P.C.C.M. #83 Part 1 On The A.P.R.R. - The Outbound Begins

Welcome to another Penn Central Car Movement on the Atlantic Pacific Railroad! P.C.C.M. #83 is a three layout move featuring Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L.  and PC Ralph's K.P.D. layouts where freight cars move from one layout to another thru our blog posts!

Today's move will start out in Rock Ridge Yard where the crews of AP engines are ready to go. MP15 engine AP #105 will have 1:87 Scale Dan at the throttle as train RR-1 and AP #106 will have 1:87 Scale Matt in the seat as train RR-2. Out on the road is AP GP38-2 #304 with 1:87 Scale NJ John in the cab as train RR-3 and 1:87 Norman in the caboose protecting the train as well as looking for issue on the rails, since he is the official AP photographer.

We see an EL 50' Reefer in the yard. This car will head to Cavendish Foods on the K.P.D. 

Over at the south end of the yard, ShopRite has 4 box cars that will head out. A pair of KP&W box cars have some non-perishable foods on board that will head over to Cavendish Foods on the KPD. The EL and NP reefers will head over to Terminal Cold Storage on the N.Y.C.T.L. with frozen foods.. 

Let's watch the move from ShopRite with AP 105....

The cars will be spotted and blocked according to destination......

Here we see AP #304 on the West Harold Secondary picking up a pair of PC gondolas for Mid Island Steel on the N.Y.C.T.L.with steel slabs...  

Next stop on the West Harold Secondary will be to pick up 6 freight cars from C&P Restaurant Supply. The HRC 40' box car, which was produced in honor and memory of our late friend Engineer Ed and LV 7120 will head to the K.P.D. The HRC car goes to Battaglia Bros. Warehouse with restaurant supplies and the LV box car goes to West Mill. 

The remaining 4 cars for the N.Y.C.T.L. head out as follows: BAR reefer heads to Pilgrim State Hospital with frozen foods. AP RBL Box car heads to Terminal Warehouse with restaurant supplies. A pair of AP 40' box cars head to Best Wholesale with restaurant supplies..

Let's watch the move in action...

There's a couple of freight cars at Mike's Lumber that will head over to Universal Millwork on the N.Y.C.T.L....

Next stop is Ideal Auto Parts. This is the second trip for the crew to Ideal in two days as they had to make some moves for additional box cars that are needed at the Ford Plant on the N.Y.C.T.L. Some of the cars were dropped at the Rock Ridge East Yard, which has the capacity not only store some cars, but enough track space to handle the entire train for the N.Y.C.T.L!!

AP #106 pulls the auto parts cars off the head of AP #304 and takes them over to Rock Ridge East Yard. AP #304 will head back to Rock Ridge Yard to drop some cars and get them blocked for the outbound trains. 

Meanwhile, on the Rock Ridge Secondary, AP #900 with 1:87 Scale JP pull a pair of empty KP&W coal hoppers that will head back to West Mill for more coal. He'll drop them in the yard...

Meanwhile AP #304 had to go back to the yard as 1:87 Scale Norman noticed a possible issue with the PC Gondolas, so there wasn't a drop at Rock Ridge East Yard as planned...

The crew pulled the Morton Salt Covered Hopper from Morton Salt, which is located on the south end of Rock Ridge Yard. That car will head to Ronzoni in Empire City. 

After further inspection by 1:87 Scale Steve & Bob, the crew clears the cars to return to service..

Back over at Rock Ridge East Yard, AP #106 does a quick run to Three Amigos to pick up a pair of KP&W box cars that will head out empty to Quality Fabrications on the K.P.D. 

AP #105 has a pick up at Cargill for the Hostess covered hopper that will head to Hostess in Empire City. 

Now the crew will work to get the cars destined for the N.Y.C.T.L. over to the Rock Ridge East Yard...

AP #106 will be busy all day...

Here we see AP #106 working Rock Ridge East Yard...

We'll stop here for today. Check back tomorrow for the continuation of the outbound portion on the A.P.R.R. as well as the outbound moves on both Sir John's incredible N.Y.C.T.L.  and PC Ralph's superb K.P.D. layouts!!

Thanks for reading!

Steel Coil Loads For Gondola Cars

Welcome followers to the Atlantic Pacific Railroad Blog! 

While the railroad runs well, I wanted some details for some of my freight cars I had picked up at a very good price; some Walthers Mainline gondola cars (5 of them). 

The cars did need something as far as some type of load. I saw on EBAY some coil loads that would look good in these gondola cars These coil loads came in a few different styles and types. 

Some background on steel coil loads can be found HERE!

The first type are Steel Coil Car Load Hot Strip Mill 8 Coils Banded 60" w x 7' HO scale

The next ones are Steel Coil Car Load GALVANIZED SS 8 Coils Banded 60" w x 7' HO scale

In order to get them to stay in place, I needed some racks for the gondolas...

Here's what they look like when the coils are loaded into the cars...

The last load that I bought  had 9 Total Coils with Racks for 40' - 50' Gondola or Flat Cars - Five (5) Large Coils, Four (4) Small Coils about 48" Wide.

This last load looks okay. It's made more for a 40' gondola than a 53' gondola car. 

These 5 cars will be incorporated into the layout. Look for them in action on a future blog post!

Thanks for reading!

New Engines For My Virtual Operating Sessions!

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

As many may know, I participate in a 3 railroad virtual operating session where like cars go from my railroad to Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and of course to my railroad.

A conversation between the three of us was initiated by me as Ralph has a great industry on his layout called Tri Mount Cement.

I have a number of PS-2 covered hoppers which are in NYC and PRR paint schemes that I can interchange via photos with Ralph. John and I move 4 PC PS-2 covered hoppers from his industry, T&R Gravel..

The cars from John's railroad always go to my engine terminal. So I did some thinking and decided that other industries, even if 'Off Layout' can be used to receive these cars. Since I live in Morris County NJ, we have a company called "County Concrete" which uses sand and more to make cement. So why not have an 'off layout' industry as well that can handle these cars? County Concrete fits the bill! 

I have all the freight cars, so that's not an issue. I did have some Atlas HO scale C424 engines in the Morristown & Erie (M&E) that were new. The M&E is a local shortline that has been around for decades and it's possible at one time the M&E serviced County Concrete and both Kenvil and Morristown locations. All the engines needed were decoders. I asked my friend NJ John to do the install and as always, he delivered!

Here's M&E #'s 18 and 19 on the railroad..

Of course, we need a caboose for our virtual op sessions..

The engines and caboose will be in a consist and will be used to pick up the PS-2 covered hoppers that are dropped in Rock Ridge Freight Yard or Rock Ridge East Freight Yard. For those of you who don't know where Rock Ridge East Freight Yard is located, I will explain. During our virtual operating sessions, I pull the 89' Auto Rack freight cars out of the terminal, and use those 3 tracks for my virtual ops. It's very difficult to take photos of things happening in that PC era, so it's best to have engines move them out of the way. The easy thing is to do is move them around the top of the helix since this area is not photographed for virtual op sessions and the 'Five Finger Crane' is not needed...

So let's take a look at the engines taking a run on the railroad!

Until next time!!

Breaking News From The Southern Command!!

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

I mentioned on some earlier Florida layout updates that I had one section of the railroad that I was not happy with. That area is the upper level east wall. I'm having some second thoughts on how it would work. 

I was sitting here looking at for some track plans that I can use in part or in its entirety. I think I found one which I can expand on. I had a copy of this in my binder where I keep all of my notes on the building of this layout. It was published in Model Railroad Planning 2005.

I placed some turnouts on top of the current track area and this can work. While it's made for 6 feet in length, I can expand this for at least 8 feet. Siding "C" would be the lead track that comes from the center section.  The track where you see the crane and scrap yard (siding D) can be expanded as well. The rest I can expand to fit the area. The amount of industries is the same as what I have at present (3) and I can probably add one more industry. 

We're still leaving the 2 tracks against the wall where the passenger trains go and they will be hidden with some type of flat or backdrop now that I have this track plan to work with.

The original track plan you see was made back in 1994 by Scot Osterweil and was made with Peco track. I will be using Atlas #4 turnouts for this plan. 

If I wasn't going back tomorrow (Wednesday), I would have ripped up the current track and put down the new track plan. Looks like this will happen sometime this summer.

Thanks for reading!

Florida Update - April 25, 2021

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

We're getting ready to head back to the northern command this Wednesday, and I wanted to get in one more update before I get into packing mode...

I decided to do some work on the upper level. The first thing I did was to move some freight cars around to see the functionality of the upper yard or interchange yard. This yard will be used to service the industries on the upper level. Two engines will be based in the yard to do work on both sides of this level. A GP39-2 and GP40 will be based up top. 

I wanted to make sure I had enough space for cars to be stored. There are two stub tracks in the yard. 

There was some space on the stub tracks so I added another foot on each track..

This gives me plenty of head space. The two tracks in front of them are the interchange tracks. 

The next thing I decided to tackle were the under the table switch machines in this area. There are 7 that needed to be installed. It's not that easy to do them solo and quite honestly, it's been years since I did them on the NJ layout. Also, add to the fact that I'm height challenged so it makes it a little more difficult (no comments about the latter, please). 

The tough part is adding the wires to them while they are mounted. Working upside down is a challenge. While looking thru some parts I stumbled on these..

I've used them on the Atlas Snap Relays. I took out another switch machine from the drawer and wanted to see if they fit on the machines. As one of my friends says often about himself, and I said to myself - "Neal, you're and idiot!" These work great and once i added the wires to them, I can install the wires on the machines, upside down, in minutes!! What a time saver!

Next project was to decide on how to mount the push buttons and panels for them. Since the upper level is set back from the lower level, there was no need to cut away the wood, just make some small panels and add them to the front. I did 4 of them right now, 3 of which are mounted, the fourth will be mounted by tonight and all will be wired in. There's a fifth panel that will be needed for this section...

Here's the work area and one of the control panels. Since there's not a workbench, I make do with what I have. I use 1/8" automotive pin stripe for the lines. Don't worry, there's no power on the rails...😁

Here's a look at some of the panels mounted...

I will piece in the gray areas with Masonite when all of the panels on the layout are installed...

The layout is coming along and I am pleased with the way it's going to run. I still need to address the upper level east wall with the industries. Those tracks may change as I do have an idea on the building that I want to use as a backdrop to hide the tracks for the passenger trains as they head to 'another destination'. 

That's all for now. More Florida updates in the summer when I come back to check on the place..

Thanks for reading!