Switcher Saturday: 2018-May-26

Happy Switcher Saturday everyone and Happy Memorial Day weekend. 

My switcher roster expanded this past week with the purchase of a nice MTH B&O Dockside switcher. This joins a Right-Of-Way Dockside that I bought in the last year. 

My newly found MTH Dockside: 

Thanks to Patrick/TRUMPTRAIN for his advice on MTH Docksides and Charlie Powell who shot me an email that one was available at National Railroad Worx. 

Tom 

K-lines Plymouth switcher

   Bill T.

Yay! SWSat is on!

I missed last weeks outing for the first time in a long while. Life got very busy. This weekend I am up in the Adirondacks and will be doing some work on the Caboose.

Tom I think you have to leave some dockside tanks for the rest of us. Kidding congratulations for expanding past Pennsy B6s.

Rich that Porter looks great with those old K-line 19th century ore Jennies. I am surprised they were never offered like that instead the Jennie’s always came with the Plymouth’s.Glad you had a fun run. That is a very nice museum. There is a very nice reproduction or sectional (I can’t remember which) Southern Railroad postal railroad car there. It would go well with the PS4 in the American History Museum down the mall.

This week I have pics of Switchers from the Port Jarvis area of the NYSME layout. There are some big changes in the works involving switching in the Society. We will see how they pan out in the coming months.

First up a nice Icken IR boxcab doing a Caboose hop.

Here is the big camelback 0-8-8-0 Yard switcher.A Susie Q SW parked in its usual spot outside the engine house next to a D&H Challenger. For scale it is shorter than the tender.Last a pair of Lehigh Valley Pups in two different paint schemes.

Have a great weekend everyone. 

haven't been downstairs all week...bought a new train hauler...

so more from the archives.....

Frisco #3746 unknown date and location

Soo #125 Minneapolis 1939

Soo #X90 unknown date and place

and thanks to all for your service!

I really need a Porter, Docksider or Plymouth. Since I don't have any of them, I spent some time this week running B&M 1563. Enjoy the weekend!

MELGAR

Happy SWSat!

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who served.

Great stuff as usual everyone!

Rich- the side rods on that Porter were working overtime on that run.

Tom- Nice Docksider- I love mine.

Melgar- The K-line Plymouth's are great little engines. Good pulling power and fan powered smoke.

Dave- nice truck, now go fill it up with more pre-war switchers.

Andy- enjoy the Adirondacks. great weather this weekend. I've been up near Long Lake in the Park. Beautiful area.

I don't have any O gauge patriotic trains but a coworker gave me his old HO Freedom Train set a few years back. It was in rough shape but is on my repair list one day. I think I posted these last July 4th so apologies for the repeat.

Bob

203 moving a B&O ore car.

MELGAR posted:

I really need a Porter, Docksider or Plymouth. Since I don't have any of them, I spent some time this week running B&M 1563. Enjoy the weekend!

MELGAR

You can!   Western Depot has porters and I think they have Plymouth switchers in stock.  This Is the Porter I ordered from them which should be here by Thursday. I’ll post some pics next week. 

Wow, docksiders, porters and plymouths. Let's add a Beep!

Rich, glad to see you are enjoying my old Porter!

Tom, thank you for the shout out on the B & O.

TNKMARX, I see my old ore car & caboose.

Melgar, Grzyboski's has docksiders.

Here are my SWSAT pics.

Charlie

 Here is my Marx military set. 

Thanks to Chris Lonero and CPowell for advice on where to get Porters, Plymouths and Docksiders, and also RSJB18. I'm checking it out right now!

MELGAR

Well. In full scale I have one car it is missing it’s wheels, there is no track and I have nothing to pull it with. But it is sitting in a former logging railroad yard so maybe it could count....

This switcher was donated to the modular group......it looks like a repaint of an early Lionel PostWar switcher.

Peter

Wonderful photos everyone  Tom - congratulations on your new MTH Dockside

Here are some photos of my WbB scale forty four tonner switching some tank cars.  

Silver Lake posted:

Well. In full scale I have one car it is missing it’s wheels, there is no track and I have nothing to pull it with. But it is sitting in a former logging railroad yard so maybe it could count....

Dude, that is awesome! So are you living there? Or is it just your "summer home?"

George

GeoPeg posted:

Silver Lake posted:

Well. In full scale I have one car it is missing it’s wheels, there is no track and I have nothing to pull it with. But it is sitting in a former logging railroad yard so maybe it could count....

Dude, that is awesome! So are you living there? Or is it just your "summer home?"

George

A summer cabin/Caboose. 

Pretty much my favorite spot. I have it plugged in to electricity. The real one had a stove where the chair is. Have not found one I like for it. I have parts of the real stove from one of the other cabooses I found in the woods. The lake in to background was used as a log pond and storage for the saw mill. 

that's where he stays when the wife finds out what he spends on trains....

Steamer posted:

that's where he stays when the wife finds out what he spends on trains....

Ha, ha, ha

Silver Lake posted:

GeoPeg posted:

Silver Lake posted:

Well. In full scale I have one car it is missing it’s wheels, there is no track and I have nothing to pull it with. But it is sitting in a former logging railroad yard so maybe it could count....

Dude, that is awesome! So are you living there? Or is it just your "summer home?"

George

A summer cabin/Caboose. 

Pretty much my favorite spot. I have it plugged in to electricity. The real one had a stove where the chair is. Have not found one I like for it. I have parts of the real stove from one of the other cabooses I found in the woods. The lake in to background was used as a log pond and storage for the saw mill. 

Hey Andy/SILVERLAKE,

   Yes, I think that would be my favorite spot, too--if it belonged to me! 

Tom 

Hey folks,

  Let's keep our friend, Patrick/TRUMPTRAIN and his family, in our thoughts and prayers. Heavy rains have created severe flooding in his area. 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20180527-story.html 

Tom 

My switcher service still busy

Arnold

Either it's still Saturday or I just finished working 48 hours straight on this switcher. 

After upgrading an Atlas, NYC SW8, doing this Pennsy SW9 was going to be a breeze. 

The naked starting point.

Running gear back in place, platform made and mounted, and control and sound electronics shoehorned into position.  Probably a thousand tweaks involved to get to this stage.

Just enough height inside the metal shell with room to add styrene sheets for electrical insulation

After a front LED headlight was added, attention to the cab became intense.  Along with the TMCC antenna in the roof, wiring in a rear headlight and cab light were done before the cab interior was painted.  Never satisfied with the factory greenhouse, I cut and file the plastic inserts into individual panes that tight fit in place.  In this way the glazing fits more realistically flush to the cab body.

With the main components fit for a trial running I can now concentrate on detailing the outside.  More next week.

Bruce

Great Job Bruce!

MNCW posted:

Hey folks,

  Let's keep our friend, Patrick/TRUMPTRAIN and his family, in our thoughts and prayers. Heavy rains have created severe flooding in his area. 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20180527-story.html 

Tom 

Thanks for your concern Tom and everyone.  As for me and my community, we are not experiencing any flooding, however, just fourteen miles away in the same county, Ellicott City has been ravaged with flood waters.  The Main Street historic district has been ravaged by flood waters destroying businesses and residences and sweeping away parked cars.  Luckily at this point no one has been injured or hurt.  As water has now subsided, the fire dept has evacuated the area due to a gas leak. This flood seems to be of similar proportions as the one almost two years ago.  If so, it will take many months before folks can visit Ellicott City's Main St. again.  

Ellicott City as many of you may know, is the first railroad terminus in the US.  The famous race between the horse and the Tom Thumb locomotive ended at the Ellicott City, the called Ellicott Mills, station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  

The original station still exists.  Due to its location and higher elevation, it's unlikely that the station is under water.   The station is constructed of stone and is a museum which was run until recently by the Baltimore and Ohio Museum in Baltimore.  It's now managed by the Howard County Dept of Parks.  CSX tracks of the "Old Mainline" of the Baltimore and Ohio run alongside the station and carry several freight trains daily. 

Great job Bruce, thanks for the pictures.    An early Atlas SW9 with upgrades. 

Electro-Couplers added, parts from Atlas. 

Speaker added in the fuel tank, parts from Atlas. 

Bruce- nice job on the SW-9. Thanks for sharing.

Glad to hear you are high and dry Patrick. Hope your neighbors in Ellicott recover quickly.

Bob

The King:

Hear the King sing: ding ding ding . . . 

Ding ding ding ding ding  . . . LOL, Arnold

Oops, the dings got drowned out.

This time, you can hear the King sing ding ding ding loud and clear:

What could be better than that?

A duet. Hear the King and his brother steam switcher sing a duet, ding ding ding ding:

Arnold

Mike CT posted:

Great job Bruce, thanks for the pictures.    An early Atlas SW9 with upgrades. 

  

Electro-Couplers added, parts from Atlas. 

Speaker added in the fuel tank, parts from Atlas. 

 

Thanks Mike,

 I had promised to post when the upgrade was completed but I'm geeking out on details. Consequently, it's taking longer than anticipated. But hey, it's all about the journey, right?

Seems Atlas offered this switcher in more than one engine number.

  As before, I located the program switch where you installed the speaker.  Both locals being logical depending on the speaker utilized.  

The electro couplers are an issue.  I still need to heavily modify a set to shorten them.

research indicates a totally reconfigured fuel tank area on the SW9.  I hope to modify mine to reproduce what I've seen in photos.

There's loads of opportunity for adding more details than came with the engine out of the box.  More recent Atlas offerings may have improved on this.

Bruce