Atlantic Pacific Railroad: 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.