Switcher Saturday

CP 0-6-0 # 2143 unknown date and location

0-8-0 # 6832

CN #7260

#7157

This engine is near my house in Florida along U.S. 19. The engine was originally used for hauling logs and was owned by a lumber company.

SWITCHERS! YOU WANT TO SEE SWITCHERS? I GOT YOUR SWITCHERS RIGHT HERE!

Here are some photos of switchers that worked the 

New York harbor railroads over the last 150 or so years 

My son’s employer nowadays is the Union Pacific Railroad. I do not yet have a UP locomotive, switcher or otherwise, to share but did add an MTH caboose to my little fleet to celebrate. So, until I can find a UP 0-6-0, the handsome caboose is all that I have to photograph. Do hope that you guys don’t mind too much. Marty is being trained as a conductor/brakeman and really learning from the friendly engineers, conductors and brakemen he is assigned to work with on locals out of West Sacramento.

Happy Switcher Saturday.

SBR ALCO HH660 #150 Anchor & CN ALCO FA1 #6706 switching CNJ coal hoppers at Cape Shark.

Soo Nut posted:

Upon my discovery of that scheme years (and years) ago, always thought it a very neat scheme.

Looks great on a Baldwin, too!

A little "critter" from France, a Y 6300 of the SNCF, dating from the post war and some of them are still in use to do shunting in industries. The O gauge three rail model is a home made one, brass.

And the real one,

Daniel

Sorry to be late to the party.

I heard from Rich, all is well, he just had some family visiting.

Nice pictures everyone, including THIRD RAIL with that matchbook that I had never seen.  

On a personal note, the Vol. 51, No.3 issue (Fall 2018) of The Keystone has my follow up article to my Winter 2015 article about the original PRR Molly Pitcher ad campaign which featured Switch Tender Ruth Hilger Hoffman. There is also a great article by Ken Kobus about women working at Pitcairn Yard during WWII. These are just 2 articles in this great edition...not even mentioning sabotage near Conway Yard before we entered WWII! If any of you have any interest in the Pennsylvania Railroad, I would urge you to join the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. 

Tom 

PS- I see Andy/SILVER LAKE also started up (and then deleted) his own Switcher Saturday topic, so thanks again to Dave/STEAMER and Andy for being on the ball! 

Tom 

Thanks to all for a good Switcher start today while Rich is o/w occupied. I’d hate to think of a Saturday  a.m. w/o it!

Short-line western Pennsylvania railroads used switchers in multiple units to move coal and other commodities. Pittsburg Shawmut was a coal railroad, southern interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad, Freeport, PA.   Original paint from EMD the middle two units.   Bicentennial Paint, Front and Rear. 

Great photos and information guys!  Good to know that Rich is OK too!  Thanks to Andy and Dave for being vigilant and proactive!  We had  two threads going there for a bit.  Yes, Saturday would not be Saturday without the word "switcher" in front.   

I was out of town on business last weekend and was not able to post.  Yesterday was my first day of vacation and I celebrated by going to Annapolis Junction, Md. ( just 7 minutes by car from where I live ) and took photos and videos of the two switcher locomotives employed at Waste Management Systems... a recycling transfer facility  where recyclable garbage is transferred from truck to railcars. As there were fences and " no trespassing" signs posted, I was not able to get up close to the in plant operations which all occur on the east side of Brock Bridge Road.  ( I used a telephoto lens sometimes poking through the fence to these photos.)   On the east side of Brock Bridge Road the CSX Washington Branch mainline runs parallel and I am able to access the interchange yard with no problem ... as there are no posted " no trespassing signs" or fences.   There are two switchers on site.  One, a GP 10 works the rear of the facility and an SW? end cab works the front.  At the end of the day the GP10 pushes all the loaded freight cars ( high sided gondolas ) out of the plant property, through an at grade crossing, up a short but steep grade, to the CSX interchange yard ... a 3 track yard.  Once the loaded gons are uncoupled, the GP10 pulls forward, switches to another track, and connects to a string of empties which CSX has spotted. These cars are then pulled back to the plant with the GP10 on the point.   A one man crew operates the locomotive and manually works the switches.... a second crew member, in a pickup truck, rides in advance of the train, making sure the at grade crossing gates are working.... since the loaded train is being pushed out of the plant by the GP10.   He seemed to be in constant radio contact with the engineer, as I was able to talk to him a short bit while he was waiting for the GP10 to start the shoving process out of the plant. 

I have pics of the SW and CSX interchange yard which I will post now.  Later I'll put up video of the GP10 coming and going.  I love the window AC unit installed on the SW!  Hey ... whatever it takes to keep cool! 

Tom - I think I'll be joining the Pennsy Historical Society. Congrats on your article and thanks for sharing the info!! 

Have a great week everyone!

A head’s up  switcheroos: Lionel has posted a lot of their new 2019 offerings on their website at www.lionel.com.

Click  on the shop/store tab and they are prominently displayed.

If you can tear yourselves away from SWS, that is.  

The UP troll is upset that his freight has not arrived yet...

When is saw the generator power package right center of the picture, it seemed a bit unusual.  I assume it runs the small air conditioner, left center of picture.  and may be some other AC power equipment.  Older switcher unit, DC only ???   

What a Brute

Mike CT posted:

When is saw the generator power package right center of the picture, it seemed a bit unusual.  I assume it runs the small air conditioner, left center of picture.  and may be some other AC power equipment.  Older switcher unit, DC only ???   

  Your hunch about DC could be accurate.  My guess is that this loco is a SW1.  It has one exhaust stack.  I think EMD manufactured SW1 units up into the 1960s.  I could be wrong though. 

Mike CT posted:

When is saw the generator power package right center of the picture, it seemed a bit unusual.  I assume it runs the small air conditioner, left center of picture.  and may be some other AC power equipment.  Older switcher unit, DC only ???   

Early Genset?

Tom

trumptrain posted:

Mike CT posted:

When is saw the generator power package right center of the picture, it seemed a bit unusual.  I assume it runs the small air conditioner, left center of picture.  and may be some other AC power equipment.  Older switcher unit, DC only ???   

  Your hunch about DC could be accurate.  My guess is that this loco is a SW1.  It has one exhaust stack.  I think EMD manufactured SW1 units up into the 1960s.  I could be wrong though. 

More likely an SW8, the end platforms are too short and there's no sandbox on the front platform.

Rusty

Nice Switcher Saturday guys.  Surprised Andy didn't didn't move his stuff over to this thread once he deleted the one he started.

Johan its good to see Cape Shark action again.

Patrick nice telephoto work.  I remember Dave Minerak modelling a cooler on one of his switcher's end platforms giving that switcher some personality now your photos give me some more modelling ideas.

coach joe posted:

Nice Switcher Saturday guys.  Surprised Andy didn't didn't move his stuff over to this thread once he deleted the one he started.

Johan its good to see Cape Shark action again.

Patrick nice telephoto work.  I remember Dave Minerak modelling a cooler on one of his switcher's end platforms giving that switcher some personality now your photos give me some more modelling ideas.

JOE: Thank you.

coach joe posted:

Nice Switcher Saturday guys.  Surprised Andy didn't didn't move his stuff over to this thread once he deleted the one he started.

Johan its good to see Cape Shark action again.

Patrick nice telephoto work.  I remember Dave Minerak modelling a cooler on one of his switcher's end platforms giving that switcher some personality now your photos give me some more modelling ideas.

Coach Joe - thanks!  

I've not been successful in my attempts to post the video of the GP 10 pushing 15 carloads out of the plant and onto the CSX interchange.  I'll keep trying

Sorry all, I had family at the house here all week and yesterday morning just got away from me, a house full of kids and family will do that to you I suppose.

Thank you to @Steamer Dave and @Silver Lake Andy for getting things rolling.

The picture I had ready to post is of my Lionel LionChief Plus (NYC #8244 Alco RS-3) running on the club layout at the Agricultural Fair in Fredericksburg Virginia, two weeks ago. The fair ran for over a week and it was a great experience running trains, hanging out with fellow club members, and meeting people who like trains.

Here's a quick video of my B&O Porter pulling some ore cars at the fair too, and the NYC RS-3 following behind!

Thanks again to the team for helping out and I'll see you all again on Saturday morning, have a great week.

Best...Rich