos I've shared and continue to share, folks here on the OGR Forum might tend to think my layout is a large affair.  Although my intention in posting photos is not to mislead anyone, I just love playing with my layout scenery, creating scenes and capturing them on camera from many different viewing angles ... just as one might view a scene in real life.  

The outer loop curves are 054 and 042 which accommodate my Williams scale GG1 and Lionel scale J class 4-8-4.   The inner loop curves are 032 and 042.   The Mountain Division has O42 curves.  I use Gargraves track.  With these curvatures, unfortunately,  I can't run scale articulated steam locomotives such as a B&O M1 or N&W Y6b, etc., or huge diesels such as a scale Pennsy Centipede.   Of course those locomotives would look totally ridiculous on my layout given its' size, but if it were possible to run them, I'd choose to run them lite.  Tracks at both ends of my layout are covered with tunnels for the purpose of hiding unsightly overhang of my scale equipment ... lol !  As it is, whenever I run my N&W scale J Class or Scale GG1 ( I have both a powered and dummyGG! &nbsp I run them lite with caboose or with 2 - 3 passenger cars.   As it is I'm grateful for my 100 square foot boundry and for my boundless imagination.  

BTW - Your layout photos always look terrific to me!  You pack a lot of interesting scenery/scenes into your layouts.

Great stuff this week, everyone!

Peter

Train day with the grandkids. Running the Big Boy when we go by the furnace return air vent it is sucking in the smoke! The kids like the new SF Menards engine (dummy). This is the only cheap FP7/9 on the market with the longer body that Canadian Pacific and Canadian National later VIA Rail used on its trains. The FP7/9 bodies were a little longer to accommodate the steam generator for passenger car heating. I am hoping to pick up more Menards Santa Fe dummy or powered engines to repaint to CP/CN/VIA. Here the grandkids are running trains around the house upstairs and on the layout downstairs when not running engines they also like to push them around and switch trains the SF blue is the most popular switching engine today.

Little guys favorite book he wants me to read it over and over. And pic of CN engine FP9 at railway museum I may paint one up to match this.

Here is a comparison with the Sunset 3rd Rail very detailed engine same size body FP in CP colors. And an old 1970's Atlas F7 same size as most on the market much shorter.

@trumpettrain posted:

MELGAR -  I think folks may be disappointed if they saw my layout in person.  Given the number of photos I've shared and continue to share, folks here on the OGR Forum might tend to think my layout is a large affair.  Although my intention in posting photos is not to mislead anyone, I just love playing with my layout scenery, creating scenes and capturing them on camera from many different viewing angles ... just as one might view a scene in real life.

Patrick,

Your creativity is on display every time you post. I'm sure that I would not be disappointed to see your layout in person.

Eventually, all of us get to posting similar photographs every week. There are only a finite number of scenes that can be built into any layout, so we become repetitive. You have done an excellent job of avoiding that.

MELGAR

The Circus is coming to town!

Thomas the Tank Engine comes around the bend by the farm.

A Picnic and fishing by the lake.

Row, row, row your boat....

Good afternoon light catches our Mikado on an elevated section of Steve Maier's wonderful home layout

I don't usually post vertical photos but will make an exception here to enhance the visual effect

Zoom in and check out some of his remarkable foliage. This large tree below especially.

Here’s a Korber sanding tower (kit) that I put together this week and decided not to paint black per the instructions because I like the natural colors of the materials. Yes, it IS my layout and I decide what goes and what is a no go. I did paint the sand tank a similar brown as the natural wood material used in the kit:

I'm still wondering how the Utacolzona R.R. has never caught this brakeman always sleeping.

Utacolzona Railroad in On30 (built 2020 - 2022) Last Update 2/18/23

@trumptrain : Thanks for enjoyable and enlightening post answering my simple question.  I'm glad that you were as detailed as you was because I will now completely change how I view your layout images.

walt

Mel, "But, after all, it is just a model railroad. Reality does not always have to intrude.", so nice to hear from such a detail oriented modeler.

where is the Beef?

Just got my Y back from Harry Hieke.

www.youtube.com/trainbros89

Looking forward to working on some stuff tomorrow during the 500. Getting ready for my first big engine project. I just picked up a dash 8 that I’ll be re painting to the OHCR 8530. Which just happened to be in the shop this week.

@kj356 posted:

Train day with the grandkids. Running the Big Boy when we go by the furnace return air vent it is sucking in the smoke! The kids like the new SF Menards engine (dummy). This is the only cheap FP7/9 on the market with the longer body that Canadian Pacific and Canadian National later VIA Rail used on its trains. The FP7/9 bodies were a little longer to accommodate the steam generator for passenger car heating. I am hoping to pick up more Menards Santa Fe dummy or powered engines to repaint to CP/CN/VIA. Here the grandkids are running trains around the house upstairs and on the layout downstairs when not running engines they also like to push them around and switch trains the SF blue is the most popular switching engine today.

Little guys favorite book he wants me to read it over and over. And pic of CN engine FP9 at railway museum I may paint one up to match this.

Here is a comparison with the Sunset 3rd Rail very detailed engine same size body FP in CP colors. And an old 1970's Atlas F7 same size as most on the market much shorter.

Before REPAINTING, you could wait a few months to find out what railroad schemes will be released by MENARDS next.

The MTH RailKing AS616 was released in the past month in this SOO LINE ex-Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic paint scheme only available from Mr. Muffin's Trains. 

Even though it is a RailKing line model it has a smoke unit.

This SOO LINE AS616 diesel-electric locomotive will stall on some Atlas O switches if it is moving extremely slowly because of the spacing of the pick-up rollers.

Andrew

Falcon Service

@falconservice posted:

The MTH RailKing AS616 was released in the past month in this SOO LINE ex-Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic paint scheme only available from Mr. Muffin's Trains.

Even though it is a RailKing line model it has a smoke unit.

This SOO LINE AS616 diesel-electric locomotive will stall on some Atlas O switches if it is moving extremely slowly because of the spacing of the pick-up rollers.

Andrew

Falcon Service

Nice! I received my AS-616 Eries from METCA.

One is in the paint shop being redone as PRSL.

Way back machine: OGR Beeps and Cabeese…

                After the rain...