Switcher Saturday: 2016-Nov-26

Yay! Happy SWSat!

Yesterday I spend several Hours at my Clubs open house. NYSME in Carlstadt NJ. I mostly spent my time switching industries in the Hoboken Section with some switch engines. I started with a EL GP7 and moved on to a Pennsylvania 44 tonner and finally a NYO&W 44 tonner in the old paint scheme. Unfortunately my phone is having issues and I can't get my pics off so.....

 This week I'm posting pics of a K-Lionel MP15 that I forgot I had. I don't think It has ever been out of the box. I got it when I lived in San Diego and had my art studio next to the old Santa Fe Surf line in Soledad Canyon. If I stayed late enough the BNSF freight train would come through around midnight and remind me to go home. 

Happy Switcher Saturday everyone. Thanks for starting us off again this week Rich. My contribution this week is a picture of a standard gauge switcher that the narrow (3ft.) gauge East Broad Top Railroad used to switch it's narrow gauge cars at Mt. Union. You should be able to make out a standard gauge coupler on the front along with a narrow gauge one. The East Broad Top has not operated excursions for a few years. I believe they are awaiting the completion of a new party to purchase the line. Hope it works out for them.

Tom

Morning fellas and Happy Switcher Saturday. My apologies for not having contributed much in recent weeks but I've had some real life stuff I've been working through and hobby time has, out of necessity, been kept to a minimum. I'm hopeful things are beginning to calm down so I can resume normal participation soon enough.

I do have something to contribute this week. Since we're entering our first holiday season without my father, I pulled out and reproduced a few pictures of one of the layouts he and my grandfather built in their very modest Bronx apartment. Each year on the day after Thanksgiving, the furniture came out of the living room to be replaced by a fairly elaborate model railroad which stayed up until after the New Year.

These images were made from the original prints which are now almost 70 years old as the photos date from the late 40s. I thought they'd be appropriate for the thread as the PRR B6sb is visible. I also posted these pictures to Mr. Smith's weekly photo thread but wanted to share them here as well for those who may not look at that thread.

All the best,

Bob

love those pics Bob. 

my 1662 taking our recent junk box find from a show to the shop for a refurbish.

I love that switcher Tom. It is a good one. I love those Pictures Bob good luck to you in what you are going through.  

Well my phone is working now and I can post some pics of my afternoon switching 2 Rail O scale cars in Hoboken. 

Starting out I had a EL Geep that had some power issues so I went to a Sunset Pennsy 44 Tonner.

The sliding rails on the turnouts where a bit dirty and the power was coming through contact on the side rails for some reason this was not agreeable to the Pennsy engine. I was able to pull cars from industries with it however with some giant pusher help. 

A club member saw how much trouble I was having and found a 44 tonner in very nice paint that had a capaciter to move past some of the bad spots. I had a blast pushing cars and spotting them at industries. I was just making things up and reordering the cars with the run arounds. 

In this next set I just really admire the weathering on these cars. And there is a switcher hiding in some shots. 

This narrow gauge teapot is about to start it day of shoving cars. Have a great weekend guys. 

 A few of my favorites! 

K-line MP-15, Lionel NW-2 (post war), and Lionel 0-6-0 Docksider

I've only been able to negotiate for a small corner of the basement so far so switchers rule the roost! Expansion plans are in place though.....

There's another thread running now called "favorite 4-5 car short trains", good stuff there too.

Great pictures everyone. 

Bob, The  person sitting with the tie, is that your Dad? Yes, I see his B6 switcher. Thanks for posting them. Fairly elaborate is an understatement. You should ask Andy if he needs help in set design. Very nice!

Dave, You can't have enough cabin cars!

Andy, Did not realize you were one a West Coaster! 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Tom 

Tom I'm not I lived there for 6 years while first I and then my wife were in Grad School. 

Great start this week all.

Andy/SilverLake:  that switcher looks nice, glad you stumbled upon it!  The club pics look fun too.  I remember the first time I saw O Gauge 2 Rail I was so darn confused, thinking to myself "shouldn't O Gauge have 3 rails?  what's going on here?" :-)

Tom/MNCW:  That picture is a good find, I kinda wondered about narrow gauge and larger (non-Porter type) switchers, the HT&W railroad I have family ties to had narrow gauge tracks so I'm always thinking of these types of things.

Bob/CNJ:  I LOVE those pictures, I can't get enough of pictures like these, prized possessions I'm sure!  Good luck on the personal stuff front, we'll keep you in our prayers.

Dave/Steamer:  How about putting some "clear coat" on that caboose and calling it "refurbished"?  Kind of like they do on these refurbish car shows, keep the patina and call it done!  Great find and great pictures!

RSJB18:  Welcome to the Switcher Saturday "club"!  Three switchers and at least 9 or 10 switches/turnouts on that video, I think you'll fit in just fine here!  We do this each week, so keep an eye out early morning each Saturday if you'd like, the more the merrier.  Sometimes we have mostly model trains, other times mostly "real world" trains, but most times we have a good mix, heck Tom/MNCW has even thrown in a few poems and CNJ/Bob usually provides us all with a good history lesson!

Have a great day everyone...Rich

Thanks Rich. Having a blast working on this layout. I did cram in a lot in a small space. Ran HO as a kid and just started with O last year after 30+ years away.  My dad had O gauge but started me on HO. I still have a TON of HO stuff packed away in their attic!

This is all Ebay stuff. No particular theme except PRR and ATSF were my two favorites growing up. Here's my control panel.

14 switches, that's awesome!

Silver Lake posted:

I love that switcher Tom. It is a good one. I love those Pictures Bob good luck to you in what you are going through.  

Well my phone is working now and I can post some pics of my afternoon switching 2 Rail O scale cars in Hoboken. 

Starting out I had a EL Geep that had some power issues so I went to a Sunset Pennsy 44 Tonner.

The sliding rails on the turnouts where a bit dirty and the power was coming through contact on the side rails for some reason this was not agreeable to the Pennsy engine. I was able to pull cars from industries with it however with some giant pusher help. 

A club member saw how much trouble I was having and found a 44 tonner in very nice paint that had a capaciter to move past some of the bad spots. I had a blast pushing cars and spotting them at industries. I was just making things up and reordering the cars with the run arounds. 

In this next set I just really admire the weathering on these cars. And there is a switcher hiding in some shots. 

This narrow gauge teapot is about to start it day of shoving cars. Have a great weekend guys. 

That is some impressive weathering for sure.

Love that last picture too!

Have a great weekend everyone .  

Happy Switcher Saturday from Finland. This Saturday  i post some Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson pics.  CP #2851 switching at Cape Shark.

My Baldwin VO 1000 pulling a cut of ten cars in the yard. I'm starting freight and passenger runs on the layout! 

Andy

CNJ 3676 posted:

Morning fellas and Happy Switcher Saturday. My apologies for not having contributed much in recent weeks but I've had some real life stuff I've been working through and hobby time has, out of necessity, been kept to a minimum. I'm hopeful things are beginning to calm down so I can resume normal participation soon enough.

I do have something to contribute this week. Since we're entering our first holiday season without my father, I pulled out and reproduced a few pictures of one of the layouts he and my grandfather built in their very modest Bronx apartment. Each year on the day after Thanksgiving, the furniture came out of the living room to be replaced by a fairly elaborate model railroad which stayed up until after the New Year.

These images were made from the original prints which are now almost 70 years old as the photos date from the late 40s. I thought they'd be appropriate for the thread as the PRR B6sb is visible. I also posted these pictures to Mr. Smith's weekly photo thread but wanted to share them here as well for those who may not look at that thread.

All the best,

Bob

These are gems! You should consider asking OGR or the other magazine to do a story on this!

Good afternoon fellow switcher buds!  Wonderful photos and commentary guys!!  I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

Here are some photos from the Free State Junction Railway in Patsburg, Md. where there is no zip code and the weather is crisp.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!!!

Murnane posted:

It's #SwitcherSaturday time!!!!

Lots of us out there love switchers (shifters, docksiders, yard goats, critters, etc.), so lets keep #SwitcherSaturday (a.k.a. SWSAT) rolling!

If you missed last week's SWSAT (like I did) you missed a ton of fun! Thanks again to Tom/MNCW and SilverLake/Andy for taking care of business for all of us switcher fantatics while I was away!
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...saturday-2016-nov-19

This week in my switching yard we have my MTH RailKing NYC dockside switcher. I haven't had time to do any additional work on the yard, with the holidays upon us my guess is any additional work is going to have to wait until the doldrums of January!

On a "non-switcher" note: my father-in-law runs some G-Gauge trains around his tree each year, here's a picture I took the other day which I ran through a filter to make it look "cartoon"!

Speaking of cartoons, I saw this one the other day in the newspaper too!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, please enjoy your weekend and if you get a chance post some pictures/videos/stories of your favorite switchers!

Best...Rich Murnane

p.s. Miss the post on Saturday? NO BIG DEAL, just keep posting pictures of your favorites until the next #SwitcherSaturday

Rich - I love the cartoon and your enhanced photo of your father in law's G gauge engine!!  They are quite a chuckle!!  Sorry to be late with a response from a few weeks ago - yes I will let you know soon as to the date of the Arbutus Train show and yes - lets plan to get together after the holidays if not before, however, I have a sense that both our schedules may not allow a before the holidays meeting ... but we can always keep this possibility open.  My e mail is in my profile.  I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

CNJ 3676 posted:

Morning fellas and Happy Switcher Saturday. My apologies for not having contributed much in recent weeks but I've had some real life stuff I've been working through and hobby time has, out of necessity, been kept to a minimum. I'm hopeful things are beginning to calm down so I can resume normal participation soon enough.

I do have something to contribute this week. Since we're entering our first holiday season without my father, I pulled out and reproduced a few pictures of one of the layouts he and my grandfather built in their very modest Bronx apartment. Each year on the day after Thanksgiving, the furniture came out of the living room to be replaced by a fairly elaborate model railroad which stayed up until after the New Year.

These images were made from the original prints which are now almost 70 years old as the photos date from the late 40s. I thought they'd be appropriate for the thread as the PRR B6sb is visible. I also posted these pictures to Mr. Smith's weekly photo thread but wanted to share them here as well for those who may not look at that thread.

All the best,

Bob

Bob -  As I've already stated on another thread, these photos are real treasures.

They capture so much of what Christmas layouts are about ... very similar to a Lionel add from the early 1950s.  I'm glad you decided to share them with everyone on the SWSAT thread too!!

I send you good thoughts as you deal with your real life situation.  I wish for you harmony and goodness as you work through it all.

Best,

Patrick 

Hi guys. Thanks for the kind words and good wishes.

Tom, that is indeed Dad in the pictures. He was about 20 when they were taken. He and Grandpa clearly didn't believe in a simple loop around the tree! Grandpa even scratch built a number of structures which we still have. He was quite the serious model railroader which explains where Dad and I got it from.

Bob

Murnane posted:

It's #SwitcherSaturday time!!!

On a "non-switcher" note: my father-in-law runs some G-Gauge trains around his tree each year, here's a picture I took the other day which I ran through a filter to make it look "cartoon"!

 

Rich, 

Any chance you would post the original and tell us what filter you used to create this? Really cool!!

Lionel Grandpa posted:

Murnane posted:

It's #SwitcherSaturday time!!!

On a "non-switcher" note: my father-in-law runs some G-Gauge trains around his tree each year, here's a picture I took the other day which I ran through a filter to make it look "cartoon"!

 

Rich, 

Any chance you would post the original and tell us what filter you used to create this? Really cool!!

 

Hi LionelGrandpa,

Here is the original picture.

I used an iPhone app called Prisma to modify the picture and apply an HDR type of filter to the picture to get the final "cartoon" feel.  Our forum friend (and my friend in the real world) @ChessieMD introduced me to this app and I love it.  I've noticed it does a really good job on pictures which have a lot of color in them, and a so/so job on less colorful pictures (like those I usually take).  Here is a link to the App's WikiPedia page, apparently it's also available for Google phones.  This all might sound complicated but if you get the app installed on your smartphone the rest is actually pretty easy (crop, apply filters until you find one you like, save).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisma_(app)

Here's a modified picture of a "Switcher" MPC era set I ran into at an antique store down in Fredericksburg Virginia this week.

Here's a modified picture of the first MTH Steam Dockside Switcher, same picture as above just tweaked:

And here's a picture of Grandpa Gordon's Tree with the G Gauge train around it, same phone app different type of filter.

And finally, here's one I took last year that only very minor modifications done on it, a simple/plain filter on my iPhone camera app (no third party app), still one of my favorite all time pictures.

Thanks to everyone for joining in the SwitcherSaturday fun, I'm very thankful to call you guys friends.

Best...Rich Murnane

Rich is right when he stated photo colors really impact Prisma's ability to really make these effects pop.  First pic below is one I made of the Rio Grande switching layout several months ago with the pink foam scenery still exposed.  You can even see the white spackling paste I used to fill in the gaps between the layers of foam.  So Prisma is powerful enough to provide photo detail without washing said details out as it applies the effect. Prisma also takes the colors of the existing photo and applies some unique effects to those specific color ranges to produce a very unique photo experiences.

Next I used Prisma in a closeup of an MTH GP35 pulling into the siding next to the C.R Eaky furniture factory.  I applied a subtle filter to the photo to create an almost  over the top Howard Fogg look.  For me building and running the layout is just half the fun.  Once completed and highly detailed, layout photography is going to allow me to tell a story.  

OK, even I tried a couple of these apps. I have a tablet and downloaded "Art Filters Photo Effects" and then "Effects for Prisma." So, the first two are with the first option, the second one is used on a recent train walk outing with my friend Brian (so it is train related, maybe not switcher related on in ex-New York, Westchester & Boston's ROW as we stopped at Walter's Hot Dogs in Mamaroneck, NY). 

Tom

One last one using the app "Effects for Prisma."

Tom

Late addition to Switcher Saturday. Got one of those "...I have some old trains you might want..." calls from a relative. Among other things found this little Santa Fe NW-2 Switcher in the box (circa '62?). Looked like crap but it runs!  Probably hasn't been on a track in 50 years but after some lube and oil and a little TLC got it going. E-unit cycles nicely.   Next step is to clean up the rust, trucks and give the body a good once over.

Will post the AFTER pics later on. 

Rich Murnane - look what you've done!

THANKS FOR SHARING the pictures guys !