Tank Cars: Gasoline

Now I'm working through tank cars. Like hoppers, these are generally single commodity cars.  But there are more potential commodities, and I need to find sources for each one. Gasoline/oil is the most common commodity still shipped by rail.  But by my era a lot of that traffic is handled via pipelines or water routes to large distribution centers and then delivered by truck.

The 1% waybill studies show that the majority of gasoline coming into Connecticut by rail in the 1950 1% study originated in Rhode Island. The only other state that was captured was Louisiana. There were several possibilities:

Tiverton Oil Terminal in Providence. This served Atlantic, Shell, and Texaco brands.

The East Providence Terminal served Socony-Vacuum (Mobilgas), Gulf, Tide Water, and US Oil Co.  There was also Colonial Beacon Oil Co., which I think was a local distributor.

A third was the Inland Fuel Terminal in Providence. I haven't determined brands it served in this era.

From here, tank cars would be loaded bound for CT and other New England states. It appears that most was bound for local distribution points, such as LP Powers Co in Waterbury, who was a Sinclair and Socony-Vacuum wholesaler, and maybe other brands. From there they would distribute gasoline to local gas stations. I don't know how wide of a radius the trucking served, though.

Would New Britain receive gasoline by rail at all? Hardware City Fuel Co had two sidings and appears to have received Gulf gasoline by tank car. But this industry is off-layout, unfortunately. 

Berson Brothers had a siding for receiving coal and also advertised Esso gasoline. They have a number of tanks on-site, although it's not clear that they had facilities for unloading via tank car. But I'll go ahead and use it for that purpose. Esso is an ex-Standard Oil company, and would typically be delivered in standard black UTLX tank cars.

This is a Rapido X-3 tank car that I'll assign as a car in gasoline service. For an ex-Standard Oil company, UTLX cars are the most common.

Some of the maps show that the city of New Britain had gas tanks on the site served by rail. These would be for city trucks and equipment. There is a siding, but I don't know what it received by rail so gasoline is a possibility. 

This is a Proto 2000 ACF Type 21 insulated tank car. Gasoline did not have to be moved in insulated cars, but it could be. I could use this to service the town siding, or in through trains.  The placards provided in the model are correct for my era, with a red "Dangerous" on a white background with the rest of the text black. Prior to 1941 it would have stated "Inflammable" instead of "Dangerous."

What type of gasoline was used in this era?  Most cars and trucks used "regular" gasoline. Premium gas was used for many (most?) small or medium trucks. 

White Gas, and some other fuel types were still used in some older vehicles, but I don't know how common it was.

What about diesel fuel? The 1950 1% waybill study indicates 475 tank cars of gasoline were shipped to CT annually. It also listed 450 tank cars of Fuel Road Oils, NOS. This likely includes Diesel Fuel, and might include White Gas. 

Diesel fuel was used in semi trucks from Cummins, Detroit Diesel (GMC) and Mack starting in the 1930s.  Buses followed in the 1940s. The engines were too large for small or medium trucks. Trucking companies, city bus terminals, and sometimes large industries would have diesel pumps for their trucks or buses. Otherwise, highway truck stops were where diesel trucks would fill up. Diesel fuel is not listed in the city directories or phone books of the era. So I'm not sure whether any of the rail served industries received it. I suspect a lot, if not all, came via truck from the regional distribution centers.

Any of these types of gasoline could be hauled in tank cars, and multi-compartment tank cars were often used to deliver multiple grades or types.

Hoppers

All of my ops sessions to this point have been the same basic session. I have a group of waybills I created years ago for testing, and a number have been lost along the way. Thing is, this hasn't really been noticeable during a session, at least not as far as I can tell. Even from the same starting point, the operators handle the movements differently each time.

Part of me has wanted to compile a "full" list of potential sources and destinations for each car I own, and also a variety of waybills for each one so that they'll never be running the same route more than once. The reality is, this largely isn't necessary.

This process started due to an entirely different project. When I was looking to order some parts from Bowser, I noticed they were selling coal loads for hoppers made by a variety of manufacturers. So I decided to order a few to see how they looked. In the meantime, I decided to start adding real coal on top of the plastic loads that came with a bunch of hoppers. I also modified those loads to they would sit deeper into the hopper and the new coal wouldn't sit too high. I found I could modify Kadee loads to fit the Intermountain hoppers. It also led to an assessment of what cars I still wanted to acquire. As a result, I now have the complete hopper roster I'd like, but quite a few are still in kit form.

New Britain Yard looks a lot like I'm modeling coal country here. This is about half the roster. I need to finish the resin kits, lettering the MTH USRA hoppers, and modifying the Bowser "fishbelly" hoppers. Until then, the mix is a bit off.

The Bowser loads are real coal, and look like an anthracite load to me. That's great, because the majority of the retail coal should be anthracite. But for the industries I wanted the bituminous loads to look different. I have some real coal (I think) that came from Scenic Express years ago. That looks shiny like anthracite. I also had some Smith & Sons cinders left (which I love), and that looked more dusty, like bituminous. I found some old Highball coal but it's a bit more grey than I'd like. I also think it's too clean.  Bituminous is very dusty compared to anthracite. 

In this photo, the Bowser load is the lower left. One of my anthracite loads is the upper left.

The lower right is the Smith & Sons (I'd love one more bottle, I'm out).

The upper right is Highball Coal. 

So for the waybills, I need to identify sources and match them to industries in New Britain. I hunted down a lot of industry publications, like the Pennsylvania Anthracite or Bituminous Annual Reports published annually during that era by the state, along with railroad shipping guides and other similar documents. I started by looking at the retail brands sold in New Britain and locating the largest collieries for those brands. I also looked for the largest non-branded ones for additional suppliers.

Because the waybills will only be handled by the agent at a desk, I'm making them full sized. As much as a huge spreadsheet and loads of waybills might be interesting, I really only one per car to start. So that's what I'm doing, creating one bill for each car that I have in service. Not all will be used every session.

I currently have 39 hoppers ready for service.

Anthracite

1 - D&H (Kadee)

5 - Erie (Broadway Limited, Intermountain, JJL)

2 - Reading (Kadee)

Bituminous

6 - B&O (Broadway Limited, MTH, Proto 2000)

1 - Berwind (Rapido)

1 - C&I (Intermountain)

3 - C&O (Intermountain, MTH)

1 - CRR (Intermountain)

1 - Montour (Intermountain)

1 - N&W (Broadway Limited)

1 - O&W (Rapido)

Either

5 - NYC (Broadway Limited, Kadee, Tichy/Intermountain)

11 - PRR (MTH, Rapido)

The Tichy/Intermountain NYC hopper is incorrectly painted black, though...

In theory, any of the hoppers could be carrying any type of coal. But I'm assuming that most will be loaded on their home road, or close, so I'm basing the probable loads on that.

On-Layout Industries in New Britain receiving Anthracite

• Berson Brothers
• City Coal & Wood
• D&K Coal
• Household Fuel
• Shurberg & Sons
• Stanley Svea

On-Layout Industries in New Britain receiving Bituminous

• Landers, Frary & Clark
• New Britain Gas Light Co
• P&F Corbin
• Parkmeadow Lofts
• Russell & Erwin
• Stanley Works

That's twelve industries.  Many of these will receive more than one load at a time, plus there will be a number empties on-layout to pull. So I suspect I'll need 20-30 during a session, although not every car will necessarily move. During a session where there are multiple through trains (up to six) I will need a few more.

Can I Buy You A Beer?

Here's a little project I finished up recently. Greenway Models is a company that has produced a lot of custom painted Athearn models. I learned that they made a model for Cremo Brewery when I saw one at the New Britain Industrial Museum. One finally turned up and, even better, it was still in kit form. So I decided to upgrade it to my layout standards.

The sides are separate pieces, with a cutout above the door.  The roof and ends are molded as a single part, and snap into that location. So that needs to be addressed. I also wanted to replace the molded on parts, and conveniently the paint scheme doesn't have any lettering in those locations.

My initial approach was simply to shave them off. But I also needed to determine what I would use to kitbash it. Looking for a potential donor in my stash I decided to go with the Branchline reefer. I did some test fitting, and found it was nearly a perfect match in height and length for the sides. The sides were slightly thinner. 

It occurred to me that I could cut the sides just inside the ladder and grab irons, and splice the end portions of the Branchline sides. This included the mounting pins. This also meant that I'd gain the strap braces that secure the ends on the prototype, and the mounting locations for the ladders. I also filled in the missing portion above the door with strip styrene. In hindsight, I should have scribed deeper boards in the Branchline portions to more closely match the Athearn side. 

The rest of the model is the Branchline kit as designed. I touched up the sides with a blend of Vallejo white and off-white and the rest of the car is painted using Stynylrez black primer. This matched the scheme of the Greenway model, although I didn't paint the sill yellow.

It's a fictional car, but a fun addition to the roster. I couldn't fit the brewery on the layout, but operationally it was served out of Whiting St. Yard by one of the Holyoke freights. So it can be dropped off overnight or in the morning, to be taken back off the layout in the afternoon. 

Cremo Brewery closed in 1955, but Alvarium Brewery in New Britain has resurrected the brand.  I think I'll have one.

A quick post

 

More to come (relatively) soon, but here are a couple of quick photos with some previews.

These are of the incredible work Chris Adams did weathering one of my 44-tonners. Look for an article in RMC in the near future from Chris. He weathered his first, but needed new pictures so needed to do another one. 

Hmmm.... something else new is underway in this photo crossing Elm St.

Here's a little patch of further ballast/ground cover experiments at Whiting St.

It helps to have a piece of weathered equipment to see how it actually looks. Most of the layout will be cinders and it has been a challenge finding the right approach, but I think I have finally found it.

More to come, but I couldn't be happier to have a model on the layout that Chris did. It looks incredible, and his Facebook and blog posts (and forthcoming RMC article) will be my go-to references for my weathering process. I've already been picking up some supplies that he uses that I didn't have. I have five in progress, along with two S-1s that are also ready for lettering and weathering. Hoping to complete them all before the end of the year.

It's a primary locomotive for the 1953 operating sessions that are my initial focus. I wonder who will be the first engineer?

Assembling the Rapido 44-tonner

It should come as no surprise that I have several of the Rapido 44-tonners.  This includes a couple of the decorated ones, along with four (for now) undecorated ones that I'll be doing in other paint schemes.  It was also a nice surprise to find I was mentioned in the manual (in French too!). (It should also come as no surprise that I started this post on November 18...).  

 

Like many undecorated locomotives, these are unassembled. Most of the assembly is pretty straightforward, but since instructions aren't included I thought I'd mention a few things.  First, there are details that need to be installed on the running boards, but holes have not been pre-drilled. But there are dimples underneath for that purpose, you just need to figure out which ones are needed, since not all are used for every phase.

Looking at the picture below, here are what the holes are for (on the NH models, anyway):

• Blue - bell. There's a hole at the other end of tanks too, which may be used for the bell on other roads.
• Green - steps for Phase Ic models. The one closer to the edge is also the alignment for the skirt. You need to drill the hole in the semi-circular portion closer to the center of the model.
• Yellow - steps/curved portion of the cab for Phase III model. This probably applies to the Phase IV models too, but I don't have one to verify.

The side frames that come preinstalled are the later version, for the Phase III and Phase IV models. They need to be replaced for the Phase Ic version. I did this the hard way, not realizing that they trucks themselves are easily removed (I hadn't read the portion of the manual regarding removing the coupler, since I wasn't planning on doing that...).

You do need to remove the pickup contact strips to install on the other side frames. It appears they attached them using heat to melt the plastic pins. It's easy enough to pry the strips off the plastic sideframes.

To install them on the new sideframes I didn't want to use heat.  Instead, I applied a liberal amount of styrene cement and used the flat end of a pair of tweezers to mash them down.

I won't bother to explain the process I had to use to reinstall the trucks since you all know now that you can simply pull and turn to remove the entire truck assembly.

As for other details, note that the New Haven units used one of two horns.  The Phase Ic units had Wabco AA-2 horns.  The A-2 horn was produced in short and long bell versions. The AA-2 has the short stacked on top of the long.

The phase III and IV units used the long bell A-2.

Fiddling

Progress is one of those things that I think we all struggle with from time to time.  Tom Jacobs has his "hour a day" mantra and Chris Adams has "do one thing." Similar approaches are great ways to keep things moving.

My approach is similar, but in an ADHD bent rather than an OCD sort of way.  What's the difference? Chris and Tom get more things completed.

Rather than try to force myself to do those things that I should be doing, I've gone back to doing whatever I gravitate to instead. Lately that has been fiddling around with freight car kits. Cleaning flash off resin kits, drilling holes, etc. are great mindless things when my brain has had enough, but I want to keep busy. That has led to assembling some bodies and doing some of the detail work when a particular kit captures my interest. 

This leads to lots of projects in progress, but my theory is that they will all get finished eventually.  Progress is progress, after all. There is a bit of method to my madness, though.  When I start doing a particular task, such as cleaning flash or drilling holes, it's easy to just keep moving forward with that task.  Thus, pulling several kits (often with a theme) and completing the process on several.

In addition to getting to see the cool kits I've picked out over the years as important to my layout, right now it's a better approach for me.  Changes in work has left me more mentally fatigued than short on time. These more mindless tasks are good distractions, but also let me give my brain a rest.  The reality is, for me anyway, that my brain becomes more productive and finds solutions best when I don't think about them. So this approach ends up being helpful for my work and my modeling. The apparent chaos can be a good thing.

The big thing here is that, as a hobby, it's supposed to not only be fun, but engaging. It's a distraction from the rest of life, and a better one (at least for me) than just watching TV or videos online (I've done way too much of that already).  It's also a way of accomplishing things that are uniquely you.  Leaning into my nature has already made me far more productive, and I have already found solutions to some of the things that have been holding me back on those things that I should do.  As a result, I do want to complete a number of these works in progress, and get to a few critical things to get the layout fully operational again, and set up in a way that I can be prepared for regular sessions. And scenery.

So what have I been working on?

Rapido 44-tonners

Various Box Car Mini-kits and Kitbashes

Ballast and Cinders experiments

Painting and Weathering Ties Experiments

Resin Gondola Kits

Resin Reefer Kits

Reorganizing

NH DEY-3 Part IV: Painting

During the tail end of recovering from Covid I decided an easy thing to work on would be some painting. Getting out the airbrush is one of those things that seems much more complicated than it really is. Especially since I've set things up to be as quick as possible, both getting started and getting cleaned up. I've done a few posts on the DEY-3 project before:

Part I: Installing DCC  - Part II: Details - Part III: More Details

Some time ago I painted body and cab for what will be 0967, then installed the windows and it's ready for next steps. This was an easy job since it's all Pullman Green. I used Stynylrez gray primer and Badger New Haven Pullman Green.

Incidentally, 0967 also ran on the Valley Line for a while, and Chris has done an extensive series of how he modeled this locomotive. His progress is part of what got me looking at my models again. There's little point in me describing the same steps that he took for his excellent model. Here are his posts:

• Part 0: Research
• Part I
• Part II: Decoder Install and Test
• Part III: Bodywork
• Part IV: Adding Details
• Part V: More Details
• Part VI: Test Run
• Part VII: Low Profile Cab
• Part VIII: Painting
• Part IX: Lettering
• Part X: Weathering

Now that Chris has so thoughtfully asked (assigned) me to be editor of Speed Witch, I expect a draft of this article soon...

The second unit, 0994, was delivered in Hunter Green and Warm Orange. I had started this some time ago, but wasn't quite getting an orange that I liked. The Badger New Haven Warm Orange looks right, but over the gray primer it looked dingy.  So I tried it over Stynylrez white primer, and then it was too bright.

Then I found out Stynylrez has an orange primer (they also have a dark green). That's what I used this time, and the Badger looked good over it, but still not quite the correct orange. Orange paints are fairly transparent, and it takes several coats to get to the actual color that it appears with a full coat. I decided to take advantage of this effect and try what is often called a "filter."  This is using a thin coat of paint over the existing color in order to alter it. In this case, Vallejo Air orange had a bit more red (I think) in it. It doesn't look right by itself, but I thought that it would shift the Badger orange just enough.  After a couple of thin coats of the Vallejo orange, I compared it to the NH Color Guide paint chip:

It's not a perfect match, but I'm very happy with how close it is. It's also repeatable, and that's what I did for the back of the cab - Stynylrez orange primer, Badger NH Warm Orange, and Vallejo Air orange in that order. The green is Stynylrex green primer with Badger NH Hunter Green. Here it is next to the Pullman Green 0967. The back of the cab looks like it has a bit more red in this photo, but that appears to be a combination of the lighting, angle, and how the camera picks it up since it doesn't look that way in person. 

I also compared it to the Life-Like factory colors on the RS-2. Again, close enough for me.  Mike Redden included pre-cut masks for the fillet with the low-profile cab kits, so I masked it up and added that. Here are the with windows, crew and interior. 

I plan on a gloss coat, probably of Future (I have some left) or Quick Shine (a different brand of what seems identical).  Part of the reason is that these products can also be used to eliminate scratches and clarify clear parts. So I won't need to mask the windows (just cover up the engineer behind the open one).  Once the lettering is done, I will do a semi-gloss finish since these are relatively new locomotives on my layout. Then weathering.

ALCO RS-2 Build List

One of the articles that I have been working on for Shoreliner covers the DERS-2 locomotives (RS-2 and RS-3).  There is one specific piece of information I haven't been able to nail down, so I'm simultaneously hoping others may have a reference I don't, while sharing the list that I've compiled that  I don't think has been published anywhere in this form.

Of course, this is a work-in-progress, so may be in need of many corrections.

Alco Specification E-1661

When built, the RS-2 designation didn't exist yet. The first locomotives were built using Alco Specification E-1661. The RS-2 name wasn't applied until c1952, after production had evolved to the RS-3 (Specification E-1662).

Alco Specification E-1661A (and B)

In March of 1947, D&H 4006 (builder number 75141) was built under the new specification E-1661A, although CIL 22 (b/n 75142) was the first delivered, although a different account identifies GN 200-203 (built June 1947) as the first. So yes - inconsistent.  This was a significant upgrade, as the belt-driven auxiliaries were replaced by gear-driven ones.  However, locomotives combined to be built under the original specification simultaneously, into 1949.

The New Haven diagram only lists one auxiliary generator, the 5GY24A, which was the belt-driven generator used in specification E-1661.  This would imply that the first run (December 1947-January 1948) and second run (November-December 1948) were all built to specification E-1661, even though locomotives were already being built with Specification E-1661A. 

Although many references group E-1661A and E-1661B specification locomotives together, only the nine MLW-built units were specification E-1661B.

According to Kirkland, there were 35 locomotives built to specification E-1661, the last of which were five CGW units (53-57) built August 1949.

There were fifteen built before March 1947:

• D&M (5)
• D&H (7)
• CIL (1)
• Demonstrator (2)

And two were exported to Ontario Northland. Including the final five units for CGW, that leaves only thirteen of the thirty-five which isn't enough to cover all seventeen of the New Haven units. It is likely that CGW 50-52 were also this specification. That leaves only ten units built for the NH.

In that case, the first order of ten (0500-0509) would be specification E-1661 with belt-drive auxiliaries, completing the 35 units built under that specification. This makes sense.

But that would mean the second group of seven (0510-0516) had to have been built under the second E-1661A specification and not the earlier one, and the NH diagram is missing information.  The alternative is that published accounts (which seems to start with Kirkland) of only 35 locomotives being built under specification E-1661 is inaccurate.  I suspect it's probably a 50-50 chance of either.

In theory, all of these records are held by the ALCO Historical & Technical Society, but they aren't in a position to find them right now due to some reorganization going on now.

Specification E-1661C

Multiple sources also indicate that there were 31 units built under specification E-1661C.  The major upgrade here was to the 244C prime mover with 1,600 hp. Seaboard was the first to receive them, along with WM and Erie. The thirty-first unit was Demonstrator 1600.

But the first eight "RS-3" units built, for Great Northern (197-224) were also built to this specification. They had the new RS-3 carbody, but the 244C (instead of 244D) prime mover, and other mechanical aspects of the RS-2.  These changes were iterative, essentially the next step in the evolution of the major components. But for all practical purposes, these are RS-2 locomotives, not RS-3s.

This assessment is in line with Alco's practices, too, where the mechanical specifications is what determined the type of locomotive.  In 1962, when rebuilding RS-3 locomotives for the NH, they were initially going to be rebuilt as (per Alco documentation) DL-701 engines. That is, they would receive 251 prime movers and, as far as Alco was concerned,  they would be RS-11 locomotives, even though they would have retained their RS-3 bodies. The financial condition dictated otherwise, and they were instead simply rebuilt with 244H, aka model 250 prime movers and other upgrades. 

--

Anyway, here's a spreadsheet that attempts to compile all of the specification numbers for Alco RS-2s. Hopefully somebody can confirm whether the second group of NH RS-2s were built under Specification E-1661 or E-1661A.

Alco RS-2 Build List and Specifications

Springfield Traffic

 

Marc at work had a small stack of a little over 100 Home Route cards that came out of Springfield.  The cards are all dated from February and March 1946, although not all originally routed through Springfield. 

Springfield

For Springfield there are 29 roads represented (71 cars, one of which I can't identify the road).  They are not necessarily roads I expected.

• PRR - 10 - 14%
• B&O - 8 - 11%
• BM - 7 - 10%
• CP - 7 - 10%
• ATSF - 4 - 6%
• CNJ - 3 - 4%
• FGEX - 3 - 4%
• CG - 2 - 3%
• D&H - 2 - 3% 
• GARX - 2 - 3%
• MDT - 2 - 3%
• MEC - 2 - 3%
• RDG - 2 - 3%
• SRLX - 2 - 3%

• ARLX - 1
• ART -  1
• BLE - 1
• ERIE - 1
• IC - 1
• L&N - 1 
• MILW - 1
• NADX - 1
• NH - 1
• NP - 1
• PFE - 1
• SOO - 1
• SOU - 1
• VGN - 1

The mix of cars is also interesting:

• Box Cars - 25 - 35%
• Reefers - 14 - 20%
• Hoppers - 21- 30%
• Gondolas - 7 - 10%

I was surprised to see two Canadian Pacific stock cars and a ventilated box car (Central of Georgia).

Ventilated box car CG 55991 arrived via Springfield on February 18, 1946.  It went to Bridgeport on February 20. It appears to have been released on February 28, and was then routed via Cedar Hill on March 1 on its way back to Springfield, also on March 1.  It's interesting that it came into the NH via Springfield, but assuming it was empty on the way out, the car routing rules indicate it should be sent out via the same route it arrived. 

The selection of cars routing via other points is too small for any meaningful analysis, but still interesting. There was one Southern box car via Harlem River and one CN box car via New London. Via Worcester there was an MEC and Wabash box car. 

Bay Ridge (15 cars)

CP, PFE and SOO with 2 cars each, plus one each of ART, BM, GARX, NP, OWR&N, SAL, SFRD, and Southern.

Seven each of box cars and reefers, and one hopper (Boston & Maine).

Oak Point (10 cars)

Half were CP, 3 box cars, a reefer and a stock car.  Two Southern box cars, and an ART and MDT reefer.

Maybrook

Thirteen cards were for cars routed via Maybrook. Eight of those were reefers: 1 ART, 1 LRX, 1 MDT, three PFE and an SFRD. I'm not sure on the last one. Two CP box cars, and one each of B&O, BAR, and IHB.

--

Although the number of cards is too small to derive any real info regarding routing, I think there are still some interesting things to note.

I was surprised as the number of Pennsy and B&O cars coming via Springfield, but I have a probably explanation. I think many of these specific cars were on their return leg. That is, a B&O or PRR box car that originally carried a load to, say, Maine was unloaded when it arrived at its destination. Car routing rules specify a car that is not reloaded be routed back the same way it arrived. If the car was originally routed to the B&M via the New Haven, it would have likely gone through Springfield. So it would come back via Springfield too. They could also be loaded and routed via the NH.

What does that mean for my modeling purposes? That cars I might not have considered routing via Springfield could be part of the consist of a Hartford to Maybrook freight. 

This is the first documentation in my era of a ventilated box car on New Haven rails. I was also surprised the two stock cars were CP, one at Springfield and one at Oak Point.

The mix of hoppers is always something I'm interested in learning more. In this case it was B&O (4), BLE (1), B&M (2), CG (1), CNJ (2), D&H (2), Erie (1), NH (1), PRR (6), RDG (1), and VGN (1). The anthracite roads all make sense, although all of them were via Springfield. The D&H cars were probably loaded, but I suspect the others were all empties on their way home.

The B&M ones (one at Springfield and one at Bay Ridge) are more interesting. Without knowing the commodity, I'm guessing these cars may have been related moves since they had so few hoppers.

The CG and VGN were also unusual. If they were bituminous coal, they were a long way from home, especially when the bulk of coal from their region would have come by water via Baltimore.  Again, these went via Springfield, so it's likely that the NH was simply part of the routing.

I also didn't expect reefers to be the second most common cars. The mix was not quite what I expected (although being February would have an impact on what commodities were shipping and from where). PFE was the most numerous at six, but ART and MDT were second with four each. CP, FGEX, and GARX all had three, and SFRD and SRLX had two each. The LRX car is an interesting one too, not many of those.

There are no tank cars at all, but this is expected because they always ran on a waybill. They would not use Home Route Cards.

Confalone, and an interesting find

Where have I been you ask? Well, not doing too much modeling over the past year, unfortunately. But that's one of the great things about this hobby, it will be there when I have time.  But the NE Proto Meet is coming up next weekend and that's always gets things moving.  I didn't manage to get things together enough to host an op session on Thursday, but I'm looking forward to the meet. 

A few of us got up to Mike Confalone's though, a layout I've been interested in seeing in person for a long time. I didn't take too many pictures, because it has been so well documented, but I did experiment when he showed us how he does an occasional night session. He has blue light strips along the edge of the ceiling that provide a minimal amount of light, and the rest is from layout lighting.  Here's a look:

It is, of course, an amazing layout. I hope to get a chance to operate there in the future.

With my somewhat crazy schedule for the last year, I've had more opportunities for research than working on the layout. That's fine, I have several articles well on their way to completion and hope to wrap them up this summer after a trip or two to UCONN.  When looking for something completely different, though, I stumbled across something I have been trying to determine for years.

In one of my searches, testimony regarding whether a fireman was needed on certain runs with a 44-tonner in 1949, the New Haven provided the schedules for all of the DEY-4 class:

Wouldn't you know it?  Confirmation that the two switchers in New Britain did work staggered shifts.  Even better, I now know exactly what they were. My ops session is specifically designed around the switch crews shifts, so now I know it will be 7:00 am to 7:00 pm (because I'm modeling November and Daylight Savings is in effect). 

Hope to see you all next weekend in Springfield!

John Greene of Bethlehem Car Works

 When I got back from vacation a few days ago there was an unexpected package in the mail.

These trucks are in preparation for a new kit of the NH lightweight grill cars. The original CAD/castings that somebody else had provided had a lot of issues, so I provided feedback, info, diagrams, and brass and Rapido car sides. The new versions looked much better.

The trucks he's asking about are the three versions Chris and I produced for the NH De Luxe heavyweight  coaches, smokers, and combines. We have a new version that we'll have available soon to address issues with the first attempt (free replacements will be available to those who purchased the earlier version).

Sadly, the next day I learned that John has passed away. I'm not surprised, the last time I saw him his health had deteriorated, but I had hoped it was just an illness. He was always great fun to be around, and I was happy to be able to call him a friend in this great hobby for over a decade.

Before folks ask, I don't know what will happen to Bethlehem Car Works (including the grill car kit). He had announced that he was selling the company, but I don't think that had gone anywhere yet. For modelers of transition era passenger trains, his many heavyweight kits in particular are still greatly needed.

Chris and I will continue to work on our own releases, including the New Haven heavyweights we have planned. That will take time, as Chris is a new Dad, but they will come in time. I still need them!

In any event, I'm sure John is somewhere enjoying a ride in a heavyweight parlor car somewhere. Ride in peace, John.

Here's a link to his obituary (23 grandchildren!)

NH DEY-3 (ALCo S-1) Part III: Shutter Control and Water Fill

Continuing with the DEY-3 models. Units 0971 and later were delivered with automatic shutter controls, while the earlier units had manual shutter controls. The Proto 2000 model comes with parts for the manual shutter controls. It's a small plastic part that mounts near the fan housing, and a long pipe that goes to the cab. There are starter holes inside the hood to drill out for this part. I didn't have a drill bit long enough so Chris drilled them out for me.

The Precision Scale no. 3321 Hancock vertical check valve looked like a decent match to the small motor mounted on the fan housing with the automatic shutter control. On many roads there's a small rectangular box, which is simply protecting this motor. It would have been easier to model.

To start, I drilled a hole at an angle where I wanted to mount it. I also cut off the small round extension on one end and filed it flat, and filed away the mounting bracket that is around the post. I've been using these tungsten bits a lot and find that the large diameter shaft works well as a handle and often just use them manually like this.

While working on this part, I also drilled and cut out the plastic around the fan so it will be open for the speaker. Once I mounted the part, I soldered one strand from a 32 AWG stranded wire as the conduit.

I drilled the hole for the other end based on a photo.

Many earlier units received automatic shutters as well. This motor is on all of them. Some of them received the new radiator shutters, while others retained the original shutters when converted. Not all of the S-1s received the automatic shutter systems, so I'd recommend modeling from photos.

There's also a small water fill pipe missing on the model. I made one by using a piece of 1/64" styrene rod and gluing a piece of 0.035" styrene rod centered on the end.

I cut the larger rod to a thickness that looked good, then glued a second piece of the smaller rod on the other end.

I drilled a hole in the model on the center line roughly halfway between the fan housing and the first panel seam to insert the part.

Then I trimmed off the top and filed it until I liked the dimension.

I also decided I'd rather glue on the fan shutters before painting, so I removed the fan altogether so I wouldn't have to worry about how to mask that. I'll install it after the unit is painted. I also need to figure out what to use for the fan for the other unit, since it started with the round fan housing and I drilled that one out.

Here's how the shutters and shutter actuation systems look on the two units. They've been primed with Badger Stynylrez primer, which I am finding that I love. It's very easy to work with, and appears to be a perfect base coat.