NMRA/NER Open House Layout Tour - It's A Wrap!

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad.

The big day has come and gone and we had a great turnout. 18 members from the NMRA/NER 2018 Convention made their way to the APRR. it was a good turnout, especially since it was my first open house, and there was another open house 4 blocks away! 

We were open from 1-4PM, and I was assisted by my friends John, Norman and Sami from East Coast Circuits. Sami came down to add more animation to the railroad, which came out great! 

We added some crossing signals with gates. While the gates were not working, they will by next January. They cover two tracks and (actually 3, but on is the Rock Ridge Yard lead), and work bi-directional.

Next addition were a pair of PRR signals that will work automatically with sensors and circuits. Right now they are hooked up to work single track, and eventually will have a set of opposite signals on each track. 

Below is a video of the crossing signal as well as the Pennsy Signal. We're still working on tweaking the PRR signal, and should be ready to go within 60 days. 

But wait! The layout got invaded by the Black Horse a.k.a. Norfolk Southern! Sami, who is the creative genius for the lighted vehicles and circuits from East Coast Circuits, brought them down to run on my railroad. Since he doesn't have a layout at present, and was installing all of the lighted effects and more, how could I say no to him! Seriously, these engines are beautiful, and sound great! 

The last item Sami installed was a pair of Walthers Mi-Jack Cranes fully lighted with strobes and spot lights!

While I normally don't run Norfolk Southern I felt it was necessary to give them some space on the blog....

Norfolk Southern SD60E  locomotives in consist..

Scaletrains.com SD40-2 engines 

He brought one more engine, the UP 1943 SD70ACe. Very nice!

Everyone who came enjoyed my layout tour, seeing the trains run, and impressed how flawlessly the railroad ran. The guys ran the trains, I gave the tour about the railroad, and received kudos from everyone who visited. Most people were modelers of steam or transition, some modern modelers, but most important, all of them loved what they saw. One of the guys was an NMRA Master Model Railroader, and he was very impressed. That to me, was high praise!

The last visitor was one of the committee members from the region, and has asked me if I would open the next time they were having a meeting or convention, as even he, thought the railroad was fun to operate! 

Special thanks goes out to my friends John, Norman and Sami for helping me make this layout tour a success!

More Detail Work on the Layout

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

We're getting close to the September 15th NMRA/NER Open House Layout Tour, and I'm starting to add some small details to the railroad.

I've added some lighted Fire Trucks to the Menards Fire Station. The Fire Truck they included did not light up and was more of a European prototype. 

There are two passenger stations on the upper level of the layout. One is located on a curve of the main peninsula. It's called Baskerville Jct. in honor of my Father-In-Law, who was a huge fan and follower of Sherlock Holmes. It's been on my previous layout, and it has a home here. I added some figures and some lamp posts (non-operating), as well as some people. This has been featured in previous blogs. 

The other passenger station, and a larger focal point is the Amtrak Station that sits above the tracks. On the previous layout, it was part of a stub terminal with 8 platform tracks below and additional tracks for baggage, RPO, and storage. A couple years ago I ordered highway lights, and parking lot lights to add to the railroad. This past weekend, I added them (non-operating for now). 

Something was still missing on the station. Can't have a passenger station without passengers, right? We went into our collection of figures, and added some to the station.

This should be enough for now. I'll probably find more somewhere in my stash of goodies. 

Check back often for more updates. Thanks for reading! 

New Freight Cars for the A.P.R.R.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

My fleet of APRR freight cars continues to grow, thanks to the help of Sir John, the Patti-o Paint shop of the N.Y.C.T.L. and his 'Picasso-like' work on painting trains. You can see how these new cars came to fruition as it started here N.Y.C.T.L. Patti-O Paint Shop 

So how did these cars, and all of the other AP freight cars come to be? 1:1 Sir John has always painted some of his Penn Central freight cars and engines. (9/4/18 Disclaimer: 1:1 Sir John and the Patti-O Paint Shop did not paint AP #50 Caboose. This was painted by someone else, as I thought it was done by his shop. Sorry to mislead anyone and my apology to 1:1 Sir John. Now to try to figure out painted it for me.) One day he sent me a package with a caboose that he painted in my paint scheme. He also painted an engine in AP colors that is on his layout. This is the first caboose in the fleet. 

As our virtual operations started to grow, there was a company named Scaletrains.com that released a number of Evans RBL 5100 DD Box cars in undecorated kit form. This was perfect! I reached out to 1:1 Sir John, and we worked out an agreement on the first batch of these cars. Here's one of the first cars that was completed in the Patti-O Paint shops. 

Next up, were more freight cars, this time another Evans 50" DD Box Car. 

We did need some more freight cars, and different types. I was at a train show, found some 86' box cars, some cylindrical covered hoppers, coal hoppers, and PS-2 covered hoppers. Some were done in AP. Around the time I sent 1:1 Sir John the second batch, his local shortline railroad, Empire Belt, came to make its debut! Here's one of many freight cars that have been created at the Patti-O Paint Shop:

We have box cars, auto parts box cars, covered hoppers, a caboose, coal cars, and more. We were still missing another type of freight car. I looked into my never ending supply of freight cars, taking into consideration that it's easier for the shop to repaint kits than ready-built freight cars. Then it hit me. I had a 12 pack of 57' Athearn Mechanical Reefers that were doing nothing but sitting in the storage carts. These could be painted in AP and EB road names. However, the white, PC green, orange as well as boxcar red were already out there. Looking online, I found some reefers painted in BN/WFE a dark green. Not like a hunter green, but a bolder green. Athearn had done one in a 57' reefer. It was different, and stood out. So the call was made (okay, email was sent) with the idea and set the wheels in motion. 

As a result of the collaboration, as you may have seen on the link above (You did click on the link, didn't you?), I'm pleased to share the new arrival of both AP and EB 57' mechanical reefers on the railroad.

In addition, the Patti-O Paint Shop also painted a GP40 in Penn Central with the 'Orange C' #3180 to match the one 1:1 Sir John has as well. This enhances our virtual operations between the EBRR and the APRR. 

These freight cars will be the used to ship perishables to and from C&P Restaurant Supply to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse and Terminal Cold Storage & Warehouse on the N.Y.C.T.L.

A quick peek of the lineup of the new rolling stock on the A.P.R.R.

Keep checking back for more updates and new Penn Central Car Movements!

My Tribute to 1:1 Engineer Ed

August 31st was not a good day for our little group of friends as one of our own, 1:1 Senior Engineer Ed, has succumb to his illness and has moved on, as I would like to call it, that big train yard in the sky. 

I met Ed thru a mutual friend, whom is a train blogger as well, whom we know as 1:1 Sir John and owner of the N.Y.C.T.L.. For a number of years it was all online thru our blogs. Then in 2016, I had the pleasure of meeting Ed thru his friend who lives in NJ, 1:1 Sir Larry of Flemington, as we have named him. Larry brought him up to visit with me and see what my layout like up close and personal. While Ed seemed to be a little overwhelmed when he first arrived, as are many, I made both Ed and Larry feel right at home, gave them the royal tour, and proceeded to put on a little demo for them. We had a nice time and I was very happy to meet Ed and Larry. 

In 2017, Ed was visiting Larry, and I asked them to come over as I had arranged for them to meet my friend Steve. Steve is what I like to call our fearless leader of our monthly gatherings. To backtrack a little bit, prior to the starting of my blog, I had (and still do) send out weekend updates to my train friends about my layout and the gatherings. I sent some of the banter to Ed, and he replied to Steve. Well, that started another friendship for Ed, and I must say, that Ed kept up with the wit and lunacy to the point that while Ed lived in Georgia, Steve felt that he would fit right in with our crazy crew and added him to our mailing list of gatherers! 

Here's what transpired on that Sunny day on August 23rd, 2017.

After their arrival at my house and some small talk, I gave Ed a throttle, powered it and him up, and proceeded to let Ed run my coal train. I know he had coal cars on his railroad, enjoyed them as well, and ran them on John's layout. 

Larry was supervising, keeping a watchful eye on Ed...

At the end of the session, Ed had completed his run and headed back to the yard with the train 

Next stop was lunch at the diner, where we met Steve and his longtime friend, Jay. Some friendly and lively conversation lasted more than hour, before we headed to Steve's for an inspirational tour of Steve's layout. Anyone who has been given a tour of Steve's layout, and listened to Steve describe the railroad, will always leave with a smile on their face as well as some head shaking due to the stories that Steve tells about the railroad and industries on it. 

You couldn't have planned a better day out, and friendships like this are hard to come by. 

I do give thanks to John and Larry for introducing me to this wonderful man. I will truly miss Ed, his wit, and most important, his friendship. 

Rest in peace Ed.