New B&O Freight Cars

Greetings Blog Followers,

Several new pieces of rolling stock and diesel power arrived at the New York Central Layout this past week. Today we'll look at two B&O 40' Boxcars that have just been put into revenue service. The first car,  B&O Railway Express Agency boxcar #1900, is an older Roundhouse kit. The car came in bright an attractive blue and gold paint scheme. The car was built as per manufacturer's instructions with Kadee #5 couplers and Intermountain metal wheels. The car is now extremely free rolling.

 
The next car up is a B&O Sentinel Service 40' boxcar from the Athearn Ready to Run product line. The car is an attractive silver and blue with nice graphics the the sides. The car comes with knuckle couplers and metal wheels. Out of the box the car performed poorly with excessive wobble and very poor free rolling capabilities. In addition the factory installed coupler were too low and had excessive vertical play. After tuning the truck the car still rolled poorly and had the shakes. I removed the factory wheels and substituted Intermountain metal wheels which cure both problems. No more wobble and good free rolling. For the couplers I added a Kadee gray washer and bent the metal coupler cover up slightly to raise the height and eliminate the vertical play.

Here is a photo of the car out of the box.

    

For those unfamiliar with B&O's Sentinel Fast Freight Service this started on March 3, 1947 and was aimed at capturing the car load shipping market with expedited siding to siding service. The B&O also featured Time Saver Service aimed at the Less than Car Load shipper which began in 1950.

B&O GP30 6954 leads our two new boxcars to Terminal Yard

The cars have been dullcoted and are now in service

The small B&O transfer freight includes an Athearn BB caboose

4th of July Celebration Part III

Greetings Blog Followers,

Photos of the 4th of July Celebration at Empire City Station continue to be sent in by many of the attendees. Here is the latest batch....

A US Army Alco C-628 heads into Empire City Station. The C-628 is an AHM shell on top of an IHC Premier power chassis.  

A US Army GP9m at the crossing. The GP9m is from Walther's Trainline

Some US rocket power on flatcars (RPFC) enter Empire City Station in the middle of an Army train.

A US Army tank on an Army flatcar. Both are from AHM

A US Army rail gun. This car drew the most stares from onlookers. Car by AHM

A modern US Army Caboose. Caboose is from Walther's Trainline

US Army Anti Aircraft Boxcar. Car has two Anti Aircraft guns inside. An AHM Product

A 40' US Army boxcar. Unknown manufacturer. Custom painted.

4th of the July Videos from Empire City Station

Greetings Blog Followers,

An enterprising rail fan has sent in some videos of the 4th of July Celebration at Empire City Station.

Enjoy!!!

Note Mr & Mrs Neal M standing next to the flatcar in their rain gear. They just got in from another  rainy vacation up North.

4th of July Celebration Honoring Our Troops

Greetings Blog Followers,

The Mayor of Empire City rolled out the welcome wagon to our local military base and together with the New York Central Railroad they put on quite a show. Billed by the Empire City Tourism Bureau as a 4th of July Celebration Honoring Our Troops folks from far and wide poured into Empire City for a day of festivities. The Commanding General authorized a display of some of the current equipment used by his forces. The Army Transportation Corps worked hand in hand with the New York Central Railroad to facilitate train movements into and out of Empire City Station. The Empire City Police Department and the Empire City Sheriff's  Department provided security and a great day was had by all. Here are some photos sent in by visitors to the event.

US Army Searchlight Car and Spirit of 76 Caboose sit on track 2 at Empire City Station

Tanks on Flatcars and CNN News Van at Empire City Station while a beer truck makes it way into Empire City above

Tanks on Flatcars sit on track 2 while a passenger train sits on track 4 at Empire City Station

US Army vehicles on display in the Empire City Station parking lot while an Army C-628 awaits clearance into the station.

Tanks on display under the watchful eye of the Police and Sheriff's Departments 

Visitors stop and admire the tanks on display while E.C.P.D. Captain Miller calls out the next DODX train coming into the station.

Close up of US Army tanks

The Empire City Police and Sheriff's Departments are handling crowd control and security,

Police Officer and Sheriff's Deputy keep watchful on local priest reviewing the Army vehicles on display 

 

"Protecting the Shove"

Greetings Blog Followers,

In the prior post we saw Clinchfield Railroad caboose #1064 hooked up to eight custom painted freight cars. As you may recall the CRR 1064 is a replica of the caboose used at the Southeastern Railway Museum that was built and given to me by long time SRM engineer Sam R. The 1064's two main purposes are to accommodate passengers and "Protect the Shove".

The train ride at the SRM is point to point which means that on half the ride the 1064 is the front of the train and the locomotive is shoving the train. In order to safely accomplish this the 1064 is specially fitted with a horn and brake reduction valves on the rear platform. From his perch on the rear platform the conductor "protects the shove" by communicating with the engineer via radio and providing verbal distance clearance that  the locomotive can safely travel. Using it's whistle the 1064 can warn people and cars that the train is coming. By safely following the SRM rules of operation and best railroad practices the train crew safely operates the vintage equipment on the Museum's right of way.

On my layout the 1064 is often called to service to protect the shove as it is the only caboose that I have that is so uniquely equipped, I like the way it looks, it provides good memories and was a very nice gesture for Sam R to present me with it. Even though I mostly model the New York Central and Penn Central Railroads I use some license that the 1064 is on loan from the nearby museum.

Clinchfield 1064 coupled up and ready to go. Note the horn on top of the cupola and the big headlight at the front and rear.

Long view of the 1064

Today's conductor's borrowed from the SRM are Sam and Jordan. Both are qualified as engineers and conductors.

The 1064 in action protecting the shove.

Newly Painted Freight Cars

Greetings Blog Followers,

I have finally finished painting and lettering three freight cars that I have been working on this past week. The cars were stripped of their factory paint, sprayed with a rattle can Jade green and lettered using Microscale decals. I think the cars came out nice and they are now ready for revenue service.

PC 167346 is a Bachmann 40' Hi-Cube Boxcar. Originally painted and lettered for the CB&Q. This car was one of my first boxcars and one of my first weathering attempts that did not come out that great. I have two additional CB&Q Bachmann 40' Hi-Cubes which relegated this car to the box for many years. Now that it is repainted and lettered it will enjoy a lot of revenue service on the layout.

NYC 75509 is a Mantua Heavyweight Classic formerly painted in an extremely bright yellow and lettered for Railbox. I used the large NYC System oval on this car.

NYC 49577 is also a Mantua Heavyweight Classic that was formerly a Railbox Car. I bought these two cars last year at a clearance sale with the intent of repainting them. This car received a smaller NYC System oval. 

End view of newly painted and lettered PC 167346. Car received excess height warnings and end reporting marks and numbers. The two cars behind PC 167346 are also custom painted PC cars that I completed last year. These cars are featured in a blog post from November 2012.

End view of newly painted and lettered NYC 75509. Cars in background are other NYC cars that I custom painted.

A shot of the eight cars that I have stripped, repainted and lettered for use on my layout. This shot shows the NYC end of things

 A shot of the same eight cars from the PC end

The switch crew admires the newly painted cars 

The switch crew resigns themselves to the fact that this will be the way of their future. The switcher is a Proto 2000 SW8 

The crew talk it over and ask themselves, "what's with the mating worms?" Seeing their a NYC crew the are happy that the cars are jade green and not the dreaded oxide brown of the PRR.

The eight cars that I have custom painted so far. The red caboose is Clinchfield 1064 on loan from the Southeastern Railway Museum for local switching. The caboose is a custom painted Athearn Blue Box car with horns, bells and other features. The car is a replica of the actual CRR 1064 used daily at the S.R.M. The car was painted and lettered by my good friend Sam R. Sam presented this car to me as a gift and it seems to always find itself in the middle of the action. 

PC Hot Shot Reefer Action

Greetings Blog Followers,

A hot shot reefer train rolled through Empire City Station yesterday behind my two newest PC locomotives. The highlights of the train consist are 3  jade green custom painted NYC cars, 2 jade green custom painted PC cars, 3 Tropicana cars received from interchange with the Atlantic Pacific RR and 3 Lehigh Valley RR N.I.R.X. cars.

The NYC PC custom painted cars are 4 Bachmann  and 1 Model Power. The cars were purchased about 20 years ago in road names and paint jobs that I did not care for. They sat in the bottom of a box for many years seldom being used. After deciding to repaint and re-letter the cars I upgraded them with metal wheels, body mounted Kadees and appropriate weights. The cars were painted using rattle can jade green and lettered with Micro-scale decals.

The 3 Tropicana cars are from Athearn (Blue Box), Lionel and TYCO. The TYCO car is 60' and carries FEC reporting marks. These cars were purchased used from a former L.H.S. for the princely price of $1.00 each. The cars received metal wheels, additional weight and body mounted Kadees. Tropicana started shipping in bulk via train from Bradenton FL to Kearny NJ in 1970.  In 1971 the "Juice Train" was the first unit train in the food industry and consisted of 150 cars. An additional 100 cars were soon added. The Penn Central hauled the train from Potomac Yard in VA to Kearny NJ and back. The "Juice Train" continues today behind CSX power.   

The Atlantic Pacific Rail Road is a short line railroad that serves heavy industrial areas. The APRR interchanges with several class 1 rail roads and serves the final mile from yard to customer and back. Excellent customer service are the hallmarks of the APRRs success and they continue to operate under the leadership of long time CEO Neal M.  

The 3 N.I.R.X. Lehigh Valley Cars were purchased new from the former International Hobby Corp in Philadelphia PA at least 15 years ago for the exorbitant amount of $2.00 each. The cars have received new numbers, additional weight, metal wheels and body mounted couplers. The N.I.R.X. reporting marks belong to General Electric Rail Services and I believe a total of 4 cars were purchased by General Electric and leased to the Lehigh Valley. I have a total of six of these cars however the other three are awaiting metal wheels and not yet available for interchange.