Hello fellow switcher fans!!! Welcome to Switcher Saturday July 13 Edition! No matter what you call them, switch engines, switchers, critters, shunters, yard jobs, dinkies, yard goats, these are the engines that drive a railroad. Switchers get the job done!
Please post your photos, videos, and info here. All gauges and scales from Z - G ( also 1:1 scale too ) are welcome! Switcher Saturday is a wonderful community of kindred spirits who love those little ( and larger ) locomotives that are the backbone of railroading. We'd love to see and read whatever switcher pics/videos and switcher info you wish to share. Remember, it's all of you who make this such a great thread!
House keeping reminder: ... Post only photos that you personally have taken. Posting copy written photos is illegal. If you post a copy written photo be sure you have express permission of the photo's owner to post their photo. Posting copy written photos is against the law and can result in legal action against you. Refer to the OGR Forum TOS for additional information regarding copyright.
I know that all of us are excited to post our own switcher content and to see what everyone else posts! I know I am! We learn so much from one another. Have a most delightful and safe weekend everyone! Hopefully those affected by the recent horrific storms are safe and sound. Green signals to all!
In the March 23 edition of SwSat I posted pics and videos of my purchase of a brand new RailKing scale 0-8-0 N&W switcher. I bought it off the Bay from a very reliable seller at a great price! Since then I've been greatly craving the day when I would have enough time to weather this engine. I'm happy to say that day arrived this past Tuesday!! YES!!!
I've been super busy since the beginning of the year with only 12 hours of time devoted to actually working on my layout. Well, that is about to change as my busy-ness has slowed down quite a bit now that I'm back from playing concerts in NC. This past Tuesday the muse immediately stuck and I took my brand new N&W 0-8-0 switcher ( early MTH from late 1990s ) outdoors in the "cool" temp of 96 degrees and began the weathering process. Although I shared some photos and my step by step weathering process on this past Wednesday's edition of Weathering Wednesday, at that time I had not finished the tender's coal pile. Plus I took new photos of the weathered loco in different lighting yesterday. So I'm now sharing those new photos and photos of the finished tender with coal pile here today on SwSat.
My initial intention was to show an engine that has been earning its' keep for decades, however being careful not to get carried away and over do the weathering. Over doing the weathering may give an appearance of a locomotive that's never seen the inside of a roundhouse/ engine house when the loco was not in use. Instead I wanted to weather the loco just enough to give an appearance of a locomotive that has racked up a multiple years of service and at the same time received regular maintenance while spending off duty hours in a round house stall as it waits for its' next assignment. I feel I accomplished what I intended and am happy with the result. This is the third engine I've ever weathered and all three have been steam switchers .. the other two being a MTH B&O Docksider and a K line Pennsy A5.
All I did to create the improved coal pile was to first clean off the surface with rubbing alcohol and wait for it to quickly dry. ( Of course this was done after spraying several coats of lacquer to dull the shine ) I then brushed Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement onto the original coal pile. Next I lightly sprinkled on some scenic coal that I happened to have on hand. I waited for the coal to adhere to the glue and later checked for loose coal ( which there was very little ). Done. I really like the result and will do the same to some of my road steam locomotives too. If you want to know about my weathering process in detail, check out this past Wednesday's edition of Weathering Wednesday here on the OGR Forum.
Last week MELGAR gave a terrific detailed account ( thank you Mel ) of the N&W 244 and 0-8-0 switchers in general here on SwSat! If you want a refresher on Mels' details check out his post from 7/6/24 edition of SwSat.
Here are before and after photos of the N&W 244.
BEFORE : Here is 244 as it appeared brand new right out of the box all nice and shiny!
BEFORE: Again shown brand new from a different photo angle with a better view of the original coal pile. ( Click on image to enlarge for an even better view of the coal pile. )
AFTER: This photo taken yesterday. I used an extra bright light focused on the drive wheels to capture the details of both the running gear and drive wheels. The crew seems to be happy campers!
Top view. To show a mineral deposit effect, I applied white and dark gray pastel chalk around the steam dome. Upon applying the final coating of spray lacquer, the chalk ran down the boiler away from the steam dome leaving some streaking, just as steam/water with mineral deposits would prototypically do.
Another view taken yesterday in natural light.
The coal bunker with the newly applied coal.
Rear tender deck with spilled coal applied ( I used scenic cement here too ). Coal spillage on the tender deck and on the tender's apron is something I picked up from master model railroader Howard Zane.
Tender apron with spilled coal and/or a fireman who is not OCD ... LOL!
From another location on the layout, I captured these photos of 244 in the afternoon's all natural light coming in through the west window of my train room.
