MOW Gondolas

 The MOW fleet is growing once again with the addition of three gondolas. Two of the three gondolas will be part of the wreck train while the third will be used with the track crews along the line. While some of the gondolas that Conrail used were yellow, other ones were painted a light to medium grey. The three that will be used on the Blairsville Cutoff will be the light grey color.

Two of the gondolas started out as Boston & Maine freight cars. These freight cars were easy to work with other than trying to get all the lettering and numbering off. I found out that the letters and numbers were not decals but were painted on. This made it a little more difficult to remove them and after about 20 minutes of trying to remove them, I went and grabbed the primer paint and painted them. The coverage was thick enough that it covered up all the letters and numbers.

Here we have all the gondolas painted in the light grey. The smaller gondola is a former Pennsylvania Railroad and is the one that will be used with the track crew. The third gondola still needs the trucks and couplers put on and that will be done soon.

The next step is to get the letters and numbers on them, then they will be added to the rest of the MOW fleet. A group picture of all the MOW Equipment will be taken before winter gets here. The next project coming up is the wreck crane.

MOW - CR #60306 - Part 2

 Conrail #60306 is ready to roll as all the numbers and lettering are now on the Tool car. This was a fun and neat little project to do. 60306 is now officially added to the MOW Fleet and waiting for it's call to duty with the rest of the fleet.

The photo above is prior to the Couplers being added. Conrail sure did have an interesting fleet of maintenance cars on it's roster. 

Let's Reflect

With summer coming to an end and fall right around the corner, let's reflect on this past summer. It sure was a busy summer for me and my family. I had a major ankle surgery Mid-June that has had me down for the count since that day. The decision was made back in May of this year to get the surgery done as I have had 4 previous surgeries on the same ankle. This time around, the doctor put two plates, five screws and one nail to fuse my ankle together. Since the original injury to my right ankle, I have continued to tear ligaments and tendons one right after another. Sadly this was the only option left to do so that I didn't continue to tear anything. I am slowly on my way to getting better but it is still a long road to recovery for me but I know it will be worth it in the end. 

The month of July was a much better one than June. Now why would that be you might ask? Well THE BIG BOY came to Altoona, Pennsylvania and yes even though I was on crutches, my fiance still took me and our kids down to see it. That day was a long one but it was worth it to get to see the biggest operational steam locomotive in the world. It was worth going and seeing even though I was only a couple a week post-op from my surgery. The kids definitely enjoyed seeing a steam locomotive for the very first time and being able to be up close to the Big Boy. We spent about five hours there and then got back on the shuttle to go back to our vehicle and head home for the day. Towards the end of we went to the Cambria County Firemens Convention in St. Michael, Pa. It was a good time by all as we watched Battle of the Barrel, Kids Battle of the Barrel, The Grand Parade, got good food and watched a band perform before coming home. This was over a couple of days but it was good to see some old friends and catch up on everything.

August came and went but not without with a bang. Me and my family celebrated my 42nd birthday, went to Central Districts Firemens Convention and of course August couldn't just be a quiet month. I ended up in the ER due to my surgery incision getting infected and myself or the doctors are not sure how it had happened. They finally got that taken care of and then about a week before the end of August I started to get really bad pains in my foot and they are now worried that there might be nerve damage. It could be possible because of the amount of surgeries I've had on my ankle. One step at a time I guess and much needed rest.

During all of this though, it hasn't slowed me down with doing anything with my model trains though. I have started and completed many projects and some projects are nearing the end as you can see on my page here. Since the cooler weather is fast approaching, I will have even more time than I do now to finish the projects I have on the workbench and start new ones. I am also on the search for a program to build a HO Scale Track Plan for the railroad even though I have it drawn out on paper, I want something more concrete. The railroad will be double decked with staging underneath. 

Now that we are done reflecting on this past summer, let's look forward to fall and cooler weather that is right around the corner.

TOFC - Part 1

 TOFC freight cars are a big part of any railroad. These freight cars started to appear in 1926 but did not become widespread until the 1950's. The CNW started piggyback service in 1926 by hauling their companies own trailers between Chicago and Milwaukee. This service proved to be valuable and over time railroads across the United States started using these services. When Conrail took over the Bankrupt North American railroads, they acquired numerous TOFC freight cars. However these cars were not directly owned by the railroads as they were owned by Trailer Train Company ( now TTX ). These freight cars could either carry one or two trailers on each car. Earlier TOFC were a simple flatcar modernized with a fifth wheel and the same happened with later versions of the flatcar. Over time the flatcar became obsolete to more modern equipment. Eventually the flatcar returned to its original duty of hauling freight and was no longer needed for piggyback services.

Nowadays it is a rare treat to see a TOFC ( as I still call them ) on a train because most trains now are double stacked because it is more efficient and cost effective for the railroads to haul them this way.

In this series you are going to see myself build two TOFC freight cars since I am modeling the mid to late 80's of Conrail. Conrail began acquiring new TOFC in the 1980's and 1990's in distinct stages to phase out the older TOFC freight cars. 

TOFC is all ready for a fresh coat of paint.

Here you can see one of the fixed trailer hitches. Both cars will have two each since they will be hauling two 35ft trailers.

MOW - CR #60306 - Part 1

 Conrail has had some very unique MOW Equipment throughout its history. Below is just one of those pieces. A former RDG Boxcar was converted over to MOW service and used at a Tool and Supply Car. The month and year it was converted over was 7 / 1977 according to reports. The journey has started on converting this former boxcar to a Tool and Supply Car. The car number that I had picked to model is #60306. I have done a ton of research on this car and others like it.

These cars could be found across the system. Boxcar #60306 will be based out of Cresson, Pa on the layout. Another Tool and Supply Car will be located at Blairsville, Pa. This among the other MOW equipment will work with specific work trains on the layout. This project is going to take some time as quite a few pieces do need to be scratch built. 

The start of this project was to cut one end of the car to make a doorway for the crew members to get in from on side if the side doors happened to not function.

Next I went and found the primer paint and put a couple coats of paint on it. I know a lot of the modeling community is against using spray paint but it is cheap and easy to do. I found that primer gray is a pretty close match to the gray used for some of the MOW equipment.

After the paint dried for 24 hours, it was time to add the Conrail decals to each end of the car. I used two Conrail Logo's from a decal sheet I ordered specifically for my MOW equipment.

The next step is to add numbers and letters to the side of the boxcar, glue the brake wheel back on and add Kadee Metal Couplers. Once completed, it will be added to the MOW Fleet and pictures will be taken of it with that equipment.