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.

Scrap Line Rescue

Greetings All,

Earlier in 2018 I was able to vanquish the zinc rot chassis that were powering my Walthers FA and FB fleet. In most cases I found a complete locomotive and just swapped the frame out leaving me with several FA and FB shells that went into the locomotive shell purgatory box. 

Fast forward to April 2018 and I came up with the following scenario to add some new scrap line rescue units to my Empire Belt Railroad Fleet;


Empire Belt parent company the New York Central Railroad owned a fleet of 44 FA1s and 23 FB1s that were mostly all retired prior to the NYC / PRR merger. Some may have been used as trade ins for second generation diesels as that was very popular during this time and some may have ended up in the scrap line. With the purse strings tightened after the purchase of the SDP40s the Empire Belt was on the lookout for cheap power and once again contacted the N.M.D.C. (Neal Multz Diesel Consultants) to head out to Collinwood to see what if anything could be salvaged for use on the E.B.R.R. After a day of combing the scrap lines an A-B-A set worthy of rebuilding located.

The engines were transported back to the Terminal Yard shops where the mechanical rebuilding was undertaken. The engines were then sent out to the Patti O Paint Shop for some cosmetic improvements.

Here's the FA1-FB1-FA1 units  along with some other projects in new paint.

Empire Belt FA1 #1032 fresh out of the paint shop. I'm using the larger lettering to simulate the New York Central's final paint and lettering scheme that came about in the late 1960's. This was basically Cigar Band phase II. Check out FA2 #1045 at Marion Ohio in April 1967 and at Cleveland in August 1967

FB 3327 with NYC numbers. 

FA1 #1035. Since no NYC FAs or FBs were repainted with PC logos I kept the units in their pre merger NYC attire and numbers.

The newly painted and lettered trio ready for assignment.

Empire Belt FA1 #1035 proudly shows it's NYC heritage. 

The E.B.R.R. consist awaiting clearance to depart Terminal Yard. An easy spotting feature to tell the difference between an FA1 and FA2 are the radiator shutters at the rear of the engine. The FA-2 is four feet longer to accommodate an optional boiler and has a grill beyond the shutters. 

Running light with a NYC FB1 thru Bedford NY towards North Side Yard with 1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal at the throttle. 

A few days later 1/87th scale John B has a good vantage point overlooking Empire City Station and checking out his newly posted billboard. I think John B knows something, these tower men have a grapevine all their own.

His info is on the money! The newly painted Empire Belt FA1-FB1-FA1 combo are pulling a freight train out of the lower level tunnel and are heading for Empire City station. Gotta have the right connections!

But wait there's more! I later found a second FB shell in a different box and painted and lettered it as Empire Belt #3309. 

So now I have an actual A-B-B-A consist. Mimicking the old lead blog photo.

The A-B-B-A set looking sharp and pulling a heavy tonnage train thru Bedford NY  

Returning lite to North Side Yard.

Later that week the Empire Belt ALco's meet their GE brothers in front of University Millwork while a Route Ralph tractor trailer looks on. 

1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal has gathered the guys and the engines of the Empire Belt Railroad at their North Side Yard HQ.  

Now that the ALcos have been certified for revenue service Senior Engineer Sir Neal will have the guys qualified on them in no time. That's 1/87th scale AT JOE and Big Mike standing down the tracks in front of the GP30s and U Boats

In his well known gravelly voice old head 1/87th scale Big Mike imparts some of his opinions on new engineer AT JOE. "Kid these GP30s slip coming out of the roundhouse and the GEs are super slow to load." "Grab the SDP40s if you can!"

Empire Belt U30Cs, GP30s, FA-FBs and SDP40s in Empire City at the Hohman Ave side of the yard.

With the newly added ALcos and SDP40s the Empire Belt GP9ms are at Terminal Yard ready to head into the shop for some well deserved maintenance and a well needed rest. These engines have been in constant service since last summer. 

 Thanks for reading!