Conrail RS-3m

Penn Central started the program of re-powering Alco RS-3s using EMD engine from surplus E-8's.  Conrail continued the program, and these engines out lasted all other Alcos on Conrail.  Back in the late 1980's a gentleman from western NY made a beautiful plastic kit for the distinctive hump that these locos had. I used an Atlas RS-3 as the base of the build

Here is and Atlas shell, I have removed the large radiator fan and the exhaust stack.

Another view.

I have oped up the engine room and this show the various parts i used.

A close up of the cuts.

The extended engine compartment has been added and the fan has started to be filled.

Another view.

The fans have been added as well as the cab.

This shows the center widow that have been sealed.

Another view

The top is a finished NH unit, the center will become and Amtrak unit and the bottom the Conrail unit.

Here is the finished model, I used a mic of Microscale and Accucal decals.  I weathered with Pan Pastels

The Springfield Show - 2018

I had the opportunity to go to the 2018 Amherst model railroad show at the Eastern States Fair ground in West Springfield MA.  I have been going for a number of years it was the opportunity to find stuff and look for deals, but now it has become much more of a social event to meet up with friends, many of which travel a great distances to go to the show (or work at it).  There are many layouts on display as well as many, many venders.  Many manufactures are also their showing of their newest products.  I have a number of photos from the day.

Rapido Had samples of the New Haven Parlor cars, RDC-2, RDC-4 and a pre-production sample of their EP-5.

 

Scaletrains had samples of their Conrail SD-40-2’s and C-39-8 (think that’s what it is).

 

Bethlehem Car Works had the almost ready kits of the NH 15’ apt RPO’s.  These should be rady by the end of February. They also have prepainted Two Tone gray NH 14 sec Pullmans. They are not lettered but include decals.

 

Model Railroad Hobbyist had there TOMA layout on display.

 

A number of lovely layouts were at the show as well.

 

I went to the Steaming Tender in Palmer for the annual dinner that is held there.  It is on the CSX’s old B&A line and the New England Central line.

 

This is the East bound Lake Shore Limited.

 

 

 

That’s it for now.

 

 

Conrail Concept

My concept for the 1977/1978 Conrail operation is an interesting case of proto freelancing.  Conrail is operating trains between Boston and Allentown yard using the following route.  Boston to Putnam, CT then to Willimantic and on to Hartford CT.  From there the route goes to Waterbury Ct then down to Turkey Brook yard then turns westward to Danbury CT, into NY State and across the Poughkeepsie High Bridge, into the NH’s old Maybrook yard,  From there the route takes the old Lehigh and Hudson river down to where it meets the form Reading main then west to Allentown yard.  This route is over 230 miles.  This is basically a portion of the old Alphabet route.

A couple of things have to happen dating back to 1955 for my scenario to work.  First the line from Putnam to Willimantic was severed in August of 1955 by floods.  A bridge in Putnam was washed out and never replaced, eliminating a direct route from Boston and Hartford.  In all of my operation scenario this bridge is rebuilt and the trains that use it continue.  In 1974 the Poughkeepsie bridge burned and was never repaired by the Penn Central or Contrail.  Here again I am making it that Conrail repaired the bridge, pressure from both New York State and Connecticut.  This also gives Conrail a line for fright to and from the southeast as well as keeping more New England freight off on Amtrak’s NE Corridor and the Springfield line.  Besides the typical Conrail equipment normally seen in the New England Region, it will fairly common to see former Reading, Lehigh and Lehigh and Hudson River locomotives showing up with much more frequency.

To add to this interesting scenario, Amtrak has reinstated the East wind from NYC to Portland Maine running over the line from Hartford to Putnam then north up to Worcester, MA then on to Maine. This will be using an F-40 and Amfleet cars.  Amtrak is also operating MOW equipment from Putnam back to Hartford to help upgrade the line for faster passenger service.  To add to the traffic level and variety, the CT DOT and the MBTA have teamed up to provide direct commuter style service between Hartford and Boston.  Equipment will be a mix of MBTA supplied equipment plus leased equipment by CDOT such as RDC’s and other older from Amtrak rolling stock.  (This is also the same time period that the MBTA leased the four Alco PA-1’s from the D&H.) Old E units and a mixed bag of old NH, PRR and PC equipment can show up in this service.

This map gives the route that I have created in my Proto Freelance Conrail Operation.

Conrail N8A Finishing up

I have decaled and added the various grab irons and railings to the N8A.  I did cut off all of the rungs on the ladder except the one that is near the top railing.  I used Model Flex Paint from Badger to paint the model.  I have found I can order individual two ounce bottles from them via Amazon for $6.95 each, with not shipping costs. Mt Vernon car shops makes a nice decal set for Conrail Cabooses and should have everything you need to do it correctly.  I decided to cobble together all of the lettering from carious sets I had on hand.  I used an Old Accu-Cal Multi set, Microscale Conrail diesel set, Microscale Penn Central caboose set and Penn Central Historical Society caboose set. 

Here is the Conrail N8A next to an as delivered New Haven NE-6 in it
delivery paint scheme.

You can see the new smaller windows, I simply masked the supplied
window material to create new smaller window.  The added side vents
around the window are also visible.

Out of the Paint Shop

Know that I have a dedicated painting spot, I find it very easy to go down to the basement and paint. With out having to set up and tear down an area I can paint very quickly and be done.  Here are a few of my on going projects.

This shows the RS-11 with the modified cab window and fuel tank. I added the train
control box, extended the elevated walkway and added the steam generator details.

This photo shows the steam generator parts better.

This is a Walthers caboose from years ago, not 100% accurate for the PC or Conrail, but a decent stand-in.
I dd not make any changes to the model other than pant.

Here is the Conrail N8A showing the new bay window and the other windows filled.

Here is the RS-3m

Here is the Amtrak RS-3.  It is a former NH unit and still has the train control box.

You can see the roof vent and antenna on the cab as well as the old steam generator vent.

My friend Paul will be happy to see that his locomotives are finally painted!