Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year!   My apologies for being absent from the blog since early November. I hope you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season.  I know we did here and we continue to celebrate with joy!  Best wishes to all for a Healthy and Happy New Year in 2016.

Construction Updates:
I have not done too much more with the attic space in the past few months.  Drywall is up on the main walls and partially on the sloped ceiling.  I guess you can say I am not happy with the general look of where the walls and slope come together and so this has essentially stopped my progress.  With the priorities of the Holiday about completed I am optimistic that I will get back into the attic on the weekends. In this month of January my goal is to get the sloped walls into better position and get the hard ceiling in.   I am giving myself a deadline of May 1st to have a finished room so that I can get to the layout construction.  

My layout design is still being inspired by Chuck Sable's,  HO Scale Milwaukee and Northwestern Wisconsin Division as seen in the Rehab My Railroad series from Model Railroader.  I say inspired because I intend on adding a sub level to my layout to double the mainline run and add some time delay elements to my operations, additionally I plan to add a staging area off the main layout area.

A rough sketch of the upper level is shown below.  The red line indicates the main.  Approximate main layout space is 13' x 24' and the additional staging at the wye will add another 10' to 12'  feet but probably only 12 to 16 inches wide.    The lower level will essentially mirror the footprint of the layout space around the outside walls.  While it is a fairly essential element, I have not yet decided where to connect the two levels together.  I know that a helix is not feasible given the space constraints so a gradual grade is the plan.   I am going to work on a better schematic to post for the blog site as time permits.   Also - I will post some pictures in the next day or two of the new models that I have acquired either through gift or purchase over the past few months.  Till then... keep the trains running!

41st Annual New York State Train Show

This weekend is the 41st Annual New York State Train Show in Syracuse NY, hosted by the Central NY Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.  I have attended this show as a member of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society's HO modular layout since 1997, with the exception of the four years I was away at college.  In recent years the show seems to be showing better than average attendance and the variety of operating layouts makes it a good family show too.

The Cornell operators group has about 15 members now with about half of those supplying the actual modules, the remainder of us supply the operating trains.   I was pleased to be able to run a NYC "Hot -shot" Flexi-van extra today.  I supplied the motive power consisting of two, Bowser, Alco Century 430's.  Alco produced these units in 1967 and this power was the last power the NYC ever purchased.  Greg Dickinson provided 7 of the Flexi-van cars and I provided 4 additional cars plus the caboose.  (Yes, I know the caboose is not exactly prototypical, but it is close)  Enjoy the video below of the train running on the layout.  The show continues, tomorrow, Sunday, November 8th from 10a to 4p at the NYS Fairgrounds.  With the decent weather it is worth the trip.

A "Not So" Wordless Wednesday

It is the season of change and October has seen the most progress to date on getting the layout room to a finished space.   The past couple of nights I was able to get the dry wall hung and mudded along the east wall and have now moved over to the north wall.  I know it might not look like much but I see progress and each day a little closer to having a good space.  

In other news, Athearn has announced a Ready to Run GP-35 in the NYC cigar band, due next September.  I am sure I will end up with one or two depending on price point.  

I am also very pleased with the latest news from the NYCHS, announcing a lower price point on a NYC Lines East Brick Tower, being produced by the N-scale Architect.  This tower had been announced some time ago but was initially offered at over $100.00 and that was just a bit too much for my interest.  That being said, the model is in production now and the price was lowered to MSRP of $87.50, with a member discount.   That made the model an affordable "must have" and so my order was placed and I am looking forward to this high quality kit to arrive in Mid- November.    

Finally, as November approaches so does the Train Show season in New York State.  First up is the 41st Great New York State Model Train Fair the weekend of Nov 7th and 8th at the NY State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.  I will be attending the show as a part of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society HO modular layout.  I hope to see many of you at the show.   Till then back to the attic... 

Weekend Warrior

The last two weekends have seen the best progress yet in getting the layout room in the attic actually suitable for a layout.   Over the past two weekends I have been able to stud the main walls, lay the subfloor and install 3 batts of insulation.   Enjoy the pictures below of the progress.

An Oldie but Goodie...

The American Association of Private Railcar Owners, (AAPRCO) sponsor a special train each year for their annual convention.  In September of 2014, the AAPRCO convention was in Portland ME and that special train was known as the Pine Tree Limited.  The train was assembled in Chicago and as the route would have it, the train passed through the Southern Tier of NY.   Below is an excerpt from the special train description, quoted from the AAPRCO website: 

"Our convention special train will offer travel over a substantial amount of mileage that is not accessible by regularly scheduled Amtrak trains. Our revised operating plan has the special train departing Chicago on Thursday morning September 18 and heading east to Cleveland on Norfolk Southern's former New York Central route. Although our original plan was to take the route of the former Nickle Plate Road, Norfolk Southern asked us to shift to the former NYC route due to freight congestion and insufficient operating crews. On Friday, September 19, we will travel east on Norfolk Southern (the former Nickle Plate Road) for the run from Cleveland to the Buffalo NY area. Next, we will travel southeast on Norfolk Southern's southern tier route (former Erie Railroad) to Binghamton NY. On Saturday, September 20, we will head north on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway to Syracuse NY, where we will head east on CSX (former New York Central "Water Level Route") to Schenectady NY, where we will interchange to Pan Am Railways (former Boston & Maine Railroad), including a short distance on Canadian Pacific, using a reverse move of about 8 miles, then traveling east through the Hoosac Tunnel to East Deerfield MA. On Sunday, September 21, the final segment of our eastbound journey is on Pan Am Railways to Portland ME.

I was fortunate to be able to photograph the special train in two locations, first during refueling in Horseheads, NY and then again as the train crossed the Chemung River at Elmira.  



























The train had many vintage private cars but of particular interest was the New York Central's Babbling Brook, a Budd Observation Car.  

The Babbling Brook was built in June of 1949 by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, PA. Originally ordered in December of 1945, the Babbling Brook was one of a group of four identical cars built for the New York Central Railroad for use on the New England States, the NYC’s premier trains between Boston and Chicago. The car was built to Pullman Company plan #9506, lot #9664-023. As built, the Babbling Brook contained five double bedrooms with sleeping accommodations for ten people, a small bar and buffet kitchen, and a twenty-five seat rounded-end observation lounge. 

Click Here to Read More about Babbling Brook:  http://www.webbrail.com/history

New York Central Modeler 4th Quarter 2015

One of the best resources on the web for any New York Central Modelers.  Check out the New York Central Modeler publication from the New York Central Historical Society.  The link is below!

https://nycshs.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/nycentralmodeler4th2015final1.pdf

"Tis the Season"

Well today is the first day of Autumn and the "conventional" annual return for most modelers to their layout rooms, no longer distracted by call of the blue sky and bright sun, beckoning yard work, various family outings and the annual summer vacation.  Personally, I never really take time off from my modeling activities.  Every season brings new opportunity to experience or participate in some aspect of  Model railroading or Railfanning.  

It has become somewhat of a tradition for our family to take a foliage excursion each fall.  The photo above was shot by my wife, Katie, in 2008 just outside of Tobyhanna, PA on our return trip to Scranton.  It was an amazing day of fall foliage behind some nice steam.  

Last year, we were able to visit the Arcade and Attica RR and again had a great time "peeping" behind some classic steam. 

 

This year we probably won't be able to make an excursion because of the recent birth of Patrick, but we are anxiously looking forward to attending the Syracuse train show in November and this year we are going to try and visit the RIT "Tiger Tracks" show in early December.  More to come on the shows in an upcoming post.  Enjoy the photos and Welcome back!