New Looks for the N.Y.C.T.L.

 Greetings All,

Much rain and cold temps in February gave me a good amount of time to work on and complete a variety of scenic improvements for the layout.

Below is the Empire Belt Railroad's North Side Yard located in the heart of Empire City. The lush shrubbery between the rails has been bothering me for awhile and it was time to go.

The weed sprayer has some work to do! 

 

That's better! New ballast is in place and the yard looks ready to reopen in this view from the west side.

Here is a look from the east side. I will need to address the cork between the tracks to the left.

A week or so later this area is now complete.

Next project was this location which is the first area of the layout you see when walking into the train room. It's not bad but I wanted to add some trees for visual interest.

The hallway leading to the train room can be see over the yellow trimmed building. The US Flag is in front of a window into another basement room that leads to the basement walkout and Patti O Paint Shop. Some tall trees should work here as view blocks.

The last remnants of my garden sedum plants will be used for trees. They've been sprayed with a rattle can green. These are not model railroad academy trees. B.T.W. this is the room behind the US Flag.

The new trees are in place.

I like the look and think the new trees make the scene much better.

Layout project bleed brings me to Bedford NY to enhance this scene at Schaefer Brewery which is directly behind the Bedford Station and in the line of sight when entering the train room.

That looks better!

That looks much better!

Next I turned my attention to Empire City Station where I've wanted to lengthen the west end of the passenger platforms for some time and get rid of the rocks and greenery.

The platforms have been extended using "Skinny Sticks" from a big box store and white glue. The job was tedious as there was a lot of cutting and trimming but it was well worth the time and effort.

A view from the west side. The passengers are pleased.

The extension adds an additional full passenger car length.

The west end is now similar to the east end which was extended a long time ago.

 

Engineers and Fireman like it as well! In one of the Green Frog PC videos I recently watched I saw the trainmen taking cups of coffee back to the engines during a station stop. I'm giving the east and west NYCTL crews the same option! 

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!

Penn Central FP7 #4369 Project

 Greetings All,

In early 2021 acting a bit like Noah I started looking for an Atlas Penn Central EMD FP7 to pair up with my single Atlas PC FP7 #4348 that I painted in December 2016 and documented in this blog post.

The Penn Central inherited forty of the dual purpose EMD FP7s from the Pennsylvania RR in February 1968. The PRR purchased the units in 1952 along with fourteen passenger equipped F7Bs as protection for passenger traffic upswings and for freight service. According to the Morning Sun Penn Central Power book the units were used exclusively in freight service.

Here is the 4348 with passenger equipped F7B #4156 in P.C.C.M. 81 action.

Early in February I came across a good deal on ebay for this used Atlas yellow box undecorated FP7 that has the factory pilot replaced with a metal pilot. The pilot didn't matter to me I was just happy to have a clean unit to work with.

The Atlas FP7 is fresh out of the Patti O Paint Shop. Road number 4369 was chosen for this model to replicate PC 4369 in PC Ralph's Kings Port Division Fleet. This gives us the option of pairing the 4348 and 4369 in our virtual ops.

On March 1st Penn Central FP7 #4369 was put into service. The prototype 4369 was originally PRR #9869. Here it is in PRR paint with it's new PC number in mid 1968.

The PC FP7 fleet was maintenance based at Conway Yard and that detail has been included to match the prototype.

The 4369 couples up to FP7 #4348 giving me a pair of good running workhorses. Note the air grills on the 4348 have been painted black to match the 4369 and Ralph's FP7s.

The 4369 makes its first revenue run.

An FP7-F7B-FP7 lash up power Multi Level Train ML-12A

The Conrail cyclopedia reports that eighteen of the forty FP7s originally in the Penn Central fleet were conveyed to Conrail in April 1976. Here is the CR 4369 at Conway in 1977. Here is the 4369 in 1978. It appears the maintenance base for the CR FP7s was moved to Collinwood where they joined their brother F units. 

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!

Penn Central E8A #4300 Project

 Greetings All,

The time has come for this New York Central E8A that I painted in November 2012 to head back to the Paint Shop. As newer and more accurate factory and home paint shop models join the roster this P-2000 unit has been mostly relegated to it's box or as a trailing unit in a Penn Central consist at best.

In January 2021 a pair of correctly painted Proto 2000 New York Central Cigar Band E8As joined the fleet sealing the fate of the 4020.

After the NYC E8s arrived I took a hard look at my Penn Central E Unit Fleet that is currently undergoing some mechanical and cosmetic work. In October of 2016 I corrected some of my E units by eliminating the Mars Lights on three units and introducing a newly painted PC E8A #4072. This is a Rivarossi shell on a P-2000 E6 chassis. 

It's not great but it's prototypically painted, runs very well and looks OK in a PC consist.

Penn Central E8A #4317 with mars light removed in 2016 is just out of the shop in early 2021. Touch up paint and repaired wiring have the unit running and looking much better.

Penn Central E7A #4210 sans mars light from October 2016. The 4210, the 4317 and 4072 made up my PC E Unit fleet.

Looking to repaint my NYC 4020 into an accurate PC unit I took a look at the Pennsylvania RR that had two auxiliary light equipped E8As on their roster, built and delivered as PRR #5700A and #5701A in 1952.

This Walthers Proto 2000 PRR 5700A in the as delivered scheme is part of my son's PRR fleet.

The 5700 was renumbered for the merger to #4300 and became Penn Central #4300. The mars light was blanked out and the headlight remained in the nose door opening. Perfect for this model!

The ex 4020 has soaked for several hours in 91% alcohol with little to show for it. The white caulking held on the air intake grills which came off very easily but left a bit of a mess.

The shell is cleaned, the sun came out briefly, the Patti O Paint Shop was opened and a coat of rattle can gray primer has been applied.

The shell is now gloss black and it's time to put the metal air grills back on. This time I'm using gel type CA.

The decal process has begun. This spartan large PC only paint scheme became common as the PC fleet came back for their second trips to the paint shop. 

While the decals were setting it was time to address the mechanical issues of this unit. The frame and weight of the unit had been altered by a prior owner to accommodate the E8A shell. Unfortunately the top of the weight is a bit too high which caused wires to be crushed and the unit to run erratically. A few years ago I pulled the weight off and soldered on new wires from the trucks and motor to the control board.

The weight has been grinded and reinstalled. To do this I had to unsolder and then solder some of the wires back on. 

Penn Central 4300 is now fully assembled and ready for assignment.

When PC repainted the 4300 in this scheme the portholes were blanked out. To convey that on the model I painted some thin styrene black to match the shell. 

With the auxiliary light blanked out, the unit painted like the prototype and running very well the 4300 will be taking center stage in my passenger and express operations.

The 4300 passes RA Tower with a late PC / early Amtrak consist.

See the 4300 in action here.

Completing the PC E8A #4300 project has been very rewarding. The unit now looks good and runs great which is a vast improvement from how the unit looked and ran when I started the project.

The PRR 5700 built in 1952 that became Penn Central #4300 in February 1968 would be sold to Amtrak and wear the platinum mist as Amtrak #307 and then as Amtrak #457. I couldn't find a disposition for this engine and the last photo I found is from 1981.

For more reading about PRR E8A fleet checkout this PRR Keystone Modeler No.81 and this Trainorders conversation.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!

   

New York Central Cigar Band E8As Join The Fleet

 Greeting All,

In 1951 the New York Central went to EMD and obtained sixty E8As over a two year span making it the most popular passenger unit on the system.

During the early 1960s the New York Central E7 and E8 fleets went from the ultra classy lightning striped scheme to the more utilitarian, but still classy, cigar band scheme. With the Lightning Stripes covered I wanted to add at least one NYC cigar band unit to represent the middle to late 1960s that would carry over into the 1968 Penn Central merger.

This was my first attempt several years ago. Paint and lettering came out fine. Color however is nowhere close to the NYC and the NYC never had a mars light on it's E units.

In January I came across two P-2000 NYC cigar band units that were like new in the box for sale at a very reasonable price being offered by Model Train Market. Unable to decide which unit to buy I jumped in and bought both.

That's more like it!! NYC E8A #4064 at Terminal Yard. 

Sister engine E8A #4090 is ready for it's first revenue run. Both units received Kadee #5 couplers for the rear and Kadee #26 long center shank couplers for the front.

The P-2000 E units have a nice amount of separately applied delicate details.

If you are unfamiliar with these units I recommend checking out the instructions on how to remove the shell and chassis from the box so  those delicate details remain intact.

The Cigar Band units call at Empire City Station.

The 4090 passes RA Tower prompting a nice weekend of train watching at this layout hotspot.

NYC Passenger trains at RA Tower 

The two new E8s have been broken in, are running very nicely and are a definite win win for my New York Central passenger trains and passengers.  

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!