By 1939, the New York Central had ordered enough lightweight cars to add lightweight sleepers to most of the
Great Steel Fleet, however the
Century and the
Mercuries remained the only fully streamlined trains on the roster, with only the
Southwestern Limited coming close by carrying a streamlined observation car and a good amount of streamlined equipment between New York and St. Louis in its consist. With the new equipment arriving in a revised paint scheme, the NYC delayed repainting the cars delivered in 1938 for another year. However, as much as possible, the NYC kept like-painted cars together until equipment could be shopped for repainting.
In this late 1939 scene, we see the
Century exiting SF interlocking and passing the throat for yard "A" outside of Sterling Falls. In the background, a PRR freight gets underway as the Century clears the diamonds.
An 0-8-0 shuffles a block of cars in the background as the tower operator lines the
Century onto track two towards Lakewood.
As the
Century ducks under a signal bridge and clears the yard limits, we get a good view of just how busy the
Water Level Route can get as the train meets two westbounds. The freight train on track four is lined into the yard, where it will pick up cars before continuing on to Youngstown. The passenger train on track three will wait for the PRR train to clear the diamonds before making a station stop in Sterling Falls.
Further down the line in Lakewood, we catch the
Century again as it approaches LK tower and the NKP diamonds. Note the MoW cars stored on the abandoned industrial lead in the background.
Crossing the NKP line through Lakewood, a mikado waits for the block to clear as the
Century blasts through town.