New Arrivals On The A.P.R.R.!!

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

Once again, the A.P.R.R. management reached out again to the management of the N.Y.C.T.L. for some work to be done by the Patti-O Paint Shop. Orders were placed for painting on some gondolas and RBL Box cars. What came back was a great paint job and a few surprises!

First work order was on some Athearn 50' gondola cars. On the A.P.R.R. I have a train dedicated to servicing Shapeless Steel. My present rolling stock had a decent amount of cars. However, you get spoiled when you see your private road all decked out on the railroad for all to admire, and admire they do!

One thing I always make sure that each and every paint job Sir 1:1 John works on there's at least one or more cars to interchange for our virtual op sessions, depending on the request.

EB 509823 came to the APRR and as a bonus 1:1 Sir John added some custom pipe loads. They look great!

Next up were two APRR gondolas. They look great and included under separate wraps were scrap loads custom painted!

These loads look great and add to the realism of the freight car...

This car was a surprise when I unwrapped it. Prior to the delivery of this car, I was asked about the color of my ballast being added to the railroad. Now I know why...

Remember the commercial back in the day about Lay's Potato Chip and the saying 'Betcha You Can't Each Just One!'? Here's the commercial! Now I may have to reach into the AP inventory to see what other hopper cars I can have the Patti-O Paint shop repaint! 

Here's a video of the cars being moved over to Rock Ridge freight yard to be used in future PCCM virtual op sessions as well as my operating sessions.

The next project that was requested were more RBL box cars. Scaletrains.com came out with another run of these cars including undecorated. I know it's easier to paint these than ones already painted. 

1:1 Sir John is a master painter and here's why!

Note the special 'Return Empty' labels added to the white RBL cars. These decals were made by our late friend Engineer Ed for John to use on his railroad. John took it a step further and added them to all of his RBL cars and sent me some extra to add to the ones he previously painted for me. 

I did ask for more of the Orange RBL cars as those came out looking great on the first run. Here's the second run!

These care will be used in both virtual op sessions as well as the PCCM car movements.

But wait! There's more! Not only did 1:1 Sir John give me scrap loads for the gondolas, he also built six sets of pipe loads. I was asked where we could use them on the APRR and I told him that pipe loads can go to Cargill since we have corn syrup tank cars in Cargill. I do plan to add piping on the layout and these can be used for the 'underground' part of piping in Cargill. Some of these can go to Tropicana as well since it's a processing plant for that great Tropicana Orange Juice!

One more new arrival came this past week. I was searching Evilbay and spotted some Atlas Dual Mode DCC GP38 engines in Penn Central. An Atlas Dual Mode engine is one of their first foray into DCC. It has a pin that when moved, converts the engine to run on DCC as well as DC. There were two from the same seller. Both listed as new and had a 'But It Now' price on it as well as 'Make An Offer'. They were listed as 'New' with a fairly high price. I had to do some research as while listed as new, one had a number on it that did not match the original box and the other had a box marked with no road #. I checked the road numbers on the  Fallen Flags website, and they were in the range for GP38 engines. The engines on the bottom looked new, maybe test run, so I made an offer and came off the price about a 1/3rd of the sell price. They accepted, a reduced shipping cost and they arrived in two days. 

First thing I did was to test it on DC. No problem and they ran very smooth. I happen to like these engines since the have a decoder in them, and it's easy to make the change to DCC and program them. Then I made the change to DCC. First one programmed was 7757 and no problem, moves in both directions, headlights work just fine. Next was 7783 and the change was made. However, when I went to program this engine, I saw a two digit engine number already in the decoder! It was programmed to #83, to match the last two digits on the engine. On further inspection, this engine originally had road # 7786 on it and they changed the 6 to a 3! Now I was a little angry. The seller has 100% reviews and has been around for quite some time with a high score. I reached out to them and told them that I was a little disappointed on what they advertised as new and that before I would file a negative reply and possibly send them back, I asked them what they could do to make this right and not make me return them. They asked me what I was looking for and I told them make me the offer. I wasn't looking to gouge them and I really wanted to keep the engines. I added that if they made a fair offer I would not post a negative review. Everything I detailed here I detailed to them as well. I had a number in mind, and when they came back with the offer, it was much better than I expected. I accepted, posted positive with no details of this transaction. I really didn't want to hurt someone like this as it's not in me. They were more than fair and let's face it, these engines run like a charm! They will be added as a consist and run together. When I host and the guys see Penn Central engines, the stories of the PC come out and we all have a good laugh, and more....

Look for all of these engines and freight cars on future blog posts.

Here's how Sir John creates these masterpieces at the Patti-O Paint Shop!

A huge 'THANK YOU SIR JOHN!' and the Patti-O Paint Shop for the great work you've done on my rolling stock. Now if I can only find a way to get him up here to actually run all of these....!!

P.C.C.M. 64 Part 4 - Local Freight Deliveries To Rock Ridge Consignees

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

We're getting ready to have freight delivered that arrived at Rock Ridge Yard from the N.Y.C.T.L. and the K.P. & W.

Today's deliveries are listed on the Rock Ridge Manifest sheet...

It looks like 1/87th Ken isn't finished with 1/87th Steve, or should I say 1/87th Steve isn't finished with 1/87th Ken!

Now that the Auto Parts turn is completed, the crew isn't quite finished this morning. They need to drop off a couple of coal cars over at R.M.O. Electric before lunch. 

They'll head out over to R.M.O. Electric as AP Train RR-2. 1/87th Steve tell his conductor 1/87th Ken that on the A.P.R.R. the work is finished when the brass hats sitting in their tower over in Morris County NJ deem finished. Rumor has it that 1/87th Sir John is making a visit today. He works directly for 1/87th Sir Neal and runs the day to day operations. 1/87th Sir John has an incredible background in discipline and enforcement, so no one gets a free ride, not even in the caboose!

Once back in the yard, they drop off the gondolas as they'll head over to Shapeless Steel with another crew. 

Looks like RS-1 #200 'Spirit Of Jay' is getting fired up for some work. That crew is comprised of 1/87th Bob, a veteran of the railroad industry along with his brakeman 1/87th Stuart, who has been on double secret probation due to the lack of paying attention to his train. His last write up was signed by 1/87th Steve. He must have rubbed him the wrong way to get a write up! 

Meanwhile, back over at the power plant, AP #900, leased to R.M.O. Electric will pick up the cars dropped on the secondary and shove them on track in in the plant. Due to height and engine length restrictions, the GE 44 Tonner is the only engine allowed to make the moves. There is a strong rumor that an upgrade to the switches in the plant may be on the horizon.

With the two coal hoppers in the plant, a call will go out to Hudson Coal to build up the supply for the next couple months...

Back to Rock Ridge Yard, and the crew on AP#200 is ready to head out.  1/87th Bob checks in with the CP South Tower operator 1/87th Rich and they head over to Shapeless Steel as AP Train RS-3 with an RS-1 engine! Is it fate of something more to come today....?

The crew heads out with a stop at CP South Tower... 

Outside of C&P Restaurant Supply to the west is Shapeless Steel. The reason for the stop? Shapeless Steel is a shove in and/or pull out. Since the caboose and 1/87th Stuart is on the end, the engine needs to run around and shove the cars on to the Shapeless Steel tracks. They'll accomplish this by using the West Harold secondary, and a lot of time and fuel, both of which cost the railroad money! Seems 1/87th Stuart didn't realize how they were going to work this move! Guess someone didn't read today's assignment!

With the move finally set in place, they'll head back to the yard with one angry engineer! His time is valuable and 1/87th Bob needs his lunch at Meet At Ralph's diner, the gathering place of many from the A.P.R.R.

The crew of AP #200 has one more run to make, and 1/87th Bob isn't looking forward to this. The cars are ready, but not blocked as they should be. With no other crew around, and time is money (thinking overtime now), they'll head out and deal with it on the road...

The stop at CP South tower is made as 1/87th Sir John stopped by and is giving 1/87th Stuart a firm yelling from the tower. Good thing we can't see the anger in his face as I'm sure 1/87th Sir John is trying to keep his cool and not come down from the tower and give him a piece of his mind! Rumor has it that if 1/87th Stuart, on double secret probation, messes up one more time, suspension and back to brakeman school he will go! 

They head out as AP Train RP-4 to C&P Restaurant Supply with a drop off and pick up at Freihofers Bakeries..

A quick stop at Freihofer to move the reefer out of the way to make room for HRC 913001 from Canton Box Co. on the K.P. & W.

Now back over to C&P Restaurant Supply to make a pull...

A cut of the cars and they do a run around...again! 

The caboose is dropped on orders by 1/87th Bob. 1/87th Stuart asks why and is told "Don't worry, just shut up and learn!" 

The moves are being made. First the pull and then the shove..

This move was not planned by the crew and for that matter by the yard when broken down. The AP mainline is on hold as stop signals abound. 

The cars are being shoved into C&P Restuarant Supply track 2..

The moves are made and now there's more work to be done! In order to spot the car for Freihofers, they need to do more shoving on the Little Jamaica secondary.

There's a switch on the east end of the track that serves Freihofer Bakeries and Marcal. They'll use this to complete the move for Freihofer.

The car is shoved and set to be dropped, then pulled. I don't think a see saw has seen this much action in one day! 

The run around is made and the car is being shoved. 

There's still one more move to make and 1/87th Bob isn't telling his brakeman a thing....

The caboose is now on the end of the train! "Really" asked by 1/87th Stuart...

The train finally makes his way back to Rock Ridge. They approach from the south end as they'll break down the train on the east ladder.

A shove is made on to the east ladder track 8. Wait! Can't shove the box cars on that track! The caboose is still on the end!

Looks like 1/87th Stuart is still in the caboose! 

The rest of the train is now set off on east ladder track 6 and the work is done. So why did 1/87th Bob leave the caboose on that track? A statement from 1/87th Bob went something like this (paraphrased as we can't print exactly what he said): "This guy made me miss my lunch with the guys and now I'll let him figure out how to get the *!#$*&@ caboose back to the caboose track on the west ladder!" End of story!!

That's a wrap for the inbound portion on the A.P.R.R.! Don't forget to check out the rest of P.C.C.M. 64 and future P.C.C.M. train movements over at these fine railroads....

Sir John and the N.Y.C.T.L.

PC Ralph and the K.P.D.

Brian and the Ralston Creek RR

Thanks for reading and check back often. You never know what will be posted on the blogs!