2026 Rolling Stock Additions

 Greetings All,

2026 Rolling Stock Additions

What happens when you know you have more trains than you need? Train stores and online vendors have end of year or beginning of year sales! I recently added a new interchange partner, the DJS Railway after my nephew sent over his HO Scale Walthers Southern Railway FA1 for me to run for him so I started looking to add some Southern Railway equipment to my fleet for running trains and sending videos of them to my nephew. With that said here we go!!

Trainz.com

Trainz.com sucked me in first with a 40% off sale that included a Walthers Mainline Southern Railway 60' Auto Parts Boxcar. While considering making the purchase and scrolling thru the rest of the sale items I came across a pair of auto racks that sealed the deal.

Here they are fresh out of the box.

The Penn Central bi-level was a must purchase.

The Erie-Lackawanna bi-level was another must have.

And here is the troublemaker, the 60' Southern Railway auto parts boxcar.

This Atlas Master Line Vermont Railway 50' boxcar also came from Trainz.com. I had a digital refund credit from another company that I could only use online so I found this car that was the closest to the refund amount with the shipping costs.

This model came with semi scale two part Accurail couplers. The couplers parts are very thin and the standard Kadees or Accurails for that matter would not fit.

The model comes with instructions on how to attach an end of train device to the coupler box itself but there is no EOT included in the box. 

Trainmaster Models

Just when I thought it was safe to look at my email inbox Trainmaster Models, my not so local hobby shop, located in Auburn, GA sent notice of a 50% sale on used merchandise. Here we go...

A P-2000 Western Pacific drop end mill gondola for the man who has more gondolas than he can load!! An Athearn RTR Southern 40' double door boxcar as part of my search for Southern Railway equipment. An Athearn RTR D&H 60' flatcar with loads was a good find. Note the Kadee overset couplers on this model. They perfectly matched the Kadee Height Gauge.

While still browsing the selection at Trainmaster Models with room in my basket I came across some more must have freight cars from Atlas. A Milwaukee Road 60' double door boxcar, the Illinois Central 50' double door boxcar and a B&O (BINO) PS2 covered hopper. 

A Southern Railway bay window caboose kit from Walthers allowed me to check this box on my quest for a Southern caboose. 

The kit has been built!!

This bi-level auto rack built on an Athearn 85' TOFC frame looked like an interesting model from a company I'm not familiar with.

I believe with decals on hand this will make a nice NYC auto rack.

New Cars Ready for Revenue Service

All cars as always received a blast of Testor's Dullcote, had their wheel faces and trucks brush painted flat black. Kadee or Kadee style couplers were added as needed with the exception of the VTR boxcar because they wouldn't fit. All freight cars were adjusted as needed to meet the Kadee Coupler Height Gauge.

VTR & IC 50's are ready for entry in the model railroad operations. The VTR car sure looks like an APRR boxcar!!

MILW 4162 is ready to go with Kadee semi scale couplers. The lettering in the white box states "When Empty Return To Penn Central RR N. Tonawanda NY via reverse route". Via google I found a GM Plant that shipped engines in Tonawanda, NY.

Southern 43230 also received semi scale Kadee couplers.

The 32248 received the Walthers knuckle couplers that came off one of the auto racks. The small lettering under the road number indicates this car "When Empty Return To SOU.RY Per CSO 145" which translates to return empty to the Southern via reverse route.

The WP gondola rides on the P-2000 wheels and uses the P-2000 knuckle couplers that came with the model.

The B&O 631381 received a set of Walthers knuckle couplers from the other auto rack.

The D&H car was basically ready to go, just needing some Dullcote.

The EL auto rack was fitted with Kadee long center set knuckle couplers.

The PC auto rack received the same couplers.

Southern X458 is ready to bring up the markers on the Sterling Yard to Terminal Yard freight transfers.

This project auto rack received a shot of gloss coat and decals from my decal supply box. Below it is waiting for better weather to open the Patti-O Paint Shop again to spray the auto rack with Testor's Dullcote and spray the weight, coupler boxes, and trucks with rattle can flat black.

After what seemed like a month of cold and rain the NYC auto rack is now in service at the Bedford Park Ford Plant with a load of Country Squire station wagons.

The auto rack has made it to Terminal Yard for its next move to a Ford Motor Company Distribution Center.

To keep the auto rack rolling reliably a half ounce of weight has been added to  the bottom four cars.

New Rolling Stock is on the move and gets tested.

The NYC Auto Rack enters Revenue Service

The weather finally cooperated and the NYC auto rack is now in revenue service.

Final Thoughts and Comments

Another twelve freight cars have been added to ever expanding fleet. Here's the story. The auto racks were must haves, the Southern equipment was needed for my nephew's railroad interchange traffic which will be highlighted in a future post, the Milwaukee Road boxcar was needed to help move Steve Neubaum's Blue Comet Presentations merchandise and the rest were good buys. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

After the purchases I turned to 1:1 Sir Neal, my trainaholic sponsor, to get an intervention. Guess what he told me? Train-World has Bowser HO scale Penn Central U25Bs on sale... More like Sir Neal the Enabler!!! As I prepared this post the U25Bs were being tested on the layout. More on them in a future post.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

Metro-Liner Service

 Greetings All,

Metro-Liner Service

A Christmas gift of the book The Metro-Liners by Bruce Goldberg and David C. Warner from 1:1 Sir Neal presented a fact packed look at these trains from two authors who were participants in the projects that started high speed rail travel on the then Pennsylvania RRs Northeast Corridor between Washington DC Union Station and New York Penn Station. Lets take a look at this historical undertaking.

The High Speed Ground Transportation Act

In 1965 Senator Claiborne Pell (D. Rhode Island) championed the above legislation which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law on September 30th, 1965 with PRR Chairman Stuart Sanders in attendance. The HGTA was to be a joint venture sponsored by the US Department of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Railroad which would require upgrading the Northeast Corridor and taking bids for new equipment.

"Old126902" by Bengt 1955 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

The  Goal

The goal of the legislation was to introduce passenger trains that could run at speeds up to 160 miles per hour. A four car set of test cars were were re-geared Silver Liner cars that needed to reach speeds of 155 for the program to proceed.

"Pennsylvania Railroad Museum" by nigelmenzies is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 

Historical Speed Record Set

Under New Management

On April 1st, 1967 the newly formed United States Department of Transportation opened for business taking over the HGST program from the US Department of Commerce. On April 2nd, 1967 the test train reached the speed of 155 mph on the test track from Trenton to New Brunswick, NJ.

"Railroad171" by Bengt 1955 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Teething Problems

The Budd Company was awarded the contract in 1966 to build 61 electrically powered passenger cars using overhead catenary and running in multiple unit operations.  The High Speed Ground Transportation office decided that General Electric would power the 30 first class club cars and snack bar coaches and Westinghouse would power the 31 coach cars.

"1977 01 015-01" by Bengt 1955 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

The use of the differing General Electric and Westinghouse power systems were the cause of many of the propulsion problems causing delay after delay as the new cars had to be removed from service time and again.

The Penn Central Enters

The Northeast Corridor was conveyed to Penn Central on February 1, 1968 with ex PRR C.E.O. Stuart Saunders named as C.E.O. of the new railroad. Under Saunders the PC continued its support of the High Speed Ground Transportation project. 

After more than a year of delays the railroad announced that Metro-Liner would make its first revenue run on Thursday, January 16, 1969. A special invitation VIP run for dignitaries and media was held on January 15th, 1969. 

Metro-Liner Train 2001 left NY Penn at 8:30 AM for a 2:59 trip to Washington DC. The train arrived eight minutes late. Not to shabby considering the 2:59 trip was 30 minutes faster that the afternoon PC Congressional and and hour faster than the typical 3:50 NY-Wash running time.

Moving Right Along in the

 Penn Central Way

Metro-Liner carried its millionth customer in  April, 1970. The new trains were winning praise from passengers but two major threats loomed. One was the PC's ability to keep the complex equipment running. During the middle of 1970 typically 40 % of the cars were out of service on any given day.

The bigger threat emerged when it was revealed that the railroad was losing more than one million dollars a day and would need millions more in federal loads to continue operations. The request for loans hinged on the removal of Stuart Saunders the PC C.E.O. and strategic partner in the Metro-Liner program.  

As a result of the PC bankruptcy that followed the Budd Company was no longer being paid and the Northeast passenger and freight rail service looked doubtful as the PC operated under Section 77 while a reorganization plan was put together.

Amtrak Takes The Reins

On October 30th, 1970 President Richard Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act without fanfare or public statement. That same month the two year demonstration project for the MetroLiner project officially began though by this time it seemed just a formality. Metro-Liner ended up carrying 1.2 million passengers in the last year of operation under Penn Central.

"Amtrak Metroliner" by mod as hell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Under Amtrak Metro-Liner saw a 33 percent increase in service to 12 daily round trips. The new schedules saw Metro-Liners departing New York on the half hour and Washington on the hour. On May 1st, 1972 the schedule was bumped up to 14 round trips daily.

"Metroliner Jan 15, 77" by GG-1 K4s is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

All was not roses however as the NE Corridor was still owned and operated by the bankrupt Penn Central and deferred maintenance took its toll on all of the upgrades made in the 1960s. Instead of immediately fixing bad spots PC would place a slow order at the location. The increasing number of slow orders eroded on time reliability. All of the PC railroad infrastructure seemed to be crumbling away with no end in sight.

"092/365: Saturday, April 2, 2011: Northeast Corridor" by Stephen Little is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

The Metro-Liners themselves continued to require regular intensive and costly maintenance to keep them rolling. Acceleration rates would later be reduced by approximately 35 percent to prevent severe overheating of the propulsion equipment.

Alternatives to MetroLiner

In 1976 Amtrak recommended to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a comprehensive modification program of the entire Metro-Liner fleet.

Budd Amfleet cars began to arrive in 1975. Based on the MetroLiner cars the Amfleet cars would be locomotive hauled The delivery of 492 new Amfleet cars was supposed to totally reequip the NEC trains, but there were still many other equipment needs.

"New Carollton Station metroliner for New York" by Beechwood Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

In 1974 General Electric began delivery of 26 E60 electric locomotives as a potential high speed replacement for the GG1s. These locomotives were based on a freight design and were supposed to pull the passenger trains at speeds up to 120 miles per hour.

"Pennsylvania Railroad Museum" by nigelmenzies is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
While they had the power they were very heavy and the three axle trucks played havoc with the track. After a high speed derailment it was determined that the lateral forces of the trucks was more than the track could bear. The E60s would then be restricted to 90 mph. The E60 was clearly not the replacement for the GG1.

There's a New Guy in Town

While searching for a replacement electric locomotive to haul the Amfleet passenger cars on the Northeast Corridor Amtrak tested a French CC-21000 which failed during testing. On the bright side however Amtrak tested a Swedish Rc-4 that performed very well up and down the corridor.

"4 of Roger Puta's November 12, 1987 in the Snow Photos" by railfan 44 is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors would build the new locomotives that could reach top speeds of 125 mph in America under license from ASEA between 1978-1988, while Budd built the locomotive car bodies.

"5/13/82, Amtrak AEM7 930" by OHFalcon72 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The locomotives were designated the AEM-7 but soon came to be known as the "Swedish Meatballs" or "Toasters". The AEM-7s would replace the signature self propelled m.u. cars as the new face of the Metro-Liner.

"5/13/82, Amtrak AEM7 937" by OHFalcon72 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Meanwhile the Metro-Liner cars underwent rebuilding with some of the troublesome under body components moved to the top of the cars. The rebuilt cars would be tested and returned to lesser service.

"A Visitor" by paulkimo9 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The AEM-7 and Amfleet Metro-Liners were eventually replaced by the new Amtrak Acela Express Trains in the early 2000s.

"Amtrak Acela Express power cars nos. 2030 and 2012, Boston South Station, MA" by bindonlane is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

On the Layout

The purchase of a used Atlas HO scale Amtrak AEM-7 in March, 2024 provided the power for five Bachmann Amfleet coaches that had been on the roster for well over 25 years.

The Bachmann HO scale coaches came in two purchases with the below car and two others being purchase #1. These cars have talgo mounted couplers.

The second purchase was for two cars as seen below. These cars have body mounted couplers.

Now that I know this is a plausible Metro-Liner Train AEM-7 #911 is ready to lead a Metro-Liner Service train out of East Bedford Station.

The Metro-Liner Service train arrives at Empire City Station.

The train heads for the Northeast Corridor and overhead catenary!

A Metro-Liner Express in Action.

Final Thoughts and Comments

A big thank you to 1:1 Sir Neal for this excellent book that is now a featured tome in my railroad library. I enjoyed reading and learning many new facts about Metro-Liner service that I did not know before opening the book.

Additional Links

HO Scale AEM-7 Blogpost.

Wikipedia Metroliner.

Trainweb USA Metroliner.

Trains Magazine Metroliner article.

Passenger Train Journal Metroliner article.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!