New Power and Rolling Stock for the Empire Belt RR

 Greetings All,

New Power and Rolling Stock for the Empire Belt RR

While recently working on completing the ex New Haven Penn Central Alco FA-FB-FB-FA consist project posted here I came across the below undecorated locomotives along with the Southern FB-1 that was used to power the last PC FB1.

The unboxed undecorated Walthers undecorated GP9m shell and power chassis. The shell will be washed and assembled prior to painting. The power chassis will be disassembled, cleaned and painted black.

EMD GP9m or GP18?

The GP9m is usually a rebuild of a GP9. The short hood would have been chopped down in most cases for better visibility. Certain parts of the locomotive like the trucks would have been remanufactured. The prime mover would have been modified depending on who rebuilt it.

The EMD GP18 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division between December 1959 and November 1963. Power was provided by an 16-567D1 16 cylinder engine which generated 1,800 horsepower. The GP18 replaced the GP9 in EMD's catalog. 350 examples of this locomotive model were built for American railroads, 40 units were built for Mexican railroads, 12 were built for export to a Brazilian railroad, 2 were exported to Peru, and 1 was exported to Saudi Arabia.

"Nacionales de Mexico EMD GP18 7504" by Digital Rail Artist is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/?ref=openverse.

GP18s could be customized by their buyers: railroads ordered GP18s with either high or low short hoods, with or without dynamic brakes, and in the case of Grand Trunk Western, with the optional addition of steam generators.

"Chicago Central (ex-Illinois Central) 9420 (GP18)" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/?ref=openverse.

Based on the above the Walthers GP9ms have been reclassified as GP18s for the Empire Belt RR as they better fit my railroads operating era.

Back to the Model

The power chassis has been reassembled after being painted flat black along with the truck side frames. Kadee #5s have been installed and tested with the Kadee Height Gauge.

Resurrecting "The Road To The Future"

Empire Belt RR #7280 is just out of the shops sporting the Road To The Future slogan of its former parent road the New York Central. 

The EBRR marketing department resurrected the Road To The Future slogan to show its rail customers that the EBRR was financially sound and moving forward while it's new parent RR, the PC was in dire straits with many other Northeastern RRs. 

The Road To The Future Slogan had been used by the NYC from the early 1960s up to the merger with the PRR which created the Penn Central. The slogan could be found on the NYC cabooses and the new NYC herald introduced at this time was known as the Road To The Future herald.

"New York Central System Rail Car" by Barry Cruver is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.

The three Empire Belt RR GP18s (7278-7279-7280) pose for a roster shot at Terminal Yard.

The 7280, 7279 and 7278 head back to their home at North Side Yard caboose lite. Getting those numbers into the number boards was a pain in the neck!!

A New 50' Reefer for the Empire Belt

Another long time stalled project 

Five NYMX (NYC) Mechanical Refrigerators from at least three manufacturers and no two look the same are shown at Terminal Yard on November 29, 2017. Pacific Car & Foundry built 100 of these cars for the New York Central in 1956 that were painted in the yellow and dark green scheme at the right. 

The yellow & green NYMX at left above has been gifted to a young railfan and the white & blue NYMX reefer like the one below from an ebay listing has been a purgatory box resident for years.

I did a patch out on the car similar to the one above awhile ago to make it an EBRR reefer using black lettering but wasn't happy with it. Why black lettering? Because I wasn't eager to use my dwindling stock of white EBRR decals so back to the purgatory box it went. 

Meanwhile the Empire Belt already has three 57' mechanical reefers in its fleet that were painted and lettered in August 2018 as part of another APRR-EBRR Project. Here they are in a PCCM 100 photo from June, 2023.

I finally bit the bullet and sent the blue & white reefer to the Patti-O Paint Shop and the paint stripping container. After being soaked in 91% Isopropyl alcohol the car was primed and painted with rattle can green and gloss white to almost match the three 57' EBRR reefers. 

Much better!!! Should have done this six years ago!!! The ex NYMX reefer had already been thru the car shop where it received body mounted knuckle couplers and metal wheels.

EBRR Reefer #5827 is ready for it's first revenue move to Empire Produce, a local Empire City industry. 

EBRR 5827 ready to be loaded!!

Back to the Locomotives

In other action the GP18s are lensed working the Hohman Ave Industrial Park.

The three Empire Belt GP18s worked very well in switching service and were later assigned to EBRR Train EB-2, the transfer freight train from North Side Yard to Terminal Yard.

The EBRR GP18s are put to the test.

Final Thoughts and Comments

The Walthers GP9ms / EBRR GP18s 7278 and 7279 are original Empire Belt RR engines and have provided reliable service to the EBRR since its inception in 2017. The addition of the 7280 provides another reliable unit adding additional muscle to allow for longer trains in both switching and transfer operations.

While the Walthers units are not highly detailed they are very DC friendly with low current draw and smooth low speed operation courtesy of their flywheel equipped motor. This is just what I am searching for to power the Empire Belt RR today and as it heads into the future.

As for the new EBRR 50' mechanical reefer all I can say is I should have repainted it years ago!!

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!