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

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

The railroad is always looking to add equipment to the roster as the industries on the railroad expand their customer base as well as preparing for the future.

I received a call from Sir John of Georgia a while ago regarding some equipment that did not fit the time period of his New York Central Train Layout. He's offered me freight cars in the past as we've sent each other freight cars that we could not use, have duplicates, or needed that special touch his Patti-O Paint shop does so well.

The A.P.R.R. received a Gunderson Maxi-III 5 car well set, courtesy of Sir John. In addition, he took the time to paint the well cars in the A.P.R.R. paint scheme. Decals and couplers were added and I added metal wheels to complete the upgrade. 

Here's the newest addition to the railroad...

Some background information on these well cars, courtesy of Wikipedia:

A well car, also known as a double-stack car or stack car (also well wagon), is a type of railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal containers (shipping containers) used in intermodal freight transport. The "well" is a depressed section which sits close to the rails between the wheel trucks of the car, allowing a container to be carried lower than on a traditional flatcar. This makes it possible to carry a stack of two containers per unit on railway lines (double-stack rail transport) wherever the structure gauge assures sufficient clearance. The top container is secured to the bottom container either by a bulkhead built into the car (e.g., bottom and top containers are the same dimensions of 40 ft.), or through the use of inter-box connectors (IBC). Four IBCs are needed per wellcar. In the process of an inbound train becoming an outbound train, there are four processes: unlock to unload the top container of inbound train, remove then unload bottom container, insert after loading bottom container of outbound train, lock after top container loaded.

Advantages to using well cars include increased stability due to the lower center of gravity of the load, lower tare weight, and in the case of articulated units, reduced slack action.

Each unit of a double-stack car is constructed with a single well, but are often constructed with multiple units of three to five units, connected by articulated connectors. Articulated connectors are supported by the centerplate of a single truck, (often a 125-short-ton, 112-long-ton or 113-tonne capacity truck but sometimes a 150-short-ton, 134-long-ton or 136-tonne capacity one).

Also, in a number of cases, multiple single-well cars (usually 3 or 5) are connected by drawbars and share a single reporting mark.

I've added some 40' and 45' containers to complete the well car look...

They look good and will be placed on the railroad at the intermodal yard. We'll need to move some of the cars currently in the yard to make room for this set, which will be prominently displayed for all to see.

But wait, there's more! Sir John and I were talking back in January about a project he was working on, and asked if I could locate some bay window cabooses for him. I had a couple that I picked up, but wasn't going to use. I sent them to him figuring these would help him with his project. 

As I opened the box, included with the well cars was this little gem of a surprise...

AP #79, a Bay Window Caboose as been added to the roster. Sir John and the Patti-O paint shop have outdone themselves again! AP #79 will be incorporated to my operating sessions. 

AP #79 now sits on West Ladder track #1 awaiting its first assignment.

Thank you Sir John for your generosity and growth of the railroad!

Getting Some Organization On The Railroad

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

As many of you know, I participate in both virtual op sessions as well as live operating sessions at my home. The virtual op sessions are very enjoyable when I’m not hosting. However, when I do host, all of the railroad is in action, meaning that PC, AP, EB and any other virtual op cars are in action.

   

When a virtual op session is being planned, the guys in both Georgia and Minnesota, who invited me to join their virtual op sessions, set up the moves and send out the dispatch sheet for us to follow. It shows where the car was on the last move. In addition, an email comes out with a list of the freight cars that are both outbound and inbound.

Herein lies the problem. When the sheet and email comes out, it can take me hours to locate the cars if there’s been any type of train movement on the layout. With approximately 400 freight cars on both levels, it can take time to find them. They can be at an industry, freight yard, on an existing freight train that was run, or on some stub staging tracks on the lower level.

The solution – move as many of the virtual op session freight cars to the lower level stub staging tracks, and the rest visible, as in the freight yard. Don't get me wrong, many of the AP/EB/PC cars are used in my operating sessions when I host, so they are many in action. The lower level has 8 stub staging tracks beneath the freight yard; 4 on each side. Recently, I added 4 more on the lower level south staging east end. 

Here is how the those tracks look once I moved many of the cars.

As you can see, there are many of the virtual op cars on these tracks. If for some reason I need them for one of my gatherings, I'll pull them out and send them to the yard or make up a train with them. This move took a couple hours as cars had to be taken off those tracks and moved elsewhere. This really makes it easy to look for the cars. 

The next objective of this project was to lighten up the engine terminal. What does that mean? There were more than 40 engines down there, and most were there for show and had not been run in a while. It was choking the terminal. Another reason to lighten it up was to make room so I can start to add this entire area to my operating sessions as well as the possibility to my virtual op sessions in the future. 

I left 2 of my CSX 6 axle engines down there. Both have sound and I may use them on my auto rack train. Currently, that train has a pair of SD40-2 engines on that train and I may want to change them out for some bigger engines. There was an SD90MAC sitting down there looking pretty, but never used, so that came off the layout. A total of 12 engines were put away. Now the entire area looks better and will give the person assigned to the engine terminal some breathing room. Here's how the entire area looks...

Now the hostler can move engines around, send engines up to the yard when requested as well as bring them down to be serviced, refueled, or just stored. The goal is when I have my 'special' operating sessions where I will hand out 'jobs' on index cards, I want to incorporate this area. Special thanks goes out to NJ John, who has been a great help by guiding me to take the railroad to the next level, without going to car cards, switch lists, JMRI. You get the picture....

The next project involved freight trains. While both North and South staging held many trains, those were anywhere from 12-16 freight cars in length. With the exception of a few train sets, most were manifest trains / mixed freight. Below the main section of the layout (below the freight yard and Tropicana / Cargill) is a loop track which I had used for staging train sets. Unless I had them slated to run during an operating session, they rarely moved. NJ John came up with a suggestion that instead of having 2 large trains with a pair of engines on each train, to break them up into 4 smaller trains with 5-6 freight cars, an engine and caboose. I took him up on his suggestion, and here's what we now have...

These 4 'locals' can be sent to the yard or to a specific industry. I have one track on the west side that's empty, which gives me some breathing room below. More than likely I'll 'test' these trains when I host my special operating sessions with specific operators. Those operators don't mind using some type of train lists for a session. I tried it once, and it worked out well. I was short the yardmaster, so I did double duty. We had 3 guys using the cards I made up, and despite the small crew, it worked out well. The freight yard up top is now lighter so it can receive freight from those locals or manifest trains when I host. 

I'm looking forward to my next virtual op session as well as being able to host a gathering. During these trying times, the guys without layouts are itching to run trains and the requests for me to send them videos of trains running (which I have done), help easy the withdrawal symptoms some of them are having.

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. #73 Part 5 - Delivering The Goods!

Welcome back to P.C.C.M. #73 on the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

The freight from Terminal Yard on Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and from West Mill on PC Ralph's Kings Port Division are in Rock Ridge. The yard crew sorted out the freight, then assigned engines and crew to build their train.

Here's today's assignment...

We left off with the crews pulling cabooses for the 3 outbound freight trains...

First train out is AP GP38-2 #302. 1/87th Rock Ridge Tower Operator sends him out as train RP-1 with 1/87th Engineer NJ John and brakeman Norman to service C&P Restaurant Supply and Mike's Lumber...

Next out is AP GPR38-2 #300. He'll head out as Train RI-2 to Ideal Auto Parts with 1/87th Engineer Steve and brakeman Bill...

Cabooses are on all trains!

Here's the Steel Train getting his caboose..

Both Trains are at the yard limits of Rock Ridge ready for their signals. AP Train RI-1 has the signal. Train RP-1 will wait for the tower operator at Little Jamaica to give him the order to head out.

Let's watch as trains RI-2 and RP-1 head out of Rock Ridge...

EB #8163, on a long term lease to the APRR from the Empire Belt Railroad.and will head over to Shapeless Steel as AP Train RS-3 with 1/87th Engineer Bob and brakeman Stuart...

Meanwhile, AP Train RP-1 is over at C&P Restaurant Supply. They had to enter the West Harold Secondary from the west so the shove can be completed. If not, they would have to do a run around, tie up the main, hold up rail traffic and burn extra fuel. 

They cut the caboose so they can shove the cars into the building.

Here we see the freight cars getting shoved into C&P Restaurant Supply..

The freight cars are dropped inside C&P Track 1. Now they'll head over to Mike's Lumber...

A quick stop at Little Jamaica so the tower operator can give him the siding...

And the car is dropped off at Mike's Lumber...

Can't leave without his caboose!

He's back at Little Jamaica as the yard master holds him as AP Train RI-2 needs the main in order to work Ideal Auto Parts..

In order to drop the 5 cars, they need to pull the 2 60' box cars that are loaded with electronic parts. They'll go back to the yard and when the next train for Weehawken heads out, they'll head on out. They will go to the Ford plant in Louisville, KY.

The caboose is cut, and the cars will be shoved back into Ideal. 

Here we see RI-1 make the shove into Ideal Auto Parts..

Now that both AP Train RP-2 and RI-1 have completed their work, they head back to Rock Ridge...

AP Train RS-3 heading over to Shapeless Steel

AP Train RS-3 is over at Shapeless Steel. They cut the caboose so they can make the shove into Shapeless Steel track 2.

The shove is made, caboose is picked up and they head back to Rock Ridge..

They head back to the yard and are held on the north end CP Rock as train AP RI-2 is cutting his cars to be classified in the yard... 

Train RS-3 is on the west ladder as RI-2 is on the east ladder. A meet and greet! 

EB caboose EB #1603 drops his caboose on west track #1

A run around by EB #8163 picks up the other cabooses brought in from trains RI-2 and RP-1...

EB #8163 is getting a workout after hauling those gondolas. He'll spot the 2 auto parts cars, then the cabooses..

The cabooses are dropped on tack #1 and EB #8163 is back on engines track #2

Meanwhile, AP RS-1 #200 'Spirit Of Jay' with 1/87th Engineer JP picks up PC 272747 40' Hi-Cube Box car and heads over to American Hardware to spot the car at loading door #2...

The car is spotted and he returns to his holding track on the south end of the yard...

That's a wrap for P.C.C.M. #73 on the A.P.R.R. Don't forget to check out the other two participants for this P.C.C.M as well as all other P.C.C.M. car movements as well as all of the updates they do to enhance their railroad and our Penn Central Car Movements!

Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. 

And

PC Ralph's Kings Port & Western

Thanks for reading!

Here's a bonus aerial view of trains RI-2 and RP-1 leaving Rock Ridge Yard!