New York Central Bee Liner

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

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Penn Central Covered Hopper Project

Greetings All,

Another joint project of the N.Y.C.T.L. & A.P.R.R. is in the books! 

Looking to add some PC cars to his fleet and for use in the virtual ops 1:1 Sir Neal of the A.P.R.R. came across some undecorated Atlas 6 bay covered hoppers at a local train show. The Purchasing Department of the A.P.R.R. quickly authorized the purchase and the wheels were set in motion.

The N.Y.C.T.L. submitted a sealed bid to the A.P.R.R. when their Request For Proposals were filed and was awarded the contract.

The A.P.R.R provided some nice looking Penn Central Covered Hopper decals from High Ball Graphics for use in the project. https://highballgraphics.com/F-277.htm

Rivet counters and nit pickers should stop reading now. 

Both the cars and decals arrived at the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop in mid April. The decal sheet has decals for ex PRR H44, H44A and ex NYC 915-H 3 bay cylindrical covered hoppers. Since the PC did not have any six bay covered hoppers we took some liberties with the paint color using Sea Glass green for all cars. 

Let's take a look at the project and some of the modelers license that was used to get these cars painted and lettered.


Krylon rattle can sea glass green, decals, covered hoppers and Testors Gloss Coat used for the project. The Atlas cars are actually kits with the parts inside of the car body.  
Getting started I chose two cars to build, paint and decal. Here's the guide decals and the first 'sample' car.
After building, painting and lettering the first two cars I took on the other four. I try to do these type of projects assembly line fashion. I've cut out the decals needed for the cars and have them sorted in the little trays.
The covered hopper conga line! The cars await their turn for decals with their respective decals in the tray holding them off the bench work.
The work bench used for the project has the two 'sample' cars, the guide and car #3 is ready for decals.
The two sample cars were brought over to North Side Yard for 1/87th scale Sir Neal to check out along with some of the usual 1/87th scale suspects. 
PC 885226 just released from the paint shop. Yes the black lettering should be on a very light gray covered hopper but the paint shop could not find such rattle can paint that was suitable for this project. The car does look good though! 
 PC 885265 just released from the paint shop. 
As the rest of the newly painted covered hoppers are released from the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop at Terminal Yard a passing of the torch moment occurs. Senior N.Y.C.T.L. Engineer 1/87th scale Sir Neal tosses the keys to AP GP38-2 #358 to newly minted engineer 1/87th scale PC Ralph with a "here you go kid, go get em'
 With 1/87th scale Sir Neal on the ground signaling 1/87th scale PC Ralph backs #358 to the covered hoppers and couples up nice and easy. Over on track #9 we see conductor John checking his watch while it looks like 1/87th scale Engineer Ed has either fainted or fallen over laughing. 
1/87th scale PC Ralph pulls the string of hoppers from the Paint Shop while 1/87th Scale Sir Neal does a roll by inspection.
1/87th scale Engineer Ed is back on his feet and has hooked up the air hoses to the caboose and turned the control valve. 1/87th scale Conductor John is checking his watch and 1/87th scale Sir Neal receives the 'keys' back from 1/87th scale PC Ralph.
 Next stop Rock Ridge Yard!
Thanks for reading!

13 comments:

  1. Bravo to the NYCTL car shops for a project well done. The APRR will have some fine looking hoppers to service local industries. I think your paint schemes turned out great, you can say they were painted to Despatch Shops specifications. Both the white and black lettering schemes look sharp. I'm glad to see 1:87 Engineer Ralph graduate his locomotive training. On the Rio Grande they would give the new engineers a brass throttle handle for graduation. Really cool project John. The crew here approves of your "artistic" efforts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Brian! I like the the using of the Despatch Shops specs! 1/87th scale PC Ralph has come a long way since he started hanging around Empire City! We'll need to find a 1/87th scale brass throttle handle for him.

      Delete
  2. On behalf of the entire team at the A.P.R.R.,we thank the great folks at the N.Y.C.TL. paint shop and executive team for doing a stellar job on these cars. We expect to get great use out of them and to generate additional revenue to the coffers of the A.P.R.R. Thanks again John!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are most welcome 1:1 Sir Neal! It was another fun project hat will pay big dividends.

      Delete
  3. Another great project completed by the NYCTL shops. It is no wonder that the NYCTL wins 100% of the contracts they bid on. Those cars look fantastic. I really like the black lettering. Nicely done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the compliments 1:1 scale engineer Ed!!! It's nice to win the contracts on merit!

      Delete
  4. To the best of my knowledge, Despatch Shops was the source of the short lived black lettering on PC green scheme. I guess they took great pleasure in painting equipment to upset the red team. The red "P" was a response back by rhe red team for the schemes being painted by Despatch shops. This information needs independent verification, 1/87 Ralph has come a long way since moving to Empire City, I'm sure he'll be running the top trains on the NYCTL before you know it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good info Brian! I took a look at the PC color guide and it reports that 2-68 Despatch Shops: Paint scheme begins as a green car with black logo, black slanted name, white slanted PC, white PRR style number and NYC style data. No car classes applied. This scheme ran thru February.
      The guide also reports; 2-68: Sam Rea and Altoona Paint scheme begins with green car, black logo, black slanted name, white slanted PC white PRR numbers and white reporting marks.
      And last but not least:
      5-68: Sam Rea and Altoona: Experimental red P and white C logo applied and aproved by mgt.
      6-68: The red and white logo era ends on June 21st. All white graphics applied after this date.
      Re: 1/87th scale PC Ralph. he's climbing the seniority ladder quickly and I think you're right about him running the top trains soon.

      Delete
  5. Grey or green your covered hoppers look fantastic! Beautiful job with all of the decals. Your research and organized neat work pay off again big time! Enviously watching those green cars roll by! Excellent John!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the compliments Ralph! It was a nice project and the decals were easy to apply.

      Delete
  6. Thank you John for helping get the record straight on the paint schemes and shops. I guess the information I found was a combination of fact and some Red and Green team war stories. Thanks and keep working on your projects for us to enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brian, I would not be surprised in the least if the Saunders Team instigated the Red P to poke a stick in the Perlman Team's eye. Their hatred for each other was legendary. The PC color guide just gives the dates of the color changes and not the reasons for them. So let's not discard any of the Red Team vs Green Team war stories just yet!

      Delete
    2. It's too bad the regular PC folks that labored to keep the trains running had to endure the red and green dysfunction that ran the show. Sounds like the same games CSX plays with their employees. On a positive note, red, green, orange dysfunction gave the modeling community a smorgasbord of paint and lettering combinations to use. Long live the choas captured in 1/87 scale!!!

      Delete