Weekend Photo Fun 3-3-23-??

Took my train crew to a train show. • The Grandchildren

February 19th., We attended Michigan’s largest train show. Sponsored by the, Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club.

Below are seven candid shots from the main hall.

The train crew going for a ride & having a snack.

Thanks for taking a look & I hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

Scott Smith

This week, I’ve been running my model of Maine Central F3 #686 on my 12’-by-8’ layout. It was made by MTH (20-21458-1) in 2020 with PS3 at an MSRP of $469.95. In the videos, it’s pulling a Maine Central boxcar #36123, two refrigerated boxcars, and an Atlas O model of Maine Central caboose #670

Maine Central #686 was built in 1948, retired in 1965, and scrapped. The Maine Central operated under a “joint management” agreement with the Boston & Maine Railroad beginning in 1933, so I usually run Boston & Maine #4257 and Maine Central #686 at the same time.

MELGAR

Some people drink milk and some "have a Gansett."

Boston & Maine #4257. Model by Atlas O.

Scott are we looking at an Empire Builder here?

Gary looks like the crew is having a good time

Mel that's a really sharp looking loco.  Looks like MC and B&M used the same paint scheme, except for the base color and the pilot striping.  I love the look of the two different angles on the striping.

Exercising some of the horses this week......

Have a great and safe weekend, folks!

Peter

@trainroomgary posted:

Took my train crew to a train show. • The Grandchildren

February 19th., We attended Michigan’s largest train show. Sponsored by the, Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club.

Below are seven candid shots from the main hall.

The train crew going for a ride & having a snack.

Thanks for taking a look & I hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

I'm sorry I missed that. I would have driven across state to attend it.

@trainroomgary posted:

Took my train crew to a train show. • The Grandchildren

Cute kids!

So refreshing to see youngsters at a train show.

'Ya done good, Gary!

Andre

@coach joe posted:

Mel that's a really sharp looking loco.  Looks like MC and B&M used the same paint scheme, except for the base color and the pilot striping.  I love the look of the two different angles on the striping.

Coach Joe,

Actually, I believe this paint scheme (except for the stripes on the pilot and the nose logo) was a standard livery offered by Electro-Motive Division. It was used by many railroads in whatever two colors they selected. Do you remember the two-tone paint jobs that General Motors offered on its automobiles in the 1950s? This looks like the railroad equivalent. The MTH F3 with PS3 is an amazingly smooth runner.

MELGAR

                                                         TRAVEL  EASY!

                                                    In progress, more to do.

A 2022 Christmas Layout memory

-walt

@coach joe posted:

Scott are we looking at an Empire Builder here?

Yes that's the idea. The color combination works well on tinplate.

Scott Smith

@SIRT posted:

<snip: Pics of some very nice layout work>

                               

Outstanding work, there Mr. Sirt!

Andre

Mel, thanks for the info.  I thought the schemes were similar because of the joint management agreement.

Steve do have some push pull action going on out east?

This is from two years ago.  Where does the time go?

My Pennsylvania train is on the move today on the upper level:

@laming posted:

Outstanding work, there Mr. Sirt!

Andre

Outstanding indeed !!!!

Ron H

@coach joe posted:

Mel, thanks for the info.  I thought the schemes were similar because of the joint management agreement.

Steve do have some push pull action going on out east?

Never seen push pull operation in the 1960s. That came much later on. Switches and a turn table were used.

About a week ago, I made an unplanned trip to New York and had some down time to explore my old haunts in the Bronx, lower Westchester and Manhattan.

Driving in New Rochelle, I took some pictures of New Rochelle Tower.  New Rochelle Tower (which can fleetingly be seen from I-95 as you go north just past the Route 1 exit), is where the New Haven divides.

The westerly route heads into Mt Vernon and is joined by the New York Central (now MetroNorth's Harlem Division, and heads through the Bronx. It joins the Hudson Division at Mott Haven Junction and thence into Manhattan for the trip to Grand Central.

The eastern route is the Northeast Corridor. It takes a more easterly route, entering the Bronx passing Co-op City . Its route into the south Bronx heads it for the HellGate Bridge crossing; thence, into Queens and into Manhattan at mid-town and Penn Station.

Here is my model of the TW TrainWorx New Haven Tower on the new layout. The TW TrainWorx model is one of a different New Haven Tower (the New Haven used this style on many of their switch towers), but the New Haven "flare" is easily seen.

I also couldn't help taken a trip to Grand Central. I can't tell you how many hundreds of time I have been there in my life, but it never fails to awe me!

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peter

@trainroomgary posted:

Took my train crew to a train show. • The Grandchildren

February 19th., We attended Michigan’s largest train show. Sponsored by the, Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club.

Below are seven candid shots from the main hall.

The train crew going for a ride & having a snack.

Thanks for taking a look & I hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

Fabulous photos of the children, who are beaming with happiness  at the train show.

Good Morning Everyone, what a great set of photos we have this weekend.  Siri, I love your new layout and the way you have blended the background into the foreground, awesome, you've managed to make it seamless and it looks fantastic.  Terrific job, I'm really looking forward to seeing more from you.  Keep up the good work.  Peter, fine images, it is always good to get back to the old places we used to go and see what changes there are if any.  I've been to Grand Central Station and was blown away by it and that was before the construction took place, I'd love to see it now.  Nice job on your switch tower, Roger and his team do an AWESOME job on their layouts and their kits.  A bit of information, Roger is the one who founded the Lone Star High Railers Club, which I belong to, he has a phenomenal way to do things.  He is a super nice guy and so is his wife, terrific lady.  I love their kits but since don't really have a layout except for my Cloud Climbing Layout at the top of my door ways, I haven't bought any of them yet as I only have 11" from the top of the deck to the ceiling which makes for very selective types of buildings.  
Melgar, that is a really sharp looking F-3 and I remember when they first came out with the two-tone paint jobs on the autos and when the SP started getting the fancy color schemes, the Daylight and the Black Widow schemes are my two favorites, I love em.

Thanks Scott for keeping this going each week, I really look forward to this thread and visit it many times throughout the weekend, great job and also to everyone else too.  Everyone have a great weekend.

@Putnam Division posted:

About a week ago, I made an unplanned trip to New York and had some down time to explore my old haunts in the Bronx, lower Westchester and Manhattan.

Driving in New Rochelle, I took some pictures of New Rochelle Tower.  New Rochelle Tower (which can fleetingly be seen from I-95 as you go north just past the Route 1 exit), is where the New Haven divides.

The westerly route heads into Mt Vernon and is joined by the New York Central (now MetroNorth's Harlem Division, and heads through the Bronx. It joins the Hudson Division at Mott Haven Junction and thence into Manhattan for the trip to Grand Central.

The eastern route is the Northeast Corridor. It takes a more easterly route, entering the Bronx passing Co-op City . Its route into the south Bronx heads it for the HellGate Bridge crossing; thence, into Queens and into Manhattan at mid-town and Penn Station.

Here is my model of the TW TrainWorx New Haven Tower on the new layout. The TW TrainWorx model is one of a different New Haven Tower (the New Haven used this style on many of their switch towers), but the New Haven "flare" is easily seen.

I also couldn't help taken a trip to Grand Central. I can't tell you how many hundreds of time I have been there in my life, but it never fails to awe me!

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peter

Love this, especially the New Haven Tower. Your model of it, Peter, looks museum quality to me.

I have such fond memories of taking the New Haven train in the 1950s with my mother from the downtown Mt. Vernon, NY Station to Grand Central Station in NYC.

It was the very 1st train I took: a New Haven EP5 in McGuiness livery with sparks flying from the pantographs and catanary and aluminum extruded passenger cars. Boy oh boy, I loved that train, and now, IT'S MINE:

LOL, Arnold

@Putnam Division

Peter,

Thanks for posting the photos of your model and the iconic New Haven tower in New Rochelle.

The TrainWorx kit for the New Haven Control Tower – or “Signal Station,” as they were known on the New Haven Railroad – came out just as I was finishing the last corner on my 10’-by-5’ layout around 2019. I had already built a model of a small factory to occupy the corner when the New Haven tower became a “must-have” on the layout, even though the available spot was not a place where a control tower was needed or belonged. That didn’t matter. I had to have it on the layout so I relocated the factory and squeezed the tower onto the corner, as shown on the first photo. The fit of my tower is so tight that the model actually overhangs the edge of the table, as shown on the last photo.

The New Haven tower at New Rochelle Junction that Peter photographed (Signal Station 22) is in a prominent location where the line from Pennsylvania Station (on 33rd Street) in Manhattan (across the monumental H**l Gate Bridge) joins the New Haven Railroad’s line from Grand Central Terminal (on 42^nd Street) and continues into New England and onto Boston. That line was the location of the New Haven Railroad's pioneering AC electrification between Woodlawn, New York and Stamford, Connecticut, that began operation during 1906, as did SS 22.

The first time I ever saw SS 22 was 61 years ago on my way to Boston.

My model is numbered for SS 71, a tower that still stands on the old New York to New Haven to Boston main line (now Metro-North and Amtrak) at Devon, Connecticut.

MELGAR

Thanks Scott for getting us started for this fine weekend!  Here are my photos of the fun kind.  Scenes along the Mountain Division of the Free State Junction Railway.   Have a terrific weekend everyone!!

A short freight train rumbles across Lake Christopher.  

In a second this scene will change as a Virginian Train Master exits the lower tunnel.

Just another scene along the way.

Peter,

In the late 90's I knew one of the Grand Central Stationmasters.  One Summer Saturday evening he took me all over Grand Central Station.  I saw the unused lower levels of track, the control room and walked across the catwalk that goes through the iconic Grand Central Windows.  Then we joined our wives for a lovely outdoor diner.  A fantastic day.

Carl

Happy the weekends here, wife’s due any day now. So not to much work got done on the trains. Started the week off off the rail, just went down hill from there. What better way to start a Monday then a derailment.

was able to take out my New Haven C-liner to run a little. Had to see what it looked with the new baggage and Bradley cars. Didn’t have room for the second Bradley but kept it all green.

W.A.B. #2282

I don't think I've ever seen Chieftain Freight Lines.  That logo must have looked great about 10 years and many miles ago.

Every few weeks, I change the display train(s) in my dining room.  This time around, I am showing off the Geeps on freight trains.

Two Lionel train sets I bought about 20 years apart.  The P&LE "Aliquippa Turn" (2021) set impressed me with the detailed and scale cars, especially the caboose, but I did not realize how much the GP9 was a totally different body from the original GP7 body.  The Ford Mustang set (2001) is still pretty sweet, even though the train bodies date to molds of the 1950s.

I kind of wish the Mustang set had a few add-on cars made over the years, since many of the car models are not represented.  The Ford Mustang itself turns 60 next year, making it one of the oldest nameplate automobile series in history.

Run at The NJ Hi Railers club this weekend,