Intermodal Ops Preparation On The Railroad

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. 

An inquiry was made to our group by John R. of N.Y.C.T.L. fame. We've done many types of moves that are specific to the Penn Central Era, hence the label of Penn Central Car Movements, or as we like to say, P.C.C.M. It was posed to do an intermodal move starting from the west and heading to the east. The uniqueness to these moves will be the era's that we model will be mixed, from Pre-Penn Central time period to the present.

This is a great opportunity for the A.P.R.R. as this one segment is not in my P.C.C.M. time period. As many of you know, I model modern, and just about every industry or move I make on the blogs do not include Intermodal, until now. The only time I run the Intermodal train is during my turn to host an operating session (which is coming up November 25th). 

My intermodal terminal is a stub end terminal with four tracks. It's named the CSX Reynolds Intermodal Terminal, after a very well-known hobbyist and friend of the A.P.R.R. was one of the first people I met from a site called Trainlife. 

An operator can bring his train in from this location and operate the 2 left switches on the other side of the peninsula, thanks in part to some creative wiring. 

It's a 4 track terminal and can handle a variety of well cars or Trailer cars.

On the A.P.R.R., equipment is loaded and unloaded from the well cars with a Mi-Jack crane. 

Mi-Jack® Products, Inc. is recognized as an industry leader and innovator in Travelift® and Translift Rubber Tired Gantry crane manufacturing, sales, service and support. Mi-Jack® is also the industry leader in providing maintenance services, inspections, repairs and parts for the Railroad, Port and Industrial equipment end-users.

The Mi-Jack crane on the layout was built and lit up by Sami B. owner of East coast Circuits www.eastcoastcircuits.com

This is a dedicated train on the A.P.R.R. The move consists of the train coming from another destination (staging) to the Intermodal Terminal. It does not go thru the yard, instead it heads directly to the area and is switched to a secondary track where the train is held while the empties are taken out. Once the tracks are clear, the train will be shoved into the terminal. 

This is where the train starts from, the lower level north staging. 

For this Intermodal Op session, we'll be using CSX train symbols. 

Q – ‘Quality’ train, as they call ‘em.

Q001-050 Intermodal Expedited (usually UPS)

Q051-Q099 Expedited Unit

Q1_ _ - Intermodal

Q2_ _ - Automotive

Q3_ _ - Northern part of the system east-west manifest

Q4_ _ - Eastern part of the system north-south manifest

Q5_ _ - Western most part of the system north-south manifest

Q6_ _ - Any direction, any corridor

Q7_ _ - Unit specialty train i.e. juice, trash, stone, etc.

There are a number of Intermodal trains that come from the North and Midwest that head East. We will use one of those symbols on the launch. 

We're ready to go. We'll have a launch this weekend from 4 other railroads starting with the L.F. & N. W. Railroad, followed by the Ralston Creek Railroad. Then on to the K.P. & W. Railroad, A.P.R.R. with a finale at the N.Y.C.T.L.


Check back this weekend!