Interchange Track Departing

Atlas O EMD SW-9 on the interchange track

About twenty years ago I bought this Atlas SW-9. The unit was painted CN&W but I was planning on repainting it. This unit was the first I ever installed a DCC decoder into. I had some track set up in my kitchen in my first house. I used to just like to turn on the locomotive and listen to it idle of the table while I cooked dinner.

The unit was going to be repainted PRR back I first bought it. Never got to that. When the PRR became a secondary modeling focus, I tried to find other uses for this great running locomotive.

You might remember I had posts of it with an MTH SW-1 shell of the drive. Then, I was able to find a brass SW-1 at a Chicago Show. So it started to become an NW-2. I cut up an old All Nation NW-2 shell and fit the hood on the drive.

I finally found an extra old SW-9 shell at another show and put it back together as a SW-9. But it really didn’t fit my model needs for 1952. The Reading did not have SW-9’s until 1956.

The other day it was made ready and moved out onto the modeling interchange track. It shipped out over the weekend on it’s way to a new home. I did enjoy the model, but now I won’t be as tempted to paint it PC and model the early ’70’s.

It wasn’t even on my mind to part with the model. But someone was looking for one, so I thought it be a good reason to stop trying to find something to build it into.

I do want to remind readers that I do put models that no longer fit my modeling focus on my Interchange Track page.

It does create an empty project bin. What will fill that space next?

A Day At The Car Shops 1951

There was a link shared this morning on the Steam Era Freight Car Board to a video from 1951 of the Merchant Dispatch Car Shops in East Rochester, NY. I’ve seen this video a few years ago, but it is still enjoyable for any fans of freight cars.

The video documents the work of building freight cars in the early 1950’s. It goes all the way from stamping sheet metal for car sides and ends to the final painting of the cars being built.

Video Link: A Day At The Car Shops 1951

Below are a few screen shoots from the video. It’s a little long but worth it.