P.C.C.M.#33A / New Engineer At Bedford Park

Greetings All,

From the April 1969 Penn Central Post Magazine page 32;
Promotion: 1/87th scale PC Ralph. From conductor to engineer.


That's right!

With the opening of Bedford Park Yard the N.Y.C.T.L. found itself in need of an engineer to work at this location. Looking to promote from within management looked at available conductors who could be quickly certified as train engineers. 

With seniority, perfect attendance, and having been under the tutelage of engineers 1/87th scale Sir Neal and Engineer Ed 1/87th scale PC Ralph was given an offer he couldn't refuse.

After his training and certification 1/87th scale PC Ralph was given the Bedford Park Yard assignment. He will be responsible for operating the Bedford Park Turn trains #12 and #41 and switching the local industries.

Oh yeah, the job start time is 12:00 AM. Management conveniently left that out of the brochure!

Bedford Park Yard day one and newly minted N.Y.C.T.L. Engineer 1/87th scale PC Ralph is on duty at the stroke of midnight ready to take the throttle of N.Y.C.T.L. Train BP-12 (Bedford Park Turn)

1/87th sale PC Ralph and his crew get right to work and pull this GM&O 40' boxcar from American Hardware loaded with bulk hardware for ACME Auto Parts located in Mayfield NY.

PC Ralph shows an easy touch on the Fairbanks Morse H16-44 as he smoothly shoves back to All-City Storage to pick up empty 50' NYC boxcar #47063. Normally in pool service between All-City and Peerless Appliance an empty car request from Reliable Machine Works in Empire City will have this car heading there for a load of appliance motors for Peerless.  

The H16-44 is at Bedford Park Yard and spotting the caboose and two boxcars out of the way.

The Bedford Park Turn is now working the Ford Plant pulling these three empty 60' boxcars. The boxcars will be heading back to ACME Auto Parts. N.Y.C.T.L. management assigns other than E.M.D. power here to keep it's largest customer at Bedford Park happy.

The empties are shoved back into Bedford Park Yard and coupled up to the GM&O boxcar, NYC boxcar and caboose.

Perhaps he's sweating a little bit, or maybe he's not but working these high value loaded 89' tri level auto racks gives many an engineer a dose of concern due to their  dimensions.

So far so good as BP-12 pulls a second loaded tri level auto rack from Ford.

1/87th scale PC Ralph has climbed down from his engine to give Train SV-2 a roll by inspection. SV-2 left Chicago a little over 50 hours ago and is due into Terminal Yard at 1:30 AM.

SV-2 roars thru Bedford NY towards Terminal Yard with auto parts and auto racks for the Bedford Park Ford Plant. 

  And BP-12 is hot on it's heels!

SV-2 arrives on time at Terminal Yard

BP-12 arrives at 01:45 AM and follows SV-2 into Terminal Yard where we see the bulk of the N.Y.C.T.L.'s 1/87th scale train men and tower operators welcoming BP-12 and it's rookie engineer 1/87th scale PC Ralph

 Like a conquering hero 1/87th scale PC Ralph is greeted by his 1/87th scale peers after his first solo run. 

The Terminal Yard switcher has freed 1/87th scale PC Ralph's engine and is building up the second part of the Bedford Park Turn, BP-41. PC Ralph thanks the guys for their thoughtfulness and gets ready to board his engine.

BP-41 departs Terminal Yard with the cars from SV-2 and heads back to Bedford Park.

 BP-41 high balling thru Bedford NY and back to Bedford Park.  

And there it is! 1/87th scale PC Ralph has an incident free first day and is now on the books as a full fledged 1/87th scale train engineer. Congratulations 1/87th scale PC Ralph!!

Thanks for reading!