End of Year Report / 15 Years and Counting

Greetings All,

15 Years and Counting

Today begins the 15th year of this blog which has documented my enjoyable journey into the model railroading hobby that began in 2011 when I started building the NYCTL (which is my third layout) in my newly finished basement. It has been quite a ride. 

End of Year Report

Readers of this blog may well remember that each December I posted a year in review post that took a look back at the happenings on the layout, new rolling stock and motive power etcetera. This year instead of looking back we're going to look to the future similar to the Empire Belt "Road To The Future" slogan adopted earlier this year. With that said I provide you with this.

 Press Release For Immediate Publication

The Quaker Oats Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, has agreed to purchase the Cargill Grain Elevator located in Empire City, NY in order to expand their operations to the northeast.

Quaker has also agreed to purchase the Ralph's Grocery Warehouse & Distribution Center Empire City location which is  across the street from the Cargill Grain Silos. Quaker plans to replace the existing structure with a state of the art manufacturing center. 

Quaker has also offered to purchase the small lot that currently houses Pizza Land which was pending at the time of this  report. 

Empire City Mayor Julius (Big Julie) Fiorello released this statement thru his Office for Economic Affairs. The people of Empire City will greatly miss all three businesses which have been good neighbors and employers for over a decade.  The sale is contingent on an approved environmental impact study and traffic study (bribe) which the citizens of Empire City are all too familiar with. 

"'Not to be used for bribing politicians.' You tell 'em, dollar bill!" by artgoeshere is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

As industries continue to leave the Northeast Quaker Oats is reversing that trend by setting up shop on land in Empire City, NY that already has two existing rail spurs served by the Empire Belt RR. The EBRR in a prepurchase meeting with the Quaker people assured them they have the equipment needed to service the new plant which will have increased car movements from prior traffic levels.

Empire Belt management cited that the railroad has a solid history of providing exceptional service. To prove the point they noted the recent acquisitions of a third GP18 with the bold "Road To The Future" proclamation to handle increases in tonnage and the addition of 50' plug door boxcars designated for flour and cereal loading only.

The Empire Belt freight agent has reached out to neighboring railroads for suitable freight cars to handle the anticipated shipments of Quaker products like this EL XF class 40' boxcar.

The Quaker Plant mock up is now under construction. 

The Ralph's Grocery Warehouse & Distribution Center is also in the planning stages on an overbuild in the town of Bedford.

Final Thoughts and Comments

These two projects mark the first rail served structure projects undertaken on the layout since 2019 proving the old adage once again that a model railroad layout is never finished.

In follow up posts we'll take a closer look at the relocation of Ralph's Grocery Warehouse and and what this means for local Train BT-27/BT-28 which will have increased length and tonnage. We'll also focus on the build up of the Quaker Oats plant and what freight traffic this will require and generate. There is a lot happening on the NYCTL right now!!!

A special thank you goes out to the many regular readers who have been along on the journey. I hope you will continue to do so as I uncover some more interesting facets to further the enjoyment of our model railroading hobby.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!