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Hi there Switcher Saturday faithful!  Your humble conductor is back, has checked his watch,  and is ordering the local out of the yard!  Many thanks to @RSJB18 for the assist last week!

For those unfamiliar with this thread,  its a weekly homage to the smaller locomotives that are the jack-of-all-trades of railroading.   Whether it's working the yard, pick up and delivery on the local, spotting cars at power plants and mills,  hauling tourist  passengers by day and freight by night, the Switcher locomotives do it all.   These loco's are usually smaller and sometimes highly customized to their assignments, but sometimes even these guidelines are turned on their head, such as the giant PRR transfer diesels,  or the Amtrak Dash 8 diesels used to make up the auto train.

As to this thread,  the guidelines are to have fun, keep things somehow Switcher related,  and use pictures and videos you have permission to post on the ogr forum.

For myself,  I need some snacks for the game this weekend. So here's the R.O.W. saddle tanker bringing some M&M's into the yard.

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So please,  share your photos and videos.  Have fun everybody!

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Good evening fellow switcher fans!!  Welcome back JHZ563!!  I hope there are no calories in that car load of M&Ms .. lol!  



Today I'm featuring Washington Terminal Co. ALCO RS1 63.  The real number 63 was built by ALCO in 1951 for the Washington Terminal Co.  The WTC rostered about 25 RS1 locos over the years.  As co owners of Washington DC's Union Station, the B&O and Pennsylvania Railroads were the parent companies of the Washington Terminal Co.  The two class one railroads created the WTC as a separate company to handle switching operations and building operations at Union Station.   In the many years before AMTRAK the WTC handled passenger trains for the seven railroads that served Union Station.  Those railroads were obviously the B&O and Pennsylvania plus The Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac, C&O, Southern, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Airline.  

Another interesting fact about the RS1 is that it had the longest production run ( 19 years ) of any diesel loco manufactured in North America.  Although it's 1000 hp prime mover was not adequate for over the road work, the RS1 was touted as the first road switcher.  ALCO packed additional horsepower into subsequent RS models.  

My model of number 63 is an Atlas O with TMCC.  I love the sound of the prime mover and horn and prefer it over my MTH RK 3.0 of WTC  number 46.

Today on the Free State Junction Railway Washington Terminal RS 1 # 63 is teamed up with a Ma & PA SW9 calf.  The pair is providing the power for a long coal drag ... as those types of trains were called back in the 1940/50's era of railroad history ... today that type of train would be called a unit train.  IMG_7134

Here she rumbles by the steps to the switch tower as old timer, Jake Hornsby leans on his cane and puffs his corncobb pipe. AND there's Chucky on his bike.  That boy loves a good switch locomotive especially ALCOs!  IMG_7146IMG_7135

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Last edited by trumpettrain
@Tom Densel posted:

Happy SWSAT, everyone!

We have our granddaughter for the weekend so I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.  I thought I would jump in tonight with my contribution.

Penn Central SW8 8623 (Lionel) works a cut of gondolas loaded with steel pipe:

Have a great weekend!

Tom

Exquisite video Tom!!!  I clicked to enlarge and felt like I was in the movie actually at trackside.  Exciting!!  Have fun with your granddaughter tomorrow.  Perhaps she will want to play train  :-)

Wow!  With everyone starting so early with amazing posts I feel I need to step up my game here today. Here's the former PP&L Montana Lokie in the snow at Brunner Island.

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And in the spirit of performing all assignments, here's the world's most famous Switcher engine performing entertainment duty for my daughter quite a few years back and subbing in to pull the most important train in the world when called upon.

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Happy SWSat!

WOW! What a great start today. Lot's of great pix and stories.

@jhz563- happy to pinch hit when I can.

A tale of two coasts this week. Some foreign power has come east and has been assigned to the MOW team for some much needed track maintenance.
Santa Fe 2174 arrives at the yard tower for instructions.

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Pulling into the siding to hook up

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Since they don't know the territory, they stop at the yard to pick up one of the local guys to ride along in the cab.

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Have a great weekend and enjoy the game tomorrow.

Go Bengals!

Bob

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Lionel Legacy SW-9 (originally Atlantic Coast Line purple) refinished to represent the Pittsburg & Shawmut branch line in Western Pennsylvania. I used to visit the shops in Brookville, where my grandparents lived. The caboose was originally a Chicago Northwestern by MTH. Added new figures and weathering.

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Exquisite video Tom!!!  I clicked to enlarge and felt like I was in the movie actually at trackside.  Exciting!!  Have fun with your granddaughter tomorrow.  Perhaps she will want to play train  :-)

Thanks, Patrick!  I like to try different camera angles with various vignettes around the layout.  Sometimes I get lucky and nothing derails, shorts out, hits a dead spot or my phone rings.  This one only took three takes before I was happy.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Grandma is getting her time with Noelle right now.  I thing Thomas, Percy and Diesel are on the schedule for this afternoon.

Tom

Well good morning SwSat folks, its a little late here in the CST and even later in the East but it's just been a lazy morning so far, weather is cold and overcast after being over 75 deg yesterday (what a place!).

Well here is the back story...its 1950 and those pesky commies have invaded South Korea...got to make sure the home front is safe, so the NYC is moving up some missiles to defend Manhattan.  Our little 2-4-0 from the yard is given the task of moving the Minuteman missiles and the launching car up to the center of Yankee Stadium to be ready to defend us when those Ruskie bombers come over...(wow, thank God that never happened).

Here is our old but still functional #8300 Lionel 2-4-0 getting into position to move his crucial air defense train. (actually he is Lionel MPC from 1973-74 and originally came with a Santa Fe tender).

Lionel 8300 loco & Marx tender

Here he is with a real "mixed train"...the missile launch gondola is Lionel , tender, and caboose are Marx , the engine is Lionel and the rocket carrying flat is Menards.

Lionel 8300 missile train

A better look at the "business end" of this train ...

Lionel 8300 missile train rockets

Well best wishes to everyone for a great weekend...stay safe in the winter weather.

Don

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Great stuff today everyone. Long time no posting for me.

I was running today on the New York Society of Model Engineers 2 rail O scale layout and thought I would post my RF&P Local.
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Also I ran the NYC USRA 0-6-0 from Weaver I picked up at the Amherst show a few weeks back. Here it is shifting some FGE reefers.
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Have a great weekend everyone.

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