Fresh From The Paint Shop

Greetings All,

After a short break from the A.P.R.R. boxcar project the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop got back to work on some home road projects. Let's take a look at what's newly released from the Paint Shop;

With winter here the first release from the paint shop is this Walthers Russell Snow Plow. This was a gift from my in laws and sharp eyes can see my 1/87th scale in laws are sitting in the plow.

 It was an undecorated kit

That I painted to look like a New York Central plow

The newly numbered plow sits next to the shop.

The second paint project is this EMD calf unit in fresh paint also awaiting lettering. This unit was stripped of it's former paint in 91% alcohol.

The calf unit is this former Conrail unit. I procrastinated for many years on repainting this unit. The CR did not actually have this type of unit and neither did the NYC. But recent upgrades to this dummy unit made it a unit that I wanted to utilize more than once every year or so.  

The third paint project was this New York Central F7A fresh from the paint shop and awaiting lettering. The unit had been stripped of it's former paint scheme in 91% alcohol. 

Prior to lettering the F7A and the EMD calf I placed these two units on my work bench for easy reference.

The EMD calf is now NYC #8842. I lettered and numbered it in the NYC SW7 range. Note the masonite track cleaning pad installed under the frame. My Obsessive Track Cleaning Disorder continues. The N.Y.C.T.L. crew have come over to Terminal Yard to check out all the hub bub from the paint shop.

The lash up I was looking for! Two powered P-2000 SW8s with the calf in the middle. Plenty of power and cleaning the track at the same time. 

The three switcher lash up cleaning the tracks at it goes! This lash up made it's debut on January 20th in an ops session with my good buddy Engineer Ed. It performed flawlessly and looked good as well.

The Calf project was inspired by this lash up of three NYC S12s. The two end units are powered and the middle one is not. The middle unit has been upgraded into a track cleaning car and works great. The P-2000 SW8s have more pulling / pushing power and are much quieter than the Athearn BB S12s. The S12s do run very well though and can easily handle any yard duties or short freight trains.  

Next out of the paint Shop is NYC F7A #1645 in the Cigar band paint scheme. This is an older Bachmann Plus unit that I purchased used via ebay.

The 1645 is coupled up to it's brother engine, #1644 also an older used Bachmann Plus unit which I painted about a year ago.

The 1645 looking very fresh next to the older 1644. A little subtle weathering will be added down the road to the 1645 to better blend the two. 

The units are coupled together via draw bar to eliminate the large space between the units. I've used the Kadee Close Coupling kits in the past but the space still looked way too big. 

The F7As roll into Empire City Station with a train of bulk Mail and Express cars. By the way the first car behind engines is a C&O boxcar with REA lettering and a track cleaning car. Obsessive Track Cleaning Disorder continues.

Thanks for reading!!!

Walsh Steel Wool Products

Greetings All,

The Empire City Chamber of Commerce welcomes Walsh Steel Wool Products to Empire City!

An unidentified and operationally unused building has finally gotten an identity. I built this building several years ago to occupy this space but could never come up with a name for it or what industry it should represent. Fast forward several years later and I just recently saw a photo of a Steel Wool factory in the background of a PC baggage car photo. Steel Wool? Hmm... 

I checked the Steel Wool manufacturing process and was happy to see that Steel Wool would make a good model railroad industry and fit into the "virtual ops" between the N.Y.C.T.L., Ralph V's K.P.D. and Neal's A.P.R.R. very nicely.
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Steel-Wool.html

Inbound shipments for the steel wool process would include steel rod from Kings Port Steel(KPD) or Shapeless Steel Works(APRR). Cutting oil from the Gulf River Facility (KPD). Packaging materials from Canton Box (KPD)

Outbound shipments would be the finished product itself to Mike's Lumber (APRR), ACME Auto Parts(KPD) and Ideal Auto Parts (APRR) for muffler manufacturing. Scrap would go to Boom's Ready Mix(KPD) and Phipps Cement(APRR). Not bad!

For a name I looked no farther than my 1:1 scale partner in model train crime Engineer Ed. Plus his last name was easy to spell!

Let's take a look at the project for the newly named Walsh Steel Wool Products;

The 1/87th gang has gathered at this under utilized building located on the West Side of Empire City. 1/87th scale Sir Neal and 1/87th scale PC Ralph are trying to talk 1/87th scale Engineer Ed to make the investment in Empire City. 

A week later the guys have returned and 1/87th scale Engineer Ed is proudly showing off his new enterprise

Signs are in place and Walsh Enterprises is ready to open

A view from the layout corner

Close up of the North side of the building

The two car siding

The first freight cars arrive!

Looking closely we see the 1/87th gang has relocated across the street and is checking out the trains at Empire City Station while the first boxcars are spotted. 

Now in operation these boxcars loaded with steel wool scrap are pulled as part of the virtual ops between the N.Y.C.T.L., the K.P.D and the A.P.R.R. This photo is from the P.C.C.M. 26 series.  

Walsh Steel Wool Products makes a great backdrop for these beautiful AP 50 foot RBL Boxcars.

Thanks for reading!!!

A Sign of the Times

Greetings All,

I recently undertook the enjoyable project of building and adding some billboards to the layout. The Empire City Chamber of Commerce recently petitioned the Office of Mayor Julius Fiorello (Big Julie to his cronies) to expand advertising throughout the city and take advantage of bare rooftops and building walls. The mayor being duly impressed with the presentation and the envelope left in his desk drawer approved a new Empire City Sign Ordinance. 

So I hit the internet looking for suitable signs and printed them out on satin photo paper. Next stop was the local Hobby Lobby for some basswood strips. After a consultation with Ralph V. of K.P.D. fame http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/ 
         https://www.youtube.com/user/RalphPCvids
I set out building some billboards. 
  
Let's take a look at what's sprung up so far; 

White Satin Gin billboard now sitting atop Red Wing Milling is one of the larger billboards of this project.

A rear view shows the card stock that I glued the picture to and the rest of the basswood structure.

The UnCola was a must have for the project. This too is one of the larger billboards attempted

Rear of the UnCola sign

 Here is the UnCola billboard painted and with a painter adding the finishing touches. 

Ralph's Grocery Warehouse took full advantage of the new sign ordinance and added two large rooftop billboards. The townhouse owners also took advantage and added a Campbell's Soup billboard

 A rear view of the Genesee and Mets billboards

The new cool blue six pack of Genesee Beer is believed to be from a 1969 ad 

 And the Amazing NY Mets were the Baseball World Champions in 1969 

The billboard structures now painted a woodland green. That's Pro Bowler DE Gerry Philbin #81 of the 1969 World Champion NY Jets eating that bowl of Campbell's Soup on top of the townhouse. It was a magical time for the NY sports fans. The NY Knicks would capture the Basketball Championship at the end of the 1969-70 season. 

The biggest star of them all during this time was Joe Namath. Nicknamed Broadway Joe he led the NY Jets to their only Championship after guaranteeing the 18 point underdog Jets would win the game forever endearing himself to the Jets faithful. Monday Night Football would start on September 21, 1970 and here is the NFL's biggest star to advertise the new venture of ABC sports.  

A two sided structure sits atop the Algonquin Hotel showing ads for a classical rock and roll ensemble and none other Joe Namath on the cover of Life Magazine.  

Some pictures, some sticks, some glue and some patience made this a nice project to have completed. The layout now has more details to catch the viewers eye and the billboards are from the era currently modeled. 

Thanks for reading!    

A.P.R.R. Boxcar Project

Greetings All,

Early in December 2016 I had the pleasure to speak with 1:1 Sir Neal via telephone. The conversation covered a variety of model railroading topics. Pursuant to that conversation and an exchange of emails the New York Central Train Layout Paint Shop received the contract to paint fourteen (14) cars for Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad. With the Holidays fast approaching the Paint Shop quickly got to work to get the cars painted and lettered before the New Year. The cars would hopefully be released from the paint shop at this time and sent up to the A.P.R.R. in early January.

The cars to be painted are Evans 5100 series RBL double door boxcars from Scale Trains. After viewing countless photos we decided that the color white would work best for the RBL car and black AP decals. Let's take a look at the project;

The first cars painted on the N.Y.C.T.L. outdoor paint shop know as the Patti-O; Good thing we live in the south and the weather is mild in December!

We experimented with an all white car and a car with black ends similar to cars painted for the Lehigh Valley.

After  mulling the two paint jobs over we decided that an all white car showed the details better and fit in with the modern AP.

A mock up for Sir Neal's review. This car has the larger AP lettering and herald.

This mock up is for the slightly smaller AP lettering and herald

A side by side comparison. It was important to me to make the most of the decals furnished by Sir Neal for this project. Each custom made AP decal sheet has enough for one car in large lettering and one in the smaller lettering. 

A dozen white cars painted and awaiting decals

To keep the project manageable I went about it in assembly line fashion. Cars on the wood strip are ready for decals. The cars on the spray can caps are awaiting application of Testor's gloss coat.

Getting the decals ready. Each plastic container will get a complete set of decals. The AP decals are from Rail Graphics. The boxcar data and 'Cushion Service' lettering decals are from Microscale.  

The first five are complete. Sharp eyes will note all five are numbered 60358. This was done at Sir Neal's request as he wanted to award a car to some of his model railroad buddies.

A close up of the AP cars

We're at Terminal Yard and 1/87th scale Sir Neal is riding the shoving platform. He's facing back to 1/87th scale Engineer Ed and telling him to couple up nice and easy.  

 No wonder 1/87th scale Sir Neal was being cautious. Some of the brand new AP boxcars are being released from the Paint Shop! 

The gang all gathers to check out the newest release from the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop AP #60358. 1/87 scale Sir Neal inspects the car with help from his 1/87th scale friends at the N.Y.C.T.L.
 AP #60394 is next out of the paint shop. The 60394 is slightly different from the 60358. 1/87th scale Sir Neal took advantage of some attractive financing from the Government's Incentive Per Diem program and the AP leased this car from SSI. Trust lettering is on upper left and lease company name is on lower right.   

Next stop AP 60358 is switched into Neal's Lumber and Hardware for some publicity photos and to show it off to the N.L.&H. employees. 

 Released into revenue service it's time to make revenue for the AP! AP GP38-2 #358 gets ready to switch out Hostess / Wonder Bread Plant in Bedford NY and spot the newly painted AP boxcars. 

With his two new boxcars spotted and ready for loading 1/87th scale Sir Neal takes a last look before hopping back onto his engine and continuing along with his railroading assignment.

The significance of this building is that 1:1 Sir Neal named it in February 2014 and that was the first appearance of 1/87th scale Sir Neal seen below.

Back at Terminal Yard AP #358 pulls the next cars released from the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop

Boxed and ready to ship to the A.P.R.R.! 

This six pack is one that will provide enjoyment for years to come!

Thanks for reading!