Extra 3175 Arrives at Rock Ridge Yard

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

This special post will be more about the train and how the cars and engine came to call the A.P.R.R. home.


The train originated on N.Y.C.T.L. under the watchful eye of Sir John R. We see Extra 3175 leaving Terminal Yard, home of Empire City

Extra 3175 making its way to Rock Ridge traversing thru Empire City...

It left the yard with great fanfare, and headed to Rock Ridge via the K.P.D. Railroad overseen by our PC guru Ralph. It seems that someone at Dave's Diner let it out to some 'train foamers' having breakfast that an 'Extra' was heading thru West Mill on its way to the A.P.R.R. Needless to say, these guys had to chase it.

Disregarding the rules of the road, they went on a hunt!

While we hope they caught it, and we hope they didn't get caught chasing it! We will never know. We did hear they made it to lunch at Mussachia's Ristorante.

Heading south, Extra 3175 rounds the rails past Baskerville Jct on its way to Rock Ridge.

Making a stop at Weehawken, an inspection and crew change was made. Also, 1/87th Senior Engineer Ed and 1/87 Sir Larry did a car inspection for the A.P.R.R. records. 

A little background information supplied to me by 1:1 Sir John R. of the N.Y.C.T.L. As we all know, Sir John and his artistic creativity, as well as his paint work, are legendary on the A.P.R.R. 

Here's some information that 1:1 Sir John had enclosed with the paint job he did on PC 3175:

Penn Central GP40's 3170-3186 bought NEW by PC and delivered in October 1968. Delivered by EMD with the rare 'Orange C'. To this date the reason behind the orange 'C' remains a mystery. #3175 was part of a 54 engine order by the PC 3170-3223. #3175 was assigned to Collinwood for maintenance. 

The Patti-O paint shop also took to task a number of 3 Bay and 6 Bay Cylindrical hoppers. Some of these were painted in PC, APRR and EB. These will all be used by us in both our P.C.C.M. virtual operating sessions as well as our own personal train operations. A little background on the cylindrical covered hoppers (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Introduced in 1961 by ACF® to haul sand, clay, salt, grain and bulk plastics, the Cylindrical Hopper was the first commercially successful tank-type covered hopper car design. A few of the more than 4,000 cars of this type built through 1966 can still be seen in service today across the United States.

Past the inspections process the train head out and makes a beeline for Rock Ridge where the freight cars will reside in the yard until needed for revenue service. 

Many thanks go out to 1:1 Sir John for making these freight cars and engine come to life as well as thanks to 1:1 PC Ralph who not only help stage the train passing thru West Mill, but made it very enjoyable to look at on his railroad!

A.P.R.R. Engine Terminal Update

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. We've been working on various projects on the layout, especially with the open house just around the corner.

One of the projects is on the lower level, on the smaller peninsula. This is where the A.P.R.R. has the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal. The name for this area goes back to growing up on Long Island and the L.I..R.R. When I worked in Richmond Hill in the 70's, I used to go visit the Morris Park Engine facility. There was a great viewing area on the south side of the terminal. The roundhouse and engines were in clear view, and I always thought about having an engine terminal on my railroad. Here is an image of the area. This is the view I always had....

I was using some parts from an old Walthers Engine Shop, a few years old. This kit has the 'grooves in it for the rail. Three tracks in the building. I will add a track on each side of the building. One track will be on the east side which will hold PS-2 covered hoppers which will have sand loaded from the N.Y.C.T.L. during our virtual operating sessions. Here's some of the progress....

I have a Preiser set of welder's on order and they should arrive next week. Still need to add more details. Suggestions are welcome...

This is the footprint of where it will be located on the lower level. The base is one from another kit, which will be going south later this year. The rail that I will use for the terminal is code 83, which will line up with the turntable. For the two tracks on each side, those will be code 100 and I use a Walthers Code 83 to 100 conversion piece off the turntable. 

I was told by my friend NJ John to have track come out the back of the engine terminal for 'damaged or triage' engines that don't run. I will add 9" of track like you see below which will be an extension of the Code 83 Flex track that I will use. I'll cut all of the ties out of the track that will sit inside the building. Plenty of track in the front for another engine on each track. Capacity will be 9 engines, probably put the ones I rarely use out the back. I do know once this facility is finished it may change the way I operate some gatherings. More than likely a 'special' gathering will happen with my NJ friends John and Norman. I know John is looking forward to seeing it up and running. The wiring for this will be fairly easy, and the tracks will either be on toggle switches or a rotary switch as there's a lot of motive power that can be stored down there. Last count is close to 30 locos, which is a rough guess.  

More to follow, soon I hope!