Pool Power Opens The Summer Action

Greetings All,

With the New York Central Train Layout back up and ready for action I had a sort of modeler's block on what engines and cars I wanted to take out of their boxes and put on the layout. While I contemplated this I was also thinking about the Memorial Day Weekend and the recent opening of our neighborhood pool. Pool? Hmm...Pool Power? Hmmm... And there was the inspiration for getting the first actual revenue train into Empire City. 

What is Pool Power among railroads? It simply allows for two or more railroads to run an entire train with diesel locomotives thru congested terminals with minimum delays. The railroads kept accounts of locomotive mileage on foreign roads and any imbalances were reconciled by agreement, with either a fixed cost per mile charge or a loaned diesel to run off the owed mileage. The whole process became known as motive power pooling and the New York Central was an early participant in motive power pools and run through trains.

For today's action I concentrated on using two loaner diesels from the CB&Q. The choice of which road name was cemented by recent conversations with a fellow modeler known here as ATJOE1972. The NYC and CB&Q used end terminal and routing thru Elkhart - Omaha Nebraska, via Chicago for their motive power pooling agreements. 

From the New York Central Railroad Color History by Brian Solomon with Mike Schafer. Page 54 covers the NYC's involvement.

 A close up of the connecting railroads and terminals

With the story set let's take a look at the action;

CB&Q F3As running off owed miles leave Terminal Yard with train EC-3 destined for North Side Yard.

Rolling thru Bedford we can see University Milling in need of rail cars to get back into operation. The P&E boxcar spotted at Berk Enterprises is being loaded for use in the next P.C.C.M.

 If we're going to run CB&Q engines we might as well get the CB&Q rolling stock into the mix. This is a Proto 2000 kit. The small lettering near the door says "Do not load with Lime, Soda Ash, Bulk Cement, Hides, Oil Tar and Creosote Products or any commodity that will render it unfit for Flour Grain Loading" This car has the 'Everywhere West' slogan on one side and the 'Way of the Zephyrs' on the other side.

Burlington Refrigerator Express cars with both wood and steel sides. Models are Athearn BB.

1/87th scale John B is back on duty at Bedford Tower and gives the high ball to EC-3. 1:1 John B was a proponent of using 'Pool Power' to get my pair of Mopac B23-7s on the N.Y.C.T.L. Looking at photo #2 above he was right as the Mopac and NYC had pool power agreements in place. 

EC-3 on the High Line. The boxcar with the yellow door is a Missouri, Kansas and Quincy 50'er that older modelers will recognize as belonging to NMRA Master Modeler Gary Hoover. It is an Accurail product.

EC-3 heads thru midtown. The lady on the left  better get her nose out of her pocketbook and look up! 

 A CB&Q wood sides boxcar and double door boxcar.

CB&Q F3As, 1/87th scale Larry D and a chain gang clearing the mess at Hohman Ave. let us know that EC-3 is arriving at North Side Yard. 

 EC-3 arrives at Terminal Yard. 

Extended vision CB&Q Athearn RTR caboose #13635  brings up the markers. I believe the CB&Q actually had this style of caboose.

Behind the caboose we can see the investigation is under way on this possible mob hit.

The 1/87th scale trainmen of the N.Y.C.T.L. gather at North Side Yard to check out the foreign power. Keep an eye on 1/87th scale PC Ralph. He looks like he's ready to head out and where's his car?

What's this?! Seems 1/87th scale PC Ralph took advantage of the N.Y.C.T.L. hiatus and has purchased two promotional vehicles for his Ralph's Grocery empire.

Here's a close up of 1/87th scale PC Ralph burning up the asphalt with this over sized custom make hot rod shopping cart. And it's a business write off. Way to go Ralph!

Meanwhile the foreign power runs caboose lite back to Terminal Yard

Now it's time to get the Empire City businesses back in business. Four 40' reefers are spotted at Ralph's Grocery warehouse under the watchful eye of 1/87th scale Hot Rod Shopping Cart Ralph.

The North Side Yard power today are the old reliable and turbocharged NYC EMD GP20s. 

I really like the way these GP20s look in mainline service and even more so in local service. Their short wheel base makes them very nimble, their weight gives them excellent pulling power and they run extremely well at slow speeds. Both GP20s are Life Like Proto 2000 models. 

That's it for today. Keep an eye out for the next P.C.C.M. installment. 1:1 scale PC Ralph's Kings Port Division will be originating the action. http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/ and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with the virtual ops.

I'll also be meeting this Saturday with 1:1 Engineer Ed at our L.H.S., Trainmaster Models in Buford GA for a swap meet. I'm hoping to score some rib sided cover hoppers for a joint project with 1:1 PC Ralph and Engineer Ed. More on that in future posts.

Thanks for reading!