New York Central Bee Liner

New York Central Bee Liner
RDC-3 #497 calls at Bedford Station

Friday, September 30, 2016

Rescue Attempts Part 2

Greetings All,

Last entry we looked at the first part of the "purgatory box" rescue attempts. The projects covered in the prior installment were three gondolas and a flatcar that I was happy to get on the layout and in revenue service. An outstanding project that was introduced was a Model Power Gulf Gasoline flat car. Today we'll take a look at that car and another flat car that has come out of the purgatory box and joined the fleet.

The blue Model Power Gulf Gasoline flat car awaiting a new start. The car has received a new brake wheel and assembly and is ready for repainting. 

A fresh coat of rattle can jade green, flat black trucks and weathered wheels has the car off to a good start.

I plan to use this car mainly in yard service as a shoving platform. Note the car is spanning the insulated rail joiners from the yard lead to the yard track. With a DC layout and Terminal Yard being a stub yard all yard tracks are isolated from the yard lead. An arriving train has it's locomotives at the far end of the track. Using this flatcar allows me to pull the cars from the arriving train while maintaining electric isolation on the yard track.

I/87th scale Sir Neal and PC Ralph test the newly numbered NYC 506787 under the watchful eye of 1/87th scale Engineer Ed to the right. 

The crew are hooked up to 1/87th scale Dir Neal's private observation car, Nassau County.

The second flat car project is this Bachmann depressed center flatcar. Originally armed with a missile, whereabouts unknown, the car has no identity and rarely if ever was called into revenue service.

Using the Fallen Flags Penn Central website I happened onto car #766053 which looked pretty close to the Bachmann car.  http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc766053swa.jpg Another candidate was PC 766055
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc766055akg.jpg So with that information and some modelers license I present my 1/87th scale PC 766053.

The newly painted PC depressed flatcar sits on Terminal Yard track 9. 
The car was painted with Krylon rattle can sea glass green. Decals from Microscale

Freshly painted and in revenue service. Note the new brake wheel.

Some road dirt weathering from Doc O'Brien's Weathering Powders and the car is showing some miles and more importantly some earnings.

NYC 506787 has had it's deck painted and has been weathered. It is now earning revenue with the Caterpillar bulldozer load. This car will mostly be found in and around Terminal Yard in switching service.

Three of the new flatcars from the 'purgatory box' pose here in Bedford NY 

A TYCO cement pipe load is looking pretty cool on this car. 

And there you have it. Two new cars added to the fleet from the 'purgatory box' These cars have been transformed from flatcars that languished unused for years and years into decent working models for the New York Central Train Layout. Thanks for reading!

6 comments:

  1. The Bachmann depressed center flat is a Department of Defense prototype. At some point, along with other odds and ends in government service, these went to the Alaska Railroad. Depressed center cars are popular in Alaska because you can drive bulldozers on and off easily for snow removal. I have a Bachmann flat that is waiting to get Alaska RR decals.

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    1. Thanks for the info John!
      http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3708883
      http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=877533
      Good looking project ideas!

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  2. Wow John! The jade green paint and carefully applied decals (how did you have the patience to apply them between the struts on the depressed flat!?)really transformed both cars! Clever functional use of #506787 in the yard!

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    1. Thanks Ralph! The decal job on the depressed flat was one of those jobs that you try and talk yourself out of before you start. After it was over I was glad I did it and very happy with the results.

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  3. I agree with Ralph, the shove car concept is a perfect use in and around the yards. Both flatcar projects really came out nicely. The Tyco cement pipe load really gets your attention. Your painting and decaling brought some new life to the rolling stock.

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    1. Thanks Brian! I'm very pleased with the results. Here were two cars that were basically cast aways and it's nice to see them become layout worthy. I like the TYCO cement pipe load as well 'Stuff' from another box of seldom if ever used flat / gondola loads.

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