Here is a front end picture for the Friday starting the July 4th weekend. These engines just happened to be sitting as shown, three on the turntable approach tracks, two back in the freight yard. I turned on the track power for the picture and used the supplemental LED light to bring out more details.
Foreground, left to right; a 2005 TMCC PRR Mikado; a 2011 Legacy NP Challenger; a 2021 Legacy AT&SF Pacific, the smoke at idle is visible. In the background, on the left a 2006 TMCC Erie Pacific; on the right a 2012 Legacy AT&SF Y3. Not present anywhere on the layout are the 2020 Legacy Berkshires. Both are still at Goldinhands awaiting a new Legacy board for the 765 NKP engine.
Reflecting on S gauge, Lionel cataloged the 75th Anniversary of S gauge Boxcar, pictured below, in the 2021 Catalog but it was not delivered until 2022, the 76th anniversary. Of those 76 years since the 1946 introduction of Gilbert S gauge, Gilbert only made S gauge for 21 years until their 1967 bankruptcy. Lionel puchased the copyrights, patents and most tooling at the bankruptcy liquidation sale. None were made for 12 years. In 1979 Lionel (Fundimensions) made the first three S gauge cars. Each year production increased. Lionel has been making American Flyer S gauge for 43 years and counting.
I remember my friends with trains pronouncing that we American Flyer guys would soon have S gauge trains that ran on 3 rail track! Nothing of the sort happened. All AF items made by Lionel through today are 100% backwards compatible so any item will run perfectly on an all Gilbert layout using just a transformer. Any Gilbert item will run on a modern Lionel AF layout as well. I run old Gilbert engines on my modern scale layout using a Legacy Cab2 handheld (or an iPhone with the Lionel App.) We did not have wireless control of our Gilbert trains back then, now we do. Pretty neat.
