October MR - great articles

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I was delighted when I browsed through the latest issue of MR and found not one but two articles that really hit home with me. The first was about Bernie Halloran’s New York, Kittatinny, and Western. The concept for his layout is so much like that of my own New York, Binghamton, and Western that it is scary. Like him, I couldn’t settle on one prototype that had all the features I wanted so I freelanced my NYB&W as a composite of several prototypes that served northern New Jersey and points west. The prototype New York, Ontario, and Western was an influence for both of our layouts. Like the NYK&W, my NYB&W is being absorbed into the NYC system although at the time I am modeling, it still maintains its independence with the NYC being a major stockholder with trackage rights for through traffic to Buffalo over the NYB&W rails. Both of our railroads have their eastern terminus at NYC’s Weehawken yard, which is the way the old NYO&W operated. The last paragraph of the article indicates that Bernie Halloran is planning to back date his layout from 1963 to 1950. My own layout is set in the early 1950s although I don’t want to be tied down to a specific year.

The article about F-units was also a gold mine of information for me since these are my favorite diesel locomotives. They were by far the most common diesel in from my youth and I often saw as many as six of them lashed together leading MoPac freights through Omaha. The article also cleared up some questions I had as to why F3s and F7s were so numerous but not F-units with other numbers which were used either officially or unofficially to designate transitional models between the more common types. F-units will be plentiful on my layout as I build my roster of locos and this article is a real keeper.

2

I’ve always liked F units as depicted toward the end of their service life - mid 1970s and later.

Worn and beat looking, dirty/dusty/muddy, rusted/burnt/peeling paint (and not the original custom detailed EMD paint scheme with curve and stripes, but the later 1960s simplified freight schemes), odd appurtances like extra lights/horns/ladders/grabs added etc. - you get the idea. Something like the idea soldiering on with minimal upkeep, working with and keeping up with their eventually replacements (e.g. GP38 -2s and B23-7s) seems kinda…noble or something. Pathos, maybe.

F units were, when you think about it, rather unsuitable for anything but point to point freight service (full width body making reversing and switching a pain), and by even the mid-1950s the various Road Switcher Units available from Alco/Baldwin/FM/EMD put the F units out of such jobs (which I guess is why the last series of units were geared toward Passenger service). Still, it did look cool when the yardmaster put the worn F unit power to work hauling long trains.

3

The last two F-units I saw in service were both on Conrail tracks, still painted in Penn-Central livery. Each was MUed to more modern power and looked rather odd in that capacity. Their streamlined design looked out of place.

4

I’m drooling all over the ad on page 12 of the SD70ACe UPACMPAC Loco with the Heritage paint scheme. Too bad it’s O scale, and not HO. Darn.

Then again- half the price of that O- whoops- I can dream anyway.

5

I’m still waiting to receive mine… usually get it on the 30th or so but so far nothing. I’ll just live vicariously through everyone else for now… [:(]