Using switchers as their main Locomotive committing a sin?

caxu Oct 5, 2017

  1. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Life is short. Run what you want.

    I personally have a weakness for particular locos and certain car types. So my collection of trains does not reflect any prototype at all.

    The model railway prototype police has to have a warrant before they can see your layout anyway. ;)
     
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  2. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Yup, I have Pacifics built during WWI and EMD SD90MACs running on my layout.

    Doug
     
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  3. Jeepy84

    Jeepy84 TrainBoard Member

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  4. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    When the Pere Marquette took delivery of its first diesels, a pair of SW-1's, one of their first assignments was pulling local freights on the light-railed branches in Michigan's thumb area. Eventually, after the postwar merger into the C&O, they were replaced in that service by BL2's, of which C&O owned the largest fleet.
     
  5. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    5050.1320207584 (2).jpg Weyerhaeuser's Longview logging railroad used EMD switchers from the moment they retired steam, right up to a few years ago. Most trains ran with 4-5 switchers on the head-end of the log trains.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2017
  6. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Kurt, that is a fantastic photograph.

    Doug
     
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  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    WOW. Calendar quality photo!
     
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  8. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, but not my photo, just one off of Google I found. ;)
     
  9. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    Excellent, nonetheless. Thanks for posting.
     
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  10. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Well, then I don't want to look at it.

    Hehe, just kidding. :D It's still fantastic.

    What are they hauling? Wood chips?

    Doug
     
  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yes.
     
  12. NRRTRAINS

    NRRTRAINS New Member

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  13. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    NRRTRAINS, are those Rivarossi units (actually, I know the shells are. I just wonder what drive is in them)? Also, I see several familiar buildings/structures on your layout and I love them all.

    Doug
     
  14. NRRTRAINS

    NRRTRAINS New Member

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    yes they are Rivarossi units as many of the early atlas engines came with .
     
  15. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Anything can happen and probably has.

    There is a book on the history of the Norfolk and Western. It is one of those books with hundreds of pictures. In the case of the prototype, the inverse can also be true. After diesels came on the scene, there are photos of huge articulated locos pulling 5 car locals. ;)
     
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  16. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    I can think of two short lines not far from me (the Sand Springs Railway and the Tulsa-Sapulpa Union), both former interurbans, that use switchers as their motive power. Another one in Georgia, the Sandersville RR, uses switch engines and slugs to serve the kaolin pits near Sandersville, GA to the interchange with NS at Tennille, GA.
     
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  17. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Hey frisco bob, don’t forget the Port of Catoosa! SW 1500s
     
  18. Yannis

    Yannis TrainBoard Member

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    ATSF was using S-2 and S-4 switchers for local freight in the 4th District (LA-San Diego). If i am not mistaken they were handling local freight and switching in Orange county, from Santa Ana up to north and then down to San Juan Capistrano (mostly around Santa-Ana). So using switchers for short-range local freights was done back then.
     
  19. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    I've seen pics of UP using Cow/Calf units in helper service, along with the Milwaukee Road out of Spokane, Wa.
     
  20. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    I finally took the opportunity to look at these photos and they are fantastic. I guess I just remember four SW1s but when I saw them was about 10-11 years before these photos (in 1964-65) so things could have changed in the intervening years. If these are the same units as I saw, they obviously, to me, received new paint jobs as I remember them being fairly faded and worn out looking in the sixties.

    I have been in many of the towns in these photos when I worked out on the road. Hehe, three bars visible in the Canton, MN photo.

    Thanks for the links.

    Doug
     
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