The Empire Belt RR Tests an EMD Cow and Calf Set

 Greetings All,

The Empire Belt Tests an EMD Cow and Calf Set

Today we've turned back the clock to the early 1960s as New York Central subsidiary, the Empire Belt RR, tests an EMD Cow and Calf set for use in local switching operations.

Prototype Information

What exactly is an EMD cow and calf set you ask. Basically it is two powered switch engines with only one unit having an operators cab. EMD introduced these units in 1940 which were designated as Transfer units and carried the TR prefix. The cow and calf name comes from railfans and not the EMD catalog.

The first TR set went to the Illinois Central. I'll provide a link below for more info on these locomotives.

Model Information

Several years ago I painted an Athearn non powered calf unit as NYC 8842 and outfitted it as a track cleaning car with a Masonite pad knowing the NYC did not have the cow and calf sets. As the years went by I put this calf unit aside as prototype fidelity came to the forefront of my modeling.

As time went on I thought the non prototypical calf might work well for my freelanced Empire Belt RR during my non PCCM train operations where less tonnage is moved in a session. This way I could run the op and clean the track at the same time which is a win-win for me.

Below the EBRR guys have gathered as Senior Engineer Sir Neal starts up the calf unit which will be tested with SW8 9622 on today's Belt Job.

The Athearn 8842 looks good coupled up to the Proto 2000 SW8 9622, a 1953 EMD product. The F7 A-B-B-A led freight train is being held for Train EC-1 heading to North Side Yard to clear the main

Alco Joe has brought Train EC-1 into North Side Yard and checks out the cow and calf units from the front porch of his lightning striped Alco RS2 prior to heading back to Terminal Yard.

The cow and calf units get to work on the Belt Line. The NH boxcar is a Walthers track cleaning car. The P-2000 switch engine has enough power to handle both track cleaning cars. The rails should really shine when this op is completed!!

Reefers are spotted at Empire Produce and the midtown siding tracks get cleaned.

The cow and calf units exit the midtown siding.

The Belt Job works the west side industries. The NYC Pacemaker car is also affixed with a track cleaning Masonite pad.

The cow and calf bring the Belt Job back towards North Side Yard ending day one of their testing.

Watch the Cow & Calf in action working the Belt Job.

Final Thoughts

The test went well as the P-2000 SW8 has enough power to handle a decent amount of freight cars and the non powered track cleaning calf. As Empire City freight traffic increases more power will be needed and the calf may find itself sandwiched between the EBRR GP18s and GP30s going forward. We'll see.

Additional Reading

EMD Cow and Calf Units

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

East Coast Circuits / A 1:1 Sir Neal Company

 Greetings All,

Readers of this blog should be familiar with the name Sir Neal. 1:87 Sir Neal is the senior engineer of my freelanced Empire Belt RR. "The Sir Neal" is an APRR GP38 that I regularly run in our virtual ops and the HO scale "Neal's Lumber and Hardware" in Empire City is just one of his many 1:87 financial interests.

You may be aware that 1:1 Sir Neal is the owner, Chairmen and Chief Financial Officer of the well known and well respected 1:87 scale Atlantic Pacific RR but not know he is a principal in a company known as East Coast Circuits.

East Coast Circuits or ECC is a company that produces model railroad circuits for animation and lighted vehicles among other things. Their lighted vehicles can be found on some well known layouts like Vic Smith's City Edge layout(see link below).

In July of 2022 when my friend 1:1 Sir Neal appeared in Episode #199 of the "What's Neat This Week in Model Railroading" with Ken Patterson that is shown on youtube (see link below) and showcased some of the East Coast Circuits new products I knew I had to have some.

True to form 1:1 Sir Neal took care of and expedited my order. Here is the ECC shipment arriving at North Side Yard in a New York Central Express Car no less!!

1:87 Sir Neal displays the new HO scale products that have arrived.  Two sets each of HO scale Jersey barriers in both orange and white and an HO scale photographer.

 East Coast Circuits is headquartered in Providence Rhode Island.

The Kings Port Railfan Society have brought ECC photographer, 1:87 Emery to Empire City on a photo safari. Check out the new barriers.

This area of the layout has long been in serious need of an upgrade and the Jersey barriers really enhance the scene.

Meanwhile 1:87 Emery takes in the action at Empire City Station

Emery grabs an ice cream and photos the trains passing on the High Line. 

Here's 1:87 Emery taking photos from different locations

 

Back at North Side Yard Sir Neal and PC Ralph discuss the barriers and the newly added steps. They both agree the area still needs some work.

The area is paved with black hobby sand and some details have been added.

That looks much better! 

The Empire Belt trainmen talk it over as additional jersey barriers are readied for movement to other parts of layout.

An EBRR train pulls out of North Side Yard.

Later that day as they get ready to take to the lounge chairs and relax PC Ralph tells Sir Neal, I feel like somebody's watching us.

And there he is! 1:87 Emery has secured permission from Empire Produce to use their roof as his vantage point to photograph the train action. He is now hard wired to the 12 volt accessories contacts on the controller and the circuits and wiring are hidden in the top of the building.

I originally planned for 1:87 Emery to be portable and powered by a 9 volt battery, This proved to be too cumbersome and time consuming to set up so I selected this location for 1:87 Emery for it's easy access to the controller. This is one of the areas of the layout where I spend a lot of time and can easily activate and enjoy watching Emery photograph the train action. Below is 1:87 Emery's on and off push button switch.

The Jersey barriers were also used in a few other locations to protect the motorists and railroad right away in Empire City. This area is behind the Moore & Company lot. Looks like someone's going out for a pass. Don't go too long!

The lead to Superior Furniture is now protected.

The eastside of North Side Yard is now protected. Stolen and stripped cars continue to be problematic! Maybe this is the wrong side of the tracks that people talk about?

The barriers on Amboy Street will keep the Pizza Land customers and the delivery trucks for Ralph's Grocery Warehouse from driving onto the Belt Line and look good doing it.

The Jersey barriers draw the eye into the scene even with all the commotion going on. 1:87 Emery is snapping away catching all the excitement.

1:87 Emery, Sir Neal and PC Ralph have a great view as a Police Captain with a bullhorn is yelling up to them. Conductor John, afraid of heights, is standing on the corner checking his watch.

Both the 1:87 Emery and the Jersey barriers are welcome additions to the layout and provide visual enhancements to all of the areas they were placed. The East Coast Circuits are well made and guaranteed to to be free from defects for one year. Look for more ECC products on the layout in the future.

Links

East Coast Circuits

ECC Police Cars in Action on The City Edge Layout

What's Neat This Week #199

Jersey Barriers

Thank you Sir Neal for your handling of the order!!!

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

Piedmont Pilgrimage 2022 Part 3

 Greetings All,

Piedmont Pilgrimage 2022 Part 3

On Saturday, November 12th 2022, I had the good fortune to visit two model train layouts as part of the NMRA Southeast Region, Piedmont Division's layout tours in Georgia known as the Piedmont Pilgrimage.

The Piedmont Pilgrimage celebrates its 20th year of layout tours this year and gives us up close views and interactions with some very talented model railroaders. 

St Louis and Southern RR

I started the day visiting the St Louis and Southern RR of Randall Watson of Suwanee, Georgia. The layout is set in the modern day and covers the Norfolk Southern from St Louis to N. Fort Wayne. For more on the layout read here.

The layout was huge and has 3 1/2 levels. The work done thus far is impressive. 

The NS is well represented.

The helix in a separate room has a 2% grade that gets the trains from level one at 28.5" off the floor to level two at 44.5" high to level three at 60.5" high. The bench work at the top is a reverse loop for level 3.5 that is 78" high and reached by an around the room grade  of about 2% from level three.

The layout room was beautiful as was the workmanship on the layout. Randall uses both extruded foam and hard shell plaster cloth of cardboard strips for his scenery.

Good looking scenes were plenty like this one on level two. The weathering and ballast really bring the scene to life.

Hard shell hills with nice rock work and a good looking backdrop give the sense of traveling far distances.

Randall was a great host and spent a good amount of time giving me a personal tour of his RR. Here he is showing me some of his DCC control boards that are mounted under the layout using drawer slides. Good idea!!

A coal mine waiting to come online. Note Randall is using dump trucks under the structure to the right. Another good idea!!

Hugh Handford Tool Company was a big structure that started out as American Hardware Supply. 

This is a modern era layout and double stacks were plenty. Being the good guest I am I didn't question the 40' container on the 53' container. That was a no-no twelve years ago when I worked for CSX but could be OK now.

A Cement Plant is open for business. Note the HVAC vent. The room was very comfortable and having heat and a/c in Georgia is a good idea.

As you can see Randall's layout is huge occupying most of his basement. In a word I would compliment it as "tight". Meaning it looks great in its present state and I appreciated how the railroad and trains flowed around the room on 3.5 levels.  The construction, track plan, track laying, wiring, structures, scenes, rolling stock and motive power was "tight".

A very big thank you to both Randall and Mrs. Watson for being such friendly outgoing people and fantastic hosts. From the minute I arrived until the time I left both were extremely cordial to all of their guests and perfect hosts for this type of event. Thank you also to the operators who ran the trains.

Onto the next stop!!!

The Brandywine & Benedictine RR

My next stop was the Brandywine & Benedictine Railroad of Norm Stenzel of Suwanee, Georgia. The name may be whimsical but make no mistake this is a serious layout focused on operations. You can read more about it here and here.

The B&B RR aka "The Mason Dixon Line" runs between Winston Salem NC and Pittsburgh PA in 1953 with a 50-50 mix of steam and diesel power. The modeled portion cover the 55 miles from Martinsville, VA to Sulphur Springs, W.VA. Gandin Yard in salem, VA serves as the division point between the Carolina Division to the south and the Allegheny Division to the North.

The layout is housed in a 2300 square foot basement devoted to model railroading consisting of a railroad room, a workshop and a crew lounge. The layout about 2000' of hand laid code 70 track. 

I started my tour at this steel mill which is very impressive.

As I said very impressive!!

An very big!! Slag cars, bottle cars and the flatcars look great. 

Steel coils get loaded. I did say this was big!!

Big and impressive!!

It even has a slag dump!! 

This scene is based on Natural Tunnel in Duffield, VA. 

The B&B is a coal hauler and here is one of the mines. The aisles were very generous and the B&B can comfortably host 18 operators. 

Beautiful scenery and a great sense of historic realism are on display every time I checked something out. As you'll see I couldn't stop taking photos of this masterpiece.

Not overly done the scenery, trains and structures have room to breath.

An empty hopper train sits in yard. 

Steam engines get serviced. Possibly the Pauldon Helpers which are added to most northbound trains. Note the car cards and waybills. This is a serious operation.

Maybe not so much today! The Hogwarts Express comes thru to the delight of the Harry Potter fans who are visiting.

And there it goes! Mrs. Stenzel had pleasure of running this train during my visit.

A close up of the steam engines and their facilities. Very impressive.

A coal served industry.

The gentle curves, buildings, backdrop structures and mountains really give a another excellent view of the work put into this beautiful layout.

Here's the same scene from a different angle.

Rail served industries. The greenery at the front edge really sets off another realistic scene. The bridge dead ends as the layout edge.

Diesels and steam engines congregate at the roundhouse and turntable. The black and yellow units are painted and lettered for the Brandywine & Benedictine.

The steam fleet is also painted and lettered for the Brandywine & Benedictine.

A view of the yard, passenger station and coach yard.

The B&R hauls passengers as well as coal and general merchandise.

As I said this layout is seriously focused on operations. An interchange track with a tower protecting the crossing and all the necessary paperwork, switch control buttons, DCC power source and a telephone add to the realism of running this trains on this layout. 

I made it back to the yard area when it cleared out. Another well planned and laid out scene. Check out the orange rims on the B&O trailers. Good idea!

A B&B Alco burbles away in the yard. Note the red & green pinheads near the switch stands. Another good idea!

A nice corner scene with about eight tracks and plenty of space between them. 

As we come around the corner it looks like a car repair shop and caboose track.

An ice house and platform. Perfect for 1953.

Hemingway Finishing Company has expanded!!! First spotted on John Travis' Johnstown and Gerryville RR in Part 1 it looks like Mr. Hemingway is well known to Norm Stenzel as well. They are both NMRA-SER-Piedmont Division members after all. I wonder if anything actually gets finished here!

A fine looking mine!!!

One more photo of the coal mine before I depart.

The last photo!!! The company houses and a beautiful scene call for one more shot of this masterpiece layout.

If I had one word to describe this layout it is a toss up between masterpiece or serious. I'm choosing serious because of its focus, attention to detail, attention to operating prototypically complete with a B&B timetable, working signals and the option of running under Centralized Traffic Control or Time Table & Written Train Order. But it sure is a masterpiece!!! 

A big thank you to Norm Stenzel and Mrs. Stenzel for allowing me visit and being another set of fine hosts.Thank you also to the  operators who were running the B&B this day. I really enjoyed my visit here as you an tell and appreciated Mrs. Stenzel cluing me in on where the name of the railroad came from. 

Mrs. Stenzel's favorite drink at one time was a B&B, a drink made up of French Brandy and Benedictine Liqueur and she once worked on Brandywine Street. She liked the name and here we are. BTW the drink was reportedly first made at the 21 Club in Manhattan, NY in the 1930's.

So far I'm six for six on the Piedmont Pilgrimage layout tours. A big thank you to everyone who put this together, coordinated the tours and the layout owners and their families who opened their homes to the visitors. You are all truly ambassadors of the World's Greatest Hobby. 

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!