A New Industry On The A.P.R.R. Has Come To Fruition

Welcome to the Atlantic Pacific Railroad blog. This is where you get the latest updates about the railroad itself, virtual operating sessions and new acquisitions.

I've been doing something called 'virtual operating sessions' with two great gentlemen. Sir John of Georgia, whom I've known for at least 11 years (maybe more) as we met on a now defunct model railroad website where you can post pics and have conversations. We've met in person both in NYC for dinner and Atlanta for a Train Show. One day Sir John told me that he does something called 'virtual train operations' with another gentleman based in Minnesota who we refer to as PC Ralph. At that point I was invited to join what is called the "Penn Central Car Movements". This is where like cars move from one layout to another via our blog posts, all set in the Penn Central era. Links to both of their blogs will be posted at the end.

And now on to the new topic - another new industry for the APRR and our virtual operating sessions! 

It all started with Sir John converting one of his industries to a PC Richard & Son building. A little background on PC Richard & Son, with credit from Wikipedia:

In 1909, Pieter Christian Richard, who left Holland in 1899, opened a small hardware store in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn (“Work Well Done” 14). In October of that same year, P.C.’s son, Alfred J. Richard (A.J.), was born. Born into the business less than a month after it opened, A.J. played an important role from the beginning. He spent his childhood helping out at the store, only leaving it to go to school. When he completed ninth grade in 1923, A.J. decided to drop out of school and focus entirely on helping his family and building the business (“Work Well Done” 25). A.J. was responsible for introducing the first electric appliance to the inventory, the electric clothes iron, as well as time payments so his customers could afford them (“Work Well Done” 32).

On February 1, 1947, A.J. officially took over as the company president and majority shareholder. It was around this time that he began to introduce his sons, Peter and Gary, to the family business (“Work Well Done” 58). Soon, the company grew into a chain as it expanded into Long Island. After the death of his father P.C. in 1972, A.J. promoted himself to chairman of the board in 1974, and he held that position until his death, well into his nineties. Peter and Gary were originally named co-presidents, but this arrangement changed in 1982, when Gary became president and Peter became executive vice president. Soon, Gary’s son Gregg began to work his way into the fabric of the company in the same way his father and grandfather had, until he became president in 2004. A.J. died weeks later at ninety-five years old. "The fourth generation, Gregg Richard, Bonni Rondinello and Peter Richard, III" are now involved in helping to run what their great-grandfather began.

When Sir John told me he was making this change, I figured maybe there's a chance that we can take this industry and integrate it on the APRR. Normally, appliance deliveries from both John and Ralph go to my Three Amigos Warehouse and Storage for further distribution. While looking at my layout, there wasn't any space to add any type of 'structure'. However, in Rock Ridge Yard against the backdrop are a number of flats. On the north end of the yard is 'American Hardware', which is used exclusively for our virtual op sessions. On the south end of the yard is 'ShopRite Supermarket Warehouse', which I use in both virtual op sessions and live op sessions.

Here's the progress on the new industry. Sir 1:87 Scale Neal has written a long term lease for the PC Richard & Son Warehouse. Mind you that in the Penn Central time period, PC Richard & Son was only based on Long Island. We've taken some modeling liberty and added the warehouse to enhance our virtual operating sessions.

We can see the 'Leased' sign has been added to the building...

Next step was to make some loading dock doors. Three doors were needed to accommodate 3 Evans DD Box Cars, or cars similar to them. Since I could not add the Woodland Scenics loading doors to this completed backdrop structure, I add some doors and frames that I had from a Walthers Warehouse kit.

They needed to be trimmed so the loading doors would be against the frame itself...

The knife and file was taken to task to trim the inside frame to make the doors flush...

Doors were painted aluminum and the door frames were painted black..

Both needed 2 coats of rattle can spray...

Once assembled, they were hit with rattle can matte finish clear..

Next step is to add the loading dock. Once that was in place, the doors could be added...

The APRR Management Team and the owners of PC Richard & Son are proud to unveil their new warehouse in Rock Ridge Yard. This industry has the ability to handle 3-4 box cars. In addition, there's an adjacent track that if need be, box cars side by side with ramps can go between cars if need be..

The PC Richard & Son industry will be introduced in PCCM #95 - Inbound portion and some new freight cars will be seen on the APRR as well. 

Stay tuned for Penn Central Car Movement #95 and more exciting news from the railroad!

Thanks for reading!

Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L.

PC Ralph's K.P.D. Railroad