Diesel Paint Schemes- Part 2

 In the late 1940's, the Marketing Department of the Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie was charged with developing a new advertising campaign for the railroad. Given the road's main line connection between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard, it seemed important to emphasis this route when dealing with both existing and potential customers. As a result, the "Central Belt" moniker was born. This further developed into the slogan "The Central Belt- Linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Seaboard." The first evidence of this change on rolling stock occurred in early 1950 when the original steam era herald was replaced with the new "CWE- Central Belt" herald. And the first units delivered with this herald were the F7's that arrived on the property in 1950.

These units were followed by the first order of GP7's in June of 1951.

This paint scheme would last until early 1957 when the first of the F units were repainted into the F2 paint scheme. At this time, the railroad elected to use the Central Belt moniker as the road name with small "CW&E" initials under the cab windows on the A units and at one end of the B units. In order to improve visibility, the cab units were painted solid yellow below the grills and the ends of the GP's were painted solid yellow.

This paint scheme and numbering system would remain in effect until 1966 when the railroad began to renumber all locomotives according to horsepower ratings and the Central Belt logo was discarded for the large "CWE" herald.

New Motive Power- 2

 Along with the SD9 that was added to the roster recently, the shops have completed another Alco C628 for the railroad. This is one of the original Stewart kits from back in the day. 

It was originally intended to be a powered unit. I have another one of these older models on the railroad and it runs extremely well. But after installing a Tsunami in this one, I couldn't get it to run smoothly to save my life. So I yanked the decoder and the motor along with the gears and turned it into a dummy. It will initially be paired up with the Lehigh Valley C628 in the photo above along with an SD45 that's ready to be weathered.

I used the usual assortment of artist's acrylics, weathering powders and Pan Pastels to weather the unit. While these Alcos were delivered in the Phase 3 paint scheme with the large "Central Belt" on the long hood, they were subsequently repainted in to the more modern Phase 4 scheme seen in these pictures.

New Motive Power- 1

The railroad's locomotive shops have been busy. The most recent addition to the roster is SD9 1752. This is a Proto 2000 unit that was decorated as a BNSF repaint of a Burlington Northern unit. It was on sale at Walthers and had a Tsunami in it so I figured I couldn't go wrong even though it would need some modifications. The footboards had been cut off the bottom of the pilots and notches were cut in the top corners to accept the newer style cut levers. As it clearly represented a unit that had been updated at some point, I was going to paint it in the modern CWE scheme (F4). But after retiring SD9 1763, there were no locos on the railroad in the earlier paint scheme (F3). So I decided that this unit would carry the colors that were last applied to diesels in early 1967.

This project turned out to be more work than I had originally anticipated. The rotary beacon on the cab rood had to be removed and the hole filled. I cracked one of the number boards trying to get it out of the body and it had to be repaired. Then there was the frame. If the unit was going to be painted in the F3 scheme of the early 1960's, it probably wouldn't have had the footboards removed and the newer style uncoupling levers. So I dug through my spare parts boxes until I found a frame from an older unit. Fortunately, the shell fit onto the frame without any problems. Next, I wanted to add spark arrestors that were applied to all of the first generation EMDs. Of course, the BNSF winterization hatch interfered with them, so I had to dig through my parts box to find a replacement. Once all of the changes were complete, it was off to the paint shop.

I tried fading the Pullman Green with oils by mixing up a dirty grey color. It didn't turn out as I had hoped although it did a fairly good job of fading the paint. I went back over it with another wash of burnt umber and ivory black oil paint which toned down the grey wash. The final results can bee seen in the photos.

The unit was been renumbered post 1968, so the numbers on the cab side received less weathering than the rest of the unit. 

The unit will be assigned to either the ballast train or switcher duty at Nelsonville or North Pierce. While the weathering didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, it's good to have a unit on the railroad in the pre-1967 F3 paint scheme.

Diesel Paint Schemes- Part 1

In January of 1947, the Mechanical Department of the Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie Railroad placed its first order for diesel locomotives. For a railroad that depended upon the shipment of coal for its livelihood, indeed its very survival, this was a difficult decision. But recent reports from other lines of the incredible performance of diesel locomotives versus their steam counterparts made the decision inevitable. Management owed it to the stockholders to at least evaluate the potential of these new machines.

In mid-1947, the first six of a total order of ten EMD NW2s arrived on the property. These units were assigned to the large coal loading facilities at Hunters Bay, VA and were used primary to shuttle coal between the massive coal storage yard and the loading wharves. This job had been handled by the railroads venerable Class S 0-8-0 switchers that were purchased from Alco in the mid-1930's. These locomotives were showing their age and the increase in post-war coal movements required additional power to handle the tonnage.

The paint scheme for the NW2s was the product of the designers at EMD. With input from management, the talented individuals at EMD selected an overall color of Pullman Green with a yellow stripe on the hood. The railroad's name was spelled out in white Railroad Roman letters on the hood above the yellow stripe and the CWE herald was placed in the stripe on the cab side. The locomotive number was placed above the stripe on the cab.

Impressed with the performance of this first group of locomotives, the railroad ordered a handful of additional switchers from its long time steam locomotive partner, American Locomotive Company. The first two Alco S2s arrived in June of 1948 and were assigned to the coal operation at Hunters Bay along with the NW2s. The S2s were painted in the same scheme as the NW2s but with the road number below the yellow cab instead of above it. 

By the end of the month, another three S2s joined the ten NW2s already at work keeping the coal moving at Hunters Bay. And the writing was on the wall- there would be no turning back. Dieselization of the railroad was inevitable. The first handful 0-8-0s were sent to Richmond to be scrapped in August of 1949.

Of Heralds and Paint Schemes

It all started innocently enough. There is a group of us that are interested in coal hauling railroads and we trade emails back in forth. The topic of Alco RS3s on the L&N came up and there were a number of great photos posted. I made the comment that I just might add a couple of RS3s to the roster for a mine run. And that was the start of an amazing deep dive into the railroad's locomotive history and some beautiful first generation diesel paint schemes.

Before I go any further, let me introduce Dan Borque. As I'm sure many of you know, he is the owner and proprietor of the Appalachian Railroad Modeling website and you can find it here:  https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/. If you haven't checked out this site, you need to- it's filled with beautiful models, great prototype information and stories, and more track plans than you will ever find in one place. Dan is one of the most prolific track planners in model railroading and his plans have been featured in many publications. He is also an incredibly skilled modeler who is currently working on the St. Charles Branch of the Southern Railway. Here's a link to the website: https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/stcharlesbranch/. 

So shortly after the comment about the RS3s, Dan mentioned that it might be neat to do an "an Alco-designed lacquer scheme with lots of curves and stripes and a more practical grey and yellow for repaints." The next thing I know, there's a great looking picture of an RS3 in the proposed as-delivered paint scheme. After some input from the group and some back and forth between the two of us, Dan came up with what you see below.

Dan found some beautiful locomotive line drawings that are the work of Will Anderson. With a little bit of manipulation, he was able to add color to the drawings. Note that he also added credits at the bottom of the print.

In short order, Dan was working on the original scheme for the F units, the GPs, and a herald. Somewhere in all of this I provided him with the first diesel roster that I had developed when I originally planned the railroad along with a much later version. Dan then asked if I had ever done an analysis of total horsepower versus number of units over the years. This led to a deep dive into the roster- models, years acquired, numbers, horsepower, retirements, paint schemes- for the period from initial dieselization through August, 1976. The Excel spreadsheet that Dan prepared with all of this information is simply amazing.

There is much more to come on all of this. And I still can't believe I was fortune enough to have someone with Dan's talent pull all of this information together and develop such great looking paint schemes. But for now, I'll leave you with the steam era herald that Dan developed.

LV 640

Along with finishing up a number of freight car projects and some miscellaneous items, I've also been working on some new power for the railroad. Lehigh Valley C628 640 has been weathered and placed in service. This unit has been leased from Conrail in order to alleviate the power shortage that has resulted from the tremendous increase in demand for coal.

I purchased this unit on sale a number of years ago with the intent of repainting it for the home road. But as I was getting rid of a number of old magazines recently, I came across the two-page color photo of 633 and 628 followed by two snowbirds in the June 2002 issue of Trains magazine which is shown below. The photo was taken in March of 1976- just five months before my time period. So not only did I have a period photo for weathering, but I also had both sides of the C628's. A little additional researched showed that 640 was an ex-Monon unit that was repainted into the Cornell Red scheme in 1974. And other than the end handrails, all of the details were correct. So the back story of leasing this unit was quickly developed and I went searching for additional photos.

About this time I remembered that Mike Confalone had done a Cornell Red LV unit in one of his weathering videos. Once I found that in my library, it was off the races. I used a number of the techniques that he covered in the video and also added a few of my own.

The unit was weathered with a combination of Pan Pastels, oils, acrylics and even a lead pencil. The weathering is the combination of the various effects I found on five different photos of LV C628's.

The weathering process involved a number of different applications of Pan Pastels followed by Dullcote followed by more Pan Pastels followed by... well, you get the point.

The last step was to scrape a #2 pencil along a small section of the upper front and rear handrails. In studying the photo, you could see where the crews had worn the paint off and what was showing was bare metal. From somewhere out of the blue, it occurred to me that I could represent this with pencil lead.

This unit will be teamed up with a home road C628 and SD45 in the not too distant future.

Another Retirement

Another old warrior has been retired from the railroad. CWE 1542 has officially been stricken from the roster and will take its place in the display case (yet to be built). The photo below shows the loco on the yard lead at the west end of Hollister Yard.

It is shown in its usual assignment between F7A's 1564 and 1562 which are regularly used in local/mine run service.

I am fairly certain that this engine was the first one ever painted in CWE colors back around 1980 or so. As is obvious from the photo, it's an old Athearn Blue Box GP7/9. I replaced most of the cast-on details and added new handrails fashioned from brass wire. Other changes and upgrades were made over the years.The story of the paint scheme and numbering change appeared in the July 2016 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

In its place is GP7 1524 which is a Proto 2000 unit. The unit is shown below at Big Chimney. 

While I had always intended to replace 1542, I never imagined it would soldier on until 2019! Given all the runs its made on the Sand Fork Shifter, the Elwater Branch Roustabout and the Big Chimney Roustabout, it's certainly earned its retirement.

Retired

SD9 1774 has finally been retired. A recent change in motive power assignments at North Pierce has enabled the railroad to put this old work horse out to pasture. The unit is shown below after its last run on BC-11, also known as the Big Chimney Roustabout. 

This engine was purchased in sometime in the late 1970's. I spent a considerable amount of time scraping off cast-on details and replacing them with finer parts. New handrails were crafted from .012 brass wire. It was the second diesel painted for the railroad and the second one to be painted in the original "Central Belt" scheme. For more on the CWE locomotive paint schemes, see the July 2016 issue of RMC. At some point along the way, probably in the mid-1990's, I finally got around to re-numbering the unit. The original Railroad Roman numbers were painted over and it was renumbered into the 1700 series.

It wasn't until operations began on the railroad in 2012 that I considered adding a decoder. This engine was paired with another SD9 and was intended for use on the Big Chimney Roustabout, which works out of North Pierce. There aren't any significant grades on this run so one powered unit is all that is really necessary. This old workhorse still had the original Athearn motor in it. Rather than rebuild the chassis, I elected to turn this engine into a sound-only dummy. I removed the motor, replaced the jewel headlight lenses with clear ones, and added a Tsunami and a speaker. The unit performed well in this capacity, although the deep flanges on the original Athearn wheels liked to talk a lot over the hand-laid turnouts.

So 1774 is off to the drawer where a handful of other equipment patiently awaits the display case that will be built some day.

Flea Market Score

Yesterday, Division 7 of the NMRA held its annual Spring Flea Market and Trade Show. It's always well attended and offers a great opportunity to pick up some slightly used equipment. John Miller was there selling some of his excess stuff and I was able to get an Atlas U36C in K&LE paint. The photos below shows the new loco on the home rails.

This unit will be used on grain train run-throughs once a new decoder has been installed. It will be great to have some K&LE power on the railroad.

John also had a U30C for sale at a great price and I just couldn't resist the temptation to add another one to the loco roster. A quick trip through the paint shop and the addition of a new decoder and this loco will be ready for service.

All in all, a successful trip to the flea market!

December Update

Well, 2016 is rapidly coming to an end. I haven't posted nearly as often this past year as I had originally intended. Perhaps that will change next year. In any event, here's an update on what's currently under way on the railroad.

First up is GP9 1824. This is a Proto 2000 shell on an Athearn Genesis chassis with a factory installed Tsunami. This Genesis loco was one of the early GP9 runs that had the wrong window height and errors in the height of the doors on the long hood. Good friend Anthony Hardy alerted me to a sale in which these locos were going for $135 which isn't a whole lot more than the cost of the decoder. The detail on the underframe, fuel tanks and trucks is outstanding. All I had to do was cut out the coupler pockets on the frame and mount them on the body.

The chassis was just finished on another GP9 while the body is in the paint shop. The CWE locomotive roster included a large number of GP9s which were part of the original dieselization of the railroad. Until the completion of 1824, there was only one on the railroad. In addition to this next one, there is another currently in the works.

Two more panels have been converted to pushbutton control since the last post.

Next up is the panel at Nelsonville. This project will take a little longer to complete as the panel will have two signal repeaters- one for the signal off the Dry Creek Branch and the other for the westbound main signal. Neither of these can be seen from the aisle.

The ballast in the east end of Nelsonville has been finished. Some additional weathering around the switches and the installation of switch stands will wrap up the scenery here. I won't finish the track closest to the fascia until the structures are built for this area. The old coach serving as a yard office will be replaced with a structure similar to the yard office at Elk Run on the C&O. There will be several track worker shanties and a RIP shed here as well.

The paint shop is full of cars awaiting some weathering. Included in this group is a special car from the Suffolk Northern. More to come on that project.

And last up is a PRR X58 boxcar that was just added to the roster. This is one of the new Tangent cars and, in the spirit of the season, it's "a beaut."

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a great 2017!

End of Summer Update

Well, the Labor Day weekend has arrived and with it the unofficial end of Summer. My wife and I spent most of the past three months in Michigan, and as a result, not much got accomplished on the railroad. However, there were a number of projects in the works that got finished up before we left. Here's an update on some of them.

The new signal at the west end of Nelsonville Yard is now in place and operational. In a previous post, I commented on the need to move this signal from it's original location. Here's a ink to that post: http://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/2016/01/well-that-wont-work.html. The picture below shows the finished signal bridge. 

The deck girder bridges across Clear Creek next to the engine terminal at Nelsonville have been completed. The scenery on either side of the bridges still needs to be finished, but the hard part is finished. The stream was poured using EnviroTex Lite pour-on High Gloss Finish. 

The scenery around the station at Nelsonville has also been finished for the most part. Additional details need to be added such as switch machines, steps to the platform, grade crossing signals, etc. 

And lastly, the two N&W SD35 that were last seen on the workbench in December have been reassembled and weathered. Both units received Tsunami sound decoders. I used artist's oils for the majority of the weathering.

I wasn't please with how the weathering initially turned out on the roofs, so I went back and applied Pan Pastels with a deerfoot brush. I picked up this technique from Mike Confalone in his Weathering Like a Pro video series. If you haven't seen any of these and your interested in weathering, you really need to check these out. They are available from the Model Railroad Hobbyist and here's a link: http://store.mrhmag.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html. I have used Pan Pastels in the past and have never been overly impressed with them. However, Mike's videos show some unique and different ways to use them that produce some really great results. Here's how the roofs turned out.

I did manage to get six of the new Bowser woodchip hopper cars built over the summer and they are now in the paint shop. Several other cars were painted and lettered and are now ready for weathering. A number of other new projects are in the works. While the summer was a blast, it's great to back workin' on the railroad!