What you're looking at are the double ladders in Rock Ridge Yard. Why are we looking at these empty tracks? The crew is going to build the train down both ladders as they need to use the arrival and departure tracks (normally used to build outbound trains) to build this train. In addition, NYCTL President Sir John reached out to APRR President Neal to block the train so it can be sorted quickly at Terminal Yard. It's not new to these guys, and we'll see why in a few....
AP #105 is pulling the 4 covered hoppers. Those will go on the west ladder...
There are a pair of APRR 40' Hi-Cube Box cars and one EBRR 40' Hi-Cube Box car that will head over to the PC Richard & Son Warehouse in Empire City...
These cars now on the head of this train....
Let's watch how they build the train on the ladder....
A few more gondolas are moved around in order to get the cars spotted properly...
And here are next set of cars to be spotted...
The EB gondolas are next...
The EB 40' Box cars from ShopRite are headed to the Consolidated Grocery Distributors at Terminal Warehouse. However, the cars need to be blocked per directive and this needs to be changed, so....
...Norman makes a few moves and has the cars blocked properly. The BAR Reefer that was at ShopRite will head back to Selkirk empty. This car will be on the end of the train, so a drop off will be easy for the Selkirk crew...
Norman drops the car on east ladder track 4...
Now the rest of the build continues...
Norman's work is completed for now...
NJ John adds the PC gondolas to the rest of this train. However, we're not quite finished...
Over at Rock Ridge East Yard are the 4 empty APRR hoppers that will head to T&R Gravel for more ballast. These need to be added on the train, but not on the front or rear. M&E engineer Steve will run them over to the main yard and add them to the freight cars that are on the east ladder...
Steve is finished, a quick chat with tower operator Rich and they head back to their home yard...
Now that all of the freight cars are blocked on both ladders, NJ John will build the entire train and bring it to the yard limits to await PC motive power. When does that arrive? It remains to be seen...
NJ John takes the entire train out to Rock Ridge Yard Limit track 1 to await PC motive power....
The train is at the yard limit, but no PC engines! Turns out the crew that brought down the engines from Weehawken had timed out and another crew has to come down to Weehawken and pick up the engines to head to Rock Ridge....
NJ John will leave the engines at the yard limit as he'll need to grab the caboose that comes up from Weehawken, add it to the train before the PC crew heads out. So....
To: Rock Ridge/Rock Ridge East Yard/ Terminal Yard
ReplyDeleteFrom: West Mill
Acknowledge work of APRR #105 and 106 & 107 at Rock Ridge building train for Selkirk with cars for Terminal Yard.
Acknowledge M&E moving ballast cars for the train to Terminal Yard.
West Mill out.
Our virtual ops car forwarding schedule, the Rail Traffic Management Form, has arranged a lot of work at Rock Ridge as an unusually heavy amount of traffic is preparing to head to Selkirk and Terminal Yard. Great views of the extensive yard work involved to assemble this train including two APRR crews and the M&E! Freight traffic overwhelmed West Mill in this series but Rock Ridge has the capacity to get this job done efficiently with room to spare. Beautifully coordinated efforts by Norman, NJ John, and Steve to get this big train ready for its PC power to take it north!
To: Rock Ridge / West Mill
ReplyDeleteFrom: Terminal Yard
Acknowledge AP105 and AP 106/107 working Rock Ridge Yard.
Acknowledge Rock Ridge Yard crew blocking outbound train PC train WV-2 as requested by Terminal Yard.
Acknowledge M&E delivering empty ballast cars to Rock Ridge Yard for inclusion in train WV-2.
Acknowledge Rock Ridge Yard crew completing the building of train WV-2.
Acknowledge train WV-2 ready to be interchanged with Penn Central.
Acknowledge Penn Central crew outlawed and another crew called.
Another showcase of efficiency at Rock Ridge Yard!! The Penn Central...Well, they are not being very efficient today which seems quite prototypical from what we know. Great job Sir Neal!!! Terminal Yard is standing by for the WV-2 freight cars whenever the PC shows up to pick them up.