This coming weekend's blog activities will focus on trains arriving on the KPD with cars from Neal's A.P.R.R., John's N.Y.C.T.L., and Brian's Ralston Creek RR to set out at local industries.
Today's post is a special prelude to that action.
Cars are being sorted at Williams Yard including another Hoschton Railway Co. car, another gift from our late friend Engineer Ed who told me he was practicing weathering on this one. It does look like this car has seen a lot of miles.
As the yard work continues a horn and warning bells alerts crewmen of the arrival of a Boston & Maine transfer run.
I've been imaging for some time now that my freelanced Kings Port & Western has a connection with the B&M and have periodically included B&M boxcars in Williams Yard photos to convey the idea. I recently created an F7A/ GP9 B&M "Blue Bird" consist to further reinforce the connection between the two roads and also to satisfy a long term interest in having some B&M equipment appear on the layout. I purchased inexpensive locomotive shells from eBay and custom painted and decaled the units based on this prototype photo of a similar lashup I found online.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/496073/
F7A #4233 and GP9 #1701 bring in a string of B&M and PC cars.
I painted a "purgatory box" caboose as a B&M hack as well!
Watch the B&M consist move to the engine yard in the video below.
I read a forum post written by a former railroad employee who commented that the B&M was careful to avoid assigning their newer GP38-2s on trains it interchanged with the Penn Central at Rotterdam Jct. and Mechanicville. Apparently the PC was notorious for hijacking the B&M units for use on their system, so the B&M would tend to power those freights with older First Generation units.
I'm imagining the KP&W might practice this sort of occasional "theft" as well so these blue units may appear beyond Williams Yard from time to time!
Nice post setting the scene for the remainder of PCCM 64! The new B&M units look great. Whether the KP&W or PC gets them it seems that any railroad power laying over at any yard is fair game. 1:1 Big Mike mentions the LV "borrowing" engines all the time and the B&O wondering why their units ran out of fuel. Nice job all around and the video was excellent!
ReplyDeleteThanks John! I appreciate the prototype reminder of Big Mike's observations to justify the occasional appearance of the new B&M locos!
DeleteNice post for the inbound portion of PCCM 64, especially the beginning with the tribute to our dear departed friend Engineer Ed! My is the PC would grasp for anything and it seems the B&M knew better so they would send the older units on PC runs. Obviously the PC wasn't that smart. However, our PC virtual ops run better than the PC ops!
ReplyDeleteThanks Neal. I am very grateful to have received those HRC cars from Ed. They make a nice reminder and tribute to a generous and warm hearted modeler.
DeleteCongratulations on the really well done B&M paint!
ReplyDeleteThanks John!
ReplyDelete