Penn Central E8A #4300 Project

 Greetings All,

The time has come for this New York Central E8A that I painted in November 2012 to head back to the Paint Shop. As newer and more accurate factory and home paint shop models join the roster this P-2000 unit has been mostly relegated to it's box or as a trailing unit in a Penn Central consist at best.

In January 2021 a pair of correctly painted Proto 2000 New York Central Cigar Band E8As joined the fleet sealing the fate of the 4020.

After the NYC E8s arrived I took a hard look at my Penn Central E Unit Fleet that is currently undergoing some mechanical and cosmetic work. In October of 2016 I corrected some of my E units by eliminating the Mars Lights on three units and introducing a newly painted PC E8A #4072. This is a Rivarossi shell on a P-2000 E6 chassis. 

It's not great but it's prototypically painted, runs very well and looks OK in a PC consist.

Penn Central E8A #4317 with mars light removed in 2016 is just out of the shop in early 2021. Touch up paint and repaired wiring have the unit running and looking much better.

Penn Central E7A #4210 sans mars light from October 2016. The 4210, the 4317 and 4072 made up my PC E Unit fleet.

Looking to repaint my NYC 4020 into an accurate PC unit I took a look at the Pennsylvania RR that had two auxiliary light equipped E8As on their roster, built and delivered as PRR #5700A and #5701A in 1952.

This Walthers Proto 2000 PRR 5700A in the as delivered scheme is part of my son's PRR fleet.

The 5700 was renumbered for the merger to #4300 and became Penn Central #4300. The mars light was blanked out and the headlight remained in the nose door opening. Perfect for this model!

The ex 4020 has soaked for several hours in 91% alcohol with little to show for it. The white caulking held on the air intake grills which came off very easily but left a bit of a mess.

The shell is cleaned, the sun came out briefly, the Patti O Paint Shop was opened and a coat of rattle can gray primer has been applied.

The shell is now gloss black and it's time to put the metal air grills back on. This time I'm using gel type CA.

The decal process has begun. This spartan large PC only paint scheme became common as the PC fleet came back for their second trips to the paint shop. 

While the decals were setting it was time to address the mechanical issues of this unit. The frame and weight of the unit had been altered by a prior owner to accommodate the E8A shell. Unfortunately the top of the weight is a bit too high which caused wires to be crushed and the unit to run erratically. A few years ago I pulled the weight off and soldered on new wires from the trucks and motor to the control board.

The weight has been grinded and reinstalled. To do this I had to unsolder and then solder some of the wires back on. 

Penn Central 4300 is now fully assembled and ready for assignment.

When PC repainted the 4300 in this scheme the portholes were blanked out. To convey that on the model I painted some thin styrene black to match the shell. 

With the auxiliary light blanked out, the unit painted like the prototype and running very well the 4300 will be taking center stage in my passenger and express operations.

The 4300 passes RA Tower with a late PC / early Amtrak consist.

See the 4300 in action here.

Completing the PC E8A #4300 project has been very rewarding. The unit now looks good and runs great which is a vast improvement from how the unit looked and ran when I started the project.

The PRR 5700 built in 1952 that became Penn Central #4300 in February 1968 would be sold to Amtrak and wear the platinum mist as Amtrak #307 and then as Amtrak #457. I couldn't find a disposition for this engine and the last photo I found is from 1981.

For more reading about PRR E8A fleet checkout this PRR Keystone Modeler No.81 and this Trainorders conversation.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!

   

New York Central Cigar Band E8As Join The Fleet

 Greeting All,

In 1951 the New York Central went to EMD and obtained sixty E8As over a two year span making it the most popular passenger unit on the system.

During the early 1960s the New York Central E7 and E8 fleets went from the ultra classy lightning striped scheme to the more utilitarian, but still classy, cigar band scheme. With the Lightning Stripes covered I wanted to add at least one NYC cigar band unit to represent the middle to late 1960s that would carry over into the 1968 Penn Central merger.

This was my first attempt several years ago. Paint and lettering came out fine. Color however is nowhere close to the NYC and the NYC never had a mars light on it's E units.

In January I came across two P-2000 NYC cigar band units that were like new in the box for sale at a very reasonable price being offered by Model Train Market. Unable to decide which unit to buy I jumped in and bought both.

That's more like it!! NYC E8A #4064 at Terminal Yard. 

Sister engine E8A #4090 is ready for it's first revenue run. Both units received Kadee #5 couplers for the rear and Kadee #26 long center shank couplers for the front.

The P-2000 E units have a nice amount of separately applied delicate details.

If you are unfamiliar with these units I recommend checking out the instructions on how to remove the shell and chassis from the box so  those delicate details remain intact.

The Cigar Band units call at Empire City Station.

The 4090 passes RA Tower prompting a nice weekend of train watching at this layout hotspot.

NYC Passenger trains at RA Tower 

The two new E8s have been broken in, are running very nicely and are a definite win win for my New York Central passenger trains and passengers.  

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!

Penn Central Car Movements #81 / N.Y.C.T.L. Part 7 / The EBRR and LIRR Close It Out

 Greetings All,

Welcome back to Penn Central Car Movements #81!!!

This virtual op is once again a three layout affair with my N.Y.C.T.L. interchanging freight cars with PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR. The inbound portion concludes today.

The seventh and final installment of P.C.C.M. 81 from the N.Y.C.T.L. opens up with PC Ralph in EBRR GP30 #2160 getting North Side Yard in shape and the Afternoon Industrial Job blocked for local deliveries.

A block of cars for interchange with the Long Island RR are spotted on track#1. On the right the cars for the AIJ are blocked for delivery. 

 

Senior engineer Sir Neal is in a "more power" frame of mind as he couples up the four engine consist to the AIJ.

First move is to work the eastside industrial complex. The AIJ is pulling three gondolas of pipe from Gervais Pipe and Fitting that will be delivered to the Hudson Valley Ag Coop in a future PCCM and some non PCCM cars from Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

With the siding cleared P&LE boxcar #35892 loaded with bagged flour for retail sales from Blue Ribbon Flour is spotted at Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

Business must be booming! Gervais Pipe & Fitting receives three car loads of steel coils from Kings Port Steel. The caprice of the RTMF!

 

The AIJ is now working the Empire City Cargill Facility.

Conductor John is out flagging the street crossing as AP covered hoppers loaded with barley from the large Rock Ridge NJ Cargill complex are shoved across the street on the Cargill siding.

Penn Central covered hoppers from the Rock Ridge NJ Cargill loaded with wheat flour are also shoved into the Cargill siding.

 

The street is clear and the PC hoppers are ready to be unloaded.

Sir Neal has the AIJ back together and heads west.

The AIJ comes across the Empire City viaduct with the very busy west side industries in the background.

 

There will be a lot of switching going here today as Sir Neal sets out the old NYC Pacemaker car on the storage track.

The AIJ is now pulling cars from Moore & Co and Drywell Inks. The two white APRR 50' RBLS have been loaded with bulk paper at Moore & Co for Marcal to be delivered in a future PCCM.

The NYC Pacemaker car loaded with new 55 gallon drums from Amalgamated Container Co. (ACCO) gets spotted at Drywell Inks.

PC boxcar #104478 is spotted back at City Pallet for continued loading of pallets for Reynolds Beverage Co. PC boxcar #77048 is spotted at Moore & Co for a load of burlap bags to be delivered to Hedberg Aggregates. Both loads should be ready to go in the next PCCM.

The AIJ pulls loaded cars from Superior Furniture.

Now being spotted at Superior Furniture is AP boxcar #58260 loaded with furniture frames from Mike's Lumber.

With the switching completed the AIJ heads back to North Side Yard.

Sir Neal brings the AIJ into North Side Yard on track #3

The three gondolas of pipe and two white AP RBLs will start the next PCCM in the yard ready for dispatch to the KPD and APRR.

It's time to wrap this up with our last interchange of freight cars as the LIRR Transfer heads for North Side Yard.

The LIRR Transfer arrives at North Side Yard.

Due to yard congestion Jimmy Alco has spotted his Alcos on the secondary track.

PC Ralph pulls out the block of PCCM cars going to Long Island industries that include EBRR boxcar #360279 going to Nassau College with a load of business machines from IBM and two PS2 hoppers loaded with aggregate from Hedberg Aggregate for NYS DOT Region #10.

The LIRR caboose has been coupled to the rear of the consist as Jimmy Alco watches the consist get shoved down the main.

Other PCCM cars going to Long Island are NYC covered hopper #892010 loaded with grain from Empire Grain for Ronzoni and two SRR bulkhead flats of lumber from Half Moon Lumber for Gotham Building Supply.

Jimmy Alco has coupled his engines on and prepares for departure.

Put it in the books!!!

Be sure to catch the action on PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!