P.C.C.M. #73 Part 4 - Building Trains To Deliver Freight

Welcome back to P.C.C.M. #73 Part 4 on the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. 

It's going to be a busy day as freight arrived from West Mill On The Kings Port Division and Terminal Yard on The N.Y.C.T.L. 

Today we're going to start building the trains that will be dispatched to the consignees in and around Rock Ridge.

GP38-2 AP #302 with 1/87th NJ John at the throttle will build his train RI-2, which will deliver 5 cars to Ideal Auto Parts. 

Let's watch the cars being spotted on west ladder track #11..

Next, some box cars need to be moved so the next train can be built...AP 200 is on it!

AP #300 GP38-2 with 1/87th engineer Steve, fresh with a good nights sleep is at the throttle with his brakeman 1/87th Bill.. Here we see him building AP Train RP-1, which will deliver to C&P Restaurant Supply and Mikes Lumber. Rumor has it Steve likes this run as the restaurant supply always has some fresh food on the loading docks inside. A quick jump off and they have a care package ready for him... 

One more car for C&P..

Both trains are now on their departure tracks and will head out the next day. A short day for both crews, or so they thought so...

Last move will be the gondolas for Shapeless Steel. At the throttle of EB 8163 is 1/87th Bob with his trusty brakeman Stuart. They'll head out as AP Train RS-3...

One more car has to be put in place, so AP #302 picks it up. So much for following work orders...

Now the train is completed and will be ready to depart tomorrow...

Last move are cabooses, Every train needs a caboose this time. Seems upper management is on the premises.. 

Let's watch the move to pull cabooses that will be dropped on the west ladder, then added to the trains before they leave the yard limits... AP 200 with JP at the throttle will pull them from west ladder track #1...

That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll conclude this P.C.C.M. on my railroad by delivering all freight to the consignees. 

 Don't forget to check out the inbound freight on my fellow P.C.C.M. partners!

West Mill On The Kings Port Division 

And 

Terminal Yard on The N.Y.C.T.L. 

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. #73 Part 3 On The Railroad

Welcome back to the continuation of the Penn Central Car Movements on the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

P.C.C.M. #73 is a three railroad layout train movement set in the the Penn Central Era. Taking us back in time will be Sir John and his N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph and his Kings Port Division. 

PC Train VW-1, Selkirk to Weehawken ran late as it was waiting for a connecting freight train to arrive at Selkirk. The train finally got under way, and arrived in the wee hours of the morning.

Here we see PC Train VW-1 arriving in Weehawken, with light from some of the yard lights giving you a little view of the train arriving from Selkirk.

There needs to be an engine and crew change at Weehawken. The AP crew is waiting on a move. 

PC 6014-6031 cuts away from the train. They'll move up so the PA engines can take over.

Newly acquired Dash 8-40B AP #2370 is on the head end with AP U28B #2360. They'll bring the train to Rock Ridge.

Now that PC 6014/6031 and AP 2370/2360 have swapped positions in the yard. AP Train WR-3 will head out... 

A short time later, AP Train WR-3 is awaiting the signal at West Harold Interlocking. 

The signal is given and they'll approach the next signal at Little Jamaica Interlocking. 

"Another stop signal?" Can be heard from the cab. This crew must be new, or have the senior crew on board...

The signal comes up, and WR-3 is on its way to Rock Ridge Freight Yard. 

AP Train WR-3 Heading to Rock Ridge...

Train WR-3 is at CP South getting instructions from Yardmaster and Tower Operator 187th Rich. He sees the engineer is a little perturbed as he heard him on the radio earlier. "Hey Steve! What's the matter today?" Turns out the engineer of the day is 1/87th Steve, one of the senior engineers on the AP. 1/87th Steve replies.. "Whomever is giving train orders needs to be ready when I approach with my train!" No reply from Rich, so he figures Steve must be having a bad day or lack of his breakfast at his favorite diner... Rich will hold him there for a few until he moves some trains out of the yard. 

Meanwhile, EB 8163 is on the move with 1/87th Norman at the throttle..

AP 302 is at the ready with 1/87th NJ John in the cab...

The engines from AP train W-3 are cut and they'll head to the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal for servicing...

Let's watch AP engines #2370 & #2360 heading out to the engine terminal

Now the real work starts. EB #8163 will start to break down part of the train and classified in the yard..

First pull are the 4 KP&W box cars. A pair will go to Ideal Auto Parts and the other pair to C&P Restaurant Supply...

Let's watch EB #8163 pull the 4 box cars from the train...

The cars still remain by CP South. Now 1/87th Norman can start to pull more cars..

Next pull are the 86' Box Cars. They're destined for Ideal Auto Parts. However, since the other cars destined for Ideal Auto Parts have expedited parts on them, these 86 footers will be held in the freight yard. Once the other cars are unloaded, they'll be brought over to Ideal. 

AP 302 is back on the ladder ready for the next move. The call is for 1/87th NJ John to spot the three 86 footers on one of the arrival/departure tracks once EB 8163 drops them.

Let's watch AP 302 drop the cars on Arrival track C..

Meanwhile 1/87th Norman and his engine pull the rest of the train into Rock Ridge..

With AP 302 on one end, and EB 8163 on the other, they can break down the rest of the train fairly quickly...

They cut some cars on the north end...

Now EB 8163 can shoe the gondola cars on east ladder track #8

Back on the west ladder, 1/87th Norman hands off the box cars to 1/87th NJ John to spot on the west ladder..

Cars for Ideal and Mikes Lumber are dropped. 

The cars are cut and they'll drop the rest of them on the adjacent track...

Next move will be to drop the two PC box cars. The Hi-Cube PC 272747 is headed for American Hardware and PC 142770 is for Morton Salt. The box car for Morton will be moved near the plant and serviced by the Morton Salt crew since that industry only has one track and is for covered hoppers only...

Next drop are the 4 KP&W box cars..

Last move is dropping the caboose on west ladder track #1 

Let's get those engines back on their track until needed..

With both engines on East Ladder track #2, the moves for the day are done. The aerial view shows the yard is near capacity.

We'll cut it here for today. Tomorrow we'll see the crew of Rock Ridge Freight Yard build the trains that will deliver goods to the respective consignees..

Make sure you check out the other inbound moves on Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division. 

Thanks for reading!

New Engine Additions To The Railroad

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

I had three engines that were in original paint schemes that I bought many years ago and wanted them in paint schemes that I currently model. 

All three engines were painted by my friend Ted in Dedham, MA. He's done all of the AP engines and some CSX engines. 

The first two were a pair of Athearn Blue Box GP40 engines. I gave him the road numbers as well as the images of the Conrail engines I wanted.

Here's Conrail GP40 3269

And here's Conrail GP40 3214

In order for these engines to run on DCC as well as to run together in consist, they were given to NJ John, who hard wired the decoders into these engines. When Athearn made their 'Blue Box' line of engines, there was never anything that resembled DCC back then. He's great at installing decoders, especially for engines that need a little more work than most.

A little video on how they run for a few minutes...

They look great, and run well together, although they are loud and sound like they're grinding thru rocks. I'll let them run laps around the railroad to get them broken in. 

Next engine that came back from Ted was a Walthers Trainline Dash 8-40B. This engine I had him paint in my Atlantic Pacific Railroad Paint Scheme. I assigned it #2370. A DCC decoder was added by NJ John. This engine is quite heavy and when I put it in the track, ran very well out of the box. 

I decided to put this engine with AP U28B #2360 and consist them up. Here's a short video of how they run together.

They ran well together, although it looked like the U28B had a quicker start up. Once running at a reasonable speed, they ran fine together. I'll work to get them speed matched shortly. 

Thanks again to Ted and to NJ John for their work on the engines. The engines had been with John for a while. We were talking the other night and John said the next time he goes out to run an errand, he would swing by and drop them off. Well, the engines arrived here today as John backed up on to the driveway, opened up the back of his minivan, and I removed the engines as well as gave him a few others that needed a tune-up as well as a decoder replacement on one of the engines. Thank you again John!!