P.C.C.M. #70 Part 1 - Outbound Freight To The K.P. & W. And The N.Y.C.T.L.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and the Penn Central Car Movements (P.C.C.M.)!

P.C.C.M. #70 is a three layout movement. The Outbound freight originates on my layout and will head out to both Sir John and his railroad in Empire City and to PC Ralph and his railroad in West Mill. Both railroads inspired by, but not forgotten Penn Central Railroad!!

The yard at Rock Ridge is very busy today and management has summoned 3 sets of crews to gather outbound cars in and around Rock Ridge. 

AP #201" is under the guidance of 1/87th Bob and brakeman 1/87th JP, both veterans of the rails.

 AP #302, a classic GP38-2 has 1/87th Stuart at the throttle with 1/87th Mark as brakeman. We all know about Stuart and his performance on the APRR. However, 1/87th Mark is a veteran and will make sure Stuart rides the straight and narrow!

 AP #200 "Spirit Of Jay" is under the guidance of 1/87th Kai and brakeman 1/87th Jim.

First pull is from the yard. ACFX Morton Salt had been loaded and will head out to Cavendish Foods, and will be handed off to the KP&W. 

AP #201 stops at CP South Tower for some instructions from 1/8th Rich. A quick 'chit chat' and they're on the way!

The crew, riding sans caboose will be picking up 2 Auto Box cars. The EBRR box cars will head to the Ford plant in Empire City. The UP Box car (not part of the PCCM) will head out to the Ford plant in Louisville, KY.

Next stop is C&P Restaurant Supply. HRC has been loaded with restaurant supplies for Battaglia Bros. Warehouse. The EL Box Car and NP reefer car will head to Terminal Warehouse with both packaged and frozen foods. 

The cars are dropped off on one of the classification yard tracks. They'll be parked for a very short time as this train is heading out today!! No wonder they needed 3 sets of crews! Talk about getting the job done!!

The crew on AP201 head out again, this time over to Shapeless Steel for a pair of PC gondolas with steel slabs for Mid Island Steel to be delivered by the N.Y.C.T.L. 

Where to next? Three Amigos Warehouse and Storage to a pair of box cars. The PC car will head to Terminal Warehouse and the AP Box car will head to All City Storage, both loaded with assorted merchandise in Empire City.

AP #201 is back in Rock Ridge. A short stop so they wait for further instructions from the yardmaster. As mentioned earlier, this job is out on the road today!!

AP #302 stops at CP South. He's being called to pick up 4 box cars over at the plant. Normally a road switcher job, they'll do the work for today. Both 1/87th Sir Neal and 1/87th Sir John want to make sure this assignment gets done quickly with no hiccups or delays!

There are 3 Penn Central box cars that will head to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse with juice products. the Tropicana box car will head to A&P Warehouse in Garden City, LI. The N.Y.C.T.L. will hand the Tropicana off to the LIRR which handles all deliveries out there.

As #302 passed CP South, he continues west. Not going to the yard? The orders are to pick up the cars and 'drop them' on the Rock Ridge Outbound track. 

The cars are dropped and AP #302 crosses over at CP East and backs into the yard. Looks like the train is being put together to head out!

AP #200 'Spirit Of Jay' will start to pull cars off the classification tracks add them to the train now being put together. 

Cars are now being 'shoved' and added to the 4 box cars already staged on the outbound track. 

A Pair of KP&W box cars, both empty, will head back to Williams Yard on the KP&W.  

Corning #90404, which came from Penn Glass and delivered to Rock Ridge will head to Corning Glass in West Mill. 

A pair of KP&W box cars from American Hardware will head to Quality Fabrications on the KP&W loaded with hardware supplies.

Triangle Pacific #5510 was unloaded at C&P Restaurant Supply in a previous move and sent to Rock Ridge for storage. The car will head to the BCOL in N. Vancouver via Selkirk for assignment. 

A caboose is needed to complete the train. 

AP caboose #54 is added to the end of the last freight car. 

The train is now ready and will go out at Extra 600. Extra 600? There's no mention to the tower about engine 600, so what happened?  It seems a last minute order change came down from operations in Rock Ridge. What was the change? Check out the video!

That's a wrap for my part of P.C.C.M. #70

Don't forget to check the inbound portions of P.C.C.M. #70 on both railroads!

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

PC Ralph's Kings Port # Western

Thanks for reading!!

Update For The Florida Layout

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

We're down in Florida for a few weeks. When the weather is not so great at times (like rain), we'll do some work on the layout. For some new followers, the layout in Florida is a true modern layout, point to point with two levels. It can handle a max of 3 operators, and designed to be operated solo as well.

There's still much work to be done, especially on the industries. I have most of the kits, and will work on them when I can. 

One area that I wanted to work on is the turntable. I'm using the Atlas turntable with the motor installed. Since I'm using a handful of engines, the purpose of the turntable is to turn them around for the next run. It adds one more process to an operating session. 

Since this needs to be aligned with the rest of the layout, I added some framework a little lower so that I can 'level' the tracks that go from the turntable to the rest of the layout and storage tracks. I do have a limited space, so I can't take advantage of every slot off the turntable. 

Here's the finished process. I added a piece of cardboard to the area, then added some HO scale cork. Painted the area to match the rest of the area. 

The final results of the area are below. It has the capacity of 5 tracks; one of which can be used for the SW1500 units only. It's a short track. Yes, I could have left it out, but those who know me, do know if the real estate is available, I'll use it!

Hayes wheel stops will be brought down on the next trip as I have them at the ready. This will protect an engine from doing a swan dive off the railroad. 

The next step is to power the turntable. Since it runs on DC, I needed to add a power supply. I had an MRC power pack that was not used on the NJ layout, so I brought it down to FL. It needed to be mounted near the turntable, with access close by. Since I'm using it to run the turntable with the variable DC, I wanted it mounted below the turntable. Since there are no true supports for any type of wood, I came up with an idea. A trip to the local Home Depot and picked up a pair of 12"x10" shelf brackets. I mounted them on an angle, and then I put the power pack resting on the brackets. It will be held in place with velcro for ease of removal, if needed. 

The wires are installed to the turntable motor and I added the wires to the turntable track. Next step is to add the drops to each track and then connect to the rest of the system. However, everything came to a halt! In order for me to get everything connected, I needed to add an auto reverser to the turntable track! The part is called a DCC Specialties PSX-AR auto reverser. It works on DCC only. It flips the power to the track within seconds, creating a smooth running transition from one section of track to another and avoiding a short circuit.

I did pick one up at the Amherst Train show the end of January. However, in my quick turnaround from the show and coming to Florida, I left it back home! Geez what was I thinking! I was thinking I needed to secure the NJ house and then head to FL. So this will wait until I come back down to FL March 4th. 

More to follow as it happens! 

Thanks for reading!!

P.C.C.M. #68 - Inbound Portion On The A.P.R.R.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad Blog!

Today we're going to kick off the inbound part of the series of #68 in the Penn Central Car Movements or P.C.C.M. for short.

There's inbound action going on two other layouts - Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's K.P. & W. railroads. Both have incredible action and scenery!

The A.P.R.R. has a 10 car inbound train from Weehawken to Rock Ridge. 

It's a hazy, sunny and windy day at Rock Ridge. Weather forecast is cold with the chance of snow.

Here we see PC Extra 7675 passing thru West Harold and thru Little Jamaica en route to Rock Ridge Yard.

PC Extra 7675 checks in at CP South with tower operator 1/87th Rich and proceeds up the east ladder to the north end of Rock Ridge stopping short of CP Rock.

A quick crew change and the yard crew will take the engines over to Richmond Hill Engine Terminal for servicing and maintenance. 

AP #100 SW1500 is called into action to break down and classify the inbound freight. Once sorted, another crew will head out with the local deliveries.

AP #200 'Spirit Of Jay' is going to lend a hand in getting the freight cars blocked to head out for deliveries.

 EB 809823 from Gervais Pipe will head over to Shapeless Steel for an ongoing project in the town.

HRC 957081 has some food products for C&P Restaurant Supply. This operation runs 7 days a week. People have to eat, right?

AP #302 will be the local engine of the day with 1/87th NJ John and brakeman 1/87th Mark on board. 1/87th NJ John is the most qualified engineer, brakeman and conductor (along with tower operator and electrical engineer) on the APRR. Behind him is 1/87 Norman who is qualified like John, plus he's the official APRR Staff photographer. The men of all trades!

Ready to depart the yard, Train RI-3 will make 3 stops today. First stop - Ideal Auto Parts. 

The cars are cut on the main as they have to pull 3 loads out which are going to the Ford Plant in Louisville, KY with parts. 

Next stop - C&P Restaurant Supply. 

Since the car was on the front of the train (someone forgot the protocol for blocking cars) the crew needs to do a run around and shove the car on to the siding...

Next stop - Shapeless Steel. Since the last car was on the end of the train, they drop the 3 60' auto box cars on the main for a few and then proceed to spot The EB gondola on the siding.

A quick couple up to the 3 box cars and they had back to the yard...

Looks like 1/87th Sir Neal took the new corporate helicopter for a test flight with pilot 1/87th Sam to get an aerial view of the 3 auto box cars being spotted. Nice work!

The crew drops the caboose on west ladder track 1 and they call it a day!

Back home!

The ballast car will remain in the yard to be used as needed. The 4 PC PS-2 covered hoppers with sand from T&R Gravel will head over to the engine terminal on the next crew change.

That's a wrap for my inbound portion of P.C.C.M. #68. Don't forget to check out the other two participating layouts! 

 Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's K.P. & W. !!

Thanks for reading!!