Happy New Year! / The Year In Review, 2018

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year All,

One of my favorite blog posts is the year end review when I get to look back over the past 12 months and see what if anything was actually accomplished with the layout, motive power and rolling stock. 

This year I was fortunate to participate in a baker's dozen of Penn Central Car Movements also known as the virtual ops with Ralph's Kings Port Division, Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR, John B's Los Feliz & Northwestern RR and Brian's Ralston Creek RR. It was a lot of fun to be a participant and I look forward to more P.C.C.M. action in 2019.

I was also very fortunate to be the recipient of their largesse with a bunch of nice models and projects coming my way. I really appreciate the generosity. Thank you so much. 

In no particular order here are some of the 2018 highlights;

We moved a lot of auto parts and new autos with auto parts coming from industries on the R.C.R., K.P.D. and A.P.R.R.

The Empire Belt RR continued to deliver the goods. 

An A.P.R.R. GP38-2 (3rd unit) was seen in pool service. 

A CB&Q F3A came east from Elkhart off the R.C.R. in a P.C.C.M.

Big boxcars were the order of the day in this virtual op.

B&M RBLs came in from the K.P.D. 

An empty masonite car headed back west towards the L.F.&N.W.

Cars from the A.P.R.R., K.P.D., R.C.R. & the L.F.&N.W. constantly rolled thru Bedford NY to and from Terminal Yard.

 1/87th scale AT JOE became Alco Joe

and then GE Joe.

1/87th scale Kar Knocker started working at Terminal Yard.

And has kept the fleet rolling

1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal continued making the E.B.R.R. run reliably and profitably.

Here he is introducing the "Respect The Red' Safety  Program and a pair of new SDP40s to the EBRR troops.

1/87th scale PC Ralph enjoyed time at the throttle of the Empire Belt Railroad.

And the Penn Central Railroad

And briefly toyed with a new Susquehanna Ralph moniker.

We ran 1/87th scale Bedford Tower operator John B ragged in an epic P.C.C.M. 50. "Hang in there John, it's almost over!" shouts Sir Neal from his GP9m.

 A worn out John B later invented the 'Horizontal Highball"!

Management then came thru with a new recliner to cajole him into staying at Bedford Tower.

Ralph and I ran a two layout scrap metal special to highlight our homemade scrap load projects.

A former scrap load candidate, newly painted PC Caboose #18423 brought up the markers. 

The virtual ops guys participated in an Intermodal Ops Special  featuring modern C.O.F.C and T.O.F.C. cars 

 and my favorite, the NYC Flexi -Vans.

We used the model railroad time traveler app and modernized this op with more contemporary motive power.

NYSW 8-40Bs were fresh out of the their boxes for the occasion.

 Conrail, Burlington Northern and Amtrak made guest appearances.

We closed out the 2018 virtual ops with a Mail & Express Special.

In other layout happenings zinc rot was finally defeated on my Walthers FA & FB units by finding older non afflicted engines.

New structures like these were built and added to the layout.

New industries like Bruce Electric Equipment 

 Terminal Warehouse & Cold Storage

and Empire Produce were added to the layout.

Existing industry Hudson Coal was weathered

The Terminal Yard Engine Facility became operational. 

and was upgraded as the year went along

We celebrated the Penn Central's 50th Birthday with a big bash!

A Penn Central Wall of Fame was added in April 2018

There was some zaniness when we learned 1/87th scale Big Mike did not like the Lehigh Valley beehive spark arrestors.

1/87th scale John B was surprised to find this billboard promoting disco music at Bruce Electric Equipment in contrast to the 'Disco Sucks' graffiti found on his L.F. &N.W. 

The 1/87th scale guys got together for a night out. 

and 1/87th scale AT JOE won a coupler jousting tournament.

1/87th scale PC Ralph took a midnight run

Made a great move

 But was nabbed on a backstreet.

The 'Green Team' was caught vandalizing a freight car.

There was sadness to report as my friend Engineer Ed passed away in August. 1:1 EE was a good friend and I really enjoyed his coming over and running trains. His favorite quote during our ops session was 'Having this much fun should be illegal".  RIP EE.

Double E was a huge fan of the virtual ops and really liked the camaraderie of our group. 1:1 Sir Neal and I got together and honored our friend with a 40' Hoschton Railway boxcar project that was distributed to the virtual ops crew.

The N.Y.C.T.L. and A.P.R.R. continued their joint projects like these Penn Central PS-2 Hoppers. 

Along with these 86' boxcars.

These twelve Atlas Cylindrical Covered Hoppers and GP40 3175.

And a dozen Athearn BB 57' mechanical reefers.

But none was more important than the joint project to honor Engineer Ed.

I continued upgrading my Purgatory Box rolling stock and motive power

and took on some interesting projects like this Masonite All door boxcar courtesy of John Bruce who donated a pair of Project Boxes. This is one of my most challenging paint and lettering jobs to date.

The layout received some upgrades to it's Right of Way like this area below the High Line.

 The west side curve is now looking more realistic.

New tunnel portals were added courtesy of the John B. Project Box 

Other rolling stock and motive power paint projects included PC GP7 #5699 from a John B Project Box and PC GP30 #2189

PC GP30 #2236

Penn Central 44 tonner #9999 courtesy of 1:1 Sir Neal

PC C-425 #2422

PC C-425 #2417

PC F7B #4156

PC F7A #1862

A Walthers Empire Belt FA-FB-FA set made from shells leftover from the zinc rot battle. 

And a pair of Empire Belt SDP40s from my purgatory box. 

Some other rolling stock projects that came out of the Patti O Paint Shop were this KP&W PS-2 covered hopper. 

 This Empire Belt bulkhead flat

And this Atlantic Pacific RR bulkhead flat seen below at Neal's Lumber & Hardware in December.

Word got out to the 1/87th scale railfans that the action on the N.Y.C.T.L. was well worth the trip. TC, Chooch, Easy and Benny have made the trip down from Kings Port in their familiar blue and white VW.

They got an earful from 1/87th scale Big Mike about the GP30s.

Last but not least the alway classy 1/87th scale Sir Neal supplied a reefer load of beer to the N.Y.C.T.L. gang for their 2018 Christmas party. Hopefully they'll recover in time to return in 2019!

A special thanks to the 1:1 virtual ops crew for making this another banner year for the layout. The virtual ops catalyst paid big dividends in 2018 and I'm hoping to carry that over into 2019. 

From the gang at the N.Y.C.T.L.

Wishing everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya in 2019!!