Switcher Saturday: 2018-July-28

Critter class!

and finally....

You all probably know this already, but if not please note that our own Tom Panettiere  @PRR8976 posted a nice article recently on "Tinplate Times", titled Lionel's Prewar Switchers, Poster Child for the Semi-Scale Movement?

http://www.tinplatetimes.com/T...iScale/semiscale.htm

Congratulations Tom, great article!

Good morning Rich.

My daughter won’t let anyone sleep today so I will post earlier than usual. Last Sunday we took a trip back to Strasburg.  My son and I spied a very famous switcher napping in the shed!

jhz563 posted:

Good morning Rich.

My daughter won’t let anyone sleep today so I will post earlier than usual. Last Sunday we took a trip back to Strasburg.  My son and I spied a very famous switcher napping in the shed!

That's awesome John, your kids are so cute I love seeing pics of them.  I also wondered where that very famous switcher liked to rest, mystery solved!  

Best...Rich

Rich,

  That is a nice shot of you and your B6 at the fair. Post more pictures when you return, if you can. Thanks so much for the shout out on the article. I am very proud of it & how it finally came out. Jim at Tinplate Times is excellent to work with. Also, I have another article coming out the Fall edition of The Keystone, the quarterly magazine of the  Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society (which makes it my third article there). 

John, 

 Nice picture of both of you and the hidden "Mr. T"
in the shed.

Been busy this week as my dog had surgery on Thursday. He came home last night & is doing good, still has his IV tube in his front paw so he is walking around with a heavily gauzed procted front paw, like a mummy. 

Also had a dream this morning of self-propelled N5 cabin cars/cabooses driving on the road on a nearby main street!  

Speaking of N5 cabin cars, here is my contribution for this week, my prewar #228 Pennsy B6 with a nearby N5.  

Tom 

Good morning fellow switcher fans!!  It's SWSAT!!  Rich I'm glad you are having so much fun with your train club!! 

Tom - Congratulations on the article!!

JHZ563 - looks like you and your daughter are going to be spending time with trains real soon ... have BIG fun

As life has had me quite busy, I've had no time to snap new photos of switchers doing their thing.... plus my camera has been on the blink.    I did get into the train room last night, the first time in weeks, and run some train though.... BIG FUN!!!  

Here are some re-peat photos.... C&O 0-8-0 being serviced, FM Train Masters, Baltimore and Annapolis SW9.    Hopefully you will enjoy them.    

Later today I'm off to SUNY Fredonia to attend a music conference for the week.  Since I'm driving, I plan to stop at some train shops to and fro.  Have a wonderfully fun and creative weekend/week!!

An older Atlas SW with a lot of work, upgrade to TMCC. 

Yay! SWSat is on!

I missed last week because once again I was trying to post from the then eastbound Maple Leaf. Slow internet made it way too frustrating to post but now I can post some pics I grabbed from the train.

 Here is an ex NYC Alco that Lionel has offered in this paint and number. It serves the Adirondack Scenic when it is awake. Years ago I saw this engine in Tupper Lake on a work train. That track is used maybe a few times a year but it was before cell phone cameras so I sadly have no pics.

Here is a switcher at Albany/Renns

A solo SusieQ EMD.

Here is a hump tower. These are very important to switching and accomplished quite a lot of it. On CSX at least they seem to be endangered with a lot of hump yard closures. I don’t think any of these have made it into SWSat yet.

Next up an interesting and unrecognized by me stored switcher of the Mohawk Adirondack and Northern. You can spot some of their big Alco roster behind it and the unusual to see these days big blue Caboose.

Here is the current sad state of the NYC 0-6-0 that was hit by a runaway a few years ago and pushed into a building. At least it was pulled away from the station building it rammed.

Last up I made my first frog. At some point it will grow into a full grown #8 switch.

Have a great weekend guys. Congratulations on the article Tom P/MNCW. 

Happy SWSat Everyone!

Great stuff so far.

Looks like a fun time Rich.
Tom- very nice article, Congrats.

JHZ563- great catch at Strasburg. We had a similar story when we were out there about 10 years ago. We were driving by one day one the way somewhere else and I caught a glimpse of a bright blue switcher as we passed. I had heard that Strasburg does maintenance on a certain Very Useful Engine . We turned around and went back and sure enough they had him fired up and were doing some boiler checks on the old boy. The crew was great and they let us take some pix in front of him and blew the whistle for us. My son was about 4 and was a absolute Thomas nut at the time (OK- I was excited too) . We had considered going to the Day out with Thomas events that they run but friends had warned us that it was usually a mad house. This was by far much better. He was just there for maintenance so we never expected to see the engine. If I can find the photos (pre- smartphone days) I will scan them and post soon.

Andy- very nice photos. Nice ALCO, but that 0-6-0 needs major TLC. Impressive rail work there, can't wait to see the finished turnout.

MikeCT- Very nice work on that SW.

Patrick- Fredonia is not far from Niagara Falls. If you've never been there its worth the time to see it in person. Mind blowing to see that much water moving over the falls.

This week I put out my other 3 K-line MP-15's in honor of the newly arrived Demo model.

Spent ten days out in the Seattle area recently. Struck out on railroad themed events as the State of Washington apparently didn't get the memo that it is presently tourist season-most RR themed attractions were closed. The Mount Rainier Scenic RR has almost all train runs canceled into late August. I ventured out to Snoqualmie, WA. one day to view the NW Railroad Museum and the one person who was supposed to be there and open it up didn't show. I did snag a few photos of the NP station, but much of that view was blocked by these two engines.

                                        Dusting off some oldies...…………….

Happy Switcher Saturday!

Here are my photos of the Northwest Railway Museum from Oct. 2011

And here's my Canton #1502 SW1500 switcher moving cars to the new Sand & Gravel facility.

Charlie

Here is a little "J"

Soo Nut posted:

Here is a little "J"

Soo,  Having grown up along "The J", I yearned and yearned over the MTH "2500 HP Transfer Diesel" version of the above ( https://mthtrains.com/20-20194-1 ), despite it being all-wrong.  I figured that someone would come out with the correct locomotive (pre or post rebuild) at a time when I could better afford such nonsense.  But that was nonsense proving, once again, that prudence and self control simply don't pay.  Thanks!

Here is one of my switchers

Thanks everyone about the comments on the article.

Tom 

A switcher from France, a BB63000 diesel engine from 1953 to 1964.

Following Rich's picture that he posted, also part of the Port Authority of NY/NJ, here is "The Lincoln Tunnel Catwalk Car."

Tom 

K-LIne Collector Club 0-4-0

   Bill T.

MNCW posted:

Following Rich's picture that he posted, also part of the Port Authority of NY/NJ, here is "The Lincoln Tunnel Catwalk Car."

Tom 

No driver in the 1959 Chevy!

Yes, I noticed that too. Maybe they were testing driverless cars way back then? 

Also, the lettering on the police car looks crooked! 

Tom 

MTH B&O 0-6-0 on the North Pole Central.

Here are a couple of pictures of my alco s-2 punlink a cut of bottle cars on the CLRC club layout during the LCCA CONVENTION open house. 

MNCW posted:

Yes, I noticed that too. Maybe they were testing driverless cars way back then? 

Also, the lettering on the police car looks crooked! 

Tom 

Also the 1960 Ford in the lead appears to have the gear shift lever in park.

Great posts this week all, thank you everyone for the contributions!

Here's a picture of "James" from last night, running at the fair.  I did a bit of editing on the picture, hope nobody minds!

See you next week...Rich

congrats Tom. Great pics all. We were out of town all weekend for our anniversary (cleverly disguised as an Avon Convention for the wife.)

Thanks Dave. You're a good husband. 

Tom 

naw....it's payback for all the train and car shows I've drug her to over the years.....