P.C.C.M. 62 Part 3 - Sorting The Freight In Rock Ridge Yard

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and the Penn Central Car Movements! 

We're jumping right in with the inbound freight from WR-3, Weehawken to Rock Ridge. This train has freight from Ralph's Kings Port & Western and John's New York Central Train Layout.

The train arrived on the east ladder in Rock Ridge Yard. APRR MP15 #105 has the duty of the day with engineer 1/87th NJ John at the throttle. 

The east ladder is being used for some of the freight cars as they will be blocked for the delivery to customers in and around Rock Ridge.

There are 3 cars from the N.Y.C.T.L. going to Ideal Auto Parts. 1/87th NJ John will move them over to the west ladder for sorting shortly. 

Meanwhile, 1/87th NJ John drops the Morton Salt Car from the Ronzoni Plant in Empire to the Morton Salt Facility for reloading. 

APRR #200 RS-1 is called to make the move on the west ladder to spot the 3 box cars on track 7. Engineer of the day is 1/87th Stuart, who is being closely watched by 1/87th Norman. Stuart doesn't know it, but he's on double secret probation, thanks in part to that blunder he had on his first day out. 

The two freight cars from the KP&W will be spotted on track 11. 

What's this? 1/87th Sir John R. dressed in his Sunday best at the yard office with some of the workers. Why is he here? For the #2 guy in A.P.R.R. Management team to come out of the office on a hot day to talk to the guys, something must be up.

1/87th Sir John R. turns to the crew on the switcher and tells him the bad news. "Guys, Rock Ridge has a problem. It seems the Selkirk crew left a string of freight cars on a track and forgot to block it on the train. There was a special load from Gervais Pipe for Shapeless Steel that's for some work being done the next business day in Rock Ridge and they dispatched an Extra from Selkirk". 

I'm sure the guys are not happy as they have to wait for this train to hit the yard before they can leave. Extra 7983 is hitting the yard now from the north ends. However, they do appreciate the boss coming to tell them in person, instead of a phone call. 

Here's PC Extra 7983 arriving in Rock Ridge with the freight left in Selkirk. 

We'll end it here today and wrap it up on the next installment with freight being delivered in and around Rock Ridge.

Check back tomorrow!

P.C.C.M. 62 Part 2 - Inbound Train To Rock Ridge

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and the Penn Central Car Movements!

P.C.C.M. 62 is a three layout movement and it's inbound weekend on the N.Y.C.T.L. Hosted by John R. and on the Kings Port & Western Hosted by PC Ralph 

We continue with the arrival of Train WR-3 from Weehawken. This train originated in Selkirk, NY, then headed south down the River Line to Weehawken, NJ. A quick crew and engine change, and train WR-3 heads off to Rock Ridge. 

The inbound freight on train WR-3 has four freight cars from the Kings Port & Western. In addition, there are 9 freight cars from the N.Y.C.T.L. and a couple other cars added to the train in Selkirk from other parts of the Penn Central System. 

Train WR-3 is heading to the yard, via the main line of the A.P.R.R. He'll pass thru Baskerville Station, the local passenger stop on their way to the Rock Ridge. 

Train WR-3 is on Track 1 of the Mainline approaching the west end of West Harold Interlocking. Tower Operator 1/87th NJ John, a veteran of the A.P.R.R., is watching these train movements very carefully. In this hot and humid July, track conditions can be tested!

Train WR-3 heading to Rock Ridge and approaching the Little Jamaica Interlocking. 1/87th Norman, the official photographer of the A.P. R.R. captures the train heading thru the interlocking.

Once thru the interlocking, Train WR-3 will be routed thru the east ladder in Rock Ridge Yard by 1/87th Yardmaster Rich T. 

We'll stop here for today as the crew is done for the day. Check back tomorrow for the breakdown of the train and then we'll wrap it up with the delivery of the freight!

P.C.C.M. 62 Part 1 - Outbound On The A.P.R.R.

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

P.C.C.M. #62 is a three layout movement featuring John R. and his Incredible N.Y.C.T.L. Railroad, and Ralph's Highly detailed and amazing K.P. & W. Railroad.

As many of you know, I model both modern as well as the 60's thru the 80's. A couple days ago I hosted a night time operating session. This means that all pieces of rolling stock and engines are and can be used for operations. In order for me to properly execute a P.C.C.M. I first need to make sure any equipment past the Penn Central era is out of the way or out of the photography view. 

Here's what the yard looked like after Wednesday night's session:

As you can see, I needed to move a number of freight cars and engines around and strategically place them out of the camera's view. 

This took a little bit of time. Once these moves were completed, we started with P.C.C.M. 62, so here we go!!

Penn Central GP40 #3007 had been in Rock Ridge Yard was called into action and will make up the train that will head to Weehawken and eventually to Selkirk. 

American Hardware had recently received a number of 40' box cars from the Patti-O Paint Shop, located within the property of the N.Y.C.T.L. They are the premier paint shop for most, if not all APRR freight cars. 

A set of four 40' box cars are picked up by #3007. AP box car #4035 & #4182 will head to American Hardware in Bedford Park on the N.Y.C.T.L. with some new inventory which includes some nuts and bolts as well as an entire load of wood screws. Empire Belt (EB) 40' box cars #416035 and #416079 will head over to Neal's Lumber with some plumbing supplies.

PC #3007 gets a hold order as he's going to need to pick up some more freight cars before heading out. They're going to be picking up some empty coal hoppers from R.M.O. Electric to be dropped off in Selkirk. Two KP&W cars and a number of AP & EB coal hoppers are headed to be loaded with coal from both coal suppliers on the KP&W and N.Y.C.T.L.

As we head over to R.M.O. Electric, AP GE 44 Tonner #900 will pull the empties out on to the Rock Ridge secondary. Once set off, PC #3007 will shove back to pick them up. 

Once the coal cars are picked up, the switcher will pick up some coal cars that are being stored in Rock Ridge Yard. R.M.O. Electric has 4 tracks with limited space for hopper cars, so it's a short run to get them from storage until needed. 

PC 3007 shoves back to pick up the empties and then head out.

There's one more stop that needs to be made so they head back to CP South Tower for orders. 

It seems the train, while complete with freight cars, is missing a piece of equipment. 

Here's the transcript:

CP South: CP South Tower to PC Train Engineer 3007, over!
PC Engineer 3007: Go ahead CP South, over!
CP South Tower: 3007 you forgot the road crew and caboose, over!
PC Engineer 3007: CP South I thought I had the entire train, over!
CP South Tower: Not quite. Hold just before leaving the Yard Limit and we'll have it added to your train, over!
PC Engineer 3007: Thanks, confirmed to hold at the yard limit, over!
CP South Tower: Are you a new recruit, over!
PC 3007 Engineer: I was a transfer from another railroad, over!
CP South Tower: For the record, your name please, over!
PC 3007 Engineer: My name is Stuart from the BAR, over.
CP South Tower: 10-4 Stuart, we'll be watching you, over!
PC 3007 Engineer: Yes Sir! Over!

Penn Central Caboose #19840 will be added to the train. AP engine RS-1 #200 Spirit Of Jay will add the caboose to the train. 

Now back on the engine track, his work is done. If that train would have left without the caboose and crew, the FRA would be all over the railroad and the engineer could lose his job. 

Ready to go, PC train #RW-2 will head out to Weehawken, pick up some additional freight cars and head to Selkirk to be interchanged. 

Here we go!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out the other participants in P.C.C.M. #62!

Sir John's N.Y.C.TL.

and 

PC Ralph's Kings Port & Western

Weekend Update - Rolling Stock Added To The Railroad

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

I have quite a few trainsets on the railroad in staging such as mixed freight, steel, intermodal, auto racks and more. One of the trainsets that I have is a TTX trainset. It stays on the lower level passing siding. This train comes only comes out when I have a new person at my operating session and has never run the railroad, or, when I want to see a train traverse the layout. 

This train had two different types of TTX box cars on the railroad. It had 7 ExactRail Trinity 6275 Plug Door Box Car - FBOX 2004 'As Delivered' and 5 60' Gunderson Box Cars. I've photographed this train a few times on the railroad with a car length from 14 to 25+ cars. 

Within the past year in order to have more trains run during an operating session, I shortened most trains to 15 cars with engines and a caboose. The latest train had a pair of GP35 APRR engines on the lead. 

I moved them to the Richmond Hill Engine Terminal to be used on another trainset when needed. Then I decided that I needed to do a freight car transplant to this train...again!

First thing was to remove all of the 7 ExactRail FBOX box cars. Easy fix. That left the 5 of the 60 Gunderson cars on the current train. 

The cars shown below are a combination of Athearn and ExactRail. The one closest in the picture is the Athearn version. Another one next to it.

Next I added 4 new Walthers 60' Gunderson F Plate Box cars. These were on order for over a year (actually forgot I had them on order), and of course they just showed up. These were made in their Mainline series and came with their ProtoMax couplers. I changed them out and added Kadee #148 whisker couplers. Four of them are now on the layout. 

Next, I added 2 of the first run Athearn Ready To Roll 60' Gunderson cars. I had already equipped them with Kadee couplers as the McHenry couplers they use are plastic, and are not a good coupler. They use them as the parent company of Athearn, Horizon Hobby bought the McHenry Coupler Company many years ago. One less thing to get from an outside source in China.

The last set of cars were a recent run of the Athearn 60' Gunderson cars. This run is in their new light blue and white boxes. I had 3 of them and had changed the couplers to Kadee as well. 

The train, with 14 of these freight cars is on the layout ready to roll, I wanted a more modern set of engines to run the train. I had brought back from the Florida a number of engines, including a pair of Atlas Dash 8-40B engines in CSX. These would now power this train. 

Now that we're ready to all, all that was left was to move it back down below to the lower level passing siding track. This train will remain below until someone comes over and would like to run it, or when I work on the layout and want to see trains running the upper level. 

Next up were 4 Athearn 30k Ethanol tank cars that were on a big discount from modeltrainstuff.com back in May. These are Canadian GATX tank cars. Only thing I did to them was to change the couplers to Kadee. 

Once on the layout I decided that while the railroad had many different types of freight trains, I didn't have one for tank cars. The freight yard had a few sitting on some tracks, so I grabbed 4 and had the switcher run them over. 

On more modern trains, just behind the engine, is a buffer car. While I don't have one labeled as 'Buffer', we added a Conrail covered hopper behind the engine. 

Next car to add to this train is a caboose. I added the Bluford Shops CSX shoving caboose to this train. 

The train is now assembled and ready for road power. I brought up another set of Atlas Dash 8-40B engines to complete the trainset. This train will head to staging below and worked into an operating session. 

Thanks for reading. Please check back often for more updates!