Switcher Saturday 12-19-20

I trust all here are having a safe and HAPPY SWSAT!

Speakina' switching operations the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad is a tourist operation with a flair for switching. The train is seen here pulling in to Drake Well Station a mile South of Titusville:

On the rear end of every train are freight cars being returned from customers in Titusville to Interchange at Rynd Farm, the Southern terminus of the OC&T:

In this case it is three empty tank cars:

At Rynd Farm the engine runs around from the South end of the train to North:

After grabbing the empties it shoves them South to Interchange:

At Interchange loaded cars are picked up and coupled onto the North end of the train:

And the train heads back North for Titusville:

In this case with two Tanks and a Covered Hopper:

The old Alco is smoking it up a bit working the slight grade up Oil Creek.

Yay SWSat is on track!

I see we are off to a good start this week.

These are a few pictures of an area on my 2 rail O scale clubs layout. The small town area is being reworked into a coal breaker scene and this is of the “before” images.

These are some of the large yard from angles most people don’t see.

And finally back at that now gone small town. A Pennsy GE 44 tonner meets my Hungerian Steam Dummy. They are trying to figure out how they are going to couple this to some cars to get some work out of it.

Have a great weekend guys. I can’t wait to see what you post.

Happy Switcher Saturday To All. I continued my Maine layout scenery works.

Happy SWSAT....Have a wonderful weekend!!   😎

Happy SWSat!

Great start and pix everyone.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Pennsy B-6 on the lead of the Christmas Excursion train

The crew in the yard decorated a flat car load for the occasion

While Santa Fe 2174 heads out of town with a local delivery

Finally PRR # 94 A-5 is on tree duty

Again- Merry Christmas to all. I hope Santa bring everyone a shiny new switcher for Christmas.

Bob

Happy SwSat!

Rusty

Penn Central GP38 7692 (K-Line) spots a hopper at the grain elevator:

Enjoy the holidays, but be safe in doing so!

Tom

Happy SWSat to all. I don't have any new pics of model train switchers so I'll just share with you one of a Santa Fe  Cleburne CF 7 I shot at the Oklahoma Railroad Museum a few years ago.

TALES OF THE DOCKSIDER

The Docksider and her crew have this Saturday off.  There are no traction tire failures, fortunately, to deal with this week, but a rare train showed up in the Worcester, MA yard.

NYC B6 switcher no. 429 is pushing a flat loaded with a 19th century “cabbage stack” steam loco to a museum for restoration.  The cabbage stack appears to be an 0-6-0, but actually started life as a 2-6-0 Mogul. The pilot trucks, as well as a tender, have been lost since the engine was constructed from a plastic kit sixty years ago (or more!).  Could the missing parts be somewhere in the boxes-o-train stuff?

John

Santa and North Pole Central No. 25, an 0-6-0 switch engine, hauling the XMAS local to town.

Wow SwSat fans, what a group of pictures, really made my Saturday.  Trying to get this in before the CEO decides its time to brave the stores for those "last minute" gifts we always seem to forget !   jhz563, Third rail, geysergazer,and Rusty Traque  great 1:1 train pictures.  jhz563 you could move to Texas...no snow here, temperatures still climb to near 70 on warm days !!  Silver Lake, Bar GP7#63, Steam Crazy - fabulous modeling, great work guys!, Fendermain - love the Lionel Bungalows of all my prewar stuff I have never connected with one of those...RSJB18 Penn B-6 looks good under those Christmas lights, Tnk Marx - love the CP, Coach Joe...train sure looks good under the tree.

Afraid, I am just pulling some pictures from my archive today, this is a Marx set (one of the few) that I am certain that all its original contents are correct. Why?  Because I bought it for my younger son in 1974 and have had it ever since.  It fits in with our Switcher Saturday theme as the prime mover is a #702 Marx GE 70 ton switcher in WP livery.  The set is #7205(a) "Diesel Freight Set from 1972-74.

Here is the box top showing the contents exactly as they are. At the time,  Son and I never had more than the single loop of track on a piece of plywood under his bed.  He was something of an artist and enjoyed making buildings and scenery etc even more than the trains themselves so we had quite a complete layout with one loop.  Wish I had some pictures of that but they are all gone.

Here is the set contents.  The Green / Gold WP switcher plus 3 of Marx's 4 wheel lightweight freight cars including the matching green / gold caboose.  Oh in case you are wondering..."does it run?" ... Hey its Marx, of course it runs (LOL)!

Well I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Happy New Year (I especially hope that 2021 is better for all of us than 2020) .  Probably not going to post much over the Holiday week so see you on the other side

Best wishes

Don

Hello fellow switcher lovers!!  Wonderful photos/videos and info from all of you!    Thanks JHZ563 for notching out the throttle and getting us rolling today!

Silver Lake - Andy thanks for sharing photos of your club's layout!  The layout looks AMAZING!!!

Today on the Free State Junction Railway Christmas trains are all about.  Of course one of those trains is pulled by a switcher ... a Baltimore and Annapolis SW9 to be exact.  The Claus and his Mrs. are riding the front porch throwing candy canes to all the kids that will align the tracks.  

My wish for everyone, no matter what holiday you choose to celebrate,  is to have a Merry Christmas,  Happy Hanukkah ( already past ) , and Happy  Kwanza ...  and  may it be filled with meaningful connections, good health, much laughter and happiness!!   Be safe = Be well!!  

The Claus and his Mrs.  

The Nutcracker special ... SW9 is about to head east as it takes the main.   The power, a set of AA Baldwin R-16 ( Shark ) demonstrators,  for the westbound Candy Cane Express,  is moving up to attach to its train.    

Set out by a switcher earlier today on the team track.  

Best wishes for the holidays. Here’s hoping 2021 brings an end to our shared health concerns and a much better day for everyone.

I also hope that somewhere under your Christmas tree is a nifty model railroad item or two - switcher or not!

Stay safe and cherish your loved ones near and far.

Dave W.

Jhz563, Thank you for Switcher Saturday fun, awesome thread for us fellow model and real train enthusiasts.... Geysergazer, cool pictures of a real train ride, lots of folks having a good time on the Oil Creek and Titusville railroad. Beautiful scenes and a neat part of the country. Silver Lake, very nice layout, wondering if it is HO gauge? Very nice modeling very nice scenes,  Bar GP7 #63, as always, fantastic scenery, great weathering for real world realism, beautiful diesels, Thank You for sharing your talents with us. Fenderman, awesome layout, great cabinetry work on the front of your nice layout, great color of off white, also a beautiful layout and nice trackwork. Your Sante Fe leads the way. Wow... RSJB18 Bob, Nice Christmas Tree, great scenes, love the Pennsylvania 0-6-0 steam switcher, cool layout, TNKMARX, beautiful Canadian Pacific switcher, nice layout, place more pictures of your model railroad, it’s neat... Tom Densel, I love the Kline diesel spotting cars on the ready track in the video, very nice, great diesel sounds, and nice structures, more pictures needed, Wow., Third Rail, I love that #2751 Sante Fe Diesel, beautiful, and I love 0 gauge trains to, neat picture. Steam Crazy, very nice pictures of steam action, also need more pictures of your layout, very nice,  Coach Joe, now that’s a great floor Christmas layout, beautiful work, beautiful room, and you do have room to add three more cars, I love your floors,Wow, nice video., Don McErlean, you made it on time for Switcher Saturday, your love of Marx trains is evident one more time, that’s a cool set, beautiful colored box top, Wow, you are The Marx Connection, Cool,.. Trumptrain, you’ve done it again, placed us in the Spirit of Christmas, the Best time of year by far. Your colorful layout is so inspiring, thank you for a job well done, the AA R16 shark nose diesels are beautiful, and that beautiful box car with the red bird, the Cardinal is outstanding, keep the pictures coming, Dave Warburton, it’s always nice to read your comments here in the forum, so nice, so upbeat, thank you for your optimism, 2021 will be a New Beginning for America, and around the World. Happy Railroading Everyone, Merry Christmas to you all.

The day before yesterday we had [+/-] 18" of snow but yesterday afternoon the skies cleared and the Sun crept through the South-facing train room window a few minute before Sunset (about 4:22 yesterday) and I go this pic:

Hard-working #1545 bringing the switch-job into Town.

I hope that everyone here is feeling the Hope, Joy and Love that Christmas brought and brings us:

Caught my daughter in a brief peaceful moment.   You can't see it but her pet shop diesel is in the lead.

Peace to you all.

@leapinlarry posted:

Silver Lake, very nice layout, wondering if it is HO gauge?

It is the New York Society of Model Engineers layout. Although there is an HO scale layout on one side of the building, the  layout I work on and deal with is the 2 rail O scale layout that these pictures are from. I have not done any HO scale aside from building some structures for friends since 1995. Thank you for taking the time to personally respond to everyone's post. That is very generous and appreciated.

@jhz563 I love how you can practically see the sparks of imagination coming off of your daughter in that candid picture. Wonderful.

Here is my ETS 0-4-0T “Alice” and K-line Plymouth waiting their turns from trips around the tree.

Really great modeling everyone this week. I love to see some good prototype images too. Stay safe everyone.

Gentlemen, thank you for the likes and wonderful comments about my simple Christmas tree loop.

Jhz563, let me join the chorus in thanking you for starting and maintaining  the most entertaining thread on the Forum.  You have managed, to your credit, to keep it consistently positive and inclusive, encouraging people to post a wide variety of switchers for our enjoyment.

Thank you, SwSat fans for your likes; Larry and Don, for your compliments.  Larry, you asked for a few more pictures, so I’m attaching a few from the archives.  Happy holidays to all my fellow SwSat fans!

John

@Steam Crazy,  thank you for the kind words.   The credit for starting this weekly diversion goes to Rich @Murnane.  I picked up this mantle as an experiment after the big upheaval on the forum concerning use of photos.   Rich needed to concentrate on other things at the time.

I really thought after the first couple weeks this was going to die out due to lack of participation.  Boy am I glad to be wrong.   I was using the "Mark II" designation since I wasn't the originator.  I left it off by accident a couple weeks ago and decided it really wasn't neccessary any longer.

I have been so busy this year with my actual job and family considerations,  not to forget the world catching on fire, it has been a struggle some times to keep it moving.

Going into next year I hope to successfully contact some more current manufacturers and historical societies for fun older pictures.   

I will say starting this thread almost every week has actually changed my taste in locomotives.   As my tinplate obsession for coal hoppers is satisfied,  I am looking more at acquiring smaller engines,  not just the largest ones I can scrape up cash to bring home.

I am continually amazed by fantastic quality of the modeling, photography,  and storytelling on this thread, as well  as the mix of real and toy train sources.   It's been a real honor to see the replies here, and alot of fun too.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

@jhz563 posted:

@Steam Crazy,  thank you for the kind words.   The credit for starting this weekly diversion goes to Rich @Murnane.  I picked up this mantle as an experiment after the big upheaval on the forum concerning use of photos.   Rich needed to concentrate on other things at the time.

I really thought after the first couple weeks this was going to die out due to lack of participation.  Boy am I glad to be wrong.   I was using the "Mark II" designation since I wasn't the originator.  I left it off by accident a couple weeks ago and decided it really wasn't neccessary any longer.

I have been so busy this year with my actual job and family considerations,  not to forget the world catching on fire, it has been a struggle some times to keep it moving.

Going into next year I hope to successfully contact some more current manufacturers and historical societies for fun older pictures.   

I will say starting this thread almost every week has actually changed my taste in locomotives.   As my tinplate obsession for coal hoppers is satisfied,  I am looking more at acquiring smaller engines,  not just the largest ones I can scrape up cash to bring home.

I am continually amazed by fantastic quality of the modeling, photography,  and storytelling on this thread, as well  as the mix of real and toy train sources.   It's been a real honor to see the replies here, and alot of fun too.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thank you SO much for keeping this going and for expanding it over time. It’s something we all look forward to participating in every Saturday.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

A bit of Christmas whimsy and a Williams center cab switcher is the star of the show.  

Patsburg is snowed in!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Great Pictures & videos Everyone !   Thanks for Sharing ! 

My contribution

RayKay, that switcher looks very familiar.  A pretty nice little engine.

Poconotrain, very sweet collection of RJC.