N1GY- The simple Approach to Ham Radio

and My Model Railroad Hobby

​

This little tank locomotive comemorates one owned by Bethlehem Steel years ago. Again it came from the club store for a mere pittance..

Today, the last day of April,  I finalised the positions of my last two locomotives. The big articulated that used to reside on the end wall between the kitchen and the train room I moved to the guest bedroom bookcase where it has pride of place amongst other memorabilia from my life. Locomotive Number 100, a Mantua articulated with DCC now resides on the track shelf vacated by the bigger articulated loco. 

​My Model Railroad Page 27

Here is my second articulated locomotive, a PRR 2-8-8-2 Mallett locomotive. Very strong and intended for heavy slow freight service and eventually, pusher service on the steeper grades of the PRR..

This is #10 in my collection of  NW-2 through SW-1500 switching locomotives. A #11 is on it's way but is still a few days out. When it arrives I will officially run out of display space until I figure out how and where to add more. The thinking cap is on and I can smell brain cells smoking but no answers yet.

This 4-6-2 arrived a few weeks ago, also from the club store. I found that it was DCC ready so I had a pal install a DCC decoder no sound as yet but I am looking into installing a sound only decoder as a add-on to the original decoder.

Here is number 98 in the roster, a Plymouth industrial locomotive owned by Canadian National RR. It came with knuckle couplers and arrived in fine shape from Texas.

Again, a very inexpensive loco from the club store. This little 0-4-0 is somewhat dusty but the price was very right and this makes number 97 on the Locomotive roster. Number 98 is in transit from Texas as I write this. 

This is one of the locos I picked up at my model railroad club for next to nothing. It is a NewYorkCentral PA-2 in excellent condition with K-D couplers

Here is number 11 in my collection of NW/SW locomotives. That is as far as that collection will go. I really like these little guys who can do so much and are still going strong all over North America.

This is the last bit of shelving for my model railroad collection for the time being. I have moved a total of 6 locomotives from various places in the house to this stair-stepped shelf in my office. .They sit on top of my radio operating position so I can look at them more often. I took another two locomotives from other places in the house and moved them to the 4th shelf. Thus the new display is now full, and I have some space in the railroad room for new aquisitions should they come  available in time.

The picture above is a newer view than the one that was here yesterday. This photo shows the NW-2 through SW-1500 collection in its final form. The heavily weathered Frisco loco has been moved to the layout and a sparkling new NASA SW-1500 has taken it's place. The NASA loco still needs it's railings installed but that will come in time. Update: railing have been installed.

This is a replacement for the same unit I tossed because of an unrepairable axle on the final driver. Unfortunately, this one arrived with exactly the same problem and while I will keep as a display item only, I am disappointed that the seller did not disclose the fault before I bought it. Live and learn!!!.

This is my 100th and so far final locomotive. A truly landmark aquisition, it can go in one of two places in my train room. The only question being whether it forces a move for another loco or whether it goes in a space already vacated by yet another articulated loco. 

Here is number 99, a Texas and Pacific 2-6-0 that arrived today from Lone Star Trains. They even included a spare coupler to replace the damaged one on the tender. I will get to that in a day or so. 

I have removed the two big locomotives from the bottom shelf and replaced them with 5 more of the SW-1500 series. The big locos are moving to a new display shelf in my office over my radio operating position. Before they can make the move I will have to build a new shelf insert which will elevate the rearward tracks upwards so all the locos are viewable.

Here is another bargain. Again from the club store. It has a bit of damage to the front pilot beam but I was able to order a new pilot from Precision scale which will replace the broken one when I gets here.

The latest addition to the roster required a bit of repair when it arrived. I knew about the problem before I bought the loco and it was a quick installation of a new couplerand footplates on the rear along with a minor patch of a chipped edge at the rear as well. Took all of 10 minutes to make her good as new. I have developed an interest in these very small locos which are referred to as "critters" in the fraternity. THey take up little space and are a whole different animal than the big locos in my collection.