Empire City Service?

Greetings All,

A recent trip to the beach had me mulling some ways to increase my freelanced Empire Belt Railroad's role in the overall New York Central / Penn Central scheme of things that are the backbone of the N.Y.C.T.L. The state of railroad affairs in the northeast in the late 60's and early 70's was challenging for all railroads to say the least. With long distance passenger service on a severe decline and to many railroads with too much capacity fighting for too few car loads what if anything would be plausible for the E.B.R.R. that exclusively serves the fictional and mostly prosperous Empire City? 

Taking a cue from NYC and their Empire Service passenger trains and coupling that with their Early Bird Freight Service a light bulb went off. I thought hey why not an Empire City Freight Service or Empire City Service that would run from Selkirk NY directly to the E.B.R.R.'s North Side Yard in Empire City and back bypassing the always busy and congested NYC / PC Terminal Yard in nearby Bedford NY. Hmm.

The B&O had their Time Saver Service, the Reading had Bee Line Service. So why not an Empire Belt Empire City Service?Borrowing the 'On Time a Day Early' slogan from the Early Bird Service trains this may have some potential. Let's see if we can have some fun with it;

The big three, 1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal, PC Ralph and Engineer Ed,  meet for a sit down at Dominick's Restaurant to discuss the implementation of Empire City Service over plates of pasta and carafes of red wine.

Empire City Service would be a premium freight service that would expedite the freight traffic in and out of Neal's Lumber & Hardware. Neal would pass the charges along to his customers so it's a win win for him.

Ralph's Grocery Warehouse would also benefit from the faster service and the quick turnaround.  

Engineer Ed Walsh's Steel Wool Products is another highly valued customer that would pay the premium prices for faster shipping to get his products to market. This would also allow the railroads to compete with the over the road trucks that carry and deliver some of Walsh's freight. 

Empire Produce is another likely candidate as they deal with fresh produce that can have a short lifespan.  

Faster shipping and receiving would keep a business like Superior Furniture competitive and keep their products on the rails. 

Moore & Company Importers & Exporters is another likely candidate to request Empire City Service.

A pilot program Empire City Express train takes the middle track over the High Line on it's way to North Side Yard.

The E.C.S. Train comes thru the east side of Empire City and gets ready to enter North Side Yard bypassing the Vanderbilt Bridge in the background and the town of Bedford. 

The Empire City Service would also bypass the congestion in Bedford and the wait to enter Terminal Yard.

The crew of the 6018 has outlawed and that train is waiting for a recrew. The F7 on track 2 is waiting for an available track at Terminal Yard.

Empire City Service. An express train from Selkirk to Empire City and back running once in each direction each day. A premium freight rate would be needed to make it profitable and pay the trackage rights fees to the NYC /PC should the E.B.R.R. be able to convince them that this is a good idea.

Maybe this could be a joint NYC /PC - E.B.R.R. endeavor? Not a bad idea that needs some further thought. 

Will other model railroads be interested in continuing the expedited service with timely connections and priority routing? 

Stay tuned as this is still in the mulling stage. It looks promising at this point and I'll see if it's actually fun to route the trains in this fashion and if they contribute favorably to the virtual ops Penn Central Car Movements that I participate in.

Thanks for reading!!!