Greetings All,
Shuffling Off From Buffalo and Beyond
A new on layout industry needs new freight cars. Right? At the end of 2024 and in early 2025 I sought to add some freight cars from various manufacturers and sources for the newly established Quaker Plant and other on layout industries Several of these cars had roots in the City of Buffalo, NY.
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York, the second largest city in New York State, was an industrial power house in the early 20th Century. Known as the "City of Light" for having the first hydro electric power plant using the Niagara waterfall which allowed for widespread electric lighting. The city featured steel, grain and automobile industries and was the third largest railroad center in the United States.
Buffalo Creek Railroad
A pair of Buffalo Creek Railway 40' boxcars and four Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo 59' covered hoppers were added to the fleet in late December.
The Buffalo Creek Railroad was a terminal and switching railroad that operated on the waterfront area of Buffalo, New York. The company was in existence from 1869 to 1976, operating on 5.66 miles with a total trackage of 34.22 miles. It was formed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company (Erie Lackawanna Railway) which each owned 50% of the company.
The railroad primarily served the grain elevators in present-day 'Silo City and an adjacent area of Buffalo, including that of General Mills. The site was advantageous due to its location on the Buffalo River and the eastern coast of Lake Erie. Before the re-dredging of the Welland Canal in the 1950s, access to Lake Ontario and points further east were limited to large ships coming from in the Midwestern United States. As a consequence Buffalo hosted at one time the world's largest cereal packaging plants, and offloaded, milled, and shipped grain across the eastern United States.
The 'Crik', as it was nicknamed, switched the grain elevators. The railroad connected with seven major railroads. In addition, the railroad owned a fleet of over 1,700 40-foot boxcars for transporting flour. The railroad was taken over by Conrail in 1976.
Model Information
The 40' BCK boxcars are ready to run Bowser models that come with metal wheelsets and Bowser knuckle couplers. The 1602 is just out of the box and will need some weathering once the weather warms up and the Patti O Paint Shop can be reopened.
BCK & THB 40' boxcars deliver sugar and flour to the new Quaker Plant.
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway
The TH&B was jointly owned by the CPR and the NYC for several decades. The NYC and its subsidiaries (Michigan Central Railroad and Canada Southern Railway) owned 73%, and the CPR owned the other 27%. It never built into Toronto or Buffalo but used its parent companies' trackage to reach both cities.
In 1977, CP Rail acquired the NYC's portion (then part of Conrail), giving the CPR 90% ownership. The CPR merged the TH&B into its system in 1987. The TH&B line between Hamilton and Welland is still in use, but its former line west of Hamilton to Waterford via Brantford has been abandoned past Aberdeen Avenue in Hamilton.
Model Information
Four Walthers TH&B 59' cylindrical covered hoppers will be used to transport oats, grain, flour and related materials from Buffalo silos to the Quaker Oats Plant as well as Hostess, LIRR served industries like Sunshine and Ronzoni and Pier 16 for export.
THB #1538 is just out of the box and poses in Terminal Yard for this publicity photo. The models come with Proto Max metal couplers and metal wheelsets.
TH&B #1517 is also just out of the box. The 59' cylindrical covered hoppers in this series were built in March 1967.
TH&B #1505 is the third car in this fleet. The covered hoppers have a capacity of 100,000 tons.
TH&B #1520 is the last of the cars I purchased in the 1500 series. Each car has four bays and will fit the needs of the local consignees quite nicely.
TH&B covered hoppers make a delivery to the Quaker Plant.
NSC 50' "Newsprint" Boxcar
In 1967, the National Steel Car Corporation of Hamilton, Ontario, created the first purpose-built cars for handling dedicated newsprint paper transport between Canada and the US. These cars featured riveted or welded sides, and completely smooth interior surfaces – including the doors – which was necessary to protect the large rolls of paper which weighed as much as 2000 pounds each. These rolls were normally stacked two high, requiring an internal height of more than 9 feet for clearance.
The paper rolls also required large door openings, and the cars featured sliding Youngstown lever-type flush plug doors or lever-less exterior post plug doors. These cars were originally purchased by seven different railroads (CN, CV, CP, DWP, PGE, MDW, and QNS&L) and were regularly seen in international paper shipping service through the late 2000s. Over their long lifespans, they wore many different, usually colorful, paint schemes which made these cars readily identifiable in any consist.
A Central Vermont newsprint boxcar in service in this undated photo. The CV was a wholly owned subsidiary of the CN at this time.
Model Info
CN 401527 and CV 402312 are Atlas models that feature metal wheels and Accumate knuckle couplers.
CV NSC boxcar 402312 in a look alike CN paint scheme. The lettering to the left of the door states in both English and French "Canadian Built For International Service Only".
The CN &CV boxcars get shoved towards the Quaker Plant.
New Haven RS3s do the honors of testing some of the new freight cars and bringing them into Terminal Yard.
Final Thoughts and Comments
The eight freight cars added to roster along with cars already in service should be more than adequate to handle the needs of the new Quaker Plant and that of some other industries both on and off the layout.
The new freight cars headed to the shops for some light weathering, painting of the trucks and wheel faces, the addition of extra weight and Kadee couplers as needed when the Patti -O Paint Shop was briefly reopened on January 29th.
All freight cars were tested for coupler heights and adjusted as needed using Kadee fiber washers and/ or placing the centering spring at the bottom of the coupler box to achieve greater coupler height.
Thanks for reading and watching!!!
See you soon!!!
