GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Here is some photos of recent modeling efforts.

Arrow II-

two of the four Arrow II married pair kits are supposedly ready, with the other two to be complete by the end of the month. They will look like the Arrow III kits below, but will have other details.

Arrow III-

Here are the balance of Arrow III kits that I was prepping for assembly. Unfortuneately, this quickly drove me insane, and they are all back in their boxes. Most of the problems revolved around parts that were not cast well, in particular, the air intake blisters on the roofs of the Arrow kits (not installed in this photo). For some reason, there was a lot of "spilled" resin on these blisters, and roughly half of them were not salvageable.

Otherwise, all the bodies have been cleared out, and I drilled the holes for most of the grab irons. I only got around installing "A" ends and B-end doors on some shells. The underbodies will probably be less frustrating to deal with, so I'll probably shift my focus to them in the mean time.



Pennsylvania Railroad E6

I picked up an OLD bowser kit of an E6. These 4-4-2 locomotives were the top passenger steam locomotives in Southern New Jersey service. Though generally overshadowed by the railroad's K4 Pacifics, The E6s broke several speed reccords, in particular when the crew of #460 was told "Go as fast as appears safe", when racing aircraft footage of Charles Lindbergh to New York city, reaching up to 115 mph on what is now the Northeast Corridor.

The model has been a little frustrating, since part of the cylinder casting came off, and so I'm working on putting a "post" in to hold it back on. The valve gear and pistons seem to have some resistance, but it doesn't seem to be to detrimental. The motor probably needs the most work, but i'm told that I can refurbish the motor (as opposed to buying an expensive Helix Humper Can motor repowering kit).

I'm still trying to get more detailed photos of the locomotives, and while the REAL #460 is only an hour or so away at the RR Museum of PA, I think its being refurbished right now, so i'm not sure if i'd be able to get a good look at it.





I like fast trains



Amtrak Broadway Limited

From the book "Delaware Valley Rails", I was able to get an actual consist with car numbers.

These included-

GG1
Baggage- 1223
Slumbercoach- 2025 ex GN
Coach- 5404 ex SCL
Coach- 5258 ex SCL
Pub Car- 3344 ex SCL
Kitchen dorm 8802 ex PRR
68 seat diner 8803 ex PRR
Sleeper- 2552 "Brooklyn Bridge" ex CRI&P

I just acquired a new pullman baggage car. Pullman baggage cars were rare on Amtrak. Most were ACF cars. Fortuneately, the ACF baggage cars look VERY similar to the pullman cars, and so I might be able to get away with this.

Right now, I'm trying to get a hold of an undecorated budd Tavern-Observation car. I'm planning on modeling #3344, a former SCL car. These were rebuilt by the SCL to have a full-sized rear door (as opposed to a normal round-end observation car). This allowed these cars to be placed mid train. "Pub" cars like this were common on the Broadway Limited. This should be a relatively simple kitbash from the Walthers model, which is nearly identical to the SCL prototype car.

I'm also eyeing the Walthers Broadway Limited PRR Pullman Twin unit diners (Kitchen/Dorm-68 seat diner). I may be recieving an undec pair in the future, but its still in the air. These persisted until being retired in the early 1980s, with one pair surviving into the 90s. The Walthers models are just right, if only they sold then in Amtrak!

The final "difficult" car will be the former Rock Island 8-6 sleepers. Union Station Products makes a brass car side for this, and I own the Train Station Products Core Kit that would be necessary to build it. I'll probably pick this one up as well. Specifically, I want to model 2552, the "Brooklyn Bridge".

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The coaches are all similar to Walthers "Budd 52 seat coaches". The Pullman 52 seat coach Walthers sells also shows up in other broadway limited consists of that period. If the Walthers coaches become difficult to obtain, slightly more prototype specific brass car sides do exists for these models.

All in all, the New York Section of the Broadway Limited should be a relatively easy train to complete, and consist of all sorts interesting second hand stuff.

The new Baggage car