Modern-day New York Central System (SD70MACs and all!)


mtrpls

Ignorance is Patriotic
Hi everyone,

I've been reading posts here for a while but decided today to introduce myself. My name is Matt, I'm 25 years old, and I'm trying to get young people in their 20s and 30s interested in this hobby. I am a modeler of the New York Central, but not the railroad that was, but the railroad had it existed today.

This means a modern railroad system with contemporary equipment, and the beauty of modeling this railroad in current times is that, for all practical purposes, it allows you the flexibility of free-lancing while still sticking to a memorable and popular road name.

Although I lack a layout, I do get a chance to run my equipment on a local club layout here in Denver. (this way I can spend all my money on locomotives and rolling stock :D ) I have decided to post a few photos of my railroad, the New York Central.

First, while you wait for the photos to load, I would like to give you a timeline of the history of the railroad. Please note than anything after the officialment of the Penn Central merger is purely my fiction!

1853 - New York Central Railroad formed by the merger of 10 small upstate NY railroads.

1867 to 1950s - The railroad unfolds into an empire under the steady and determined leadership of the Vanderbilt clan.

1960s - The railroad is hit hard, along with its regional competitors, as freight traffic in the northeastern United States dwindles.

1960s - The New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad begin talks of a merger into the 'Penn Central', and both companies lobby the US Government for approval.

1968 - Two days before the NYC and PRR would officialize the merger, a mysterious group of investors flush the NYC with cash and lobbied the NYC corporate board to back out of the merger.

1968 - The NYC ends all merger negotations with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and focuses on using the immense capital it had received to upgrading and modernizing its infrastructure, as well as to make real estate investments and formulate new business strategies.

1969 - The NYC acquires the Pennsylvania Railroad lock, stock and barrel. The name of the railroad remains "New York Central System".

1970 - Various other bankrupt eastern seaboard railroads are acquired by the NYC, allowing the railroad to become the "mega railroad" of the northeast.

1970s - The NYC becomes a pioneer in intermodal/TOFC service, and celebrates the openings of new intermodal facilities in virtually all of the large and medium-sized cities it serves.

1970s - Truck dreyage between the intermodal yards and the customers is controlled by the railroad; this keeps the cost of transportation low and prevents the trucking industry from increasing its rates to intermodal yards.

1980s - The railroad changes its AAR reporting marks to "NYCS", preventing any confusion its former NYC acronym had with "New York City".

1980s - The NYCS rises out of the ruins of bankruptcy and becomes one of the healthiest transportation companies in the world.

1990s - New capital improvement plans, funded by the immense profits the railroad has been earning, further modernize the NYCS. The famed "Water Level Route" between New York City and Buffalo begins a 10-year reconstruction: the mainline is widened to six tracks and re-laid with concrete ties and heavier rail. Selkirk Yard, just south of Albany, is endowed with over $300M of improvements.

1999 - The NYCS opens its new trophy headquarters, 4 Times Square. (also known as the Conde Nast building)

... and with that, I give you the photos. We will watch 4 Kato SD70MACs, all custom painted by myself, lead a mixed freight over the NMRA's Sunrise Division club layout. Please don't complain about all of the photos focusing on the locomotives; I just finished painting them and this operating session was their first time "on stage":

A close-up of #718

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By the way, that's a Susquehanna B40-8 trailing the NYCS lashup.

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Yes, not exactly East Coast scenery... I know! ;)

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Hope you enjoyed the photos and the introduction to my "semi-freelanced" NYCS.
 
First off, welcome to the forum!

Very cool idea! I never even considered intoducing a "fallen flag" to the modern day world, but it certainly is tempting now that you brought up the idea! I love the paint schemes, and they look great on modern equipment! This opens up a whole new field of opportunities...just think off all the empires-gone-by and what they would look like today. How about a PRR GeVo :)
 
WOW! Awesome job on the Loco's! They look so darned RIGHT. What a great idea. Darned, now you got me thinking. I model the NYC myself the 1950's actually. Your idea certainly takes care of not being able to find the right loco. Keep us posted with your progress. Very impressive.
Terry
 
Hi mtrpls and welcome to the ModelRailroadForum those are awesome photos of your work. Thanks for sharing your modeling with us I'll be looking forward to the next ones :D
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Willis
 
Man, that is a cool idea. Great work and welcome to the forum.



Hum, I wonder what a Grande SD70MAC would look like...
 
Nice resurrection of the NYC.

Eric, I think you just committed your self ;)
 
mtrpls said:
...Hope you enjoyed the photos and the introduction to my "semi-freelanced" NYCS.
Yeah I enjoyed them alot, great job! I'm really glad you stayed with the elegant "lightning stripe" scheme and avoided the ugly "cigar band" scheme of the mid-sixties NYC.
 
VERY NICE WORK, modelmaker! Those D&H C44's would look great alongside my NYCS SD70MACs. ;-)

Interesting to read everyone's posts regarding the resurrection of fallen flags into modern times. Personally, I find today's existing railroads boring and doldrum. Yes, they're big, but they don't have much character and it's monotonous to see the same paint scheme over and over and over again.

I just can't understand pledging allegiance to a railroad such as UP or BNSF simply because it runs through town. Today's railroads lack the individuality and uniqueness that defined the classic roadnames of yesterday. Indeed, today's railroads have as much charm as Wal-Mart. :D Just my opinion, though.

However, I will say this: modeling the NYCS in modern times is a great way to express my adoration for the system that was, but also allows me the opportunity to 'take over the reigns' and bring it into a prosperous future of widecab diesels and hot-shot intermodal trains. Lots of flexibility, and plenty of room for expressing my creativity.
 
While the NYC lightning stripe is a nice paint job, I can't help but wonder if it would have survived the... vivid... 70s.

Now there is something to fantasize about... a "modern" NYC (or PRR) paint job...
 
mtrpls said:
VERY NICE WORK, modelmaker! Those D&H C44's would look great alongside my NYCS SD70MACs. ;-)

Interesting to read everyone's posts regarding the resurrection of fallen flags into modern times. Personally, I find today's existing railroads boring and doldrum. Yes, they're big, but they don't have much character and it's monotonous to see the same paint scheme over and over and over again.

I just can't understand pledging allegiance to a railroad such as UP or BNSF simply because it runs through town. Today's railroads lack the individuality and uniqueness that defined the classic roadnames of yesterday. Indeed, today's railroads have as much charm as Wal-Mart. :D Just my opinion, though.

However, I will say this: modeling the NYCS in modern times is a great way to express my adoration for the system that was, but also allows me the opportunity to 'take over the reigns' and bring it into a prosperous future of widecab diesels and hot-shot intermodal trains. Lots of flexibility, and plenty of room for expressing my creativity.


thats some nice work you did on the locos :D


and trust me i am a D&H fan and have always wonderd what there lightning stripe would look like on a dash 9 or some of the newer locos.

:( oh to beable to sit on my porch and see a dash 9 in the D&H lightning stripe roll by but i have to settle for NS ,CP AND CN
 
Very interesting concept, though I doubt the Pennsy fans would entertain the idea of a complete takeover by the NYC. :D

Those SD70MAC's look great, much more inspiration than what's actually rolling around in the northeast today. :p
 
JeffShultz said:
While the NYC lightning stripe is a nice paint job, I can't help but wonder if it would have survived the... vivid... 70s.

Now there is something to fantasize about... a "modern" NYC (or PRR) paint job...

Actually, there is a story behind that. As I said, I have given myself the freedom to "invent" the history of the NYCS in the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. :p

The "bankruptcy black" paint scheme, or "cigar band", lasted through the 1960s and into the 1970s. The railroad saw no need to invest in painting its equipment, as all attention was diverted to delivering a solid, sound business strategy to ensure the survival of the company. Only in the 1980s did talk of a new paint scheme surface.

The 1990s saw the return of the lightning stripe that once represented better days. The diesel repaints of that time: SD40-2s, SD-45s, and numerous Geeps, were painted in the company's black/lightning stripe scheme to denoate freight service. In 2001, when the order for the first of the railroad's widecabs was placed, the SD70MAC model was painted in a gray/lightning stripe scheme after company employees voted it 'most elegant' among the company's numerous paint schemes.

Only in my world, of course. ;)

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The TP&W ran some GP20's with the NYC lightening stripes.
 
What a grand idea and I really like your paint scheme. The locos are so majestic and powerful looking. Fine work!
 
Matt, Great Idea & a fantastic looking layout. I've got a lot of early engines from all the fallen flags. I could add some pin stripeing to each loco or some trim paint & mine wouldn't look too out of date. I model a free lance layout of the modern era.
I still want to run all my diesels, but, never had the idea about sprucing them up to modern time. Thanks for sharing the photo's & look forward to more.
WELCOME ABOARD "Matt"
 
You are not alone!!!

Those are not the only modern NYC equipment out there. Here are a couple of pictures of units belonging to my son and I.

Mike Fleming
President, Memphis Society of Model Railroaders
Chairman, NMRA SER convention Memphis 2006, Railin' on the River
 
Thanks

Thanks for your kind words. I was in a little rush to post the photos last night and pulled the wrong photo off the hard drive for the first one. Our club is doing an exhibit at the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis right now and tomorrow I will try to get several action shots of the SD80Mac's pulling a coal train on the club layout. The F59 is in a display case there and I am not sure if I can get any better shots right now. On the F59 I use Microscale NYC cab unit stripes and due to the compound curve on the nose had to cut and paste from 4 sets to get the stripes right on the nose. I think it was worth the effort.

Mike Fleming
President, Memphis Society of Model Railroaders
Chairman, NMRA SER convention, Memphis 2006, Railin' on the River
 
Excellent work Mike.
Read your article in the SER "The Southerner" magazine and I look forward to the rest. The boss lady and I are already planning to attend the convention in June. It will be our first convention.
 



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