Weekend Photos - March 2026

[healey36]

Mid-week photo...



Happy St. Patty's Day!

[healey36]

Productive week on the workbench and with some shopped-out work.

Tore down the battered 2037 and got it running great. I need to work on the smoke unit, but the E-unit is cycling fine. There was still a ton of steel-wool fibers jammed up in the motor and the Magnetraction bits, but I think I've now gotten that all out. What a PITA; I understand now why The Old Man used to tell me to never clean track with steel-wool. I need to make a list of the missing bits, but not too bad. I found the spare boiler casting I have, so that's off to the paint booth when I get a hot minute. It still amazes me how durable these things are.

I got the 248 and the 226E back from East Main and they are now back in terrific shape. The 248 needed to be re-wheeled and some work on the collector assembly. I thought just new rollers, but they were in fact a bit floppy so the entire collector assembly was replaced. I could have re-wheeled it myself if I hadn't busted my wheel puller, but no way I make a nice neat job of replacing the collector assembly. There's a trick to fitting those, one I've not mastered. I'm thinking it's good for another century now:



Out on the mainline it was doing laps like a banshee:



I always forget the 248's were one direction only; I like the looks of them though, and this one, with its custom green roof looks pretty neat.

I was up to Ollie's today and rummaging around. It's one of those overstock/remnants places, so you never know what you might find. They had a few interesting vintage-repop plastic model kits, but I successfully avoided adding any of those to the stacks at home. I did find another of the Lionel-Racing diecast, though; just one, a lone straggler it seems. They do seem to be a step up from the old Racing Champion line...I'll be interested to see what happens with the new Lionel.

[webenda]

Out on the mainline it was doing laps like a banshee:

Meaning? Is it doing laps at full throttle?

The sun has been shining recently. It makes things on the door layout look so good!

P1004150850 by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

The people got blown out by the bright light, but maybe that is a good thing; it hides the fact that they have no faces.

P1004140850 by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

This Menards car has some really good coupler mechanisms. The pin that holds the coupler closed SNAPS loudly into place. I did not expect the couplers to open inadvertently, but they do.

[healey36]

Out on the mainline it was doing laps like a banshee:

Meaning? Is it doing laps at full throttle?

Throttle fidelity on prewar Lionel is pretty lacking...best described as fast and faster. I've tried using a #88 rheostat between the transformer and the track, but that doesn't offer much improvement. These motors are pretty primitive, so overcoming initial load is likely the problem, or at least part of it. In the case of this 248, it's well-lubricated, new brushes/springs, a clean commutator face, new pick-up rollers, axle bearings look good (no evidence of binding). You just need to apply half throttle to get it going, and then it takes off. Dial it back slightly and it stops. I have a Lionel 204 steamer that runs similarly. One solution - throw a bunch of cars behind it to slow it down.

[webenda]

Copyright Lynnette Benda by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

[healey36]

I look at that pic and think no wonder rail-workers got killed between cars.

End of March...it's been quiet.

[webenda]

Really?

[webenda]

I look at that pic and think no wonder rail-workers got killed between cars.

End of March...it's been quiet.

Regarding rail-worker fatalities, "The substantial drop in the fatality rate during the latter half of the 10-year study period (from 12.3 fatalities per 100,000 employed for 1993–97 to 8.0 for 1998–2002) suggests that the industry is becoming safer."
=> https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2007/07/art2full.pdf

It has been quiet, and hot and cold, and lots of roll clouds. I have been told that roll clouds, a type of arcus cloud, are not associated with tornadoes. Then, why at 10 am yesterday, did the tornado warning sirens go off as two roll clouds moved over Columbia?
=> https://weather.com/news/weather/news/2 ... oll-clouds

Today is World Back Up day. So, I ran my train backward around the layout a few times.
=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Backup_Day

[healey36]

The Google machine reports that 2500 rail-workers were killed annually on average during the 1920s (total railroad employment during the 1920s averaged 2.2 million). Certainly a bit more precarious than today (which makes sense).

We've already had 2-3 tornado warnings here this year, and it's only the end of March. One, a confirmed EF-1, touched down about seven miles down the road. We had some strong gusts that evening, but no damage.

[webenda]

The Google machine reports that 2500 rail-workers were killed annually on average during the 1920s (total railroad employment during the 1920s averaged 2.2 million). Certainly a bit more precarious than today (which makes sense).

2,500 is point one percent of 2.2 million (0.11363636%).
0.1136% of 100,000 is 117 killed per 100,000 railroad workers killed annually. Yes, certainly a bit more precarious than today.

[HONDO74]

Today is April fools day.

Relive nothing and trust no one. Just like any other day.