Welcome to my Blog. The scope of this blog is to record the trials and tribulations of building and maintaining an HO scale layout, the trains and all of the ancillary projects that go with it. In 2017 New York Central subsidiary short line Empire Belt Railroad came into existence. The New York Central / Penn Central and Empire Belt are now the major railroads featured.
Empire Belt GP30s
The EBRR GP30s round a curve on the Empire City Belt Line.
The New York Central Handles the Thanksgiving Traffic Surge
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving has traditionally been the busiest day of travel around the United States as people head home for the holidays, travel home from college to see family, travel around the country to see friends and family. You get the picture.
The NYC Great Steel Fleet ran extra trains in and out Empire City to keep the passengers moving.
With the advent of the diesel locomotive railroads were able to combine motive power to reduce costly switching and transfer operations at interchange points. Railroads could now block entire trains including locomotives for interchange with connecting railroads.
The New York Central and later the Penn Central had one such power pool agreement was with the St Louis Southwestern RR (SSW) a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific known as the Cotton Belt. The power pool arrangement was between Cleveland, Ohio and Pine Bluff, Arkansas via St Louis.
Penn Central-Southern Pacific / Cotton Belt
Power Pool Arrangements
An article in the Penn Central RR Historical Society PC POST volume 23, number 3 by former PC railroader Pat Maher t focused on operations in and around the sprawling Collinwood Yard in Cleveland. Of note were two photos and captions.
From Caption #1: SP pool power was a regular visitor to Collinwood and often came in on either Train NY-6 or NY-8, both with an East St Louis origination.
From Caption #2: Cotton Belt 601 was one of a small group of SSW GP40 assigned to Penn Central to help equalize mileage and motive power hours in the PC-SP/SSW run thru power pool.
And the search was on!!
After almost a year I found a pair of Atlas SSW powered and non powered GP40s for a very reasonable price and pulled the trigger.
The Models
Here they are fresh out of their boxes. The 7606 is the powered unit.
7602 is the non powered unit. The SSW had eight GP40s on their roster 7600-7607.
The Cotton Belt GP40s come out of Terminal Yard with a TrailVan train behind PC 7675.
The SSW GP40s get lensed at Bedford Tower. They still need some cosmetic work that will include number board numerals, painted handrails and ACI labels.
On another day the non powered 7602 pretends to contribute 3,000 horsepower in this Athearn BB EMD GE consist. The SSW GP40s will be trailing units for locomotive signaling purposes.
The 7602 gets serviced at the Terminal Yard engine terminal and adds a little color along with that EMD SD45 in the background to the otherwise all black locomotives.
The SSW GP40s running roamed the vast PC system including the B&A. This adds more plausibility to have them on the layout.
The SSW 7606 is parked between an F7 set and a trio of GP20s. All of them could be at home in Collinwood or Terminal Yard!
Inspired by another PC photo the EMD SD45 waits on a ready track to head back west.
The 7606 is sandwiched between SD35 6024 and GP38 7675 in this all Atlas powered consist.
Here we go again with another renumbering project to give a Penn Central Alco RS2 a prototypical road number and PC herald. I painted the proto 1000 model RS2 #8369 in September, 2012. I was pleased with the outcome and the unit has been in service for eleven years.
Fast forward those eleven years and my Penn Central Prototype knowledge continues to expand. I've since learned that the PC had six (6) RS2s on their roster, all ex New York Central 8207, 8210, 8212, 8215, 8221, 8229(2nd). They were renumbered into the 5200 series for the merger 5207, 5210, 5212, 5215, 5221, 5229.
A few weeks ago I decided the 8369 needed a new number and PC heralds. I removed the old road number with Solvaset and an eraser, brush painted over that with flat black and then brush painted Walthers clear gloss over that and the area getting the herald.
I also painted out the road numbers on the hood ends. The road numbers should be in the small number boards.
The 5229 gets pulled from the shop by GE 44 tonner 9999, the only 44 tonner on the PC roster. I used prototype photos of the 5229 and 9999 as guides for both models.
The 5229 is looking a lot more prototypical with the herald, correct number and numbers removed from the hood ends. As noted above there should be road numbers in the small number boards but I didn't have any number decals that small. Maybe down the road.
PC RS2 #5229 is back in service at Terminal Yard.
Closing The Gaps!!!
The Penn Central was one of only a few roads that could muster an F7 A-B-B-A lash up in the 1970s. When looking at prototype photos and videos the A-B-B-A lash ups were always tightly connected with couplers. Not so for some of my HO scale fleet.
Some of the distances looked to require a pole vault to go from one unit to another! Over the years I've tried the Kadee close coupler conversion kit that closed the gaps slightly but it still looked too big.
Dissatisfied with that I removed the couplers between the units and added drawbars to several of the Bachmann and Bachmann Plus EMD sets in the combined fleets.
In early November my PC Bachmann Plus F7 A-B-A consist had their coupler removed and drawbars installed for close coupling.
A NYC F7B similarly drawbar equipped has been added to make this a A-B-B-A set. A PRR F7 A-B-B-A set is also drawbar equipped and the PC-PRR and NYC units can be mixed an matched.
The drawbars are made from discarded IHC long horn hook couplers with the coupler end and attachment end removed. Looks much better!!
After the Bachmann Plus drawbar project I added drawbars to an Atlas FP7 set. I had done this once before but then went back to couplers and now they are once again drawbar equipped.
Final Thoughts and Comments
I'm happy with the way the RS2 5229 project turned out. I have one more Penn Central RS2 currently sporting an RS1 number that I want to correct. So far I've been unable to find a photograph on line or in my PC library. I've put out feelers to various modelers and groups but no luck yet.
As for the cab unit drawbar projects I do like the way they look close coupled much more than I did when they had the big spaces between them with the couplers.
The downside is that this limits there availability to be mixed and matched with hood units which was a prototypical practice. On the plus side I still have an Athearn BB F7A, F7B and some PRR F7As that are coupler equipped for this very purpose.
Lastly all of the drawbar equipped units can be reverted back to couplers at anytime so there is some flexibility with their uses in the fleet if needed.
After resisting the whole social media thing for years I came to learn that there is a vast amount of model railroading content available. I've been enjoying various posts and have a joined a couple of groups as well.
If interested please feel free to click the link and join.
The annual layout vacuuming has been completed and some areas have been enhanced with additional scenery and mini scenes. Reliable Machine Works received a grassy area, a walkway and a couple of trees to cover what was just bare space.
Moore & Company received some trackside shrubbery.
A Prison Work Detail is needed!!!
A prison work detail gets busy cleaning the illegal dumping site on the dead end street behind Moore & Company.
Chooch Goes Deep!!!
The Kings Port Railway Society is train watching in Empire City today and between trains break out the football for a game of two hand touch. The KPRS guys are living on the edge(literally) and I wonder if they were told to go play in traffic!!!
An Allied truck makes a delivery to the corner building. That is Moore & Company in the background. The colorful truck catches the eye in an otherwise overlooked scene.
City Pallet it tightened up with the wood and pallets now glued in place. A smaller tree to the left replaced a much larger one that blocked parts of the scene.
Some trackside greenery complete the scene.
Signs and More Signs!!!
Over at Terminal Yard in East Bedford, NY the Terminal Warehouse & Cold Storage Complex starts to get signage for the various tenants.
Consolidated Food Equipment Distributors gets the first sign.
The various tenants are now identified and advertising their companies.
The signs were found on the internet and printed on regular paper. They are glued to "skinny sticks'' from a local craft and hobby store that I cut and rattle can painted.
A close of the Brach's sign and three Hi Cubes getting loaded with candy corn for the Halloween rush.
Last but not least regarding the signs I attached this sign to the fascia as an easy reminder of who is where in the TW&CS complex.
Candy Corn Update!
Like it or not Brach's candy corn is a huge seller and these three Hi Cubes are being delivered to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse and Distribution Center to replenish their depleted supply.
My so called purgatory box has once again provided some freight cars that can be repainted and given a new life. Here is some more rolling stock that has been in the purgatory box for too long. Lets take a look:
Turtle Creek Central Auto Racks!
Modelers may remember the Turtle Creek Central story and decals from Model Railroader magazine. Using these decals I rattle can painted four garish Life-Like AT&SF 50' Auto Racks as TCC cars.
Two of the four TCC auto racks.
Here are two that have been de-racked. Color is fine, metal wheels and body mounted Kadee couplers were added. Cars run great but Turtle Creek Central Auto Racks no longer get any layout time.
The de-racked TCC flatcars carry loads of oversize pipe from Gervais Pipe & Fitting in Empire City or an off layout manufacturer towards Terminal Yard.
The TCC flatcars will work in this service and I can probably come up with additional loads once I settle on a new road name.
The Southern Railroad Pulpwood Cars
Next freight cars I felt in need of some cosmetic adjustments are a pair of pulpwood cars lettered for "The Southern Railroad" that are currently in PCCM service between my layout and Ralph's Kings Port Division layout as both pulpwood and bulkhead flatcars.
The cars have had body mounted Kadee #5 couplers, metal wheels added and track very nicely. I heavily weathered the cars to obscure their lettering and bright colors. Car routing for these cars has been problematic as we send the empties north instead of south which is blatantly contrary to the AAR car service rules.
After discussions with PC Ralph we decided to repaint the cars and letter them for the Maine Central. Using a photo of an ex D&H, MEC pulpwood car #7718 from 1990. The cars have been rattle can painted Apple Red and await decals.
However when shopping for MEC Pulpwood car decals I found Highball Graphics set F-124 which had photos of the MEC cars in 1965 that were delivered in green and had yellow lettering. Off to the big box store I went!
The cars have been repainted for the second time and are awaiting decals.
PC Ralph inspects the new MEC 1400 and1425 and notes the addition of an ACI label.
The 1425 and 1400 are back in service and look much better with the green paint and MEC decals. Both cars were sprayed with Testor's Dullcote to tone down the bright green and protect the decals.
The MEC bulkhead cars are at North Side Yard loaded with PCCM lumber loads from Half Moon Lumber awaiting pick up by the Long Island RR.
This project came out so nice these MEC cars will be seeing non PCCM layout time!
Here are the MEC and an EBRR bulkhead in non PCCM action.
The three bulkhead flats are placed in the Gervais Pipe and Fitting siding fulfilling an empty car request.
Final Thoughts and Comments
I really like how the Maine Central (MEC) cars turned out. The color and decals do the car justice and they look much better to me as they earn PCCM and non PCCM revenue.
I continue mulling what to do with the Turtle Creek flatcars and they remain a work in progress. With the auto racks removed they could see service as TCC cars but I'd prefer a different road name.
