Penn Central Motive Power Projects

Greetings All,

The N.Y.C.T.L.'s Purchasing Department, Patti O Paint Shop and Mechanical Shop have been busy behind the scenes adding some new motive power to my Penn Central fleet. 

This Bachmann Spectrum Reading Lines GP30 made in Hong Kong was an ebay purchase. This RDG release had a defect in the paint that had it flaking off the shell making it very easy to strip for repainting. Perfect for me! Here it is with a RDG gondola which is also new to the N.Y.C.T.L. More on that in a future post.

The GP30 is stripped and ready for painting once the weather clears on the Patti O Paint Shop.

The second engine in the project is this Bachmann Plus F7A which has been stripped and awaits painting. This engine was also purchased on ebay a few months ago.

A close up of the F7A. Good news for the project is that all window 'glass' in this engine was easily removed so no masking will be required. The number board 'glass' will be painted black. 

Penn Central GP30 #2236 and F7A #1862 have been painted and lettered. They are now in the decal setting phase.

A check of both power units revealed them to be bone dry so a little lubrication was necessary.

I've used this grease on my engines for a dozen years now.

Penn Central F7A #1862 was built in October 1952 as NYC #1862. This unit wore the NYC lightning stripes and cigar band paint schemes before getting its PC mating worms paint job. Here is the model just out of the paint shop.

Checking prototype photos I noted the 1862 was placed on the lower panel of the engine so I followed suit.

The 1862 was severely damaged in a wreck that occurred in the summer of 1975. It was rebuilt and back in service by April 1976 and is shown in a high gloss black with CR initials. Here it is prior to 1975 leading a pair of PC F7As at Terminal Yard.

Penn Central GP30 #2236 was built in April 1963 as PRR class EF-22 #2236. After the PRR-NYC merger the 2236 was originally painted with the red P PC herald as seen below which was applied early in 1968. It was later repainted with a white PC herald.

For my purposes the early red P works well as I continue to use units painted in NYC, PRR and NH to reflect the early days of the Penn Central. The 2236 was conveyed to Conrail where it received a blue paint job and retained it's 2236 number. This unit remained in active service until it was retired on April 11, 1991.

Rounding the curve heading towards the arrival / departure yard. The Spectrum GP30s work very well on the N.Y.C.T.L. Their short wheelbase and heavy frame make them perfect for switching duties and pulling long freight trains.

The 2236 is the lead unit pulling a long freight train on the lower level thru a newly enhanced right of way.

The GP30 trio returns to Terminal Yard. This three engine consist m.u.s together very well and offers a lot of pulling power with a low current draw. Perfect for my DC layout.

The new 2236 is now the trailing unit as the trio continues working out of Terminal Yard.

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. 51A

Greetings All,

At the end of P.C.C.M. 50 Terminal Yard ended up with a dozen cars that had cycled thru their N.Y.C.T.L. routes and were ready for dispatch back to some of the participating virtual ops layouts. So instead of putting them into my virtual ops box the guys agreed to this quick virtual op that should help us in setting up P.C.C.M. 52. 

To:        West Mill / Rock Ridge / Elkhart / Zenith Yards
From:    Terminal Yard
Subject: Dispatch of Train SLX-1

Engines: 1049, 116, 1012, 1020
Total Cars: 12
Blocks: 5
Loads / Empties 1 / 11
Caboose: 21505

The yard job is blocking train SLX-1 that will leave the yard for Selkirk, Detroit and Avon Yards at 8:00 PM. Block 1 consists of empty 86' NYC auto parts boxcar #67086 heading to IDEAL Auto Parts in Rock Ridge NJ.

Block 2 consists of two T.O.F.C. cars for Williams Yard. Block 3 has B&M RBLs 109 & 110 loaded with cases of beer for Reynolds Beverage in Kings Port NY. 

Block 4 has these three empty 60' auto parts boxcars heading back to ACME Auto Parts in Mayfield NY and the old NYC Pacemaker car loaded with muffler mesh from Walsh Steel Wool also going to ACME . Blocks 2, 3 and 4 will all go to West Mill on the K.P.D.

Block 5 has these three empty 40' reefers heading back west for reloading possibly on the L.F.&N.W. or R.C.R. layouts.

Uh oh, a recurring draft gear problem that has plagued these prototype oversized boxcars has been noted by the 1/87th scale car knocker. The cars have become notorious for not mating and damaged draft gear caused by the couplers riding over one another. 1/87th scale AT Joe has changed the coupler while the car knocker straightens out the draft gear. 

Meanwhile over at the engine terminal the 1/87th scale road foreman and Big Mike break the news to Alco Joe that the FAs and CB&Q F3 have got to go back into the power pool.

CB&Q F3A #116  has drawn the attention of employees and rail fans alike. 1/87th scale Alco Joe did his best to hide the unit in the engine terminal to use it on a few more local runs but as you can see it kind of stands out from the rest of the fleet.

CB&Q #116 with it's NYC Alco FAs is definitely something you could only have seen during the NYC era. The 116 had been traded in to GE for a U28B in December 1966 thirteen months before the merger. Don't tell anyone!

NYC 1049, an Alco FA-2, leads the consist toward Terminal Yard. The 1049 was one of eighty such units on the NYC roster. The 1:1 1049 made it to the Penn Central was renumbered to 1349 and received a PC paint job according to the Penn Central Bi-Annual.

With the coupler and draft gear issue fixed the power for SLX-1 couples on under the supervision of various Terminal Yard employees who want to catch this lash up one last time as it heads out of town. 

SLX-1 has left Terminal Yard and is running thru Bedford NY where it meets Empire Belt train EB-2 headed for Terminal Yard.

The conductors give each other a thumbs up during the rolling meet

Bedford Tower operator 1/87th scale John B, barely recovered from P.C.C.M. 50, gives a half hearted wave from his chaise lounge.

SLX-1 is now on the High Line. The FA2-F3A-FA1-FA1 consist will hopefully return to the N.Y.C.T.L. in future P.C.C.M.s. A shout to Brian (1:1 ATJOE) for his suggestion on using this lash up.

SLX-1 heading thru Empire City. Next stop Selkirk!

Be sure to follow the action as it continues on Ralph's Kings Port Division layout, 1:1 Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR layout, Brian's Ralston Creek RR and John B's L.F. &N.W. RR layout. 

Thanks for reading!!!

Masonite Corporation Thrall All Door Boxcar

Greetings All,

I was recently looking for decals on the Highball Graphics website for another paint project and noted set #F-338; 

which caught my eye as I have two Thrall All Door boxcar shells ready for painting courtesy of fellow modeler and blogger John Bruce who sent them my way awhile ago.

The project took on more steam once I found that the Highball Graphics decal set did accurately model the car in this photo. 

What's Masonite? A patented process of steam cooking wood fibers under pressure to make wood products.  

Why an All Door Boxcar? The all door concept was designed to simplify the loading of dimensional cargo, mainly lumber, offering the ease of loading a flat car with the protection of a boxcar. The Thrall company built their first all door boxcars in 1967. The original cars had some issues with the door stops that were quickly rectified. The cars seem to have fallen out of favor by the mid 1970's however with the advent of shrink wrapping and the 72' centerbeam cars.

Life Like, Bachmann and AHM have all offered HO scale all door boxcar models. The Life Like models are the shells I'm working with for this project. They were originally released in 1975 and came with a multi piece shell that had separate end pieces. Life Like later simplified production with a single piece shell. 

When I undertook the decal project I knew it would be a lot of cutting and was unsure how well it would work out so I only ordered one set of decals but I did paint both shells for the project. Both are the original type shell with the separate ends and could be over 40 years old!

The cars are painted and ready for the decal process.

The Highball Graphics decal sheet comes with this handy lettering guide. There are a lot of rivets, edges, handles etc to decal in between and over! The LRLX reporting marks belong to General Electric Rail Services Corporation. They leased more than one type of car to the Masonite Corporation as noted in this photo.

The first side is completed. The ACI label is not included in the Highball Graphics set. Both Highball and Microscale offer sets of them. So far so good! 

After completing the second side with good results I reached out to John B. who furnished the shells and offered it to him. I was happy he accepted the offer. Here's that car just out of the shop and getting ready to head out of Terminal Yard towards California. 

A pair of U boats have coupled on and this All Door boxcar is on it's way to John B's Los Feliz & North Western layout. John possesses a tremendous amount of railroading knowledge and he informed me that the Masonite Corp was a major shipper on the Northwestern Pacific that would work perfectly for sending the car east in our virtual ops. 

After a circuitous route of the United States the Masonite shell finally arrived safe and sound on John B's L.F.&N.W. layout.

   
In the meantime I ordered, received and applied the decals to the second car. Here's that car ready for service. 

A few weeks later the Masonite car was spotted being unloaded at Neal's Lumber & Hardware in Empire City NY so look for it in a future P.C.C.M.

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. 50K Part 4 / It's a wrap!

Greetings All,

Welcome back to P.C.C.M. 50K!!!
Today's the day we make our final car movements!

We're going to wrap it up today by focusing on the L.I.R.R. transfer run heading towards North Side Yard in Empire City to make the final P.C.C.M. 50 interchange of freight cars with the Empire Belt RR.

The transfer run heads thru Bedford returning cars that were seen here in earlier installments of P.C.C.M. 50. The first block originated in Elkhart and came east in Train NY-4

The formerly empty Southern gondola is now loaded with steel coils from Mid Island Steel. Block 2 has cars that originated at West Mill and are heading back for loading or to be sent out empty to avoid the 1/87th scale per diem charges.

Passing Bedford Tower we catch the Bedford Park Yard switcher coupling up to PC 40' hi cube boxcar #272242 under the supervision of the thoroughly exhausted tower operator 1/87th scale John B.

 The L.I.R.R. train enters North Side Yard via Hohman Ave

The RS-3 comes back to the Hohman Ave side of the yard to pick up it's outbound train and caboose.

The L.I.R.R. reclaims it's caboose and prepares to depart with a Hoschton Railway Company RBL and several other freight cars.

The L.I.R.R. transfer heads over the Empire City viaduct coupled up to this EL 57' reefer that is the last car in play for my portion of P.C.C.M. 50.

EL 5034 loaded with perishables from C&P Restaurant Supply in Rock Ridge NJ rolls across the Vanderbilt Bridge as we see PC #9999 spotting the PC hi cube boxcar car at American Hardware Supply for a future P.C.C.M. loading. 

It's outta here!!! The EL 57' reefer heads east on the L.I.R.R. transfer run to be delivered to it's consignee Bohack Grocery in Bushwick Brooklyn. With that my part of P.C.C.M. 50 is a wrap!!!!

Here's Terminal Yard after the carnage of P.C.C.M.50. The yard job has this train ready to go for the next P.C.C.M.

Here's North Side Yard with the E.B.R.R. engines coupled up to our common cars and ready to make the moves for a future P.C.C.M.

In a sign of compassion 1/87th scale conductor John drops off a chaise lounge at Bedford Tower for 1/87th scale John B. who is refusing to walk down that long flight of stairs. Says John B. "The next time I walk down these stairs I'm going home!''

 The North Side Yard guys thank everyone for reading!! 

The Terminal Yard guys also thank everyone for reading! 

See ya next time!!!!