I arrived home today with a package greeting me on my front steps.  Oh boy!  It's a pair of Baby Boats!  I snagged these Intermountain U18Bs for an amazing price off of eBay and will be using them for local switching out of the main yard.  The original plan was to strip their paint and apply PPNL colors but, it may be appropriate to leave one (or both!) in their heritage colors and just weather the HECK out of them!  From my research, CSX scrapped most of their baby boats with a reserve few in dedicated MOW service.  These, too, were eventually sold off or scrapped and, currently, I don't see a single U18B on the CSX roster.  So, the backstory is that the PPNL purchased two of these units from a scrapper and, after restoring the units, they were returned to regular service once again.

Here are the two out-of-the-box units.

Here's another shot of the short hood details.  Unfortunately, the rear handrails of 1950 were damaged during shipping, but it should be an easy fix.

-Johnny

Designing the Plainville, Pequabuck & New London Railroad in HO

These units will typically make up train PV-1, a local out of the fictional Hannah Yard in Plainville, CT but may see service in the eastern district as power for train NW-1 in and around Norwich, CT.  I decided, after comparing prototype photos which show a few minor discrepancies, #340 will be stripped and painted in PPNL's "Blackbird" scheme and renumbered #1884.  The CSX unit may stay in its heritage until the company can spring for another paint job. Some additional details, such as ditch lights and a firecracker antenna, will be added before paint.  The last detail will be the company logo which is working its way through the Marketing Department!

I can't seem to figure out what trucks were used but photos lead me to believe Intermountain may have gotten it right, whatever "right" may be!