Blog Roll

Friday, June 12, 2015

Special Duty Trifecta Part 2

Greetings Blog Followers,

The New York Central Train Layout Mechanical Shop and Paint Shop appear to have once again risen to the occasion. The shop forces refurbished and repainted three vintage Special Duty Units that are now back in service. The focus of the project was to take three units in different paint schemes, two Atlas Yellow Box SD35s and one Atlas Yellow Box SD24 (now an SD9), and make them into a consistent consist as seen in the Green Frog Penn Central Video Series. See Special Duty Trifecta Part 1 for additional information.

Penn Central SD35 6018 wears the red "P" (thanks Ralph!) as it leads SD9 6922 and SD35 6024 towards North Side Yard with a hot shot auto parts train

The three SD units show three different aspects of full Penn Central regalia
but make up a consistent consist that was the goal of the project.

Penn Central SD35 6024

Penn Central SD9 6922. This unit has had it's roof top air tanks removed, the holes plugged 
and a new horn has been added. 


Penn Central SD35 6018. This was the former 6039. The prototype 6018 wore the red "P" 

The SDs use their combined 6,750 horsepower to haul their train into Empire City

The SD units are on the viaduct heading towards North Side Yard

The train is entering Empire City on the upper level above E.C. Station

The SDs cross the Empire City viaduct

A reverse shot of the units on the E.C. viaduct

The train as arrived at North Side Yard, an additional block of cars have been added and the train is ready for departure with the 6024 now in the lead.

Some custom painted power was photographed at North Side Yard .
Two GP30s to the left and two GP38-2s to the right.

Word's gone out over the scanner about the newest SD units in the fleet and 1/87th Scale Sir Neal Himself has cruised over to a favorite Empire City rail fan spot in his Trans Am. Looks like 1/87th scale PC Ralph was passing through and had the scanner on in his vintage corvette and decided to stop and have a look.  

The SD units are leaving Empire City under the watchful eyes of of 1/87th Scale Sir Neal and PC Ralph who are under the watchful eyes of the E.C.P.D. 

In concluding this project I am quite pleased how the three units turned out. Three pretty old (20+ years) Atlas units have been refurbished so that they run well individually and in consist. They were stripped and repainted into a nice looking consist that will see plenty of main line freight trains for many more years to come. Not to bad for some old second hand units....    
 

4 comments:

  1. Not bad indeed!! Your loco mechanics , painting and decaling skills serve you and the N.Y.C.T.L. in good stead. How great is it to be able to get these older units running well, especially together as a consist?! One of the tings I admire about your layout is those long trains with multiple unit lashups you run. Another nice example. Definitely worth climbing into the 'Vette to do some railfanning. Hopefully the E.C.P.D. doesn't mind us lingering to watch the show!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ralph! It was nice to get these engines from "Stored Serviceable" to front line main line power. The long main line freights now have another set of good pulling power to handle the long trains.

      Delete
  2. Those engines came out great! I think if you were running the PC shops back in the day, the PC would still be around. I agree with Ralph, look trains with multiple units does make one want to railfan somewhere!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you 1 to 1 Sir Neal for the great compliments!

      Delete