Florida Layout Upper Level Update

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

We've been trying to get as much of the upper level in place before we head back north. It's been a little bit of a challenge as drawing things on paper isn't quite like the way you want it to look. Also, when you 'place' track on the wood to get a feel, the looks are deceiving. Most important, it needs to function. 

The main line track from the helix to the other side wasn't an issue. Getting switch machines underneath against the wall; well that's another story for another time. 

Here's the original upper level plan:

One of the biggest changes was made in the center where the yard is located. The plan was to have 3 yard tracks as there's one track closest to the wall which is more of a thru track to the industries on the west wall and as a crossover to/from the main and helix. The track closest to the front of the layout would have held two freight cars; maybe 3 if some small freight cars were in there. We scraped that and added two tracks from a switch on the east side to use for another industry or storage when pulling freight cars from the east side of the layout.

This shows the view looking to the east side of the yard..

Here's the view looking to west...

The next change was the area where we flipped the grain facility with the lumber yard. 

There will be two tracks for the lumber yard. The third track, which extends further to the left of the gray area, will be for an industry that will tie in to the lumber yard, so to speak. I'm thinking of adding a small building that will house maybe steel piping or something along that type of structure. 

 The next change was the way the track laid out for the industries. If I kept the original plan, the structures would be blocking the track and the engineer could not see where to spot the cars. Adding a slight curve (yes it's a small 'S' curve) moves the track closer to the front and now gives me to opportunity to put the buildings behind the track giving the engineer visibility to spot the cars. The single track on the left in the photo below was recently added and will be another structure. This may be a scrap yard or construction yard with Caterpillar equipment to support it. 

Here's another view looking east. The track to the right of the blue box car will hold one small building. The two tracks past it will be a small warehouse with inside loading.  The track where the freight car sits will have two large or three small buildings. One will be a refrigeration storage, the other a food. Not sure if I can get the third building in there. 

This looks much better, and gives me many switching opportunities. While the majority of the time I will run solo, I've already formulated the operating scenario for 2-3 people. Trains for the upper level will head to the yard, drop off the cars, pick up any that have to go elsewhere (back to the staging yard) and the operator for the upper level will switch it all out.

Two areas on the upper level didn't change. The grain building in the corner of the west wall will remain as well as the aggregate structure in the east wall corner. 

I'm hoping to get some drops added before I leave to give it a test run. If I do, I'll add some freight cars to the areas so you can have an indication of the types of cars going to each industry. 

How Do You Classify Your Private Railroad?

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

I was working on the Florida layout a few days ago and was thinking how do we rank the 'Class' of our private railroads that we operate during our virtual op sessions. In real life, back in the day, the Penn Central was listed as a Class 1 Railroad.

The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Class I railroad headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1968 until 1976. It was created by the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads.

The internet shows 7 Class 1 Railroads in today's world. 

Class II and Class III designations are now rarely used outside the rail transport industry. The Association of American Railroads typically divides non–Class I companies into three categories:

Regional railroads: operate at least 350 miles (560 km) or make at least $40 million per year.

Local railroads: non-regional but engage in line-haul service.

Switching and terminal railroads: mainly switch cars between other railroads or provide service from other lines to a common terminal.

Now back to our railroads. I would say my fictional railroad can be classified as a Class III Railroad by the listing on the net. Class III railroads are typically local short-line railroads serving a small number of towns and industries or hauling cars for one or more railroads; many Class III railroads were once branch lines of larger railroads or abandoned portions of main lines.

In our Virtual Ops world, we would like to think our railroads are indeed a Class I Railroad. 

Comments are welcome!

Weekend Update On The Florida Layout

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

We're back in Florida for a while. Weather is much better down here than in NJ (sorry my northern followers). 

I brought down more freight cars for the layout along with a few other things that I needed like some push button switches, toggle switches, and some tools for some detail work. Spent most of last week wiring the lower level and the helix. A little each day so I can do other things down here with the CFO.

Wiring the helix took a little time as I needed to add circuit breakers to each track and isolate it from the rest of the layout. I thought I had a few of them down here, but needed more. Found them on Evilbay and they arrived last Friday. Here you see them installed inside the helix area.

The terminal strip is fed from another terminal strip that runs from the main track bus under the layout. Once at the first terminal strip it splits to each circuit breaker. Each circuit breaker then goes into the terminal strip you see above. 

The wires on this terminal strip are fed from other terminal strips that cover the helix tracks. The image below has two terminal strips. The one on the left overs the two tracks on the top by the upper level and the tracks going into the helix. The one on the right covers all of the drops from the tracks on that side of the helix. The wires are run down below and I put square tubing around them, just for aesthetics. 

This terminal strip covers the drops on the opposite side of the helix. These pics are also used for references and the drops below are labeled underneath as well. 

This was completed earlier in the week. The next step was to take out the NCE Power Cab system and replace it with the NCE Powerhouse Pro system. This was taking place last Wednesday. I was ready to launch and then it hit me! I didn't have the power supply that is used to power the system. It's always sold separately. I've had it down here since December and forgot that I needed it, and I didn't have a backup one at home, so Evilbay again to the rescue! It arrived today, and we wired it up tonight.

The wiring was completed, added the radio component and was off to test it. Turned it on and we're in business!! The ProCab is wireless and we ran the switcher thru its paces up to the top of the helix. I needed to clean some track and once I did that, tweaked some of the rail joints and we're good to go!

Now that the system is in place, it's time to continue with the upper level track plan. I do know some of the locations for some of the industries will change. Updates as they happen! 

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. 59: Freight for the N.Y.C.T.L. & K.P. & W.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad, my blog and the Penn Central Car Movements!

I've been given the dubious honor of kicking off P.C.C.M 59. This is a five railroad train movement. The A.P.R.R. has some freight cars that will be heading out to John R. and his N.Y.C.T.L. and Ralph's K.P. & W.

The A.P.R.R. has been very busy as of late with freight coming in and out on a regular basis. In addition, the industries the railroad serves have been moving cars from customers quickly. This of course, generates revenue for the railroad. A call from Terminal yard was received asking for the freight cars that were sent to be loaded for some customers. The good news is that the freight is ready to go and was already on its way to Rock Ridge Yard when the call came in.

Today's manifest includes the following freight:

PC Box cars 229059, 229178 & 229300 - Tropicana to Ralph's Grocery. Location: Empire City
PC Box car 360063 - Freihoefer Bakeries to Battaglia Warehouse. Location: Kings Port
TPFX Box car 5510 - C&P Restaurant Supply to Empire Produce. Location: Empire City
PC Gondola cars 576104 and 576123 - Shapeless Steel to Mid Island Steel: Location - Long Island, NY

A.P.R.R. MP15 #105 will pull the cars from the yard and build the train. Yard work is always happening here. Since he's not leaving the yard, the designation will be RR-105

Here we see AP #105 pulling the freight cars from the west side track #11 in Rock Ridge Yard

Next,  A.P.R.R. SW1500 #100 will do a quick pull for RR-105 on the 2 gondola cars. These were empties sitting on the east side yard tracks. 

Now that the train is built, the yardmaster has summoned the crew to get ready. PC caboose 5023 is on the caboose track and AP #105 will pull it and add it to the end of the train.

Penn Central GP35 #2294 is at the ready. Yardmaster 1/87th John B. is having a conversation with the engineer for this train, 1/87th PC Ralph. 1/87th PC Ralph is no stranger to this engine. Final orders are made, as 1/87th PC Ralph will head out as RW-1 Rock Ridge to Weehawken with it's final destination in Selkirk, NY. Once in Weehawken, a crew change will be made and then head north as train WV-2 Weehawken to Selkirk, heading up the river line. 

Train RW-1 heading out to Weehawken and points beyond..

That's all for my part of the series. Check out the rest of this series as this is a 5 railroad train movement!

John R. and his N.Y.C.T.L.

Ralph and his K.P. & W.

Brian and his R.C.R.R.

John B. and his L.F. & N.W.

Thanks for reading! 

New arrivals on the A.P.R.R.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

A few weeks ago (okay maybe more than a few weeks), I received a package in the mail from the headquarters of the Kings Port & Western. The virtual op sessions we have come to enjoy and participate makes the exchange of freight cars more realistic as they travel from layout to layout.

The first set of cars were a pair of 2 Bay hopper cars. The KP&W paint shop did a great jog on these.

These will be put into service with the next P.C.C.M. when coal loads are requested. 

Next car was a 40' Box car in the classic KP&W paint scheme. The NY State logo with the railroad name on it is awesome. 

The cars needed to be moved to the freight yard so a call was made to get a switcher to move the cars over to Rock Ridge. When I went looking for some freight cars in my inventory, I forgot (more like misplaced) this caboose.

The transfer caboose was made by Bluford shops. I probably have it a couple years now as I bought it in a train store in Florida. Brought it up here before I started to build the Florida layout. It's staying in New Jersey, that's for sure!

Here's the short move from the secondary track by Cargill to Rock Ridge Yard.

A big "Thank You!" goes out to Ralph for his great work and generosity! Watch for these cars in future virtual op sessions!

Update On The Florida Layout

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

A quick update on the progress of the Florida layout. 

The lower level is 98% completed. I say 98% due to the fact there are 2 tracks that are not finalized. They are both on the center section of the layout in each corner. The left corner is the track for the lumber yard and the right corner is for the cement plant. 

Walthers Walton & Sons Lumber Yard

Blue Star Ready Mix

I'll soon decide if I will put one track or two tracks for each industry, then add them to the layout. 

Wiring - Right now the wiring is all in place. 15 drops on the middle section including 3 for the east wall passenger tracks. One thing I've done on the NJ layout and it will follow suit on this layout is do document my wiring. With many wires under the layout, it's easy to keep a book on what goes where. In addition, under the layout, I've numbered the drops that correlate to the book with a description. This way I can trouble shoot something if I forget.

I've numbered the diagram of the lower level. There are 2 'districts' on the lower level. One covers the entire freight yard on the right and will include the turntable area. The main section from the yard all the way over to the helix is the next district. The helix will be a separate district and the upper level will be the 4th district. 

Right now I've successfully tested the lower level with my NCE Power Cab System. This test was performed with my Athearn SW1500 and the Athearn 'Port St. Joe Route' box car donated to the Florida layout by Sir John of GA, and I thank you! The main reason I'm told is that my layout should have a box car in NY Mets colors. Even though I'm a NY Yankees fan, it's a NY team, so why not! 

When I return in a week or so, I will swap out the NCE Power Cab system for my NCE Power Pro system. In addition, I will add the antenna to make the system wireless. I'll still run a 'cab bus' as a back up. Once in place, I will add the circuit breakers. It seems the NCE EB1 Circuit breakers are not designed to play with the Power Cab system, so I will wait. I've left extra wire to cut into the existing wires. 

Thanks for reading!