The year in review

 Greetings All,

Here is the N.Y.C.T.L.'s annual year in review.

As we all hunkered down in one way or another I realized how fortunate I was to have the hobby of model railroading to keep me occupied and somewhat sane. Let's enjoy a look back to see what if anything was accomplished regarding the layout, rolling stock etc. 

Locomotive Projects:

A quartet of Athearn BB General Electric U28Cs were designated as U23Cs beginning January 2020. In 1970 the Penn Central purchased nineteen (19) U23Cs numbered 6700-6718 for use in hump yard and transfer service. With my Terminal Yard in need of heavy yard power I turned to these Blue Box units that were mostly sitting idle. I renumbered the engines and added some of the yellow panels that were easy identifying features of this PC engine. 

U23C #6718 came into service in January 2020

With the success of PC U23C #6718 I did a rationalization of motive power for my freelanced Empire Belt RR that had two similar Blue Box units in the U30C series. U23Cs better fit the scope of my short line switching RR with transfer runs from their North Side Yard in Empire City to parent road Penn Central's Terminal Yard. 

EBRR U23C #6719 went into service for the Empire Belt in March 2020.

EBRR U23C #6720 also joined the EBRR in March 2020. The pair work very well together and with their U23C designation look right for their roles.

As the months wore on it became apparent that single U23C #6718 was struggling with some of the shove moves on the grade into Terminal Yard and moving larger blocks of cars between Terminal Yard and Pier 16 Yard. In October 2020 I cobbled together another Athearn BB U28C and dressed it up as Penn Central U23C #6710.

The U23C projects worked out quite well for the pocketbook, layout and my own imagination. Using some modelers license I added four "new" engines that better fit the layout's ops scenarios without having to buy more engines. That's a win-win-win-win!!

In February 2020 a new locomotive purchase and repainting added Penn Central F7A #1693 to my fleet. The PC ran their F units in many different trains and I wanted to have a powered A-B-A  Bachmann Plus set to run together and to mix and mingle with my other Bachmann units. Here is the newly painted 1693 with 1/87 scale Sir Neal at the throttle.

I continued looking at my already owned and never run locomotive fleet and identified a Conrail SD40-2 as having been stored serviceable for a very long time. After hemming and hawing over it for a few weeks I repainted it as Penn Central SD40 #6102. It went into service in April 2020

I found the story of this ex PRR unit to be fascinating with several interesting coincidences to my model train layout. Here's the post with the info and links.

Penn Central F7A #1728 joined the fleet in October. This was a repainting of a stored serviceable Athearn BB shell and a BB power chassis swap. This gave me a much needed powered BB F7A to mix and mingle with my BB fleet.

 

The last locomotive project for the year was ex PRSL GP38 #2010 that became Penn Central #2010 after it left EMD but before arriving on the PRSL. This was a newly purchased shell for use on an Atlas power chassis that was stored serviceable for years as a Reading unit.

Freight Car Projects:

In February I purchased some ex GAEX "Shippers Delight" boxcars. I liked the way they look, their story and usage. In a stroke of good fortune after posting this I got a note from 1:1 Sir Neal who had several such cars on his roster "stored serviceable" wanting to know if I was interested them. You guys know my answer!

In March I added several more freight cars from ''shake the box kits" like this LV 62082 that carried Rock Salt.

In May I dug out an undecorated Athearn Gunderson MAXI III five unit set and painted them for Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad. I think this is my best paint and lettering job to date.

An AP bay window caboose was included with the above project.

In July this 50' EBRR double door boxcar was released from the Patti O Paint Shop.

Also in July I continued with my track cleaning obsession and honored my late friend Engineer Ed with a trio of track cleaning Hoschton Coal Hoppers. Here's a pair at Hudson Coal.

An August boxcar rescue added TCC 248 to the fleet.

In September six of my first repaints were revisited and weathered.

 

Now they look like they've been earning revenue!

In November Emergency Grain Cars made from old livestock cars were added to the APRR and NYCTL fleets.

Specials

The traditional end of year Holiday Railfanning Special continued with a posting in January 2020. Other specials included an Independence Day Railfan Special in July with some vintage RR equipment like this New Haven Alco PA hauling a NH passenger train.

We celebrated 80 years of EMD F Units at the end of July.

In September Switcher Saturday gave us a look at the switcher fleet,  the newest switcher, a GE 44 tonner and old favorites like this EMD Lehigh Valley pup. 

A Christmas Steam Special closed out the yearly specials in smokey style!

Industries:

In May Neubaum's Coffee & Tea Importers moved from Empire City to a larger location in nearby Bedford.

New industry City Pallet moved into the vacant Newbaum site.

 

In October Schaefer Brewery bought out and moved into the Heileman Brewery.

Operations:

This year's biggest undertaking was going to the Car Card and Waybill operations for the railroad's non virtual operations. Several blog posts covered the introduction of this time honored easy to use operating system.

I was fortunate once again to be able to participate in the virtual ops also known as the Penn Central Car Movements, with PC Ralph and Sir Neal. We ran a total of twelve P.C.C.M.s this year and they continue to be a source of great fun and modeling inspiration.

I hope this end of the year review provided you a pleasant read. I look forward to continuing the blog for another year which will be year number eleven. Eleven years!! Time flies when you work on your model railroad projects!

Thank you for reading!!!!

See ya next year!!! 

P.S.
The annual New Year's Railfanning is well under way and should be ready for posting on January 1st. Take care everyone!