Front End Friday

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@Amfleet25124 posted:

I guess I'm starting off this week's Front end Friday.

Some 1970's Big Apple Front Ends with my treasured R-40 slant purchase from last week along with my trusty Fishbowl buses.

And with the two cab ends of the R-40's mated together

Will need to obtain those rare MTH DD-4000005 short couplers so that the subway cars are prototypically spaced apart.  Sacrifice is that the train would be limited to O-42 curves (pull mode) and O-54 curves (push mode) which hampers my abilities to have a 2 track subway line on a 4x8 sheet.

Fantastic shots, Kevin. I rode many of the slant front R-40’s over the years, and many of those fishbowls. Great memories. Can you tell me where you got the buses (and who made them)??? Thanks.

4 front ends today, and 2 are on 1 engine!

611 at the NCTM 5-23-2021 just after an air pump repair.

Ron

@Apples55 posted:

Fantastic shots, Kevin. I rode many of the slant front R-40’s over the years, and many of those fishbowls. Great memories. Can you tell me where you got the buses (and who made them)??? Thanks.

Paul, the fishbowls are 1:43 scale and are made by Iconic Replicas. I have some of their 1:87 scale buses too.  These are sold out so you're best bet will be to get them off eBay like I did.  Iconic Replicas also have another MTA Fishbowl bus in 1:43, the one that the MTA painted white with the blue horizontal stripes.  That is on my "bus to buy" list along with the Greyhound Scenicruiser.

I have to add that during my high school and early college years, I was reckless and rode the subway between the cars many times.  Even entered and exited the trains jumping over the pantograph gates . I look back at myself of 35-40 years ago and shake my head at the stupid things that I did... and thankfully survived.

Happy FEF  

Something a little different:

Rusty

P.R.R. Muscle!

More FEF!

@Rusty Traque posted:

Something a little different:

Rusty

I have one too!

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!  

The GP and the J.

Hats off to Front End Friday!  

Well hello again F.E.F fans.  Great pictures all and I really liked the subway cars from Amfleet25124.  I rode the NYC subways system for years but admit I never noticed the "slant front" ends.  The buses are also really neat.  Rusty and Mike g, neat artwork.  Rusty did I note correctly that you are the artist on your sketch?  Wow...great work.

Well since Kevin started us off with some "electric power" I thought I would follow suit.  Here is the Lionel 256, roughly based on the New Haven "box cab"  electric motors.  This big guy from 1924-1930 was Lionel's largest and most powerful 0 gauge locomotive of the pre war period and the only dual motor locomotive until the F-3 series came along in 1948.  She is large, about the size of the Standard gauge #8.

Here she is with her consist of 2 # 710 Pullmans and the #712 Observation.

Well Happy F.E.F everyone...have a great weekend.

Don

@Amfleet25124 posted:

Paul, the fishbowls are 1:43 scale and are made by Iconic Replicas. I have some of their 1:87 scale buses too.  These are sold out so you're best bet will be to get them off eBay like I did.  Iconic Replicas also have another MTA Fishbowl bus in 1:43, the one that the MTA painted white with the blue horizontal stripes.  That is on my "bus to buy" list along with the Greyhound Scenicruiser.

I have to add that during my high school and early college years, I was reckless and rode the subway between the cars many times.  Even entered and exited the trains jumping over the pantograph gates . I look back at myself of 35-40 years ago and shake my head at the stupid things that I did... and thankfully survived.

Kevin;

Thanks for the info... You are now officially on my bad influence list... just ordered this from Amazon (I think this may be the one on your list!!!)

I also survived riding between the cars of many a subway (especially when the air conditioning wasn’t working). Ahhhh... to be young and foolish Now I have to look for the one of buses which were being phased out when I was in high school in the early 70’s. Not sure what they were called, but the rear seating ran from just behind the back door, in one long curve, across the rear of the bus, and up the other side. Great seats, but by the time I road them, you usually got horrible engine fumes back there!!! Thanks again.

@Apples55 posted:

Kevin;

Thanks for the info... You are now officially on my bad influence list... just ordered this from Amazon (I think this may be the one on your list!!!)

I also survived riding between the cars of many a subway (especially when the air conditioning wasn’t working). Ahhhh... to be young and foolish Now I have to look for the one of buses which were being phased out when I was in high school in the early 70’s. Not sure what they were called, but the rear seating ran from just behind the back door, in one long curve, across the rear of the bus, and up the other side. Great seats, but by the time I road them, you usually got horrible engine fumes back there!!! Thanks again.

Paul,

I'm glad to be a bad influence

Rainy Friday here in SW Ohio.  Good day to run trains!

Getting this in before the noon hour on the East Coast.

Here are some MOW "Front Ends".  Took these at the Deerfield Beach train station last month of the truck reversing south with a load of ballast.  Some track work was being done a mile or so south of the station and the ballast pile was in the CSX maintenance field just to north side of the station on the other side of Hillsboro Boulevard.  So the truck was doing a shuttle service between the two locations.

Rusty

Time for some urban front end Friday.  It’s 1977 and the newly painted R-12s were aggressively tagged in the yard overnight.  Whoever thought it was a good idea to repaint them white  needs their head examined. They made a wonderful canvas for the graffiti artists.  The yard crew will be cleaning all day.

@Amfleet25124 posted:

Getting this in before the noon hour on the East Coast.

Here are some MOW "Front Ends".  Took these at the Deerfield Beach train station last month of the truck reversing south with a load of ballast.  Some track work was being done a mile or so south of the station and the ballast pile was in the CSX maintenance field just to north side of the station on the other side of Hillsboro Boulevard.  So the truck was doing a shuttle service between the two locations.

Very cool'.. I would have enjoyed seeing them dumping the ballast ... Nice work Kevin'...👍

Everyone great front ends, great layouts, great fun. Yes, Don McErlean, that’s a beautiful older Lionel #256,, awesome condition do to the age, nice passenger cars, cool layout. Happy Railroading Everyone

Here is some recent art work I framed from Andy Romano.  He does great work'.. These are some of my favorite locomotives'...

@Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Very cool'.. I would have enjoyed seeing them dumping the ballast ... Nice work Kevin'...👍

I saw the MOW crew dumping the ballast further down the line when I was onboard a southbound train and looking out the window for where the truck went.

Great paintings, by the way!!

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!  Beer, fire, and steam.

Happy FEF!

Something a bit unusual today. We just completed the 30,000 hr service on our 2.0 MW co-gen unit on campus. The prime mover is a 12 cylinder, natural gas fired GE engine. Similar units are in many of the modern diesels running the rails these days.

This is one of the pistons from the unit. (they are about 2' long and 10" diameter)

Max Gray Niagara.

FEF, DeHanes STD Gauge

Steve

The 4-6-6T actually had two "front" forward ends.  Once it pulled its commuter passenger consist to a termination point smokebox end forward it would be run around the consist with the tender end in lead for the return trip.  Not the tender end has a built in "cow catcher ."

Ron

Hi everyone, here we are again in F.E.F and with great pictures already.  Leapinlarry, thank you for your compliment.  I liked the Chessie vs CSX livery on the diesels and that church on your layout that you posted is really magnificent.  Old Bill...a "max gray" locomotive, it has been years since I have seen one and you have one of the most beautiful. I love the Niagara but trying to run a Niagara on my layout is just a dream (way too big) .  Amfleet 25124 your post get the most unusual for today, a rail riding dump truck, well they say there is a prototype for anything (LOL!),  RSJB18 the piston/rod picture is really neat, that must be quite a generator.

My input for today is the American Flyer type 401 (per the number under the cab window) from about 1939 .  All sheet steel with copper and brass trim she is really fancy considering she was not by any stretch the top of the line.  However with a remote reverse and a headlight she did make a good show of herself. This type of engine had a number of variants, for example this one has the number 401 under the cab window but does not have "American Flyer Lines" printed in the square recess near the boiler front.  Other examples I have seen have the flyer lines logo but no cab number.

Notice the "fancy" 8 wheel tender with brass hand rails.  That is how she came to me, I am not sure if that was her tender from the factory I could never confirm this.

Her consist, leaving the L&S depot today is one baggage car, one Pullman, and one observation. This set is listed or at least it is implied that this set is set # 301 from 1939 but the reference material I have is somewhat "vague" on this issue.  The enameled  cars were uncatalogued by American Flyer  but are shown in other listings as Baggage #234, Pullman#235 and Observation #236. They do not have a number on the car.

Well Happy F.E.F folks, have a great weekend.

Don

All waiting to get at the Rouge on a FeFriday in the early 70s

Here's my MTH FP-45 on my last layout.  Happy Friday; welcome to the weekend!

P.S.  I hope MTH makes these locomotives again sometime in the future.

Sunset at the Charles Street Yard...!

@Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Here is some recent art work I framed from Andy Romano.  He does great work'.. These are some of my favorite locomotives'...

Nice work Ted...tha SF warbonnet is among my favorites too!

Thanks Paul... Was quite the learning experience framing these pieces of artwork... Also a little heavy on the wallet'...🤑

Recycling an old pic of some of my steamers.  Need to take new ones.

From left: Atlas B28 0-6-0, K-Line L2 Mikado, MTH Q2, 3rd Rail N1, MTH Y3 (HH1)

@CAPPilot posted:

Recycling an old pic of some of my steamers.  Need to take new ones.

From left: Atlas B28 0-6-0, K-Line L2 Mikado, MTH Q2, 3rd Rail N1, MTH Y3 (HH1)

The Standard Railroad of the World!!! Beautiful.

@Don McErlean posted:

  RSJB18 the piston/rod picture is really neat, that must be quite a generator.

Don

(To the mods- hope this doesn't get bounced, I know it's a bit off subject but the cool factor is at 11! )

Don- It's quite a beast. About 25' long assembled. Here's some pix taken on rigging day.

The generator produces 4160v that we step up to 13.2 Kv to feed into our campus grid. For reference 1 MW is enough to power 800 average size homes.

Bob

Out on the bike in Fairborn, and saw these guys parked on a siding.  Not sure which end is the front...

Well F.E.F fans, its that time again.  Here on the east coast its about 0900 so I guess I will start off.  First, RSJB18, WOW that is some machine!  Quite a monster, thanks for showing it to us...!

My offering today continues my thread of pre-war American Flyer (so called "Chicago Flyer") that pre dates the Gilbert take over and the move to Connecticut.  Here she is, the American Flyer "type X" (by Greenbergs nomenclature) .  She is from 1932-33 and is different in details from the type 401.  Her boiler is die cast vs sheet metal to begin with and her valve gear is much more realistic.  She would likely have been more expensive at the time, an interesting trend as the Depression deepened and we move towards 1932.   A feedwater heater is simulated on the top of the boiler front.  Many of these were made by Worthington Corp ... the home of my first mechanical engineering job!!  The green running board stripe is in fact "factory" and her brass and copper trim sure makes her fancy.

Well best wishes for a great weekend...that's my F.E.F input for today!

Don