A buddy of mine, visiting railroad related places on the west Coast went and checked out the old SPNG which is in the Owens Valley. I guess that it's in the middle of nowhere but they have some of the old equipment on display.

Many years ago (1959 to be exact) Model Railroader magazine ran a 6 part series dealing with scratchbuilding a Wabash mogul. As part of the back story the magazine ran an article about how two lone Wabash moguls became the last steam on the Wabash. Apparently there was a branchline trestle that wouldn't support a loco bigger than a mogul and I suppose that, being a branch line, the company didn't want to rebuild the bridge.

This last engine, Wabash 576, engine is in a museum - I think in St. Louis.

Out here on Long Island there were Alcos switchers and FM C-liners. These new engines were introduced in the early fifties. The LIRR ran steam, behind large ten wheelers (Pennsy G-5s) until the mid fifties.

No two railroads were the same and if you want to model a transition period you might want to do some research. Some railroads got rid of steam quickly but big lines like the Pennsy and N&W held on to steam until the late fifties. The Pennsy ran the steamers until they would no longer be fit to operate. They wanted every penny of value from their steamers.

Even though I often write in this blog that clear silicone caulk will do a great job securing track, I helped my neighbor's son in law fix track with hot glue. I thought it would melt the foam underlay but it didn't.

By the way - in my last post my reference  to rock thowers should be "idiots." I usually proof read things twice - I did with that post but missed the typo. Oh well, looks like I need new, thicker glasses!

Have you loooked at modern trains? Are there any young train watchers out there? Sure the locomotives might be colorful but the freight cars are dull and often loaded with graffiti.

My grandparents farmed in South Carolina. One end of town was the Southern and the other end the ACL (actually the C&WC). I remember reading the slogans on the box cars and was once very surprised to see a car with a maple leaf on it. CN cars were a rare sight in the south.  Of course, at the end of the train, was the caboose - always interesting - no two alike.

I grew up in Manhattan and with a friend would walk down to the big NYC yards on the west side. Again there were all sorts of interesting cars from all over the country. It was a learning experience.

Once on school trip to West Point I saw a NYC streamliner snaking its way along the Hudson. The Two tone grey with striping made for a very expensive looking train and made we wish I had the Lionel NYC F-3s!.

One day there appeared in the Manhattan yards new NYC diesels - but no lightening stripes! Instead they were black with the new cigar band herald - they were gp-20s and the simplified paint scheme was hinting at the money problems to come for the Central. The cabooses in Jade green were a sight to behold.

In college the science building overlooked Van Coirtland Park in the north Bronx. If I sat in a certain seat and row I could see the train - it broke up the monotony of learning statistics.

The now long abandoned Putnam line ran through the park.The train usually consisted of an RS-3 in black, two or three reefers (there were meat packing plants in Yonkers and the cars were loaded on the lower west side of manhattan.) The rear of the train was always a poorly maintained NYC 19000 class caboose - the kind with the little tiny cupola and with chicken wire over the windows; there were lots of idips who liked to throw rocks.  My point is that modern railroads, although keeping the nation moving, are just shadows of their predecessors.

As a person who trains techers I can tell you that today's students have to be taught in 10 minute blocks because of the influences of modern technology. Unless you can get your Bachmann K-4 to morph into a strange space vehicle or shoot lasers,  a lot of kids won't be interested.

By the way, the Allen Timesaver is more of a game than a layout. You could do one with scenery but the idea is to have some fun switching cars around. Allen used Baker couplers and today's knuckle couplers might make the task a tad easier.

I think the layout on the plank has too many switches.

Why re-invent the wheel? The late great John Allen, a model railroading legend, designed his time saver switching layout. It is a switching puzzle and can be great fun. Just Google " John Allen timesaver layout." the beauty of it is that you can later include it in a bigger layout.

For the uninitiated, John Allen was a professional photographer who also was a great model railroader. His layout featured floor to ceiling mountains as well as nifty bridges and lots of buildings. These were mostly scratchbuilt by Mister Allen as there were very few kits in the fities until the Revell line came along.

Allen was known for silly things like the brontosaurus being used as a switcher and using mirrors to make the layout look bigger. His reputation increased when people saw his "Gorre and Dapheted" layout featured in Varney ads on the back page of Model Railroader.

He died prematurely and his house burned down. Very little of the G&D was rescued.

Jon - once again you have shown the readers that most any little problem can be sealt with. It's too bad that there are so many "shake the box" modellers out there.

My biggest triumph with Brass engines was when I found an Empire Midland Southern Ry mountain at the Timonium show. Somebody had disassembled it becasue the frame pieces had become unsoldered. Cold soldewr joints were a big problem with early Korean models.               

I bought the thing (it was cheap) and completely stripped it. I made a form to hold the frame pieces (after removing the gold colored paint)and resassembled it with a Bernzomatic torch, plumbers flux and solder. It was quite a task putting the thing back together becasue the wheel bearings didn't quite fit the openings and the springs for the driverswere too stiff.  Also the frame was not square - I had to do a lot of filing prior to soldering,

I junked the cheap, undersize motor for  the biggest can motor I could find. I put the assembled mechanisn (less valve gear and boiler) on the tracks with a tender. Lo and behold the mechanism ran smoothly, quietly and slowly. I was very pleased with myself as other club members thought the engine was junk and suggested I go to counseling as I was obviously deranged!

I eventually finished the engine and sold it to a SRy fan at a later train show.

I always found tinkering with brass engines to be very enjoyable.               

Do you have the auxillary tender? My Westside Q4b included one.

If the owner of Greenway is the same man that ran Trackside Specialties he would be really up in years. A business like his is more of a hobby because you can't get rich selling little packets of 2 mm screws or assembled valvegear made for one specific engine.

Good luck with the Q4b it has always been one of my favorite locos.

Jon - Following up on my last post I googled Trackside Specialties - and came up with a company called Greenway - they have all sorts of nifty little parts. Have you you ever heard of them?

Regarding the tender frame - Westside later offered a free under frame that was narrower than the stock model.

There once was a guy who worked out of his garage selling HO brass parts. He called himself Trackside Specialties. He purchased all the Westside parts inventory. I remember visiting his booth once at the Timonium show. He had dozens of pairs of assembled valve gear for various Westside models. If you liked to tinker with brass models, going to his booth you could find trucks, drivers, frame springs and assembled valve gear - that sort of thing. He also had O scale parts plus he sold things he's find when hobby shops went out of business. I haven't seen him in Timonium for years and I often wonder what happened to his inventory.

Jon, I knew you would find a way of removing the jewels. I remember that the bell on my engine was loose and not too well detailed. Good luck with your upgrade. Keep us posted.

Hi Jonathan - is your Q-4b one of the ones that come in the Westside red, white, blue bicentennial box? I had one, and it had the neat B&O water bottle auxillary tender included. They were not the best brass models. The guy who owned Westside underwent a divorce and his cashflow was severely impacted so he was having his models done by a new Korean company.

From the start cold soldered joints fell off. The Tender frames didn't allow the trucks to swing and, yes, it had a teensie little can motor. I sold mine at a Timonium show. It required too much work. Earlier runs (red box) were much better than the 1976 batch.

You may have to remove the marker lamps and give them an acetone bath. You'd mess up the nice paint! I'm sure you'll come up with a solution.

Your question is like asking, "where can I get car parts for old cars."

Tou need to indicate the item for which you need parts. Parts show up on Ebay from time to time and I have has luck going to train shows.

Mark Twain called golf, "a good walk ruined." This commercial is a good steam engine ruined. While it's nice to see the big berkshire in an ad, I was turned off by all the syrupy (get it!) smiles. More locomotive and fewer actors would be nice.

I am told that the special edition Cokes that the "conductor" is passing out is made with sugar rather than corn syrup. The younger folks out there never were able to enjoy Coke made with sugar and with more carbonation.

The conductor handing out cokes reminds of travelling down south by train as a kid. The SRy conductors used to distribute little four packs of cigarettes to riders. The cigarettes were imprinted with, "Thanks for riding on Southern Ry."