New Motive Power and Rolling Stock

 Greetings All,

New Motive Power & Rolling Stock

Trainz Dot Com Report

Tuesday June 3rd, 2025 started out as another fine day in Georgia with the wife and I preparing for a trip to North Carolina to visit our granddaughters. As part of my morning routine I checked my emails prior to packing the car and I came across a Trainz.com email advertising another clearance sale. I had a few minutes to spare so I innocently checked out the HO Scale offerings. You can guess how that went!

Here are the items I decided I absolutely had to have. I picked up the order on Monday June 09, 2025.

A pair of P-1000 New Haven Alco RS11s were the finds of the day!!!

Atlas Penn Central and New Haven two bay covered hoppers were quickly scooped up. Note the drooping couplers and the cut trip pins which is an indication that the couplers are riding way too low. Not to worry I've fixed this pretty easily in the past.

Due to my current infatuation with mechanical refrigeration an SPFE 57'er and FGCX 50'er from Athearn were a must have. Both came with Kadee couplers and extra weights. The SPFE car featured P-2000 metal wheelsets.

A very pleasant surprise was that the RS11s were brand new in the box!!! We'll take a closer look at them in a Locomotive Spotlight #4-2025 coming soon.

To The Car Shop They Go

The four freight cars were cycled thru the car shop receiving a shot of Testor's Dullcote and other upgrades as noted below.

The NH and PC covered hoppers are ready for revenue service. Two Kadee red fiber washers placed below the bronze centering spring raised the coupler height to meet the Kadee Height Gauge and eliminated the up and down coupler slop. Both cars received a 1/2 ounce of additional weight.

The SPFE and FGCX reefers are also ready for revenue service. The FGCX reefer now has Kadee #37 underset shank couplers to meet the height gauge.

Lindy's Report

On my way home from Trainz HQ I stopped at a local antique mall to see what the Trainz subsidiary Lindy's had to offer in their booth. Below is a photo of the items I purchased.

Two E&B Valley New Haven Pullman lightweight passenger cars that were in rough shape and a new Accurail Southern Bi Level auto rack kit.

A P-2000 NYC 50' boxcar kit that was ready for final assembly and an ADM corn sweeteners tank car.

Last but not least are a BB CB&Q 40' boxcar and a B&O caboose kit.

The tank car and boxcars were the first cars out of the shop. All came with metal wheels and the CBQ and tank car had Kadee #5s installed. The NYC boxcar received a pair Kadee #37 underset shank couplers as these P-2000 cars ride very low.  

The prior owner installed metal stirrups on the NYC boxcar which was nice as the original stirrups were prone to breaking easily.

The general purpose CB&Q 40' boxcar is also ready for service. The car came with Kadee metal wheels and #5 couplers. The wheelsets however were too tight and caused several derailments while testing. Using the NMRA gauge I adjusted the wheel spacing and the car is now in service. 

I loved this tank car at first sight and quickly scooped it up to use for shipments of corn sweeteners to on and off layout industries. The car is a bit too new for the PC era, but not by much. Don't tell anyone!!

The Accurail Trailer Train / Southern Railway bi level auto rack is now in service after getting sprayed with dullcote. Kadee long shank couplers installed along with Walthers metal wheel sets.

The Ford vehicles fit and look good on the car. Although the car came out looking good this kit was a very tough build and I don't plan on purchasing another one.

Final Thoughts and Comments

All in all the new purchases fit right into the layout and its operations except for the two New Haven Pullman cars which will require new trucks and a lot of work. The prices paid were very very reasonable for these items including the P-1000 RS11s.

Prototype Photos

NH #1411 at New Haven, CT in 1959.

SPFE #459507 at Twin Falls, Idaho in 1988.

FGCX #11341 at Minturn, CO in 1973.

NH #117067 looking tired at New Haven, IN in 1980.

PC #877679 at Newark, NJ in 1979. 

Southern Auto Rack circa 1951.

Final Thoughts and Comments

Once again I dipped my toe into the waters of a clearance sale and then jumped right in. The New Haven RS11s were great finds. A fleet of dual service RS11s, GP9s and FM H16-44s were purchased by the New Haven RR in 1956 which will be the topic of a future post. 

The covered hoppers and reefers bolster the fleets of both types of freight cars. They pretty much give me enough reefers and two bay covered hoppers to satisfy the operations needs of the layout. Most likely until the next Clearance Sale!!!

Coming soon we'll take a look at the New Haven RR Class of '56 which is an interesting story on the how and why the NH went  shopping from three diesel locomotive manufacturers.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!