P.C.C.M. #42J

Greetings All,

Today we'll wrap up the P.C.C.M. 42 series with the Empire Belt Railroad taking center stage.

To: Terminal Yard, West Mill, Rock Ridge, Zenith Yard, 
       H.R.C. West Side Yard 
From: Empire Belt RR North Side Yard.

Placement, constructive placement and interchange of freight cars forwarded to the E.B.R.R.'s North Side Yard.

North Side Yard out...

1/87th scale senior engineer Sir Neal is giving today's Empire Belt crew some last minute instructions before heading out to oversee construction on the new A.P.R.R. Southern Division. 1/87th scale PC Ralph will be the lead engineer for the E.B.R.R. today.

Over at Terminal Yard 1/87th scale Engineer Ed and conductor AT JOE hold a similar briefing with the TY yardmaster as their power set idles on track 9. Engineer Ed and AT JOE will be on Double's E's favorite train, EC-1, the transfer run from Terminal Yard to Empire City's North Side Yard.

Bedford Tower operator 1/87th scale John B is out and ready to give PC Train EC-1 (Terminal Yard to Empire City) a high ball and roll by inspection.

EC -1 passing Hohman Ave Tower

1/87th scale Sir Larry is out and ready to greet EC-1 as it makes it way into Terminal Yard.

EC-1 arrives at Terminal Yard and cuts off it's train. The cars for EC-2 are sitting on track 3 with a pooled caboose.

1/87th scale EE has run the engines around to the Hohman Ave side of the yard and couples up to the freight cars that will make up EC-2. After a terminal brake test they'll be off to Terminal Yard.

Train EC-2 heads back to Terminal Yard.

With EC-2 now gone 1/87th scale PC Ralph and the Empire Belt RR crew gets to work on sorting and delivering the freight cars left by EC-1. The first move was to pull off the cars for the L.I.R.R. and two boxcars from Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. With five inbound cars today and spots for only three the Rock Island and PC boxcars will be considered constructively placed in North Side Yard and will be spotted once space becomes available.

The Empire Belt crosses over to the industrial main

With the caboose out of the way the E.B.R.R. engines shove into the Gervais Pipe / Ralph's Grocery siding to pull these cars.

Spotted at Ralph's grocery are P&LE  35892 loaded with bagged flour from Blue Ribbon Flour on Ralph's layout, E.B.R.R. 358150 loaded with paper products from Marcal Paper on Neal's layout and L.F.N.W. 160 loaded with canned foods from Oswego Manufacturing in West Egg , CA on John B's layout.

The crew has spotted this empty PC gondola at Gervais Pipe &  Fitting. They are now spotting one Cargill covered hopper loaded with grain from Empire Grain on Ralph's layout and three loaded PC covered hoppers from the large Cargill facility on Neal's layout at Empire City Cargill.

PC depressed center flatcar 766053 loaded with a Caterpillar excavator gets a royal welcome at E.C. Caterpillar. Caterpillar management, legal department, foremen and the E.C.P.D. are all happy to see the long lost excavator returned from the clutches of Sal Monella and his Sal's Salvage henchman.   

The E.B.R.R. crews heads over to the West Side across the Empire City viaduct.

First order of business is spotting NYC 50' boxcar 80775 loaded with new 55 gallon drums from Kings Port Steel at Drywell Inks.

BM 109 and 110 loaded with glass and mirrors from Corning Glass are spotted at Superior Furniture. Cushion cars with air pak load restraints makes these cars perfect for these shipments. Having 1/87th scale PC Ralph at the controls doesn't hurt either as he is very familiar with moving high cost and fragile loads.

The last move on the West Side is pulling TP&W 40' boxcar #627 from Walsh Steel Wool. The car is loaded with steel wool scrap for Boom's Ready Mix on the K.P.D.

The E.B.R.R. crew is back at North Side Yard and preparing for the arrival of the L.I.R.R. transfer run.

Cars for the L.I.R.R. include P&E 3638 and IC 30130 both loaded with packaged meals from Cavendish Fine Foods are consigned to Pilgrim State Hospital. The two Penn Central gondolas loaded with telephone poles from Bell Pole are headed to NYS DOT Region 10. All four loads originated on the K.P.D. 

1/87th scale PC Ralph and the crew have the yard ready for the L.I.R.R.'s arrival.

Like clockwork the L.I.R.R. makes it way thru Bedford NY towards Empire City's North Side Yard.

The L.I.R.R. arrives at North Side yard.

The cars from the L.I.R.R. are spotted on track 1 and the L.I.R.R. RS-1 has run around to couple up to the cars headed out to Long Island. 

The L.I.R.R. reclaims it's caboose and heads back towards Bedford NY.

Rolling thru Bedford NY towards Long Island tracks we catch the PC gondolas , IC and P&E boxcars bringing up the rear of the train.

P.C.C.M. 42J Addedendum

The following day we're back at North Side Yard shortly after 1/87th scale Engineer Ed and AT JOE have arrived with train EC-1. If we look past the UP boxcar we can see that excavator leaving Caterpillar on a low boy trailer with some sketchy paperwork having been submitted to transfer the unit.

Here is Double E shooting the morning breeze with 1/87th scale PC Ralph who is again filling in for senior engineer Sir Neal who is attending to matters on the A.P.R.R. Southern Division today.

With EC-2 gone the Empire Belt gets down to business placing RI 35062 loaded with grocery products from Ralph's Grocery Davenport, Iowa warehouse and PC 77047 loaded with Woodstock Hills All Natural Soda located in Kings Port NY.  

With the RI and PC cars spotted the E.B.R.R. engines head back to pick up three empty boxcars from Ralph's Grocery and the loaded PC gondola from Gervais Pipe sitting on the industrial lead. 

The E.B.R.R. gets busy in North Side Yard setting up Train EC-4 which will be leaving for Terminal Yard this afternoon. By late tonight the P&LE, E.B.R.R. and L.F.N.W. boxcars will be ready for loading and the gondola loaded with pipe should make the cut for PC Train LI-1 due out of Terminal Yard for Selkirk at 04:00 AM. We'll save these stories for P.C.C.M. 43.   

That wraps up the P.C.C.M. 42 series!

Thanks for watching and reading!