P.C.C.M. #85 Part 1 On The A.P.R.R. - Picking Up Freight Cars For The Outbound Run

Welcome to another Penn Central Car Movement, number 85 in this virtual operation series. Freight cars are moved from 3 railroads - Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division as well as my Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

In my world, I've developed train orders that are given out to the engineers during my live operating session. Starting today, I am going to try to incorporate them into my virtual operating sessions.

There's 3 yard jobs that I will be working in order to get P.C.C.M. 85 moving.

YARD JOB – RR-5  AP 105 – ENGINEER – NJ JOHN  BRAKEMAN – NORMAN

CARGILL – PICK UP 4 CARS – 1 CAR TRACK 2 / 3 CARS TRACK 1

TROPICANA – PICK UP 1 CAR TRACK 3

AMERICAN HARDWARE – PICK UP 2 CARS – TRACK ‘D’ NORTH END

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YARD JOB – RR-2 AP 106 – ENGINEER – MATT   BRAKEMAN – JIM

C&P RESTAURANT – PICK UP 6 CARS SECONDARY TRACK

SHAPELESS STEEL – PICK UP 1 CAR TRACK 1

MIKES LUMBER – PICK UP 3 CARS

MARCAL – PICK UP 3 CARS

FREIHOFERS – PICK UP 1 CAR 

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YARD JOB – RR-3 AP 107 – ENGINEER DAN  BRAKEMAN SIR JOHN

PROCEED TO ROCK RIDGE EAST YARD

PICK UP 4 PS-2 COVERED HOPPERS FROM COUNTY CONCRETE VIA THE M&E

MEET M&E 18/19 – ENGINEER STEVE  BRAKEMAN BOB

PROCEED BACK TO ROCK RIDGE YARD

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Now that all of the yard jobs are in place, 1:87 scale Tower Operator Rich will be dispatching the jobs..

The engines and engineers are ready to start their assignments...

First move is RR-5 and they start pulling a pair of box cars from American Hardware. KP&W 15638 will go to Amalgamated Container with screw and fasteners. PC 272747, a 40' Hi-Cube Box car will head to Peerless Appliance loaded to the rafters with bulk hardware. Both industries are on the Kings Port Division Railroad...

Next stop is over at Tropicana. USLX 13068 is loaded with juice products and will be delivered to A&P Food Warehouse on Long Island. This car will be handed off, along with other cars at Selkirk to be picked up by the N.Y.C.T.L.

Next pickup - Cargill, one of the larger industries that runs 24/7. NYC covered hopper will go Blue Ribbon Flour on the K.P.D. with wheat flour. Nothing but the best for Blue Ribbon Flour!

A trio of AP covered hoppers will head over to the Cargill plant in Empire City on the N.Y.C.T.L. loaded with barley...

A quick check in with 1:87 scale tower operator Rich on where to drop the cars. According to the manifest for the outbound train, they'll need to block the cars with all freight for the K.P.D. on the rear of the outbound train. All K.P.D. freight cars will go on track "B". All N.Y.C.T.L. freight will go on tracks "A" and "C"..

The cars are spotted in the yard, NJ John gets the job done, quickly and efficiently. He's a no nonsense guy!

We now turn our attention to Rock Ridge East freight yard. M&E Train #18 has arrived with a string of 4 empty PC PS-2 covered hoppers and some non-PCCM covered hoppers. 1:87 scale Steve has picked them up from the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal and from County Concrete. the four PC covered hoppers will go to T&R Gravel on the N.Y.C.T.L. The other cars will be stored until needed by the A.P.R.R.

Back at the yard, the crew of yard job RR-2 with 1:87 scale engineer Matt, will head out and pick up freight at 5 different industries. Matt can handle it. he's been around railroads and yards for decades...

First stop - Shapeless Steel to pick up an EB gondola headed to Hudson Valley Ag Coop with irrigation pipes on the K.P.D.

Next stop - C&P Restaurant Supply has 6 57' reefers that will head to Pilgrim State Hospital in Long Island. The N.Y.C.T.L. will hand those cars off to the local LIRR train that goes between Empire City and industries on the LIRR. 

Next stop - Freihofers Bakeries to grab that bright HRC box car headed to Ralph's Grocery on the N.Y.C.T.L.

Over at Marcal, are a pair of AP RBL Box cars for Ralph's Grocery and a PC box car for Dan's Supreme  with paper goods...

Matt moves in to grab all of the outbound cars.. 

Last pickup on this run is by Mike's Lumber. A trio of PC RBL box cars loaded with shipping crates will head over to IBM on the K.P.D. 

Matt makes one last move so he can head back to the yard with the engine on the head end...

The moves are just about finished and he' ready to head back to the yard...

AP Train RR-2 heads back to Rock Ridge Freight Yard.. Here we go...

A stop at South Tower to check in with Rich. He gets the same directions NJ John received...

Train RR-2 in the yard...

Matt cuts away so NJ John can spot the cars on the A/D tracks...

AP 105 in position...

The last spot is completed. He'll hold for a few as AP 107 needs to get out..

AP 107 has a special visitor for a few hours. 1:87 Scale Sir John dropped in and wanted to see Rock Ridge East Yard in action. 1:87 scale Engineer Dan (1:87 Scale (and 1:1 scale) Sir Neal's nephew) is at the throttle. Nothing like having the kid meeting Sir John!

They're at Rock Ridge East Yard picking up the 4 PS-2 covered hoppers and will bring them back to Rock Ridge Yard. Sir John also gets to meet 1:87 scale Steve. Hope Steve doesn't get on his pedestal and pontificate about the M&E. Sir John will never be able to leave!!

They have the cars, and await the signal at the yard limit.

The signal is up, and they head into the yard...

We'll cut it here for today. Tomorrow the yard crew will build the outbound train that will head out for West Mill, Selkirk and Empire City!

Don't forget to check out the outbound action on both  Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L. and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division

Thanks for reading!

One More Change On The Lower Level

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog! 

As many of you know, I'm working on a number of upgrades to the layout, most of it signal upgrades. Before I take the layout out of service, I wanted to make one more small, but functional change on the layout.

While running the layout one night, I had one of the Amtrak trains that I moved to the lower level by the Morris Plains Passenger Yard. It has 5 Amfleet cars and a pair of P42 engines on it. The problem was the train was longer than the siding and was fouling the switch. If I take the engines off the train, the passenger cars fit just fine. So, where do I move or send the engines? They could go to the engine terminal, but that would involve taking some other engines out of the engine terminal and off the railroad, which I really did not want to do. 

That's when it hit me! There's a track just to the left of the passenger yard where I leave an engine to be used in case a train stalls on the helix. Below is a photo of the engine and the track. You can see the nose of the engine and that track. Behind the engine is the yard lead to the passenger tracks...

Looking at the space in front, I saw I can add at least one track, maybe a second one for a total of 3 tracks. One would be for the large CSX engine, and the other 2 tracks would be for Amtrak or any passenger engines for the passenger trains. In addition, I would put a switcher to move the passenger cars in and out of the area. There's one more piece to the puzzle....

The last piece is how to make this work, or as others have said, how would it function during an operating session. The first thing I would need to do is to move the train around the bottom of the helix as it takes up just about the entire loop. It's my TTX train that I run for guests who want to see something cool and it has the 3 CSX 'Special Edition GE ES44AH GEVO' engines on them. I'll move that train to the last track against the wall in north staging. Currently it's holding 2 Amtrak trains. They will move back around the bottom of the helix (the Amtrak Superliner Train was originally around the bottom). 

This still leaves me room. The reason for the needed room? If the passenger train needs to run, you need to pull the passenger cars out and then add them to the engine(s). That's where the switcher comes in. Since the engines will be on the adjacent tracks, the engine can be moved to the Morris Plains station, have the passenger cars added, and then the train can head out.

Here's the area with the 2 additional tracks added, along with some engines that were on passenger trains now sitting in the yard..

This was a quick and easy change to make. Most important, it adds to my operating scenario for some passenger trains...

I can now get back to contorting my head in between the upper and lower levels and start installing the signals and eventually the new panel!!

Thanks for reading!!

 

P.C.C.M. #84 Part 2 On The A.P.R.R. - Outbound Empties Head Back To Terminal Yard

Welcome back to the outbound portion of P.C.C.M. #84 on the A.P.R.R.! The Extra train arrived at Rock Ridge Yard, classified, and the boys at R.M.O. Electric turned the cars around in hours! A great job by the crew! 

AP #106, an MP15DC engine with 1:87 scale Matt handling the duties, will build the train that will head out to Terminal Yard on the N.Y.C.T.L.

All outbound cars are staged on west ladder track 9, which can handle this train with ease. Matt will drop the cars on the east ladder. 

The cars are dropped and are ready for the crew to pick up the cars..

Let's watch 1:87 scale Matt drop the cars on the east ladder...

The Penn Central crew, with PC #3175 have arrived and checks in at the yard office, located at the northern end of Rock Ridge Yard. 1:87 scale NJ John gives them their papers, has the engineer sign off, and they'll get ready to head out...

PC 3175 works his way down the ladder to the south end of the yard...

The crew couples up to the train, starts their air and brake tests before departing. The are now ready to go as PC Extra 3175 - Destination: Terminal Yard on the N.Y.CT.L...

The crew heads out of the yard, approaches the yard limit, sees the signal, and they're off!!

Extra 3175 has cleared Rock Ridge Yard Limits, now on the AP secondary en route to Selkirk and final stop at Terminal Yard...

That's a wrap for this quick P.C.C.M. Don't forget to see the other coal moves, both inbound and outbound on John's N.Y.C.T.L. and Ralph's K.P.D. railroads!

Until our next P.C.C.M.!!!

P.C.C.M. #84 Part 1 On The A.P.R.R. - A Call For Coal - And Lots Of It!

Welcome to another Penn Central Car Movement. P.C.C.M. #84 is a special virtual operating session as this one originates on Sir John's New York Central Train Layout. Sir John will be dispatching 2 'Extra' coal trains - one heading to my railroad and the other heading to Ralph's Kings Port Division.

From Wikipedia: An 'Extra' train is a train not included in the normal schedule of a railroad. They often run during busy holiday travel periods in order to handle larger crowds and reduce the number of passengers waiting or stranded at a station. In train order territory, extras are required to clear the main line for scheduled trains to pass. This can also be applied to freight trains. 

The APRR is going to receive PC Extra 6533 - a 10 car coal train that was loaded at Hudson Coal on the N.Y.C.T.L., transferred to Terminal Yard and dispatched to the APRR.

PC Extra 6533 passing thru Little Jamaica heading in to Rock Ridge Yard...

A short time later, PC Extra 6533 arrives in Rock Ridge Yard

AP MP15DC #106 with 1:87 Scale NJ John on board pulls the caboose off the end of the train and drops it on the West Ladder. Once he pulls the coal cars away, PC 6533 can get the caboose and head to Richmond Hill Engine Terminal for servicing, then parked for its next assignment...

The caboose is on the engine, and PC 6533 gets the green signal to depart Rock Ridge Yard...

Meanwhile 1:87 Scale NJ John is dropping the coal cars in the yard where they will await a quick run over to R.M.O. Electric. These cars will head back to Hudson Coal for another load when needed!

Let's watch NJ John drop the cars on Rock Ridge Yard track "B". The power plant crew will get these unloaded quickly..

Another view from the north end of the yard. There was a lot of rumbling going on, and 1:87 Scale Norman, the official APRR photographer, was having some difficulty keeping the camera steady! Great work Norman keeping it steady!

That's all for the inbound portion on the APRR. Tomorrow we'll see the outbound empties head back to Terminal Yard...

Thanks for reading!