Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 Happy Thanksgiving All!!!

The NYCTL once again experienced a surge of passenger, express and mail traffic.  

Have a great day everyone!!!

Another Big Sale and More Freight Cars Join The Fleet

 Greetings All,

Another Big Sale and More Freight Cars Join The Fleet

There I was innocently looking at my emails when what should appear, a notice of a 50% off used merchandise from Trainmaster

Models in Auburn, GA which is my not so local hobby shop. I needed to get some Kadee #26 long center shank couplers anyway so Thursday the opening day of the sale was the perfect day to go.

Or maybe it wasn't!!! I did get the couplers and a little bit more. 

The yellow Athearn BB Frisco boxcar caught my eye and for four dollars it was an easy decision to nab it. Interestingly there is a lot of real good Soo Line rolling stock in the used section of Trainmaster Models in Georgia and the Soo Line PS-2 hopper was part of it.

Another Soo Line freight car I found was this MDC/Roundhouse 60' flatcar with a Mitsubishi scraper load. The car definitely needs some straightening out.

An Athearn BB 86' Wabash Auto Parts boxcar with Kadee couplers and metal wheels was quickly scoffed up. Note how high the car is sitting when first taken out of the box and the couplers are still way too low.

An MDC/Roundhouse 50' PGE (Pacific Great Eastern) boxcar for paper loading only and an Accurail CNW 40' boxcar kit that was already built with metal wheels and knuckle couplers.

Another BB kit, this one a Clinchfield 50' sliding door boxcar. The lettering in the yellow states "For Explosives Loading Only. When Empty Return to CRR Agent at Kingsport, TN."

I seldom buy private road cars but I liked the look of this Libby's 50' reefer from Athearn that already had Kadee #5s installed.

Getting The New Freight Cars Into Revenue Service

A noted in a previous blog post all freight cars from this purchase received basically the same treatments that included a blast of Testor's Dullcote, metal wheels with their faces painted either black or burnt umber where required, additional weight, Kadee couplers, confirmation of coupler heights meeting the Kadee gauge, painted trucks and underframes.

As I wrote before by keeping to the above minimum standards every locomotive and piece of rolling stock can couple up with each other for reliable operation and provide a somewhat uniform non toy like look for equipment that is running on the layout.

Libby's Famous Foods 50 Reefer

TLDX 37 leased to Libby's Foods in Chicago, Illinois. TLDX is the reporting marks for General Electric Rail Services. Libby's Famous Foods was founded in 1859 by Archibald McNeil, Arthur Libby and Charles Libby. Libby's produced canned foods, beverages and frozen foods. After WWII Libby's had canning plants across Europe and in the USA. In 1970 Libby's was purchased by Nestle.

Check out a Libby's boxcar 

SOO LINE 60' Flatcar

The Soo Line 5005 now with the deck painted "territorial beige" and the Mitsubishi scraper with several coats of Testor's Dullcote. The SOO LINE was formed in 1961 as the Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Sault Saint Marie (MNStP&SSM) and became known as the Soo after the phonetic spelling of Sault. The SOO LINE is now part of the CPKC.

The Soo Line did roster the 5000 series 60' flatcars. Check out the 5006. I'm not sure if Mitsubishi built a scraper.

SOO LINE PS Covered Hopper

The Soo Line PS2 covered hopper was an easy add as I only needed to swap out the Accumate couplers for Kadee#5s in addition to the standard practices described above. I'm not sure what this car hauled but I'm looking to put it in sugar service.

Check out Soo Line 69590.

Wabash 86' Boxcar

The Wabash RR gets its name from the Wabash River and dates back to 1865 and as of 1982 is now a Norfolk Southern property. The RR became somewhat famous for the song about its Cannonball passenger train. 

The RR served major industries in Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri that included five Ford Plants. It will now serve six when it handles traffic between Ford Plants in Detroit, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City, Toledo and my Bedford Park NY Ford Plant.

The Low Rider

The Wabash 86'er has been lowered but the couplers now meet the Kadee height gauge thanks to Kadee underset shank couplers and attaching the underframe to the steel weight with PL600. The long plastic chassis' on these 86' cars have a tendency to droop at the ends which causes the couplers to droop as well. Securing the chassis to the weight will correct this problem.

Check out WAB 55045 

CNW 40' Boxcar

The Chicago & North Western Railroad was chartered in 1859 and served eleven upper mid-west states during it's heyday. As the company struggled it was sold to it's employees in 1972. In 1995 the Union Pacific RR took over the CNW operations.

Accurail CNW 57728 was another easy add with the removal of the Accumate couplers, replacing them with Kadee #5s and doing the above basic layout prep for the car.  

Check out CNW 57702 

SLSF 50' Boxcar

The Saint Louis & San Francisco Railway commonly known as the Frisco, operated in the mid west and south central United Staes from 1876 thru 1980. Despite its name the SLSF never came close to San Francisco nor did it enter California. The Frisco was merged into the Burlington Northern RR in November, 1980.

Possibly my favorite car from this purchase was the SLSF 6243. I just like the way it looks and quickly added it to my shopping basket. 

Ship it on the Frisco! Three Frisco boxcars in three paint schemes.

"3/31/78, three Frisco boxcars" by OHFalcon72 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.

Clinchfield 50' Boxcar

The Clinchfield RR was the last class 1 railroad built in the United States starting as the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio. The RR began operations in 1924 with a 266 mile mainline from Spartanburg, SC to Elkhorn City, KY. In 1972 the Clinchfield became part of the Family Lines System. In 1983 the CRR became part of the Seaboard System when when the Family Lines merged with the Seaboard. The Seaboard would merge with the Chessie System in 1986 to form the CSX RR.

The Athearn BB boxcar has joined the fleet. The car is for explosives loading only and appears to be in assigned service to the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, TN.

Carrying explosives will obviously require careful handling.

This Penn Central book on Hazardous Materials Regulations that was a gift from PC Ralph details the appropriate loading, handling and placement of freight cars carrying hazardous materials. 

Boxcars carrying explosives must have a wooden floor which the CRR boxcar has. The CRR wood floor is painted with gray primer and any car with a metal floor would need a wood overlay.

Here is a similar 1:1 scale CRR 5874.

"Boxcar, Clinchfield" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en/?ref=openverse.

PGE Boxcar #4505

The Pacific Great Eastern Railway was chartered as a private railroad in 1912 and became a crown corporation in 1918. The PGE would become the British Columbia Railway in 1972 and then took on the BC Rail name in 1984.

The 4505 is "For Paper Loading Only" and will deliver these high value loads to several on layout consignees and and the Long Island Newsday served by my LIRR interchange partner.

Final Thoughts and Comments

Another buying spree has come and gone with some nice additions to the roster. Finding used rolling stock and motive power at very reasonable prices keeps the hobby affordable for me and working to add the cars to the fleet is one of the aspects of the hobby that I enjoy. Researching car routes for each of the cars has become a hobby within the hobby.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!

Penn Central Car Movements #108 Part 6 / Conclusion of Virtual Operations

 Greetings All,

Welcome Back to Penn Central Car Movements #108

The PCCM 108 Inbound Cycle concludes today with freight traffic from Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division getting delivered to local consignees.

Our final installment of the series starts in the Terminal Yard engine terminal with Alco Joe called for Train EC-1 and getting ready to board his four engine power consist.

Three EBRR GP18s returning from their Selkirk inspection and a PC GP30 couple up to the EC-1 freight cars for movement to the Empire Belt RRs North Side Yard.

Meanwhile in Empire City Train Extra 4369, an empty hopper train, is heading to Terminal Yard.

Extra 4369 passes Bedford Station and is held for the EC-1.

Train EC-1 arrives in North Side Yard.

Alco Joe uncouples the EBRR GP18s from the PC GP30.

With no freight traffic for Terminal Yard at this time Train EC-2 is a single GP30 that is heading back to Terminal Yard as a lite engine move.

Train EC-2 meets Extra 4369.

Extra 4369 finally arrives in Terminal Yard just making it before the crew reached their maximum hours of service. Whew!!

FP7s 4348 and 4369 arrive at the engine terminal.

Back in Empire City at North Side Yard the EBRR Trainmen get busy building the Belt Job train from the PCCM freight cars delivered by Train EC-1 and PCCM freight cars that were held in the yard during the Outbound train movements.

Senior Engineer Sir Neal confers with PC Ralph from the front porch of EBRR GP18 #7280 that is making its PCCM debut as they get ready to move the Belt Job onto the Belt Line.

The Belt Job enters the Belt Line and makes a shove to Haydon Heights which is named for my late mother in law who was a huge fan and supporter of the layout contributing motive power, rolling stock scenic elements and painting the backdrops.

The Belt Job starts its work at Empire City Cargill by delivering three Penn Central covered hoppers loaded with flour from the large Cargill Facility in Rock Ridge, NJ.

Four loaded boxcars are shoved into the Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding. P&LE #35892 and PC #229046 loaded with flour from Blue Ribbon Flour. PC #77047 and IC #30130 loaded with soda from Woodstock Hills Soda. 

One empty PC and three empty EBRR gondolas are placed at Gervais Pipe & Fitting for their next PCCM loads.

P&E #3638 and NYC #47062 loaded with brick from Port Owen brick are shoved into Neal's Lumber & Hardware.

Empty BAR reefers #11128 and #7574 are placed at Empire Produce for their next PCCM loads. 1:87 Emery has taken the day off from East Coast Circuits and is catching all the action for the next Green Reptile video that will feature voice over and narration talent from RVVO.

Sir Neal has the Belt Job back together and prepares to head to the Hohman Avenue Industrial Park.

The Belt Job is on the move.

Now working the Hohman Avenue Industrial Park the Belt Job places NYC boxcar 80755 at Reliable Machine Company. The car was loaded at Quality Fabrications with machined parts.

Empty PC boxcar #142770 is spotted at Superior Furniture for its next PCCM load.

Empty APRR boxcars #60382 and #60394 are placed at Moore & Company for their next PCCM loads.

Empty PC boxcar #360063 is placed on the storage track and will fulfill a PCCM empty car request at Reliable Machine Company when their siding becomes available.

The Belt Job is ready to return home.

The Belt Job heads back to North Side Yard.

The Belt Job is back in North Side Yard and the EBRR crew gets ready for Long Island RR Train MA-3 due in shortly.

A short time later two Alco C420s lead Long Island RR Train MA-3 from Fresh Pond Yard thru Bedford.

LIRR Train MA-3 heads thru Bedford.

The MA-3 arrives at North Side Yard.

LIRR engineer Jimmy Alco checks in with the EBRR trainmen after coupling up to the PCCM interchange traffic going to Fresh Pond Yard.

Tropicana RBL USLX #13068 loaded with juice products from 

Tropicana in Rock Ridge, NJ couples up to the LIRR caboose for the trip to Fresh Pond Yard in Train MA-4.

Train MA-4 makes it way back thru Bedford.

Put it in the books!!! Train MA-4 heads to Fresh Pond Yard with PC #104478 with cement flux from Gern for Lombo Concrete and two EBRR covered hoppers of flour from Rock Ridge Cargill going to Ronzoni in addition to the Tropicana RBL.

This concludes the PCCM 108 virtual operations on my layout. Be sure to catch all the PCCM action on Sir Neal's APRR and PC Ralph's KPD layouts.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

Penn Central Car Movements #108 Part 5

 Greetings All,

Welcome Back to Penn Central Car Movements #108

The PCCM 108 Inbound Cycle continues today with freight traffic from Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division getting delivered to local consignees.

Penn Central local train the Bedford Turn, Trains BT-27 / BT-28 powered by two ex NYC SW8s prepares to depart from Terminal Yard.

The BT-27 heads out of Terminal Yard.

The BT-27 shoves into the Hostess siding to access the Bedford industries.

Four TP&W 50' RBLs loaded with plywood plywood veneers from Mike's Wholesale Lumber Distributors in Rock Ridge, NJ are placed at University Millwork.

One Hostess and three APRR covered hoppers loaded with flour from the large Cargill Complex in Rock Ridge, NJ are delivered to the Hostess / Wonder Bread Plant.

TP&W boxcar #627 loaded with boxes from Canton Box in West Mill, NY gets spotted at the Schaefer Brewery.

With the local work done the SW8s get held at Bedford Tower for mainline traffic coming out of Terminal Yard.

A train of mostly empties from Terminal Yard heads to Selkirk.

A short time later Train TE-16 from Selkirk crosses onto the mainline at Empire City.

Train TE-16 passes the Bedford Turn.

Train TE-16 arrives in Terminal Yard.

The TE-16 power is placed at the engine terminal fuel pad.

Back in Bedford, the Bedford Turn, now Train BT-28 heads back to Terminal Yard.

The BT-28 rolls into Terminal Yard.

Big Mike and Kar Knocker get ready to work the TE-16 and BT-28 freight car consists.

A large block of cars from the TE-16 are shoved into track #3 to await their next move to the Empire Belt RRs North Side Yard.

The two ex NYC SW8s get called for the Water Street Job, Train WSJ-1, that will deliver three Hi cubes of appliances from the PC Richard Warehouse in Rock Ridge NJ to PC Richard in Empire City.

The WSJ-1 heads to Empire City and the PC Richard Warehouse.

The Hi Cubes of appliances get placed at the PC Richard siding.

The Water Street Job couples up to the boxcars from PC Richard and will head back to Terminal Yard as Train WSJ-2.

Train WSJ-2 heads back to Terminal Yard.

We'll cut it here today with the SW8s back in the engine terminal.

We'll pick up the action tomorrow back in the engine terminal with Alco Joe ready to pick up his assigned motive power.

This wraps up part five of my PCCM 108 installments. Be sure to catch all the PCCM action on Sir Neal's APRR and PC Ralph's KPD layouts.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you tomorrow!!!