P.C.C.M. #47E

Greetings All,

Welcome back to the P.C.C.M. 47 series!!

Today the Empire Belt RR takes center stage as we move the freight cars from Terminal Yard to North Side Yard and their respective Empire City industries. We'll also follow up on our inaugural T.O.F.C. consignee deliveries.

We pick up the action at Terminal Yard as the E.B.R.R. pulls three freight cars that arrived yesterday in Penn Central Train WMV-5 from track 7. WMV-5 (West Mill to Selkirk) was dispatched from Ralph's West Mill Yard in P.C.C.M. 47C.

The three cars from WMV-5 are coupled to the rest of the train and Empire Belt Train EC-1(Terminal Yard - North Side Yard) is now ready to depart on track 4.

 EC-1 heads down grade from Terminal Yard past Hudson Coal.

Passing Bedford Station this commuter is obviously not a rail fan and is more interested in the photographer.

Rolling over the High Line into Empire City

 Coming thru the west side reverse curve.

 Entering North Side Yard from the east side entrance.

EC-1 has yarded it's train and pulled the three WMV-5 cars for delivery. In the lower left the Cargill covered hopper can be seen being shoved towards Empire City Cargill while the three T.O.F.C. trailers from WMV-5 sit in bumper to bumper traffic entering Empire City.

The Cargill covered hopper is spotted at Empire City Cargill.

The E.B.R.R. now heading towards the west side passes Empire Produce and North Side Yard.

Working the Superior Furniture / Reliable Machine Works lead the big E.B.R.R. six axle engines are in uncharted territory as they shove under Superior Furniture to pull the outbound freight cars.

NYC 50' boxcar #80775 loaded with machine parts from Quality Fabrications is spotted at Reliable Machine Works. The E.B.R.R. engine looks to have barely made it under Superior Furniture. 

Hohman Ave tower operator 1/87th scale Larry D has come down to check out the groaning tracks and loud rumbling as E.B.R.R. 6294 and 6295 squeeze under Superior Furniture rattling their foundation and windows and providing the workers with the pleasant aroma of diesel exhaust.

The drama is over and PC 40' boxcar #104478 loaded with Zenith console televisions is spotted at Superior Furniture.

Later that morning our T.O.F.C trailers arrive at their destinations This E.B.R.R. trailer is loaded with brochures for Catskill Mountain resorts and attractions is backed into the loading dock of Anchor Cargo & Distributing. Come summer time the folks of Empire City will be flocking to the Catskills much to the delight of the Catskill Mountain Tourism Board. 

Over at Ralph's Grocery Warehouse the PC Trailer loaded with REVCO products is in the truck door waiting to be unloaded and the Cooper Jarrett trailer is parked waiting for the PC trailer to leave. If they're smart both drivers will be heading over to Pizza Land for a slice or two while they wait.

Back at North Side Yard 1/87th scale Engineer Ed lets Senior Engineer Sir Neal know that Sir Neal was right about the engines fitting under Superior Furniture. 1/87th scale conductor John checks for damage anyway and silently wishes these cowboys would use a spacer car or two for that move as he'll be getting the phone calls from Superior Furniture.

With that done we end the action at North Side Yard with the departure of Train EC-2 heading to Terminal Yard.

That concludes my portion of the P.C.C.M. 47 series. The action is now forwarded to Brian's Ralston Creek layout for the next installment.

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. #47D

Greetings All,

Welcome to the fourth installment of the P.C.C.M. 47 series!

This is the middle portion of a three layout virtual ops with Ralph's K.P.D. layout opening the action. My N.Y.C.T.L. and Brian's Ralston Creek layout will be receiving freight cars from industries served by the Penn Central Kings Port Division and the Kings Port & Western railroads.

In P.C.C.M. 47C Penn Central Train WMV-5 was dispatched from West Mill to Selkirk with the cars heading for the receiving railroads. Today we'll pick up Penn Central Train Extra 8038 South which has been dispatched from Selkirk as it hits Empire City and makes it's way to Terminal Yard.

PC GP38-2 #8038-F7B #4156-GP38 #7692 power Extra 838 South thru Empire city.

 And onto the High Line with three T.O.F.C. flats at the head end.

A Cargill covered hopper and various boxcars follow with a NYC bay window caboose on the rear.

  Heading to Terminal Yard passing the Bedford NY Hostess Plant

Arriving at Terminal Yard. This series we're enhancing our T.O.F.C. ops with a little more focus on their shippers, loads and consignees.

Freight cars to interchange with the Empire Belt RR include the Cargill covered hopper, a PC 40' boxcar and a NYC 50' boxcar.

Empty PC 229036 is consigned to Bruce Electric to be loaded with electrical components for Zenith.  

The P&LE, EL and PC 40' boxcars will be heading to Terminal Warehouse & Cold Storage marking it's first virtual ops action.

 Heading over the weigh in motion scale on track 8

Extra 8038's power has cut off the train and heads into the Terminal Yard engine facility with the 7693 leading the way.

 The power ties up on engine track 2.

Back out in the yard the venerable Baldwin Switchers assigned to yard crew A get right to work on the newly arrived freight cars.

The first move is shoving the T.O.F.C. cars onto the T.O.F.C. track.  The E.B.R.R. trailer in the lead is loaded with brochures highlighting the Catskill Mountain resorts and attractions from the Catskill Mountain Press for Anchor Cargo & Distributing in Empire City. 

The PC trailer is loaded with kitchen gadgets and containers from REVCO and the Cooper Jarrett Trailer is loaded with soda from Woodstock Hills All Natural Soda. They will be delivered to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse in Empire City by the next day.

C.O.F.C and T.O.F.C. traffic was profitable for the 1:1 Penn Central
Yard Switcher A has cut the freight cars for the Empire Belt from the train onto track 7 and gets ready to deliver the freight cars within the Terminal Yard yard limit tracks. 

Empty PC 50' boxcar #229046 destined for Bruce Electric Equipment in the distance and will be left here for the crew from Yard Switcher B to pick up and deliver. 

P&LE 40' boxcar # 35892 loaded with kitchen gadgets and containers from REVCO is spotted at Terminal Warehouse & Cold Storage Building 1, door 2 for local delivery. EL 40' boxcar #73510 loaded with soda from Woodstock Hills All Natural Soda is spotted at the T.W.&C.S. Building 1, door 3 also for local delivery.  Yard Switcher B has grabbed the 50' PC car and heads towards B.E.E.

The B crew shoves the 50' PC boxcar into Bruce Electric Equipment's siding marking the first delivery to B.E.E. in the virtual ops. On hand to inspect the car and subsequent loading is 1/87th scale John Bruce himself. Also present is 1/87th scale PC Ralph who was checking the load from REVCO in the P&LE boxcar which is the first shipment from REVCO to reach it's intended virtual ops destination and the first virtual ops shipment to the Terminal Warehouse.

The E.B.R.R. trailer is ready to be lifted. 

PC boxcar #77047 loaded with canned vegetables from Van Winkle canning for local supermarkets has just been spotted at T.W.&C.S. building 3, door 19 .

Yard crew A shoves the Extra 8038's NYC bay window caboose onto the caboose track.

Tomorrow the Empire Belt RR will take center stage as we deliver the three freight cars below to their Empire City consignees and we'll follow up with the final moves of the trailers from the T.O.F.C. cars. 

 Thanks for reading!!!

Some Five Dollar Finds

Greetings All,

On Friday May 11th I went to my local Hobby Lobby to pick up some Testor's Dullcote for a boxcar paint project that was nearing completion. Near the Hobby Lobby in the same strip of stores is an antiques store that has various vendors and is kind of like a consignment place. One of the vendors has used trains in several scales. I popped over to see if he had any small yard type buildings that I could use for my Terminal Yard expansion project.

While striking out on the buildings I did note a pretty good selection of old Roundhouse and Athearn BB kits that were mostly still new in their boxes. All were priced $5.00. The vendor was not present and their was no one to bargain with and I really wasn't looking for any car kits anyway. So instead of walking away I started going thru the boxes just to have a look. You can guess the rest. 

So here are the five $5.00 kits I purchased and have now added to the roster;

An Athearn BB Empire State Express streamlined diner "John Jay".
This car was bought as seen here and has had diaphragms and Kadee Couplers  installed. The car came in a BB box that stated it was undecorated. It looks like a previous owner did the lettering as well. All in all he/she did a very nice job with this car. 

The NYC did have a car of this type lettered for the E.S.E. named John Jay . Who was John Jay by the way? Click here.

Roundhouse 50' rib side C&O Chessie System double door boxcar.
The C&O did have similar cars with a brake wheel next to each door to open and close the doors. Easy enough to add if I so choose

A Roundhouse EL 'modern' 40' boxcar. Roof walk removed, ladders cut down and car is designated for 'Food Loading Only'. I was unable to confirm any prototype info on this car.  

Roundhouse BCOL 50' plug door boxcar. No further info found on prototype.

Roundhouse CN 40' High Side Gondola with some Walthers steel coils added. No prototype info found.

Wondering about that boxcar painting project mentioned earlier? Here it is: Boxcar courtesy of 1:1 Sir Neal and large red & white PC courtesy of 1:1 PC Ralph. Thanks guys!

 The Empire Belt Railroads two 86' boxcars. 

All of the above freight car kits were built in my standard method. Weights, trucks, frames all painted flat black. All cars received two coats of Testor's Dullcote, Kadee #5 couplers (except the 86' car) and Intermountain metal wheels. The 86' car received Kadee #27 couplers.   

Thanks for reading!!!

Penn Central B Unit #4156 Plus...

Greetings All,


For many years my modeled engine consists would not allow for covered wagons to be mixed with cab units. I also had trouble combining Alco, EMD and GE units in the same consist. All that started to change a few years ago as I was exposed to more and more Penn Central photos and videos. Having begun to exchange emails, photos, etc with my friend 1:1 PC Ralph and be privy to seeing his excellent K.P.D. layout really started to give me 'B' unit envy. What I noticed in the K.P.D. and prototype photos and videos was that the PC 'B' units were intermingled with hood units in various trains. Say what! 

This was once inconceivable on my layout but later became a quest to emulate. So over time I have kept my eyes open for a suitable dummy 'B' unit I could buy at a reasonable price for the purpose of stripping and painting it into an appropriate paint scheme for use on my layout. This 'B' unit was sought for use with my hood units as my other 'B' units are draw bar equipped to close couple with other cab units.  In late March 2018 I hit pay dirt at an antiques flea market and bought an Athearn BB dummy B unit for $5.00.

The newly purchased BB 'B" unit in it's original D&RGW colors. Penn Central fans may recall that the PC actually had two B units in this scheme after purchasing an A-B-B-A set from the Rio Grande for trade in value. The PC found these units in as good or better shape than most of their engines so they were put into service in their D&RGW paint schemes with a PC herald added as 721(A) -712(B)-733(B)-754(A).. They were later painted from the bland yellow silver and black into the colorful dip job PC black ;-).

Looking at the 'B' unit I noted this particular unit is boiler equipped. This knocked the NYC out of contention and left the door open for maybe the PRR or PC. Further research uncovered some ex PRR 'B' units in PC paint numbered 4153 and 4156. Hmm. Sounds like a plan!

The PRR had purchased some boiler equipped F7Bs to go with their dual purpose FP7s for passenger train protection and when not in that role helper service over Horsehoe Curve. As a result these units still had a lot of life left in them at the time of the NYC / PRR merger and the later Conrail takeover from the PC. Note the photo of 4153 is dated 1980! 

Here is the newly painted and lettered 4156. The Penn Central numbered these units into their passenger 4100 series while their other B units were in the more freight like 3423-3563 series.

A 1:1 PC Ralph influenced GP38-F7B-GP38 lash up leads a freight train into Terminal Yard 

A close up of PC 4156. I even went as far as to paint the wheel faces with burnt umber acrylic paint.

The 4156 is maintenance based at Collinwood and shows some residual soot after having traversed the tunnels at Galitzen PA.

The newly arrived freight train has some newly painted cars included in it's consist

Hoschton Railway RBL 953911, coupled up to HRC 5913, shows the latest paint scheme for Engineer Ed's freelanced railroad. 

The HRC has some sharp looking rolling stock!

Here's a museum piece! An older E.B.R.R. 40' insulated boxcar. The Patti O Paint Shop refurbished and repainted the car into the original Empire Belt scheme. The New York Central used NYRX reporting marks and the 2700-2799 number series on cars of this type. This was a former CSX Walthers track cleaning car where the shell was in the purgatory box for quite sometime.

The GP38-F7B-GP38s head out of town with a recent purchase at a second hand antiques store, a Like-Like Reading 50' boxcar, heading up the freight consist. The LL car is a pretty good rendering of the prototype. 

The following week the GP38 - FB7- GP38 are back in Empire City heading for Terminal Yard while meeting some Empire Belt U Boats on the famed Empire City viaduct.

Thanks for reading!

And thanks for Reading!

B.T.W. that ITC car is a new purchase also from Life Like and is a pretty good rendering of the prototype as well.