Penn Central Car Movement #43B

Greetings All,

Welcome back to the Penn Central Car Movement 43 series! The gathering of freight cars to send out to Ralph's K.P.D. layout and John B's L.F.N.W. layout continues with our focus on Empire City industries and the Long Island Railroad transferring freight cars with the Empire Belt RR at North Side Yard. 

We'll start the action at the Empire Belt's North Side Yard with 1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal and conductor John R. going over their switching moves.

1/87th scale Sir Neal shoves this cut of cars towards the east side of Empire City no doubt recalling the cheesy UP "We can handle it " commercials. The UP 'we can handle it" slogan began appearing in 1972. You can almost hear 1/87th scale Sir Neal shouting the Empire Belt can handle it! The A.P.R.R. can handle it!

The Empire Belt crew has plenty of work today on the east side.  Cargill, Gervais Pipe & Fitting and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse all need to be switched. Cargill hopper TLDX 7241 is loaded with barely for Cavendish Fine Foods & Spirits in Mayfield NY. Penn Central gondola 288673 loaded with pipe for the Hudson Valley Ag Coop will be heading to Williams Yard in Kings Port NY.

Some quick car shuffling by 1/87th scale Sir Neal and conductor John R. has these two cars going to the Kings Port Division coupled together. These 1/87th scale guys are good!

The crew pulls these empties from Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. Rock Island 35062 will be heading off to American Hardware in Bedford Park on an intra layout move.

With the east side work completed the crew is now on the west side switching out Superior Furniture. Empty 50' BM RBL's 109 &110 will be headed back to Corning Glass Works in Corning NY. Corning NY got it's name from Erastus Corning, who was the first president of the New York Central among his many other accomplishments.   

Next stop is Moore & Company where the crew will pick up the old warhorse NYC Pacemaker car loaded with burlap bags for Agway in Bloomberg NY and PC 40' boxcar 77047 loaded with burlap bags for Hedberg Aggregates in Marion NY. 

1/87th scale Sir Neal has shoved back on the siding to pick up NYC 50' boxcar 80775 loaded with drums of ink for Canton Box in West Mill NY. The bar patron behind the boxcar pays no attention as he takes care of his own business.

Rut-roh. An Empire City Police Officer is at the grade crossing letting 1/87th scale conductor John R know he'll be be keeping time of how long the grade crossing will be blocked. Viewers can see that the E.B.R.R. crew has cut their train while working the west side to keep the amount of time they block the crossing to a minimum. 1/87th scale Sir Neal is waiting for the hand signal to shove back and couple up the bulkhead flat. 

As usual the crew is on top of their game and the grade crossing is now open well under the allotted time. As for this sudden grade crossing interest by the E.C.P.D. only one thing comes to mind. Rookies....

With that drama out of the way the crew is back at North Side Yard putting together outbound trains for Terminal Yard and the L.I.R.R. transfer that is due in shortly. The PC depressed center flat 766053 will be heading empty to Selkirk where it will be stored until it's next assignment. TP&W 40' boxcar 627 was loaded with steel wool fibers at Walsh's Steel Wool Products in our last P.C.C.M. and is now ready to head out of town to Boom's ready mix in Kings Port NY. 

And like clockwork here comes the L.I.R.R. transfer run behind an Alco RS-1 in the 1964 World's Fair scheme. The L.I.R.R. was later bought by the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority from the Pennyslvania RR in 1966 for $65 million dollars. The train is inspected by Bedford Tower operator 1/87th scale John B as it heads for Empire City and North Side Yard.

With deer season now over Long Island processors have loaded Great Northern 40' boxcar 3630 with animal hides. What?! That will ruin the car. Not so fast the hides are shrink wrapped. An interesting story that we'll get to the bottom of once the car reaches the Port of Oakland on John B's layout. Behind GN 3630 are Penn Central gondolas 576104 and 576123 loaded with scrap from Gershow Recycling for Kings Port Steel in...Kings Port NY.

The L.I.R.R. arrives today via the west side reverse track. This move is done when North Side Yard is at full capacity which is the case today. 

L.I.R.R. caboose C-91 protects the shove back on the industrial lead. The L.I.R.R. crew will switch over to the track on the right and then switch out their inbound and outbound cars at North Side Yard.

The work at North Side Yard completed the L.I.R.R. train heads out of town over the Empire City viaduct.

The nattily attired L.I.R.R. RS-1 makes it's way thru Bedford NY past a string of loaded coal hoppers. For more on the 1964-65 Worlds fair and the L.I.R.R. participation click here

Caboose C-91 brings up the markers at Bedford Station. Not far behind will be 1/87th scale Sir Neal with the Empire Belt transfer run to Terminal Yard.

The E.B.R.R. is on the High Line. Not taking any chances with the GN car of hides it's placed well away from the engine and caboose.

Empty P&E 40' boxcar came in on the tail end of the L.I.R.R. transfer run. Here it heads to Terminal Yard and it will be eventually sent out to Berk Enterprises in Bedford NY as an intra layout move. PC depressed center flat 766053 will be centrally stored at Selkirk until needed.

PC 77047, NYC Pacemaker, NYC 80775 and TLDX 7241 are all loaded and earning much needed revenue.

A loaded PC gondola adds to the coffers being trailed by two empty RBL's in pool service out of Corning Glass.

1/87th scale Sir Neal gets the green light from Bedford Tower operator John B. as he proceeds towards Terminal Yard.

A short time later E.B.R.R. 7278 leads the consist under the Terminal Yard control tower and down the yard throat towards the arrival tracks.

Tomorrow we'll wrap it up with the Terminal Yard switch crew and the dispatch of Train LI-1 that will take our virtual ops cars to Selkirk where they'll be interchanged into trains for Ralph's K.P.D. layout and John B's L.F.N.W. layout. 

Thanks for reading!!