Greetings All,
As we close out the year 2021 it's time to take a look back to review the various purchases, modeling projects, virtual operations and actual model railroad operations that took place on the layout.
Purchasing Department Report:
There was a flurry of purchases in December with most units needed to protect future NYCTL passenger schedules and a pair of units mostly for parts sources.
December 2021: Four Life-Like Proto 2000 PA locomotives needed for IHC Passenger Trains being upgraded for 2022 and in freight service. LV #609 still in the box and not shown.
December 2021: Walthers Trainline FB1 and an FA1. Power chassis needed for a NYC FB1 to combat another zinc rot plagued locomotive. Shell to the project box.
August 2021: Frateschi New Haven FA1 locomotives #0425 and #0401 for use in a Penn Central FA project.
Summer 2021. Bachmann Spectrum New Haven H16-44 #1611. The price was right and this four unit consist looks and runs great! BTW, did you know the NH used the H16-44s in both passenger and freight service? They did! 
Summer 2021: Scale Trains CSX Pride in Service Locomotives, #1776 and #911. Had to have them!!
Summer 2021: New Haven EF4s 300 and 306. Yeah, I know there is no catenary on the layout. But these are beautiful locomotives and I couldn't resist!
May 2021: Penn Central Flexi Van car with PC Trailers. The PC inaugurated the first coast to coast unit mail train in 1968.
May 2021: Scale Trains CSX Pride in Service Locomotive #3194. A must have! I opted for the red & blue ditch lights.
March 2021: Undecorated Atlas yellow box FP7 later to become Penn Central FP7 #4369 for use in the Penn Central Car Movements virtual operations.
January 2021: Proto 2000 NYC cigar band E8As #4064 and #4090. Units needed to bridge the mid to late 1960s gap between lightning stripes and the Penn Central era.
2021 Paint and Modeling Projects:
August 2021: Penn Central ex New Haven RR FA1-FB1-FA1 Project. A three part project starting here. June 2021: A joint APRR-EBRR six car Hi Cube Boxcar Project for use in Penn Central Car Movements virtual operations.
January 2021: First decal project of the year. New York Central RDC Safety Stripe Project
This RDC has gone from ho hum to wow! The RDC has been featured numerous times photobombing the Penn Central Car Movements virtual operations. Virtual Operations
2021 was another banner year for our three layout virtual operations called the Penn Central Car Movements. The NYCTL participated in a total of ten PCCMs with PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR starting with PCCM #80 in January 2021. Car Card and Waybill Operations
In 2021 I continued updating my car cards so that all rolling stock on the layout with the exception of single coal hoppers, non revenue equipment and passenger cars have a corresponding car card. Waybills have been prepared for many of the cars but that is still a work in progress.
Other fun layout operations included simulating waterfront operations with a new subway car delivery inspired by the book Waterfront Railroads of New York Harbor Part 2 which was a gift from PC Ralph. The workbench saw it's share of repairs and upgrades this year to keep the trains operating smoothly and reliably.
An older AHM GG1 was upgraded for better electrical pickup and performance. An International Hobby Corp passenger car update and upgrade was started to get several sets of IHC cars running well. This is currently an ongoing project and I'll have more on this in 2022. April 2021: Rolling stock and motive power upgraded with additional weight for better operation and reliability.
Odds and Ends
The NYCTL posted a total of ninety five blog entries and fifty five videos on my youtube channel for 2021.
Summary
Looking back 2021 saw a good number of projects focused on upgrading the existing fleets of locomotives and freight cars. Work has begun on the passenger car fleet which is ongoing at this time and will be detailed in 2022. The purchasing department made a good number of capital investments adding some key locomotives.
I'll be posting a "What's New for 2022" post around New Years Day for readers to see what is planned for the layout in the new year.
Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Thanks for reading!!!!
See ya next year!!!
Wow! It has been quite a productive year on the N.Y.C.T.L. with the motive power acquisitions, the painting projects, the RDC decal work (which still impresses the heck out of me!), the upgrades and repairs to cars and locomotives, the creation of strings of freelanced rolling stock, the car card and waybill operations, the virtual ops, and all of those blog posts and videos! Its been a pleasure to follow all of that activity throughout the year. Congratulations and here's to another year of great modeling and fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Ralph!!! The NYC RDC project was my favorite of the year. All in all it was a good year for the trains and layout. Thank you for the friendship and being a big part of many of the projects.
DeleteThat PC Flexi-Van is great- Walther's did a nice job on them. I have one but should have bought at least three when they came out. Keep up the good work here.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I wish I bought a few of them earlier. I was glad to have won this one on ebay. Thanks for the compliments and following the blog.
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