The story: In 1885 The Clarion River Lumber Companyfound themselves in need of more power in the deep woods than horses and oxen could provide. Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to pay what the regular locomotive builders wanted for a new machine - they contacted a local machine shop to have a locomotive constructed from used parts. The owner of that machine shop decided that an old Owens, Lane and Dyer portable farm engine boiler could be fitted to a 4 wheeled locomotive chassis, and was a pretty good, inexpensive solution (and gave him more profit since he already had one!). In a stroke of inspiration - or perhaps the result of a bad hangover from too much cheap whiskey, the original OL&D engine cylider was moved to the off side of the boiler and attached via gears to a winding drum on the front of the locomotive, becoming a gypsy winch to help pull logs up steep banks where they could be more easily loaded onto the train.

The Model:  This locomotive was tossed together on a whim because I've always thought that the Elk River Mill & Lumber #1 (aka "Falk" after the Elk River's President) was a simply great looking little machine. But the Falk was in California, and standard gauge as well, so it couldn't very well be in PA at the same time.... or could it?
While idly comparing this picture of the REAL Falk to an Owens Lane & Dyer farm engine built in the early 1870s in Hamilton Ohio from my files, the question suddenly became, "And, why not?"

A pvc pipe tee, an Ozark smokestack, and a Bachmann firebox were the start of the build. Doesn't look like much, yet..... Adding a larger, relocated dome to the OL&D boiler would have been a fairly simple job for a good mechanic back in the days before massive paperwork.

A cheap Scientific battery chassis, wood, and more Ozark castings... a bit better.

Starting to look like something... maybe?

Or maybe not -- Revisions... Revisions... nothing ever goes quite as planned!

The big gypsy winch is probably the Falk's most interesting and best known feature. That huge crank disc just had to be modeled, necessitating an idler gear.

A very simple looking backhead, but everything needed is there

Battery box is the water tank under the fuel bunker. 2 rechargeable 9v and a simple on/off switch is all there is.

A face only a mother could love?

The Story: In 1887 Capt John Baptiste Ford opened his new Pittsburgh Plate Glass Works #3 along the Allegheny Valley a few miles south of Kittanning at a place that would become known as Ford City. The sprawling glassworks required a lot of switching of cars full of raw sand, scrap glass, and finished products, but there wasn't much spare space for a large locomotive. The AV contacted the fledgeling Climax Mfg Co of Corry, Pa to see if one of their new geared locomotives would be suitable for the job, and ultimately purchased a tiny 8 ton unit in the summer of 1888. This simple, rugged little locomotive would serve admirably until the first World War

The model: This was another one of those too cute, 'must build' projects, even though I didn't really have a purpose in mind. It's single axle pick-up, and cobbled driveline mean it doesn't perform very well, but it's unusual appearance make it a conversation piece wherever I take it.

Yes, there were actually a few (at least 4) of these wee beasties made

Chassis is a melange of HLW and Aristo with a basic cheap can motor worm drive. The axles were moved inward after this pic was taken to better reflect the prototype.

Most of the superstructure is made of wood

The steam engine is static, but pretty accurate dimensionally for being mostly wood

The boiler was made from the plastic centers of a couple register tapes and a miniature air freshener 'lampshade'!

Is that old Abe firing? I thought he was a lawyer? We'll call him Abraham anyway.

Tight fit, Maybe he climbs over the side like a monkey to board?

The Story: In 1922, the operating department found themselves in a bit of a quandry. A light locomotive was still needed to fulfil the mail contract and to perform the all important morning and evening 'milk run' - picking up farmers' milk cans from stops along the line and quicky delivering them to the dairy at Kittanning . A gas/mechanical rail car was considered, but rejected as not reliable enough (The AV men were a conservative lot!). Instead an order was placed with Alco at Schenectady NY for a sprightly, but large boilered 2-4-0. When the new #3 arrived she was put into immediate service. The engine crews loved her, she was easy to fire and superbly responsive. The shop crew hated her, as she was one of the few AV engines fitted with piston valves - and anything that throws you off your routine is a burden. After the the postal service cancelled the mail contract with the AV, along with many other smaller lines, in the early '50s #3 was transferred to yard service at Phillipston (Where #6 once roamed) and she was given a slopeback tender for better visibility.

The model: This was pretty much a quicky bash. It is just your basic Aristo-Craft 0-4-0 with a new-old-stock Delton c-16 cab. The locomotive had been dropped breaking off the pilot, so while I was reattaching it I lengthened it a bit and added a Buddy L pony truck. The only real modifications to the tender were a larger fuel bunker, taller handrail, and electric style light. It was also wired to the locomotive to help inprove electrical pick-up. It is the only AV engine with sound, as I find the stock units annoying. This engine belongs to my fiancee Kim. She asked to ' build (her) a train' for Christmas in 2008, so I made this to pull two Kalamazoo coaches.

What Jolly old St Nick does in the off season? A 'Just Plain Folk' drunkard is at the controls. He's done pretty well so far - maybe the flanged wheels help keep him from swerving too much. The fireman is LGB/Preiser, the window shades are painted paper and wire.

The Story: Peak of wartime traffic of 1943 was straining the aging infrastructure of the Allegheny Valley to it's limit and beyond. The sheer volume at the dual gauge Kiskikimenetas Junction with the West Penn RR was proving too much for the AV's aging narrow gauge 0-6-0 to handle. Heavier power was needed but not much was to be had. A broker in Philadelphia had found an ancient Reading 0-4-0 Camelback 'Goat' in a scrapyard near Harrisburg . Given the lack of more ... ordinary choices, the AV took what they were offered.  The odd looking locomotive was shipped to the AV in July, and given a quick rebuild. #11 entered service at Kiski on September 16, 1943. The wide Wooten firebox, required for anthracite coal, was more than adequate for Western Pa's Bituminous. - Once the fireman got he hang of firing her, she steamed easily. Occasionally the crews even had to make an effort to not let the safeties lift! Despite her strange appearance she remained in service basically unchanged until the summer of 1960 and dieselization of the lower AV.

The model: Some things are just so ugly, they're handsome.

I built this in 4 days in January 2010, with just parts from my scrapbox. The motor brick is Kalamazoo, I think, or perhaps Lionel. The cylinders are Delton

The smoke box is Scientific, the cab Delton, the headlight LGB.

Reading fans have probably already noticed that the boiler section in front of the cab is 'wrong', and they are quite correct. I used what I had, including a piece of Delton boiler shell with the sand dome base cast in.... so we have Reading Goat mixed with a little Lehigh Valley. We can always blame it on the shop crews in a hurry to get her into service in 1943.

The Reading style semi-slopeback tender was scratchbuilt from acrylic sheet with LGB trucks

#11 in classic our AVRR paint (Based on the Great Northern 'Glacier Park'), before weathering with rattle can paints - as described on the #6's page.

And after

The Story: The Allegheny Valley was not a truly prosperous line in the best of times. Sometimes other railroads' cast offs are the best that they can do. The dual gauging of the line between Verona and Ford City in 1902 to ease interchange problems for the important mills on the southern part of the line created a need for a few standard gauge locomotives, especially switchers. One of the 2nd hand locomotives the AV purchased was this old ex- Pennsylvania steam dummy. Shortly after the AV rejected the Pennsy's second attempt to take over the line in April of 1910 someone (who truly wishes to remain forever nameless to keep from getting fired) decided that it would be a grand joke to reletter the old dummy as "Pennsylvania". Whether the directors never found out, secretly enjoyed the joke, or just chose to ignore it is not known. What IS known, however, is the locomotive remained painted that way until her next major shopping in 1913 when she was stripped of her carbody (now a chicken shed near East Brady), and converted to an 0-4-0 tank engine. She remained in service that way at Verona until the end of WWII

The Model: Called a 'steam dummy' here in the US, or a 'tram' in Europe, these odd beasts were just enclosed steam lococomotives. The theory was that horses, while terrified of strange smoke belching contraptions like locomotives, would not react as strongly to something that looked like what they were familiar with - the old horsecars. So locomotives that were used for a lot of street running, like those in commuter service or doing a lot of switching in urban areas were enclosed inside these wooden bodies. I don't know how well it worked. Are horses really THAT stupid? At any rate, by 1900 many ex steam dummies had been sold off by their original owners or stripped of their carbodies.

My eldest daughter Mairi had a love for 'Toby' from Rev Awdry's Railway Series (Better known as the TV show Thomas and Friends) when she was small. So she requested that I build her one. Instead of a model of 'Toby', she got this.

To build it. I started with an Aristo 0-4-0, or, well, most of it

Wooden side tanks and a homemade air pump barely show through the windows on the finished model

Because I proceeded to hide everything under the cut down body of a Bachmann coach A closed streetcar body would have been more prototypical, but I used what I had.

Yep, it sure is different, but it was built with love. And my daughter is very proud of it. She says it's the "most awesome engine" on the line.

The Story: The AV is first, last, and always, a steam railroad. So what is this diesel thing doing on the line? Necessity. - In the fall of 1945 the old switcher at the glassworks at Verona (see the Dummy story above) was just plain worn out. It needed major work to both boiler and running gear. Something had to be done, right away. But money - as usual- was tight. However, with the war's end, the US Army Transportation Corps was beginning to dispose of many of 'surplus' locomotives and other items they had acquired for war service. This particular 1929 25 ton Plymouth wasn't yet worn out, it was available, and it was cheap. So the AV made a bid and purchased it. The operating department assigned it 'lucky' #13 in plain derision. The fact that it does it's job with little fuss, and needs less maintenence than a steam engine is generally ignored. The low man on the engineer call board generally gets assigned 'bus driver' duty,  and the old heads just call it a 'stinkpot'.

The model: This was another locomotive that I built on a whim. I had a cheap resin Caterpillar generator, the old compromise cab off LGB #6, and a HLW Mack base in my scrapbox and a rainy afternoon to kill.

Kim said she wanted it red - so it's red. The hippie dippy engineer is from Just Plain Folks, the sand dome is NoS Kalamazoo, the toolbox Aristo, and the hood from a junky toy dozer I found at a flea market for a quarter.

Ugly, ain it? Yes, they often really did look like that.

Sideframes from a Bachmann Trolley look just the part for a late '20s unit

Ready to roll... well, relatively. It has a Bachmann streetcar drive brick, so it's not the best performer. It's also pretty noisy - but I guess since it's a 'growler', it is allowed to growl?