Revisiting Mail & Express Trains

Greetings All,

One of the Penn Central topics that has caught my attention again is post Amtrak mail and express traffic. Relieved of their money losing inter city trains by Amtrak on May 1st 1971 the Penn Central used their express boxcars, flexi vans and baggage cars for bulk mail service. The PC still had many E8s and E7s on their roster for use on these trains and would supplement them and even mix them with freight diesels. While the USPS had discontinued the RPO mail contracts in 1967 plenty of bulk mail was still being hauled by rail and the last manned RPO car ran until June 30, 1977.

Lets take a look at some of the Penn Central M&E trains being run today in and out of Empire City and Terminal Yard.

A Penn Central E8A with westbound Mail 9 enters Empire City Station while a PC RS-2 has pulled a couple of ex PRR B60B baggage cars with bulk mail from the Empire City Post Office.

Mail 9 is thus far comprised of a string of Flexi-Vans that the NYC and PC found perfect for hauling bulk mail. Low and sleek they could easily achieve and handle passenger train speeds.

In Penn Central fashion Mail 9 has a caboose bringing up the markers which was a PRR standard. The NYC used rider coaches for the crews handling the bulk mail. Looks like the red team won this round today.

The 9942 has tacked on the B60B baggage cars to Mail 9 and is now getting ready to tack the NYC 'Road to the Future' caboose back onto the train.

The caboose is coupled on and Mail 9 departs Empire City Station.

A short time later eastbound Mail 14 rumbles into Empire City behind Penn Central E7A #4210. 

A close up of Penn Central E7A #4210. This is a P-2000 engine  that I stripped, painted and lettered in July 2013. A second project on this unit and others in my fleet in 2016 was to eliminate the mars lights after I learned they did not have one.

Station switcher 9942 tacks three ex NYC express cars loaded with bulk mail onto the rear of Mail 14. The NYC purchased 400 of these ex troop sleepers for express shipments.

The station switcher gives Mail 14 a helpful shove as we see another PRR practice of adding cars behind the caboose. The N6B caboose was painted and lettered by fellow modeler and blogger John Bruce.

E7A 4210 powers Mail 14 as it makes the climb out of Empire City Station on the lower level of the layout.

Crossing over Market Street. The NH car is a Walthers track cleaner and the NYC baggage car is an Athearn BB model.

A three way meet at Bedford! Mail 14 is making the climb on track #1 and is the priority train heading east bound. A west bound PC freight is on track 2 and has cleared the switch for Terminal Yard while an eastbound Empire Belt train watches on track 3.  

The PC SD35 - SD9 combo pulling a transfer train west towards Empire City. A pair of Empire Belt GP30s head east towards Terminal Yard. Mail 14 has the green signal as it makes it's way east upgrade towards Terminal Yard. 

The SD35 - SD9 combo are Atlas units that I painted after seeing a similar lash up in volume 3 of the Green Frog Penn Central video series.

Back to the mail and express train. Mail 14 is now entering Terminal Yard while a yard switcher is connecting an Amtrak or PC ex NYC E8A to an outbound passenger train on track 1
Mail 14 heads further into the sprawling yard passing some open tri level auto racks and 86' Auto Parts boxcars awaiting engines. 

Baggage cars from the three Penn Central predecessor railroads are still looking good and earning their keep in the mail and express service.

That wraps up today's look at some of the Penn Central mail and express trains as seen on the N.Y.C.T.L.

Thanks for reading!!!

  

The Penn Central 9999 Project

Greetings All,

With help from 1:1 Sir Neal the Penn Central 9999 project was born. PC #9999 is the last engine on the PC roster and was a General Electric 44 Ton Locomotive that was formerly Pennsylvania RR #9353. Prior to the Penn Central merger the PRR had forty six of the 380 HP engines on their roster.  The 9999 is the only one to make it to the PC roster.

Taking advantage of a labor agreement which allowed a diesel engine under 45 tons to operate without a fireman the Pennsy ordered a small fleet of the GE 44 ton switchers in the late 1940's to replace small 0-4-0 steam switchers. The engines were not very successful because of their light weight, but the 9999, which was built in May 1949, made it thru to the Conrail takeover. 

The 9999 was definitely a survivor if nothing else. It's only assignment during it's time with the Penn Central and later Conrail had it leased to the Union Transportation Company that operated the Pemberton and Hightstown Line in NJ that ran from Lewes NJ to Fort Dix NJ. That service ended in 1977 and the 9999 was sold in 1978 to Midwest Steel and Alloy in Ohio. Here's the 9999 still in full PC paint in November 1979. 

Enter 1:1 Sir Neal who sent me a message asking if I had any use for a Bachmann Western Maryland 44 tonner someone had given him. Neal was unsure if the engine actually worked and he had never taken it out of the box but I told him to send it my way as I would try to cobble this one and my long out of service NH unit into at least one operating unit. Neal included the 44 tonner with the box of 57' mechanical reefers and Atlas GP40 that were the subject of my prior blog entry.

Here's the unit from 1:1 Sir Neal which was missing a wheel/axle assembly and side frame. This side faced the bottom of the box so there was no way to know this unless you took it out and examined it.  No problem here though. I have eight wheel/axle assemblies leftover from a 2011 NH 44 tonner project.

After getting the wheel/axle assembly installed I tested the WM unit and found it too had a burned out motor. Back to workbench where I was able to use one of the WM motors and one NH motor to make a working unit. 

Here's the newly rebuilt and painted PC 9999 on duty at Bedford Park Yard. The small size of this engine makes it perfect for working the tight confines of Bedford Park. It's lack of weight however mimics it's 1:1 counterpart and it's not a strong puller by any means. Three to four cars is pretty much it. 

On the plus side the industries here except for Ford only need one or two cars spotted at a time. The 44 Tonner can easily work the Ford steel yard in the background and the Ford tank car track which both have two car limits. As for the bigger Auto Parts cars and Auto Racks? Fuhgeddaboutit! 

The 9999 has two Breadbox Trough Coil Steel Coaches in tow from Kings Port Steel for the Ford Plant.

Empty coil cars from Ford going to Shapeless Steel Works are now shoved to the Bedford Park lead at Bedford Tower for pick up

The two car tank car track is in the foreground and Bedford Tower is just beyond the water tower. These cars can easily be picked up in a trailing point move by the next local or transfer run going back towards Terminal Yard from either Bedford or Empire City. 

The 9999 was painted with rattle can black spray paint and lettered with Microscale decals. The small PC herald and numbers were from PC diesel sheet #87-84 and the smaller 'Penn Central' lettering came from PC Streamline Passenger Cars and Metroliners decal sheet #87-1383

The 9999 shoves a 40' P&LE boxcar towards All City Storage. The small Bedford Park Yard is in the foreground. This little engine seems a natural fit for the tight confines of this area. 

Adding the 44 tonner has opened up some interesting operations options for Bedford Park. By adjusting how I interchange cars and switch the industries in Bedford Park the 9999 should be a lot of fun to operate in this tight little industrial area.

Thanks go out to 1:1 Sir Neal for donating the parts engine needed to get this 44 tonner project up and running and supplying the shell that became Penn Central #9999.

Thanks for reading!

Another Big AP-EB Paint Project Is In The Books!

Greetings All,

In early July 1:1 Sir Neal visited the great train store under his layout and found twelve Athearn BB 57' mechanical reefers that were in need of a project. After inquiring if the Patti O Paint Shop was open we put our collective heads together and came up with a scenario to paint six of the cars for Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad and six cars for my Empire Belt Railroad. The cars would then be divided between us with each of us getting three AP and three EB cars. 

The main focus of the project is to use these cars in future P.C.C.M.s or virtual ops. The cars will be in dedicated service between Sir Neal's C&P Restaurant Supply and my Terminal Cold Storage & Warehouse and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. To reflect this the cars would be specially painted in a bold color. 

In addition to the reefer cars Sir Neal sent down an Atlas GP40 that is to be painted as PC 3180 to match the PC 3180 on my layout. He also sent down another engine for me to keep that will be the focus of a future blog entry. 

It's late July and the box of trains has arrived at Terminal Yard. A dozen freight cars, two engines and plenty of decals will keep the Patti O Paint Shop crew busy for many days to come!

The 57' cars come in the passenger car sized Athearn Blue Box which is nice because they have the extended cushioned under frame coupler boxes. When built they fit very nicely into the boxes.
After removing the shells from the frames it's time to strip the factory paint. I was able to strip six at a time using this turkey sized tin pan with cover.

The Patti O Paint Shop is open for business! 

The twelve reefer car shells and two locomotive shells dry in the sun. On cloudy days I can bake on the finish in the Chiminea.😉 

The all important mock up. Every time I do this I think of Fred Gwynn in My cousin Vinny "Are you mocking me!". Each small container receives the full amount of decals for one car. I cut out the car data, door data, ACI labels, COTS Panels etc first as each cars gets a full compliment of those. Next it's onto road names, individual numbers and reporting marks.

It looks like I've added racing stripes to my gloss white molding. Actually what I'm doing is getting some of the tackiness off the painters tape before applying it to the newly painted models. A mirror works also works well for this.

The cars are now completely painted and it's time to start the decal process. 1:1 Sir Neal came up with this good looking paint scheme for the 57' Reefers.

The E.B.R.R. cars will feature two lettering styles that will be highlighted once the cars are completed.

The first side of the first A.P.R.R. car is done. 

 The first side of the first E.B.R.R. car is also done.

The paint and lettering is now complete! The twelve car string of mechanical reefers are getting pulled into Terminal Yard from the paint shop.

AP 5760 is first out of the Patti O Paint Shop and is inspected by 1/87th scale senior engineer Sir Neal and the rest of the guys.

Newly painted E.B.R.R. 5726 sports the 'Respect The Red' safety slogan that's been appearing on some of the newly painted E.B.R.R. rolling stock. I'll follow that up further in a future blog entry.

E.B.R.R. 5728 and E.B.R.R. 5730 (not shown) sport the more traditional Empire Belt lettering.

Six of one, half a dozen of another! The Terminal Yard switchers separate the newly painted reefers into groups of six. One group will remain here and the other group will head up to the A.P.R.R.

Several days later the guys have gathered again at Terminal Yard as it's time for the newly painted cars to depart behind newly painted Penn Central GP40 #3180. The guys look towards the yard office and wonder where 1/87th scale PC Ralph is as Conductor John checks his watch hoping PC Ralph doesn't miss the departure. 

There he is! 1/87th scale PC Ralph has just jumped off the crosstown bus. 

Blog followers should recall why PC Ralph is riding the bus.

 And remember 1/87th scale PC Ralph's epic pre dawn ride!

Anyway the gang's all together as they check out the two PC 3180s and the newly painted 57' mechanical refrigerators. The engine on the left is 1:1 Sir Neal's Atlas model that will roam the A.P.R.R. tracks while the engine on the right is my Bachmann model. Both painted at the Patti O Paint Shop.

Here's another view of the train(s) we'll be using on our respective layouts for the virtual ops including the Athearn BB PC caboose which we both have.

Double vision? Nope. PC 3180 and the six 57' mechanical reefers will be exactly the same whether on the A.P.R.R. or N.Y.C.T.L.  

That wraps up the latest big AP - EB Paint Project. Breaking the project into small individual portions and doing the work in assembly line fashion made the project much more manageable. 

Be sure to check in with 1:1 Sir Neal's AP.R.R. blog to see the newly painted trains on the AP.

Thanks for reading!

Tribute to 1:1 Engineer Ed

Greetings All,

It's with a very heavy heart that I report today the passing of 1:1 Engineer Ed. Double E was a great American, family man, friend and train buddy. He served his country in war time, was a devoted husband and father and enjoyed the model railroading hobby since his father introduced him and his brother to their first Lionel trains. 

Ed never lost his love for O scale trains and was a very accomplished modeler who loved nothing more than having his grandson visit and put his Hoschton Railway Company thru the paces that only a small child can. As Ed put his layout back together after his grandson's operating sessions he never lost his beaming smile from sharing the hobby with his grandson. I would get notification from Ed that he was putting blocks on the throttles of his Z-1 controllers to limit the speed of the trains as his grandson enjoyed running the layout at warp speed. The after action report usually included a casualty report that included a few dinosaurs that roamed the layout when the little guy visited.

E.E. was a frequent visitor to the N.Y.C.T.L. and during our two person op sessions he would often look at me with a smile and state "it should be illegal to be having this much fun!". Our ops session were all about fun and we had a lot of it. 1:1 Engineer Ed and I moved a lot of freight cars, shared stories, collaborated on projects and inspired each other to be better modelers and have more fun doing so. We had some good road trips visiting other layouts and attending Train Shows. Ed always found several good deals and left struggling with a bunch of big O scale boxes. Both my wife and I looked forward to his visits and he is greatly missed. 

Here's 1:1 Engineer Ed working the Empire Belt's North Side Yard in August 2017.

1/87th scale Engineer Ed wears the brown shirt based on 1:1 E.E.'s love for the Pennsylvania RR. Here he his touting the merits of the high horsepower GE U Boats to 1/87th scale Big Mike in P.C.C.M. 48.

More recently 1:1 Engineer Ed developed a strong liking for the New Haven RR spurred on by a gift of a New Haven EF-4 from his late brother. Double E changed the colors of his freelanced Hoschton Railway to resemble the NH's rolling stock. Here's 1/87th scale EE with a newly painted HR 50' double door RBL.

Ed was a big fan of the virtual ops or Penn Central Car Movements even though he never really liked the Penn Central. Ed was in the process of altering his layout to be more involved in the virtual ops before his health took a turn for the worse. We were fortunate to have Ed participate in P.C.C.M. 42 and showcase his newly painted Penn Central coal hoppers.

Always on the lookout for more train projects here's Ed loading up with goodies at an Atlanta area Train Show in January 2018. That's me to the right and our friend and fellow modeler Matt Burton from Chattanooga on the left.

Double E was also a huge fan of coal trains and would often request to run coal trains when visiting the N.Y.C.T.L. Ed had many friends within the hobby and was kind enough to arrange a tour for us at the beautiful Tuscarora RR O scale layout in February 2017. Here's Double E with the camera taking a picture of what else, a coal train.

Engineer Ed cataloged some of his model railroading projects and adventures on his blog: http://hoschtonrr.blogspot.com/ He had a beautiful train collection and layout and always said everything would be left for his grandson who had so much fun with his grandpa visiting the layout and running the trains.

Rest in peace Ed. If Heaven has a train layout I'll know where to find you.