P.C.C.M. 48D Rock Ridge Yard Readies Train RW-2 To Weehawken And Beyond

Greetings followers of the the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and Penn Central Car Movements! P.C.C.M. #48 is well under way. Trains left John B.'s LA Taylor Yard and on to Brian's Ralston Creek Railroad. Cars were interchanged and then sent east to the A.P.R.R. where cars will head to Rock Ridge, Selkirk and on to John R.'s Empire Belt RR & N.Y.C.T.L. In addition, cars from Rock Ridge will head to Ralph's Kings Port Division. 

There's been a lot of action and train movements in and around Rock Ridge Yard. New engines have arrived, new freight cars have arrived, and the expansion of the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal has been keeping the crew very busy.

A number of freight cars had been moved to Rock Ridge Yard earlier due to a shortage of train crews. However, a few remained and needed to be picked up and brought over to the yard.

A.P.R.R. SW1500 has started to build train RW-2, pulling 2 KP&W cars to head back to Peerless Appliances from Three Amigos Warehouse. B&M #105 was loaded at Freihoefers and will head with a car load of those famous Chocolate Chip Cookies for Ralph's Grocery. 

Meanwhile, A.P. #200 RS-1 'Spirit Of Jay' heads over to C&P Restaurant Supply to pick up some cars headed to Pilgrim State via the Empire Belt who will hand it off to the L.I.R.R.

Back over in Rock Ridge Yard, ACFX Morton Salt will head over to Ronzoni in Long Island City. Maybe the E.B. will have his crew send back some boxes of pasta for the boys at Rock Ridge. Saturday night is pasta fiesta for the management of the A.P.R.R.! This car will be added to the train by A.P. #200.

With moves being made, a quick run over to Tropicana for a pick up that fresh Tropicana Juice to head out to Ralph's Grocery. 

The train being built in Rock Ridge getting readied, A.P. #100 heads back out over to Cargill to pick up some Penn Central Covered hoppers for the Cargill plant in Empire City. 

Still hard at work, A.P. #200 picks the Morton Salt car and adds it to the train.

With all of the additional engines bought by the A.P., more sand is needed, so a couple of P.C. PS-2 covered hoppers will head back for reloading at T&R Gravel in Empire City. 

Last, but not least, EB 358160 will head over to Pilgrim State with more food supplies from the C&P Restaurant Supply. 

Train RW-2 is just about ready to head to Weehawken. However, due to a shortage of crews, a call was sent out to for A.P. engine #2360 a U28B made for hauling plenty of freight. A.P. #200 will drop the train off at the yard limits for Rock Ridge and #2360 will pick up his freight and head to Weehawken. 

At South tower, A.P. #2360 picks up his train orders and gets ready to head out. 

A.P. #200 is back in the south end of Rock Ridge Yard, out of the way, and now train RW-2 can head out to Weehawken.

A 'Clear' signal is given to RW-2 from the tower master at Little Jamaica and we're on our way!

Next stop, Weehawken!

Train RW-2 arrives at Weehawken. 

A new crew with a set of engines will take the train out for the KP&W and E.B.RR. Stay tuned!

New Arrivals on the A.P.R.R.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad! The management has been very busy these days as the railroad is expanding to the south. The acquisition of a small short line railroad in South Florida has made it necessary for more motive power when the rail line is brought up to FRA Class 1 standards. 

Sir 1:1 Neal has been following the railroad auctions for motive power and scored a set of 4 GP35 engines. They were purchased at basement bargain prices and sent off to the paint shop the A.P.R.R. has a contract with for repainting engines in Dedham, MA. All other equipment is on a contract with the N.Y.C.T.L. Patti-O Paint Shop in Georgia. The engines needed to be inspected after they were painted as the FRA will only inspect road-ready engines and in either their leased colors with the owner markings, or, in the owners paint scheme. Since the A.P.R.R. bought these outright, they immediately went to the paint shop. People ask why do they have to get painted, why not leave them in their previous owners colors, and our answer is "Because we can!"

The N.Y.C.T.L's Locomotive Shop was recently contracted to perform a post purchase inspection and refurbish a quartet of EMD GP35s for the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. Here's the report from John R. C.E.O. N.Y.C.T.L. and E.B.R.R. 

We thank Sir John R. and his N.Y.C.T.L. for his superb report on these GP35 engines. The engines are now on the A.P.R.R. property in Rock Ridge, NJ. Once assigned to road service (after the FRA signs off on the paperwork), they'll be pressed into local road service in around Rock Ridge. 

More Motive Power For The A.P.R.R.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

The railroad has been evolving over the years and the roster of the A.P.R.R. has been expanding. Sir 1:1 Neal has been outsourcing the repaint of both freight cars and engines. All of the A.P.R.R. revenue freight cars are sent south to the Patti-O paint shop on the N.Y.C.T.L. and under the watchful eye of 1:1 Sir John R. of Georgia.

Here is a sample of his work that proudly runs on the A.P.R.R.

There have been other freight cars as well. They are always an eye catcher during my operating sessions as well as when I'm in the train room just relaxing and moving freight cars around the layout. 

Engines are outsourced to another individual in Dedham, MA. My friend Ted has been doing a number of engines for me since my original painter from Florida is no longer doing paint work. 

Recently, I sent him a GE U28B to custom paint in A.P.R.R. motif. A little background on the GE engine, if I may....


General Electric U28B
Power type Diesel-electric
Builder GE Transportation Systems
Model U28B
Build date January 1966–January 1967
Total produced 148
Configuration:
​
 • AAR B-B
Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Prime mover GE FDL-16
RPM range 650–1050 rpm
Traction motors GE-752
[hide]Performance figures
Maximum speed 70 mph (110 km/h)
Power output 2,800 hp (2,100 kW)
Tractive effort 70,000 lbf (310 kN) (starting) 64,000 lbf (280 kN) (continuous)

The GE U28B diesel-electric locomotive model replaced the U25B in early 1966, featuring a slightly uprated prime mover (only 300 hp (220 kW) more power than the U25B). Early units had the same carbody styling as the U25B, while later units had design features (e.g., shortened nose) more in common with later models. After only a year of production, this model was superseded by the U30B.

The model is a Life-Like Proto 2000 and was in storage for a good 10+ years. It was sent to MA for painting and arrived on the A.P.R.R. in April. It was then sent to my DCC decoder installer NJ John and brought back to the railroad the end of April. However, after a brief stint in non-revenue service, the engine failed and went back to the shop for diagnosis. It arrived back on the railroad a couple days ago, and was put thru its paces. 

A.P.R.R. GE U28B wears #2360. While most of my engines are three digit numbers, this engine was given this particular number to remind me that I started my model railroad hobby at the home I grew up on Long Island. Number 2360 was our house number and I felt it was apropos to have it on one of my engines.

Sitting outside of West Harold Tower

In the next 30-60 days, there are a number of engines that will be coming back from the Dedham, MA shops that will need to be prepared for the railroad. Once on the premises, we'll get team coverage to give you the latest and greatest from the A.P.R.R.

Thanks for reading!!

Extra 3175 Arrives at Rock Ridge Yard

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

This special post will be more about the train and how the cars and engine came to call the A.P.R.R. home.


The train originated on N.Y.C.T.L. under the watchful eye of Sir John R. We see Extra 3175 leaving Terminal Yard, home of Empire City

Extra 3175 making its way to Rock Ridge traversing thru Empire City...

It left the yard with great fanfare, and headed to Rock Ridge via the K.P.D. Railroad overseen by our PC guru Ralph. It seems that someone at Dave's Diner let it out to some 'train foamers' having breakfast that an 'Extra' was heading thru West Mill on its way to the A.P.R.R. Needless to say, these guys had to chase it.

Disregarding the rules of the road, they went on a hunt!

While we hope they caught it, and we hope they didn't get caught chasing it! We will never know. We did hear they made it to lunch at Mussachia's Ristorante.

Heading south, Extra 3175 rounds the rails past Baskerville Jct on its way to Rock Ridge.

Making a stop at Weehawken, an inspection and crew change was made. Also, 1/87th Senior Engineer Ed and 1/87 Sir Larry did a car inspection for the A.P.R.R. records. 

A little background information supplied to me by 1:1 Sir John R. of the N.Y.C.T.L. As we all know, Sir John and his artistic creativity, as well as his paint work, are legendary on the A.P.R.R. 

Here's some information that 1:1 Sir John had enclosed with the paint job he did on PC 3175:

Penn Central GP40's 3170-3186 bought NEW by PC and delivered in October 1968. Delivered by EMD with the rare 'Orange C'. To this date the reason behind the orange 'C' remains a mystery. #3175 was part of a 54 engine order by the PC 3170-3223. #3175 was assigned to Collinwood for maintenance. 

The Patti-O paint shop also took to task a number of 3 Bay and 6 Bay Cylindrical hoppers. Some of these were painted in PC, APRR and EB. These will all be used by us in both our P.C.C.M. virtual operating sessions as well as our own personal train operations. A little background on the cylindrical covered hoppers (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Introduced in 1961 by ACF® to haul sand, clay, salt, grain and bulk plastics, the Cylindrical Hopper was the first commercially successful tank-type covered hopper car design. A few of the more than 4,000 cars of this type built through 1966 can still be seen in service today across the United States.

Past the inspections process the train head out and makes a beeline for Rock Ridge where the freight cars will reside in the yard until needed for revenue service. 

Many thanks go out to 1:1 Sir John for making these freight cars and engine come to life as well as thanks to 1:1 PC Ralph who not only help stage the train passing thru West Mill, but made it very enjoyable to look at on his railroad!

A.P.R.R. Engine Terminal Update

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. We've been working on various projects on the layout, especially with the open house just around the corner.

One of the projects is on the lower level, on the smaller peninsula. This is where the A.P.R.R. has the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal. The name for this area goes back to growing up on Long Island and the L.I..R.R. When I worked in Richmond Hill in the 70's, I used to go visit the Morris Park Engine facility. There was a great viewing area on the south side of the terminal. The roundhouse and engines were in clear view, and I always thought about having an engine terminal on my railroad. Here is an image of the area. This is the view I always had....

I was using some parts from an old Walthers Engine Shop, a few years old. This kit has the 'grooves in it for the rail. Three tracks in the building. I will add a track on each side of the building. One track will be on the east side which will hold PS-2 covered hoppers which will have sand loaded from the N.Y.C.T.L. during our virtual operating sessions. Here's some of the progress....

I have a Preiser set of welder's on order and they should arrive next week. Still need to add more details. Suggestions are welcome...

This is the footprint of where it will be located on the lower level. The base is one from another kit, which will be going south later this year. The rail that I will use for the terminal is code 83, which will line up with the turntable. For the two tracks on each side, those will be code 100 and I use a Walthers Code 83 to 100 conversion piece off the turntable. 

I was told by my friend NJ John to have track come out the back of the engine terminal for 'damaged or triage' engines that don't run. I will add 9" of track like you see below which will be an extension of the Code 83 Flex track that I will use. I'll cut all of the ties out of the track that will sit inside the building. Plenty of track in the front for another engine on each track. Capacity will be 9 engines, probably put the ones I rarely use out the back. I do know once this facility is finished it may change the way I operate some gatherings. More than likely a 'special' gathering will happen with my NJ friends John and Norman. I know John is looking forward to seeing it up and running. The wiring for this will be fairly easy, and the tracks will either be on toggle switches or a rotary switch as there's a lot of motive power that can be stored down there. Last count is close to 30 locos, which is a rough guess.  

More to follow, soon I hope!