My TP&W Reference Library

Over the years I've accumulated a collection of print and digital TP&W reference materials that have educated me about the railroad and have been invaluable to my modeling. This blog post will be an annotated bibliography of sorts for the printed materials. I think I have most of the books and articles that have been published about the TP&W, and I thought it might be useful to list them all in one place.

Books About the TP&W

The Peoria Way by Joe McMillan and Robert P. Olmsted (1984) was, to my knowledge, the first book published about the TP&W. Text in this book is limited to the captions of many black-and-white photos, most of which are from the early 1980s. 

Toledo, Peoria & Western, Tried, Proven & Willing by Paul H. Stringham (1993) was the first book I got about the TP&W. This book is mostly text and covers the history of the railroad from the 1850s through the early 1990s. Appendices include things such as steam and diesel locomotive rosters, a caboose roster, a corporate chronology, and a 1931 timetable. This book has a wealth of information though there are some errors, most notably that the text says the 1970 Crescent City explosion happened instead at Weston.

Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad In Color by Roger Kujawa, J. David Ingles, and David P. Jordan (2007) contains an excellent collection of TP&W color photography. The first few pages of the book provide a nice history of the TP&W from the beginning through the early 2000s, and the rest of the book is photos annotated with informative captions. There is a section at the end devoted to photos of freight cars and cabooses that has been very helpful to my recent modeling efforts. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the TP&W.

Books That Feature the TP&W

There are multi-page sections of color TP&W photos in both of the Central Illinois Rails books by J. David Ingles and Richard R. Wallin. 

Trackside Around Peoria with Ed Johnson, 1963-1980 also contains a section about the TP&W. Most of the TP&W photos in this book, including the one on the cover, are from the 1960s.

Here's a good example of judging a book by its cover. This book probably shouldn't even be on this list, but the cover photo of #700 is striking and convinced my child self that this book was worth buying. I remember being disappointed that there is only one TP&W photo inside the book. 

I don't have a copy of Regional Railroads of the Midwest by Steve Glischinski (2007), but this book also has a section about the TP&W. I have seen this book before, however, and I think I remember the TP&W section being mostly about the post-Santa Fe version of the railroad.

Magazines with Articles About the TP&W (Prototype-focused)

Railfan & Railroad magazine ran a great 3-part series about the TP&W in 1983-1984. Part 1 in the July 1983 issue covers the history of the railroad and also includes an interview with TP&W president Robert McMillan.

Part 2 of the series in the September 1983 focuses on the history of the TP&W's locomotives. In my opinion, this is the best article about TP&W motive power and has details that I haven't seen printed anywhere else.

Part 3 of the Railfan & Railroad series in the January 1984 issue is a brief article about the Prairie Marksman, Amtrak's short-lived Peoria to Chicago train that ran on the TP&W from East Peoria to Chenoa.

The May-June 1974 issue of Extra 2200 South has an article about the TP&W diesel locomotive roster. This article pre-dates the TP&W's GP38-2s, which didn't start arriving until 1977.

The November/December 2005 issue of Diesel Era has another article about the TP&W's diesel locomotives. I don't remember where I found many of the magazines featured in this blog post, but I do remember buying this one at a hobby shop in Canada. Not much competition for TP&W stuff up there, eh.

Yet another article about the TP&W's locomotive roster was published in the September 1986 issue of Prototype Modeler, a relatively short-lived model railroading magazine.

The March 1967 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman has an article by Jim Boyd about the TP&W. Most magazine articles about the pre-Santa Fe TP&W were either published around the time of the merger or after the fact, so this article stands out for its perspective during a time when business was booming on the Tip-Up.

Classic Trains magazine has a regular "Fallen Flags" feature, and the TP&W made its appearance in the Winter 2011 issue. This one is recent enough that I actually bought it new. 

The 1990s-era TP&W is the cover story of the October 1998 issue of RailNews (formerly Pacific Rail News).  

The most obscure publication featured in this blog post is this one, Midwestern Rails. This apparently was a newsletter-style  publication that existed in the late 1970s - early 1980s. The two issues in my collection don't have articles about the TP&W, but the back cover pictured above shows a few TP&W features in other issues. I bought my issues of Midwestern Rails at a train show in Minnesota several years ago and remarked to the vendor that I had never seen this publication before. He said that I would probably never see it again, and so far he's been right.

I don't have a copy, but I am aware that the March 1997 issue of Trains magazine has an article about the 1990s-era TP&W.

The now-defunct Model Railroading magazine once ran a series of prototype information articles about EMD GP40s, and TP&W #1000 got a mention in the March 2002 issue. 

Magazines with TP&W Modeling Articles

Modeling articles about the TP&W are few and far between. To my knowledge, Kevin Piper's article about detailing and painting HO scale TP&W GP38-2s in the September 1989 issue of Model Railroader is the only step-by-step article about modeling a TP&W prototype.

The November 1986 issue of Mainline Modeler has a short article about the green and yellow paint scheme as applied to the road's ALCo RS-11s and includes a scale drawing of one of these locomotives. I have found references to a TP&W article in the February 2000 issue of Mainline Modeler, but I don't have that issue and don't know what the article is about. 

Model Railroading magazine ran a regular "Diesel Detail Close-up" feature that provided a bill of materials (detail parts, paint, decals, etc.) for a superdetailed model of the subject locomotive. TP&W locomotives were the subject of at least 3 articles in this series. Scans of these articles can be viewed online at Trainlife.com at the links below:

• TP&W SW1500, April 1991
• TP&W GP38-2, October 2005
• TP&W GP20, March 2006

Other References

Pictured above are copies of the 1971 and 1972 TP&W Annual Reports. My parents found these in their basement, apparently left behind by a previous owner of the house who was a TP&W shareholder.

Things I Wish I Had

I am a member of the reformed TP&W Historical Society, which publishes a semi-annual newsletter. I am aware that the original incarnation of the TP&W Historical Society also published a newsletter called the Prairie Marksman in the 1980s-1990s, but I have never seen an issue of this publication. Historical society publications are often great sources of information, so I would be very interested in any old issues of the Prairie Marksman.

Accurail Covered Hopper Upgrade

I'm giving my rolling stock fleet a once-over to ensure that all cars are in a state of good repair. First up is Chicago & Eastern Illinois ACF Centerflow #718574, which is also the first covered hopper I added to my fleet.

This is an older Accurail kit that has friction-fit coupler box covers and uses plastic friction pins to secure the trucks. I prefer screw-mounted couplers and trucks for ease of adjustment and maintenance, so I will retrofit this car with screws. I recently decided to require metal wheels on all cars on the layout, so the stock plastic wheels on this car need to be replaced. The Accumate coupler has been my standard since 1998; I'm not exactly sure why this car is equipped with Bachmann E-Z Mate couplers, but those will need to get replaced with Accumates as well. I suspect that this car was too old to come factory-equipped with Accumates, and I must have just used whatever I had handy when I assembled it.

First, I carefully removed the car floor. The trucks and couplers are both mounted directly to the floor, and the tops of the friction pins are visible from the top of the floor.

I have read in magazines and online forums that other modelers have had issues with the truck pins falling out. My experience has been exactly the opposite; not only have I never had one fall out, but they are very difficult to remove once installed. The best tool I have found for getting them out is a small nail set.

This nail set is just the right size to push the friction pins out from the top side of the floor.

I removed the truck pins first. This was a two-hand job so I couldn't photograph it, but I held the car by the truck bolster in my left hand and then used my right hand to push firmly on the pin with the nail set. Once the truck pins were out, then I repeated the process for the coupler box covers, this time holding the car in my left hand as close to the coupler box as possible.

They're out.

Next, I cut off the pin on the coupler box cover, marked the center of the former pin location, and drilled a #43 hole through the lid. Then I installed an Accumate coupler in the box and mounted the modified lid with a screw. The screws are 3/16" 2-56 Phillips screws purchased in a pack of 100 from Accurail; they are the same screws that are used in newer Accurail kits.

I replaced the stock plastic 33" wheels with Walthers metal 36" wheels, and then mounted the trucks with the same screws. Having screw-mounted trucks allows me to give the car a "three-point suspension" - tighten one truck so that it can only swivel and leave the other a bit looser so it can swivel and also rock slightly.

After reassembling the car, I checked the coupler height. With the stock 33" wheels, the coupler height was a bit low compared to the Kadee height gauge. With the replacement 36" wheels, now the coupler height is just right.

Before: Low coupler with 33" wheels

After: Spot-on coupler height with 36" wheels

With these simple modifications complete, C&EI 718574 is ready for service. I have several other Accurail ACF covered hoppers that will get these modifications too.

TP&W 902

The Prototype
The TP&W owned 3 EMD GP35s, numbered 900-902 and built in November 1965. These were the last TP&W locomotives delivered in the olive green and yellow paint scheme, and they lacked the diamond-shaped red and yellow TP&W herald that was applied to previous locomotives. ALCo RS-2s 200, 201, and 203 were traded in to EMD and their trucks were reused on the GP35s. All 3 of these locomotives remained in their original paint throughout the 1970s. The 902 appears to have been the first GP35 repainted in red-orange and white circa 1980. The 902 became Santa Fe 3464 in 1984 and was later renumbered to 2963 after being rebuilt with dynamic brakes and EMD trucks. The 2963 became BNSF 2645 and has been rebuilt again as a GP39-3. 

Links to prototype photos:
TP&W 902 in 1977
TP&W 902 in 1980
ATSF 3464 in 1984
BNSF 2645 in 2013
BNSF 2645 in 2014

The Model
I acquired my green Athearn Ready-to-Roll TP&W 902 in 2005. I painted the trucks silver to better match the prototype. The prototype's yellow stripes and lettering rapidly faded to a cream color similar to that used on the model. The font used on the model for the cab numbers and "Toledo Peoria & Western" lettering has never looked quite right to me, but it's at least close. My model 902 got a lot of mileage on the old Illini Railroad Club layout while I was college but has been mostly in storage since 2008.

My 902 needed a bit of a tune-up before I could put it in service on the new layout. All of the axle gears had cracked and needed to be replaced.

Cracked axle gear.

I replaced all 4 axle gears with new Athearn parts. I've made this repair before on other locomotives, but this was the first time I used a C-clamp to help press the axles onto the gears. The new gears are a TIGHT fit on the axles, and my fingers thanked me for using the C-clamp. Once both axle ends were pressed onto the gear, I used a pair of small needle nose pliers to grasp one end of the gear so I could use my fingers to adjust the positions of the wheels as necessary until the gear was centered and the wheels matched the NMRA gauge.

When I removed the locomotive shell, I found something I had completely forgotten about. The wire from the front truck broke off at some point. Lacking a soldering iron and soldering skills in those days, I simply stripped more insulation from the wire, drilled a new hole near the old solder joint, threaded the wire through it, and wrapped the wire around the metal tab on the truck frame. Not pretty, but it seemed to work ok.

No-soldering truck repair

Now seemed like a good time to do a better job and re-solder the wire.

Repairs complete, the model 902 is ready for duty on the new layout.

TP&W 801 Modifications: Part I

As noted in my previous post about TP&W 801, I decided to modify the fuel tank on the Atlas model to better match the prototype. The TP&W tended to purchase its locomotives with the smallest available fuel tank, and the 801 was no exception. The smallest available fuel tank on the ALCo
C-424 had flat sides. Larger-capacity C-424 fuel tanks had bulging sides of multiple lengths. The fuel tank on the stock Atlas C-424 model has long bulging sides, as shown below.

The bulging sides on the Atlas fuel tank are separate parts that snap into the main fuel tank casting. It is simple to remove them from the main fuel tank piece, but this also removes the air reservoirs, which are cast together with the bulges. Prior to removing the entire fuel tank from the frame (this is easiest to do with the shell removed so you can access the fuel tank tabs from the top), I used thin strips of masking tape to mark the locations of the ends of the air reservoirs.

Removing the bulges leaves two rectangular holes in each side of the fuel tank.

I filled these holes with bits of 0.030" styrene cut to fit and cemented in place.

Once the glue had dried, I filled gaps with putty, sanded them smooth, and painted the fuel tank flat black.

I used a razor saw and miter box to separate the air reservoirs from the bulges. With the casting upside down in the miter box, I made the saw cut just on the bulge side of the joint between the air reservoir and bulge.

A sliver of the bulge remained on each air reservoir after the saw cut. I carved and scraped this away with a hobby knife.

I put the fuel tank back on the frame first, then glued the air reservoirs directly to the metal frame using the masking tape as a guide. Once the air reservoirs were glued in place, I removed the tape.

Modifications complete to the fuel tank and air reservoirs.

The 801 is back in service.

TP&W 801

The Prototype
ALCo C-424 #801 is my favorite TP&W locomotive. The prototype and its twin #800 were built in September 1964 and originally painted olive green with yellow stripes and numbers. The 801 was repainted red-orange and white circa 1972. The first version of the red-orange and white scheme featured small italic numerals on the cab sides and no lettering on the nose. In 1980 the TP&W began replacing the italic numerals on the cab with much larger numerals in a similar font to that used by Conrail and also adding red "TP&W" initials on the nose in the italic font. Circa 1982, the TP&W initials on the 801's nose were redone in the Santa Fe's font (Cooper Black).

Here are some links to good photos of the 801 that show the iterations of its TP&W paint and lettering.
1964
1976
1981
1982

The 800 and 801 were sold to the Morristown & Erie in December 1983 and became M&E 18 and 19, respectively. While attending graduate school in New Jersey, I made a trip up to Morristown and was lucky to find both the 18 and 19 parked outside the shop.

M&E 18 and 19, Morristown, NJ, August 2, 2009

M&E 19 was retired in 2016 and sold to the Tri-State Railway Historical Society in 2017. The summer 2017 issue of Tri-State's newsletter has a nice history of the 801/19.

The Model
Atlas first released HO scale models of TP&W 800 and 801 in their original green and yellow paint in 2003. I received the 801 as a Christmas present that year. Ten years later in 2013, Atlas released the 800 and 801 in red-orange and white. At the time I was planning to build an Illinois Terminal layout and did not purchase one. I was kicking myself about this in 2018 after reverting back to my original intent to build a 1970s TP&W layout, but luckily I found a used red 801 in good condition on eBay last year for a reasonable price.

The Atlas model straight out of the box. The end handrails are left for the modeler to install.

With its Conrail-style cab numerals and Cooper Black initials on the nose, the Atlas model represents the 801 in 1982-1983. So not technically correct for the 1970s but definitely close enough for me at this time. I've been studying photographs of the 801 for many years and have noticed several detail discrepancies between the prototype and the Atlas model. Some of them are relatively minor but would need major surgery to fix, and I'm comfortable just living with those. There are 4 things that stand out to me that I could see myself changing about this model, listed below in the order that I would likely tackle them:

1. Remove the bulging sides of the fuel tank
2. Remount the handrails on top of the side sills
3. Remove the dynamic brakes
4. Remove the nose lettering and redo the cab numerals in the italic font.

The fuel tank is a simple, low-impact modification that I decided to just go ahead and do now. (Look for a blog post about this soon.) The handrails would require plugging a lot of holes and drilling new ones, but shouldn't be too difficult, especially if I can make a drilling jig. I would need to find a good matching red-orange paint before attempting items 3 and 4 in the list. This is a very attractive model as-is, and for now I'm fine with just modifying the fuel tank and calling it good. It may be a while before I work up the nerve to make more intensive modifications and risk damaging the model.

The Sky is Blue

The walls (and ceiling) behind the layout are now blue. Yes, it would have been easier to do this prior to building the layout, but at this stage it still wasn't a big deal to slide it out of the way. The color is Benjamin Moore Caribbean Mist. For now I decided not to paint the wall with the doorway that is perpendicular to the layout, but I might change my mind about that later. I also need to make some kind of cover for the thermostat. A freight car box with one end cut off fits nicely over it, but I think something more rounded would look better.

I took some of the buildings from my old layout out of storage and put them on the new layout. The row of storefronts will be continuous, so I will need a few more to fill the gap.

Layout Update - January 2020

So it's been quite a while (exactly 4 months, in fact) since I last posted anything on this blog. Luckily the reason why is good news - I've just been busy with layout construction and life in general. My informal goal had been to get the first phase of the layout up and running by the end of 2019. I made it - just barely - and ran the first train on December 31.

A consist of home road equipment makes the first lap.

I spent the last few months of 2019 laying track and wiring the layout. I did all of this prior to attaching the legs to the tabletop. Being able to rotate the layout on the floor and tip it up on one side to access the underside made the tracklaying and especially the wiring and switch machine installation much easier. The layout is currently wired for DC control using an MRC Tech 4 power pack reused from my old layout. The added complexity and expense of DCC does not seem worth it to me for a small layout like this where only 1 train with 1 locomotive will be running at a time. I'm intrigued by some of recent developments in wireless locomotive control (e.g., LocoFi, RailPro, etc.), and down the road I might switch to one of those systems. The layout is wired as a single block (with many feeders) but I equipped two of the spurs with on/off switches to be able to park locomotives on them.

I connected groups of feeder wires together under the layout with Wago 221 lever nuts as shown below. I learned about these from reading Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine, and I highly recommend them for ease of use.

The first phase of the layout has 5 turnouts. Three of them - the ones around the outer loop - are controlled with Caboose Industries 204S switch stands. I like how these look but they seem a bit delicate. We'll have to see how they hold up over time. I put temporary paper targets on the switch stands for now but will replace those at some point with painted plastic or brass targets. I reversed the throw bars on two of these turnouts so that the switch stands wouldn't be right on the edge of the layout and therefore more vulnerable to damage.

The other two turnouts - the one in the middle of the layout and the wye that leads to the future interchange track - are controlled by Tortoise switch motors. The turnout in the middle is an awkward reach to access from either side, so a powered switch machine made a lot of sense here. The wye, on the other hand, is on the edge of the layout and easily accessible, but the interchange track will be a reversing section and I wanted to automate it with switch machine contacts. The wye is actually too close to the edge of the layout for a normal Tortoise mounting. I pondered this one for quite a while and even started building a custom linkage until a very simple and obvious solution finally occurred to me: reverse the turnout throwbar and run the Tortoise wire through the hole at the end of the throwbar instead of the hole centered between the rails. This allowed me to offset the Tortoise to the side so that the 1x4 frame would no longer be in the way.

Top view of offset Tortoise mount.

The image below shows the underside of the middle section of the layout where all the wiring comes together. The blue box is the power pack from my first train set - it works great to power the Tortoises. One advantage of using a power pack for this application is that I can use the throttle knob to adjust the speed of the Tortoises. The feeder wires on each section of the layout are connected to a single pair of bus wires, and the bus wires from each of the 3 sections (the thick 14-gauge wires in the image) are connected to the terminal block. The bus wires from the future expansion will connect to the unused pair of terminals. The white Romex leads to the Tech 4 power pack (out of view to the right).

Now that I have a functional layout, I'm planning to get started on structures and scenery but also spend some time on my rolling stock fleet. I hope to be able to post more now that most of the heavy lifting of layout construction is complete.