Empire Belt GP30s

Empire Belt GP30s
The EBRR GP30s round a curve on the Empire City Belt Line.

Saturday, May 1, 2021

Baggage Carts and Layout Odds & Ends

 Greetings All,

Happy Birthday Amtrak!!!! 

The National Railroad Corporation established from the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970 would be named Amtrak and begin to operate intercity passenger trains on May 1st 1971, fifty years ago today. 

At Empire City Station intercity passenger  and commuter trains still call and our first project to report is an enhancement of the station platforms.

Ten baggage carts from Tichy Train Group were built for Empire City Station using their kit #8318.

Here they are waiting to be built. Those are some small parts!


The first two are built and have been painted with a rattle can green. It didn't take long for the guys to start racing them around!

The kits are built and in service. Crates and barrels from Presier and others are courtesy of 1:1 Sir Neal.

Five loaded and five empty carts have been added around the station.

A loaded baggage cart waits to be loaded onto a baggage car. The carts wheels were painted rattle can red while they were still on the sprue and the black tire was hand painted with hobby paint and a small brush.

Here is another group of layout detail items that I purchased via a Trainworld sale.

This NYC pickup truck was my favorite find and it has been assigned to long time and vital NYCTL employee 1/87 scale Kar Knocker. Mark, I appreciate all of your hard work!

A 1960 Ford box truck makes a pick up at Anchor Cargo.

Scrap tire piles litter the area near Superior Furniture.

Large heavy equipment tires on the Empire City Caterpillar dock.

The tires also make nice gondola loads.

New tan pallets were added to City Pallet to give the scene some more visual interest. 


New pallets were also distributed to other industries like Hostess. 

Sacks of mail found their way to Empire City and Bedford Stations. Does anyone remember how many sacks of mail were on the City of New Orleans in the song written by Steve Goodman?

Crates of Ford Parts have been delivered to North Side Yard for local delivery. 

The baggage carts are nice models that required good lighting, patience, sharp blades and both CA and Bondene. I do enjoy the modeling concept of model railroading and was pleased with the kits and the results The other items adding visual interest around the layout were simple open the package and put them in place. After building the ten baggage carts that wasn't a bad thing!!

Here's a short Random Running for May 2021 
 

Thanks for reading and watching!!!
See ya soon!!!


Posted by at

8 comments:

  1. Neal M.May 1, 2021 at 1:39 PM

    Nice work on adding the details to the station platforms! It's those little things that make the scene realistic.

    Now the parade of engines was quite a treat as I was expecting the video to highlight the platform. The White LV engines looked cool and every train that went by was enjoyable to watch!

    I did notice one train had a lot of freight car doors open. Hope it wasn't from hobos camping out for a long time...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John R.May 2, 2021 at 8:05 AM

      Thanks Sir Neal!!!

      The LV Snowbirds came my way from the APRR!!!

      The open door era was on display as the RR got the empties out of town before the per diem payments started at midnight.

      Delete
  2. PCRalphMay 1, 2021 at 5:34 PM

    Those little baggage carts look like they took patience to assemble but as always you did a fine job! They look terrific on the station platform! All of the rest of the details and vehicles you recently procured certainly add a lot of character to your layout scenes! I enjoyed the "Random Running" video with the varied collection of Roads, power, and interesting loads!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kar KnockerMay 1, 2021 at 5:43 PM

    I was sure you'd have a posting on Amtrak's 50th anniversary. Great idea adding details to the station and the rest of the NYCTL! Your layout is becoming quite well detailed and Everytime I read a post I usually go back and gaze at the photos and always find a ' neat' detail.....Thanks for the new truck! I hope it serves better than the other 28 or so jalopies I've pushed up and down the highway over the last 30 years! .... Reading your post on equipment weight, it reminded me of my own issues with car weight. When I built my 1st layout, the ALLEGHENY LAKE ERIE RAILROAD (ALE R.R.), I owned a contracting company and only took every other Sunday off. This didn't leave much time for life. Fortunately I'm a night owl and most of my railroading was done between 11 pm and 5 or 6 am. With few trips to the hobby shop, I had to improvise on certain projects. I found the near perfect solution to weight, CAULK! It fits any area, adds plenty of weight and is an economical and easy fix. I only wish I had used a scale!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John R.May 2, 2021 at 8:10 AM

      Thank you very much Mark!!!

      Caulk!!! That sounds like an excellent idea for my IHC passenger cars. Thanks for that tip!

      Delete
    2. Kar KnockerMay 2, 2021 at 6:46 PM

      I have a 'shorty' PRR. baggage car that constantly detailed on curves and snap watches. I actually over weighted it but to no avail. I attributed it to it being a shorty and 18" curves. As a last resort, I put the caulk directly over the trucks. It's been an excellent runner ever since.

      Delete
    3. John R.May 3, 2021 at 8:26 AM

      I try to do the same with putting the weight over the trucks. I've had a few cars with slightly warped trucks over the years. The weight directly on top of the trucks seemed to help.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)