An Unusual Move

Greetings All,

A recent bathroom remodeling project left me with some Travertine tile pieces that looked like they would make pretty good gondola loads. At the time Ralph V of the Kings Port Division http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/ and I were both making loads to share for a gondola project that he undertook. When completed each of us would have a gondola lettered as KP&W 2140 to use in our virtual ops. With both contributing scratch built loads it was a definite winner. I sent off the loads to Ralph and he sent me some fine loads and a gondola my way.

Last week the Penn Central Car Movement #9 series included the new KP&W Gondola #2140 with a granite slab destined for the Empire City Museum of Art via the NYC Water Street Freight House. The slab would then be picked up by truck and transported to the E.C.M.of A. I saluted Ralph for his ingenuity in getting the granite slab into the mix and making this a challenging freight movement. Now I could have just spotted the car at the Freight Terminal and called it a completed move. But that would have been way to easy and certainly not as much fun. So here's how a discarded tile piece got into into the ops and we had some fun with it;

KP&W Gondola #2140 with a large granite slab from the Catskill Quarry awaits pick up on the Kings Port Interchange track.

The gondola is coupled up to a flat car with an excavator destined for Empire City Caterpillar. 

It will be part of block 1 of PC Train KV-7 (Kings Port to Selkirk) 

with block 1 being forwarded to Empire City's Terminal Yard.

KV-7 is the afternoon train out of Williams Yard for Selkirk and it departs behind a good looking set of FP7-F7A power. 

The following day PC Train VN-4 (Selkirk to Empire City) heads towards 

Terminal Yard with block 1 of Train KV-7 in tow

The first six cars of the block from KV-7. Note the cars are placed in blocked order as they left 

Williams Yard on the Kings Port Division

 In order to handle the KP&W gondola car movement and coordinate it's safe unloading the Terminal Yard Yard Master, NYC Water Street Freight House Supervisor, members of the N.Y.C.T.L. track crew and some local trades people worked together to accomplish this mission.

Below Extra 2415 crosses over the bridge as it heads towards the Water Street Freight House. The street is being temporarily blocked by the E.C.P.D.  

A Penn Central tractor with heavy duty trailer waits track side

The Empire City Museum of Art has contracted with Gervais Pipe and Fitting to supply heavy lifting power to get the slab off the truck at the E.C.A. That's 1/87th scale Bobby G inspecting the forklift and standing by should it be needed. Neal's Lumber and Hardware has sent a truck of hardwood for blocking if necessary and that's 1/87th scale Sir Neal Himself standing near his Cadillac convertible.

KP&W 2140 is shoved into place.
1/87th scale PC Ralph and Engineer Ed assure the REA foreman they will leave as soon as the street reopens and not block the REA loading docks any longer.

The PC tractor trailer pulls forward to allow the crane to turn without taking out the street light

The crane operator is ready to lift the load as Mayor Julius "Big Julie" Fiorello" waves to the camera.

At this point it's even money whether the crane operator drops the slab onto the mayor or the trailer. 

Slowly the slab is lifted from the gondola

And expertly placed onto the heavy duty trailer

The PC tractor trailer with granite slab leaves Water Street with a police escort.

The caravan makes it's way through midtown

And rolls on towards the Empire City Museum of Art

It's work done Extra 2415 heads back to Terminal Yard as the Empire City Transit Authority's new R-17 subway cars glide to a stop at the E.C. subway station.

And there you have it!

There are eight million stories in Empire City and this has been one of them.

Thanks for Reading!