Florida Update - APRR Southern Division

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

I took a quick trip to the Florida house to check on the place, even though we have a house sitter who checks the place twice a month. I like to make sure everything is fine, especially our air conditioning unit as it's the original equipment (18 years old!). While I'm here I took some time to do some work on the APRR Southern Division. 

One of the goals was to add a set of crossover switches in the yard on the lower level if a train is coming into the yard. This was fairly easy to do, and results in better operations for the yard.

Plenty of clearance for my four axle Geeps or Switchers. No six axle engines since the layout is a point to point with numerous industries and they're really to large for this layout. 

Another project that I did was to build the Walthers HO scale bumpers. They come 12 in a package. They're a little bit of a challenge since the parts are small and the brace is very delicate to the point I broke one beyond repair. Oh well it happens...

Due to the short amount of time down here, I chose not to start to build any of the kits as I didn't want to let them sit until my next visit (End of September), so I decided to start to place freight cars around the layout to give me a little feel of how I will switch out the industries. 

The front two tracks I have slated as coal cars to simulate being unloaded for export. Behind it will be the plastic pellet transfer. This is on the lower level west wall. 

North wall lower level will have a few industries, mostly long and narrow due to spacing of the tracks. I'm still not 100% in love with this and as many of you know, if I can find a way to make it better, I will change it!

 Same area will hold a couple of cars for some small industries..

This track on the right side of the North Wall lower level can hold a couple cars, which I do like..

 Same area on the north wall..

A view of the upper level yard. This is more of an interchange yard where freight that comes up from the lower level gets dropped off and the switcher based on top will deliver the freight. Also, the engine can take back the empties or cars loaded back to the lower level for destinations elsewhere..

Upper level east wall will have a few industries such as an auto parts facility, warehouse, frozen food warehouse and more. against the wall is the passenger line. 

Yes, Tropicana juice will be delivered to the local grocery wholesaler...!

Back to the lower level, a view of the staging tracks on the east wall..

This area will be for ethanol/propane/oil deliveries...

Back up top, Centerbeam cars for the lumber yard on the west wall upper level. I want to add another industry to support steel right next to it as I have the space for it...

A few things will be changed as I had given the layout a hard look. When I brought down my freight cars last year, I brought every type of car, including intermodal and auto racks. Even though it's a point to point I figured it would look good in the yard. While it would look good, you wouldn't find these cars in a yard unless they were headed for the scrap yard, and not on a switching layout with no home for them. They are going back with me, 2 auto racks and 15 intermodal cars (4 - 3 car well sets and 3 - 53' well cars). This will open up the yard for more cars to switch the industries I will be adding to the layout. 

Some other things are still not giving me the 100% satisfaction I want for this switching layout. One of them is the north wall lower level. The track plan as such still doesn't seem to function as I would like it. I may be able to use part of this track plan. Still mulling it over...

Taking parts of this plan will fit in the area. I would have to reconfigure parts of the east wall, and I think this would afford me a better switching scenario. While I don't have 3 way turnouts, Peco makes them if I decide to go this route. I have Peco switches on the layout in NJ and they work well. 

The next area is the lower level west wall. I'm not sure if I want coal on the railroad, despite the imaginary dock for unloading coal. Still giving this some thought. I would rather change it now before I add more industries than to finish everything and not be satisfied.. 

That's all for now. Next Florida update will be the end of September and I will be bringing down an APRR engine as well. By then I should have made my decisions... 

Thanks for reading and stop back often for more updates!

Arrival Of New Freight Cars Painted By the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

The APRR Management once again reached out to the N.Y.C.T.L. Management for a request to have some freight cars painted by the Patti-O Paint Shop team. The paint team has been contracted in the past to do work for the APRR. Some of the notables are below:

Going thru my drawers of freight cars, I went looking to see what I had that I could have painted into both AP & EB as well as PC colors to enhance the fleet as well add to our virtual operating sessions. 

I sent 1:1 Sir John a number of freight cars to paint and as always, Sir John and the Patti-O Paint shop delivered!

Here is the start of the project on Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. blog, which documents the start of the project, a display of the cars on the N.Y.C.T.L. and the departure to the APRR and Rock Ridge Yard. 

The train is headed to Rock Ridge Freight Yard. The APRR official photographer 1/87th Norman is out at West Harold Tower to document the arrival of the new freight cars. This is a big deal as the APRR has added some 40' box cars to the fleet. Some of the customers on both the APRR and NYCTL can't handle the 50' cars, so the APRR picked up some 40' cars on surplus and sent them to the Patti-O paint shop.

Here we see the new cars, pulled by PC 3007 on a direct run from Terminal Yard, thru Selkirk with the final destination Rock Ridge Yard.

As the train heads towards Rock Ridge, 1/87th Norman heads back to so he can capture the arrival of the train and to get the reaction of the last car of the train. 

A closer look at the cars on the Rock Ridge Secondary

APRR car 4035 is being used in pool service between the N.Y.C.T.L.Terminal Yard and the APRR Rock Ridge Yard. When empty, it is returned to Terminal Yard

AP 4182 is another car used by both railroads in pool service and when empty returns to Rock Ridge Yard. These special decals were created by our dear departed friend, the late Engineer Ed. 

A little nostalgia was added to the 40' paint scheme as I thought it would add a little retro to the box cars. This car, in my opinion not only stands out but has that 'classic' 40' freight car look!

Another 40' freight car the shop rolled out in the current Empire Belt paint scheme. 

There were a number of Proto 50' newsprint cars that I asked to be painted in PC paint scheme. As always they came out great!

This last car was another 50' newsprint car and was used on the APRR with a FRED or EOT device on the end of the train. The story behind this device, courtesy of wikipedia:

The end of train device (ETD), sometimes referred to as an EOT, flashing rear-end device (FRED) or sense and braking unit (SBU) is an electronic device mounted on the end of freight trains in lieu of a caboose. They are divided into three categories: "dumb" units, which only provide a visible indication of the rear of the train with a flashing red taillight; "average intelligence" units with a brake pipe pressure gauge; and "smart" units, which send back data to the crew in the locomotive via radio-based telemetry.They originated in North America, and are also used elsewhere in the world, where they may include complete End of Train Air System (ETAS) or Sense and Brake Unit (SBU) devices.
The first ETD use is attributed to Florida East Coast Railway in 1969, soon after which other Class I railroads began using ETD's as well. By the mid-1980s they were common equipment.[1] Early models were little more than a brake line connection / termination, a battery and flashing tail light. As their use became more widespread through the 1980s, ETD's were equipped with radio telemetry transmitters to send brake pressure data to a receiver in the locomotive. To reduce the cost of battery replacements, ambient light sensors were added so the flashing light on the ETD would illuminate only during dusk and after dark. Later models have a small turbine-powered electrical generator using air pressure from the brake line to power the ETD's radio and sensors.

Here's a shot of the EOT device from the train on the Rock Ridge Secondary. 

The APRR management team, along with it's senior crew get together to determine what they want to do with this device. 

The team includes 1/87th NJ John, 1/87th Norman, as well as representatives from the 1/87th Brotherhood of Trainman and a representative from the N.Y.C.T.L. We think the N.Y.C.T.L. person may be Wet Willie in disguise standing furthest away from the train. 

They watch with intensity as this device 'blinks' constantly. 

After some time together, then filing a report to 1/87th Sir John and 1/87th Sir Neal, a decision was made to have the device removed from the car and sent back to wherever it came from (probably Canada based on the prior owner of the car). The team quickly has the train moved to a track far from the viewing public as well as the rest of the APRR crew and have the device taken off. 

These newly painted cars will go into revenue service in upcoming P.C.C.M. car movements.

A special thanks goes out to 1:1 Sir John for his time, patience and expertise in painting these freight cars for use on both railroads. THANK YOU AGAIN SIR JOHN!!

Weekend Update - Preparing For An Operating Session

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

Many of you know that besides the participation in the virtual operating sessions I have with my Penn Central Railroad friends, I'm part of a non-group group and am one of three who will host an operating session. We usually have two a month. One is on the last Sunday of the month and then we hold a combination work/operating session on a Wednesday afternoon. Both sessions are fun and of course, generate revenue for the railroads (in a ridiculous fictitious way).

We had a mid-month work session last Wednesday afternoon, where some of us worked on the hosts scenery, others worked on moving some freight cars out of the way, while others were there as verbal support...

As I was saying my good-bye to many, I told our fearless leader that his railroad made no money and I suggested we do another Wednesday night operating session since the one I hosted in May was very successful. I checked with management to make sure we don't have anything that would conflict in the evening, and the event is a go!

There's a lot to do in order to get the layout 'staged' for a session. First thing I had to do was to reset layout. Here's what the freight yard looked like at the end of the session on May 22nd.

It was wiped out by the yardmaster! We moved over 100+ cars that were in the yard at the start of the session. This needed to be re-staged. I brought up some freight trains that were in the yard and took off a couple cars from each. Also, some of the industries didn't have enough freight cars for the start of the session, and those industries received freight cars. 

Here's what the freight yard looks like after about an hour or two of moving trains around. 

 There's one set of engines the yardmaster will use to make up a train to head out. This is strictly an outbound train and will head to staging. 

 The caboose track is ready as well as some of the west side classification tracks.

 Box cars, reefers, Auto box cars and Centerbeam cars are ready to go.

The east side classification tracks have some covered hoppers, gondola and tank cars to head out as well.

Now that the freight yard has some cars that can be used to start the session, we need to see what we have in staging that can be used for the session. 

This is the east side of south staging. We have the steel train and coal train staged.

Next we see a mixed freight train as well as the auto rack train. 

We have behind the coal a mixed freight train. The lower level staging tracks in some areas are more than 30 feet in length and can hold 2 trains, depending on the train length. 

This is a view of the east side of north staging. 

A view of both north and south staging. This photo was taken right below the dispatchers area. 

The west side of north staging. There are 7 sets of trains that are on these tracks. On the far right is the juice train and the middle track has the intermodal train. 

So where do we store the rest of the freight cars? Below the main section of the layout are 8 sets of stub staging tracks, four on each side. On these tracks I'll store freight cars not in use, or ones that I use for the virtual op sessions. This is the west side of the lower main section. The track with the set of AP engines is the lower level loop passing track. I use it to hold the TTX train. It comes out for someone running a train on my railroad for the first time and I put him with one of the senior operators. Then we run him all over the railroad thru the freight yard, passing sidings and both mainline tracks. Then we send him back down and return him to its original position. To the right of the AP engines are four tracks with engines and freight cars. There's approximately 25+ cars on those tracks. 

This is the east side of the lower level where I mainly store my Penn Central cars when I do my virtual op sessions. The last track holds the 86' auto rack cars. 

Of course no railroad would be complete if it didn't have some engines at the ready to bring into service, if needed. Richmond Hill Engine Terminal is ready for action!!

So what determines what moves during an operating session? The dispatch area, where I am the majority of sessions is posted so I know what to send, and when to send it. This is the list that I will use Wednesday evening. The lead engine for every train set is listed and what the majority of the train has in the trainset. 

Most of the trainsets have more than one engine on the train. In the DCC world, when you run more than one engine together, they have to be 'consisted' so they all move at once. If there is an issue during a session, and they need to be taken apart or 'deconsisted' due to a running issue, we need to take them out of consist. If you take them off the track and try to run them on another layout, they will not move. Some of the guys who don't have a layout and bring engines to run on our layouts forget to deconsist them. Then they get crazy, have to call us or come back to take them out of consist. The command station of the layout has a 'memory' that knows what engines run together. Here's how I keep track of what is in a consist. 

As of this posting, I'm ready to host Wednesday night. All that's left to do is do a quick sweep of the floor from some wiring I was doing, bring up the cooler, and then load it up with water and drinks that afternoon. I'll pick up some fruit salad, some cookies in the morning and we're ready! 

I'll try to post an after-action report and hopefully take some pics of the session.

Thanks for reading!