The Future Of Some Of My Operating Sessions

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

As many of you know, I participate in in running trains with a group of guys in my area. It's not a club, just a bunch of guys who get together twice a month to run trains. I'm one of three who have layouts. We call it a 'Gathering'. I was brought in sometime in 2012 and by the end of 2014 I had my layout up and running. The other two layouts run as follows: Our friend Bob runs his layout with specific switch lists given to an operator at the start of the session and works the job accordingly per the switch list. Steve, who has the other layout and is the head 'gatherer' of the group, runs without any paperwork. You pick a train, take it to a location based on the type of train and industry it serves, and switch out whatever cars you see fit. They must be 'like' cars; a tank car for a tank car, grain car for a grain car, etc.

My layout has been run like Steve's as I was not a fan of paperwork, and I thought it would be too cumbersome based on the layout size ( I have the smallest of the three). Last year I posted about a test of using something along the line of train orders. It seemed okay at the time; however I was doing double duty of dispatcher and yardmaster as well as watching 4 guys run trains. 

Fast forward to our current situation. There are no gatherings as crowds would be of at least 8-10 people and there's no place for the guys to have breakfast or lunch with the size of our groups. I do have 2 guys who I know well enough that I trust, and of course wear masks at my house, including myself. We've been running trains on my layout as they bring over some of their trains to run. We'll run some of my new trains or just to run anything in general. Since it was just the three of us, I decided to 'test' these train orders with both John and Norman this evening. There were 6 jobs to do. I had them printed and attached to 3x5 index cards and basically let both of them draw 2 cards each as the remaining 2 would be done if time allowed. My role was both dispatcher and yardmaster.

Below are copies of the train orders that were used this evening...

John and Norman proceeded to work a job, with each of them working 3 jobs. Originally I was going to run trains with them and handle a job. However, at the last I decided to let them do the jobs and I can route trains and switch the cars in the yards for them based on the job. Out of the 6 jobs, all of them went well. The only issue was one of the train orders wasn't as clear as it should be, and I explained what needed to be done, and the job was handled.

One of the trains was the Auto Rack Train. I had swapped out the pair of Bachmann SD40-2 engines on this train for a pair of Intermountain ES44DC engines with sound. 

Here's a couple of videos of the auto rack train heading down to staging after working the job at the auto rack terminal..

At the end of the session, we sat down and I asked both John and Norman what they thought about the train orders each of them had chosen. Both liked the concept and as I do more of these with them, get some of the bugs out, I'll be ready when the time comes to host operating sessions again with more than 2 other people. The big takeaway from tonight was discussing the 'ideal' operating session with these train order cards. It comes down to: Dispatcher, yardmaster and 3 solo engineers. A 4th engineer could be used as well. No conductors or helpers to do the work. 

Next week we're going to do it again. This time I'll have 6 new jobs for them to do and we'll see how it goes...

Thanks for reading!

New Arrivals On The Railroad

Welcome followers to the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

While it's usually a slow time of the year for model railroading, many of the dealers have been offering specials. While I wasn't looking for anything special, one engine caught my eye.

Bachmann came out with an SD40-2 in CSX YN3b road #8905. There's a unique difference in this road number compared to the other SD40-2 engines is this engine, as well as 5 others (according to rrpicturearchives.net) show them as former Norfolk Southern (NS) engines. While they all have CSX reporting marks, they remained in a black paint...

Modeltrainstuff.com had a special on all Bachmann 10% off. I was watching this engine at trainworld.com, but never pulled the trigger. Modeltrainstuff had it $10 cheaper, plus the 10% off. If you buy $100 worth of trains, you do get free shipping. We placed the order for the engine...

Some background on the SD40-2 according to Wikipedia:

The EMD SD40-2 is a 3,000-horsepower (2,200 kW) C-C road switcher diesel-electric locomotive built by EMD from 1972 to 1989.

The SD40-2 was introduced in January 1972 as part of EMD's Dash 2 series, competing against the GE U30C and the ALCO Century 630. Although higher-horsepower locomotives were available, including EMD's own SD45-2, the reliability and versatility of the 3,000-horsepower (2,200 kW) SD40-2 made it one of the best-selling models in EMD's history, edged only by the GP9, and the standard of the industry for several decades after its introduction. The SD40-2 was an improvement over the SD40, with modular electronic control systems similar to those of the experimental DDA40X.

Peak production of the SD40-2 was in the mid-1970s. Sales of the SD40-2 began to diminish after 1981 due to the oil crisis, increased competition from GE's Dash-7 series and the introduction of the EMD SD50, which was available concurrently to late SD40-2 production. The last SD40-2 delivered to a United States railroad was built in July 1984, with production continuing for railroads in Canada until 1988, Mexico until February 1986, and Brazil until October 1989. As of 2013, nearly all built still remain in service.

Here's a photo from rrpicturearchives.net of the engine...

The Bachmann engine, for the money looks great and runs well. They do need a break-in period and we'll let it run around the layout for a while to get broken in and run smoothly. Here's the model adjacent to Rock Ridge freight yard. It's DCC equipped, so we took it to the program track on the layout, and programmed it to road #8905 in about a minute...

 

I was still a little short to get the free shipping, so we found 3 Bachmann 100 Ton 3 Bay hoppers on sale. Two in CR and the other in CSX. 

All of these cars, as well as the engine will need Kadee couplers. The Bachmann hoppers, while they include weights to add in, are still a little light, so we'll add some weight to it this weekend. 

The hoppers will be added to the yard for operating sessions. However, they will be moved out of the way during our virtual op sessions...

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. #75 Part 5 - Last Of The Deliveries On The APRR

Welcome back to the conclusion of Penn Central Car Movement #75 on the A.P.R.R.! 

Sir John and his N.Y.C.T.L. along with PC Ralph and his K. P. & W. railroads have inbound freight from the consignees that are serviced by the AP. Today, we have a couple of quick deliveries to make, so let's get started!!

AP RBL box car # 60416 was called into service at Weehawken to deliver the freight off of EB 360279, which was taken out of service due to a bad order on the car...

AP Train RM-1X and SW1000 #110 with 1/87th scale Dan at the throttle along with brakeman Jim makes the quick run out to drop the car at Marcal. 

The car is spotted and they're heading home...

They check in and call it a day!

Last night, an urgent call was made from Ideal Auto Parts to 1/87th scale Sir Neal asking for the remaining 2 auto parts cars to be delivered and to pick up the 3 86' auto parts cars and take over to the yard. The call is made and the moves begin! 1/87th Steve and brakeman Bob are called back into action!

  
The moves at Ideal are complete, so they head back to the yard with those fully loaded 86' auto parts cars. The Ford Plant in Empire City is going to love that quick turnaround!

A new day, and AP Train RT-5 finally gets going with a new crew since they had to lay over by West Harold. Engineer 1/87th scale Matt along with his brakeman Stuart wrap up this move...

All 5 cars are spotted by Three Amigos and they head home. A quick stop by CP West Harold and they depart for Rock Ridge...

That concludes my portion of P.C.C.M. #75 on the A.P.R.R.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the inbound moves on 

Sir John and his N.Y.C.TL.

and 

PC Ralph and his K.P. & W.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed #75!!

P.C.C.M. Part 4 On The A.P.R.R. - Local Freight Deliveries

Welcome back to the continuation of the inbound part of Penn Central Car Movement #75 featuring the incredible layout of Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and the awesome layout of PC Ralph's K.P. & W.

Today we start out with a number of local deliveries in and around Rock Ridge. Here's today's train schedule, given out to the crews:

First train of the day - AP Train RI-3 with GP38-2 #303 that will take 3 of the 86' box cars from the Ford Plant in Empire City to Ideal Auto Parts. They'll need to move the 60' box cars in front of those box cars. 1/87th scale Engineer Steve knows the drill and will make the moves before heading out.

The moves are made, and they'll head out...

A quick stop with tower operator 1/87th scale Rich to get some final instructions. While Steve is a senior engineer, he knows to get daily updates in case there's a change in track conditions, signal issues, or what to have for lunch!

Next up, AP train RS-2 making stops at C&P Restaurant Supply and Shapeless Steel. Three box cars, including one, Swift reefer #4244 that was destined for a supermarket, and rerouted due to track issues in that area, will be spotted at the industry....

Corning covered hopper will remain in the yard until the next Morrisville, PA train departs. A little shuffle around the yard, and they'll get that train built!

A pair of PC gondolas with coil loads will head to Shapeless Steel. Those coils were made by KP Steel and shipped via the KP&W. 

AP #302 pulls AP Caboose #79 off west ladder track #1 (aka caboose track), which will be added to the train. 1/87th scale Jim handles the yard moves for today...

As we await the signal... 

The signal was given, and they await departure from Rock Ridge. 

They'll sit behind train RI-3 as they both await clearance....

AP RI-3 heading out to Ideal Auto Parts...

Once RI-3 clears Little Jamaica Interlocking, Train RS-2 proceeds to work C&P Restaurant Supply and Shapeless Steel......

AP MP15 #105, under the controls of 1/87th scale Dan, will handle the move withing Rock Ridge Yard limits and drop off 3 AP covered hoppers from Pier 16 in Empire City and will unload them for processing and distribution. Dan is the nephew of Sir 1:1 Neal and has qualified very quickly. He was under the tutelage of 1/87th Steve, so an engineer training a new engineer - can't get a better teacher!

Dan takes the 3 covered hoppers out of the yard...

A quick stop to speak to the yard master...

Here we see AP train RC-4 heading to switch out Cargill..

The cars are spotted in Cargill...

And AP #105 with 1/87th scale Engineer Dan has completed the move flawlessly...!

Meanwhile, AP Train RS-3 has arrived on the West Harold secondary to switch out C&P Restaurant Supply and Shapeless Steel...

Down the tracks they can spot the 2 gondolas for Shapeless Steel...

The cars are spotted and AP #300 heads back to the yard...

AP Train RS-2 heads home...

Over at Ideal, AP Train RI-3 starts to spot the cars. However, they need to pull the empties out and take them back to the yard. They'll head down to Morrisville, PA and then to the Ford plant in Lexington, KY...

Here we see AP #303 going through the paces....

The switching is completed, and they'll head out back to Rock Ridge Freight yard...

And now entering Rock Ridge at CP South...

And right behind them is AP Train RS-2 heading into the yard...

AP #300 is on the west ladder and is the run is completed!

Tomorrow we'll wrap up a couple deliveries and put P.C.C.M. 75 in the books! 

Make sure you check out 

Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. 

and 

PC Ralph's K.P. & W. !

Thanks for reading!