Midwest Monday

mike g :  I really liked the Coor's cow and calf...is that a commercial product or a custom job?  Thanks

Best wishes

Don

Well I forgot to post my offering for this fine "midwest" Monday.  Here is a Marx Kansas City Southern (KSC) diesel FM A & B unit.  The A unit was made from 1956-1960 but the B unit only from 1957 - 1960.

These metal FM units and especially the matching B can be devilishly hard to find, despite never being all that expensive when new.  In fact, it has been said, the the poor FM's being so "toy" like resulted in hard play and rapid disposal by Mom in the day.

Happy Monday, hope you have a great week.

Best Wishes

Don

WOW Don those are some sharp looking cars! Looks like they have been around for a while!

As for the Coors cow and Calf they are from MTH, part of a set. I got the set from forum member @Larry Sr. for a great price, and they run wonderfully! I will pull the rest out from the staging track under the city and take a couple more photos for you!

Wow fellows, this is a cool thread, lots of interesting trains, videos, and model railroads…. I’m not sure what the favorite mid west railroads are, but @@Don McErlean and Mike g., your models look super. Happy Railroading Everyone

Wow Larry that means alot coming from you! Mine will never be as Amazing as your, but it sure is fun to dream!

Here’s a old Lionel MPC Missouri Pacific. Looking good today Guys.

@lee drennen Lee that sure looks like it's a nice runner!

Well guys I know it's a day late but I promissed Don I would get some more photos of the Coors train I got from @Larry Sr.

Well here you go Don.

Hope you enjoy!

Mike - Very Nice!  I see the citizen crossing the overpass had raided the train!

Mike that is super cool. I can remember when you could only buy Coors in the West. Every time we dispatched one of our transport aircraft West it always seemed to bring back with  a bit of Coors for the unit party!!

thanks for posting the Coors train pictures

Don

Thanks guys!

@DETROIT Thanks, I didn't notice the guys were drunken and fallen over till after I posted! LOL

@Don McErlean Thanks Don, I remember the same thing, when I was younger we use to load up the truck and go to Idhoe and my dad would load the back of his truck 8' x 4' x 3' full of Coors! Cause you couldn't even buy it here in Washington State! All his friends and co workers loved him for that! LOL

Nice Mike thanks for sharing and the complement. It’s a really nice loco.

The Milwaukee Road and Cincinnati freight.

@mike g. Very nice. I also remember when you could only get Coors in the west. Guys on the bridge had no problem getting plenty of Coors.

New MTH Missouri Pacific GP35's (20-21554-1 and 20-21555-1).  Thanks to @MrMuffin'sTrains

Just discovered this fun thread. Here’s my first contribution from St. Louis.                                                         All Frisco !!!

Another offering from the great midwest of the North.

Love the MP and St. Louis - San Francisco, colors are awesome!

Mr. Marx, in what has become known as his 7 inch line, made 3 gondolas.  One was a "Marlines" dairy car with a cow lithographed on the side and this is so scarce that I have never even seen one.  Next was a yellow "Wabash" car, which is the most common, made as 30982 from 1949-1954 and as 80982 from 1955-1961 (number changed to show the change from tab/slot couplers to plastic knuckle) .  So in between one almost never seen and one seen all the time what else is there?  Well we have the Chesapeake & Ohio #36000 gondola only made for 2 years from 1955-1957.  So at 67-65 years old and only in production for 2 years, the C&O car rates as "unusual" or even "scarce" compared with the yellow Wabash car.

So for "Midwest" Monday, here is the brown #36000 Marx 7 inch Chesapeake & Ohio gondola made from 1955 - 1957.

Here is the end bulkhead view, these only came with PK couplers

Here is a view on the opposite end.  Note the "Marx" flying circle logo which was a rather later version of his traditional circle logo.

Best Wishes and have a great week

Don

Nice little Gondola Don. Thanks for sharing hope your doing well.

Here’s Today’s MWM Some Atlas Vintage O. The Gondola was Custom Painted and Decaled by me. I also added tie downs to the top of the car and added Kadee Couplers to it. Enjoy your Monday.

@MikeH posted:

New MTH Missouri Pacific GP35's (20-21554-1 and 20-21555-1).  Thanks to @MrMuffin'sTrains

Mike nice MoPac Power thanks for sharing.

@TrainBub posted:

Just discovered this fun thread. Here’s my first contribution from St. Louis.                                                         All Frisco !!!

     

Glad you found us nice looking Frisco Power.

@DETROIT posted:

Another offering from the great midwest of the North.

Very nice Jim. That vista car is really nice.

A Penn Central freight passes through an industrial area of town:

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

A Penn Central freight passes through an industrial area of town:

Tom

Nice video Tom great manifest line up.

Tom - another really cool unique caboose.  Please share more info on back story for it, awesome!

@DETROIT posted:

Tom - another really cool unique caboose.  Please share more info on back story for it, awesome!

Thanks Jim!

When the New Haven was absorbed into Penn Central they inherited a large quantity of NE-6 cabooses in various states of (dis)repair.  PC sent the best ones to Altoona to be rebuilt into road cabooses.  The remainder were delegated to local and transfer duty.  The rebuilt cabooses had their cupolas blocked off (and presumably water tanks installed in that location) and restroom facilities installed.  Bay windows were installed for increased visibility.  The rebuilt cars rode on roller bearing trucks.  They were given the designation of N8A.

My model is a bash of an Atlas O NE-6 caboose.  I used styrene to block off windows and add some other exterior details.  The bay windows were made from styrene that was cut and assembled into the window units.  A gentleman from the Danbury Railroad Museum measured the N8A caboose from their collection and provided vital dimensions for this build.  New roller bearing trucks were installed per the prototype.  Floquil Penn Central Green paint and Microscale decals completed the project.

It seems that this caboose and the N9 transfer caboose I built get the most run time on my layout.  They are both big hits with visitors.

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

Thanks Jim!

When the New Haven was absorbed into Penn Central they inherited a large quantity of NE-6 cabooses in various states of (dis)repair.  PC sent the best ones to Altoona to be rebuilt into road cabooses.  The remainder were delegated to local and transfer duty.  The rebuilt cabooses had their cupolas blocked off (and presumably water tanks installed in that location) and restroom facilities installed.  Bay windows were installed for increased visibility.  The rebuilt cars rode on roller bearing trucks.  They were given the designation of N8A.

My model is a bash of an Atlas O NE-6 caboose.  I used styrene to block off windows and add some other exterior details.  The bay windows were made from styrene that was cut and assembled into the window units.  A gentleman from the Danbury Railroad Museum measured the N8A caboose from their collection and provided vital dimensions for this build.  New roller bearing trucks were installed per the prototype.  Floquil Penn Central Green paint and Microscale decals completed the project.

It seems that this caboose and the N9 transfer caboose I built get the most run time on my layout.  They are both big hits with visitors.

Tom

Spectacular - the background and "how to" equally so.  When you have a minute, please post several photos of the caboose.  Thanks Again!!!  Jim

Well MWM fans, I am going to do a little "follow up" today.  Last week I posted the Marx 7 " C&O gondola and mentioned that Marx initiated the 7" line in response to Unique Lines entry into the toy train market in about 1949-1950.  You may recall that that gondola was actually made only two years, 1955-57.  Well today, I show you a line of trains Marx created about a decade or so earlier, actually beginning the design in about 1939-1940 and having the first trains offered in the Spiegel Christmas catalog of 1942.  This line of trains was in response to both Lionel and American Flyer moving into to "scale" trains and Marx not wanting to be upstaged.  So he began to design and build his "scale" line. The original idea appeared to be to bring this line out in 1941-42 and some trains did appear in the Christmas of 42, however full availability would have to wait till after the war. It has been speculated that these trains were designed to go with the die cast 999 and 333 locomotives however wartime material restrictions limited the production of these die cast engines.   In 1945-46 full production was available and the "scale" line was offered in the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs.   Now interestingly enough, Marx took an approach much like pre-war American Flyer in that he kept the trains 0 gauge but made them 3/16" scale (or S scale as we would call it today).  These "3/16 " Scale Cars" as they are called appeared to reach maximum development in about 1948 and continued to be available until about 1957.

So here is the Marx 3/16" scale, Chesapeake and Ohio, high sided gondola for "Midwest Monday".  Note the scale sized trucks and small wheels as opposed to Marx's larger "toy train" wheels and trucks.

Happy Monday everyone.

Best Wishes

Don

Here’s my Midwest Monday contribution -
a MKT “local”.
Alco PA “A”, Express Reefer, RPO, Baggage, Combine. All MTH except Atlas Reefer.

@DETROIT posted:

Spectacular - the background and "how to" equally so.  When you have a minute, please post several photos of the caboose.  Thanks Again!!!  Jim

Here you go, Jim:

These photos were taken before I switched the trucks to roller bearing trucks.

Tom

Same train from last week.  Different location:

Tom

THANKS TOM - Fantastic pictures, amazing model!!!

A Rock Island caboose rots away just outside Old Colorado City, CO.  Picture taken 19May 2022.

@Don McErlean posted:

Well MWM fans, I am going to do a little "follow up" today.  Last week I posted the Marx 7 " C&O gondola and mentioned that Marx initiated the 7" line in response to Unique Lines entry into the toy train market in about 1949-1950.  You may recall that that gondola was actually made only two years, 1955-57.  Well today, I show you a line of trains Marx created about a decade or so earlier, actually beginning the design in about 1939-1940 and having the first trains offered in the Spiegel Christmas catalog of 1942.  This line of trains was in response to both Lionel and American Flyer moving into to "scale" trains and Marx not wanting to be upstaged.  So he began to design and build his "scale" line. The original idea appeared to be to bring this line out in 1941-42 and some trains did appear in the Christmas of 42, however full availability would have to wait till after the war. It has been speculated that these trains were designed to go with the die cast 999 and 333 locomotives however wartime material restrictions limited the production of these die cast engines.   In 1945-46 full production was available and the "scale" line was offered in the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs.   Now interestingly enough, Marx took an approach much like pre-war American Flyer in that he kept the trains 0 gauge but made them 3/16" scale (or S scale as we would call it today).  These "3/16 " Scale Cars" as they are called appeared to reach maximum development in about 1948 and continued to be available until about 1957.

So here is the Marx 3/16" scale, Chesapeake and Ohio, high sided gondola for "Midwest Monday".  Note the scale sized trucks and small wheels as opposed to Marx's larger "toy train" wheels and trucks.

Happy Monday everyone.

Best Wishes

Don

Very interesting information Don. Thanks for sharing

Hi Gang nice stuff today I’m coming in late with this one I took in East St. Louis today.

@Tom Densel posted:

Same train from last week.  Different location:

Tom

Great stuff Tom.

@trestleking posted:

A Rock Island caboose rots away just outside Old Colorado City, CO.  Picture taken 19May 2022.

That’s a rare one thanks for sharing

@TrainBub posted:

Here’s my Midwest Monday contribution -
a MKT “local”.
Alco PA “A”, Express Reefer, RPO, Baggage, Combine. All MTH except Atlas Reefer.

Nice layout thanks for sharing

Everyone beautiful pictures, I missed Midwest Wednesday, so here’s some new arrivals. Happy Railroading Everyone