Athearn BB Gunderson Maxi-3 Project

Greetings All,

A couple of weeks ago I once again blew the dust off a box of Athearn BB Gunderson Maxi-3 well cars. I'd been wanting to build and paint them for 1:1 Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR for several years but getting the right decals stymied the project each time. 

Finally I found the set I was after, it was in stock and I cleared the project with Sir Neal. No sense doing all this work if he didn't want them!   

The undecorated well cars get ready for assembly after sitting in their box in my layout rooms for over 20 years.

For this project we'll be using Microscale decal set #87-1480. Several times in the past I tried to find this set for this project but it always seemed to be out of stock wherever I looked.

Fans of the A.P.R.R. know that orange is their basic corporate color. 1:1 Sir Neal continued the tradition opting for an orange five unit set. Here they are drying on the Patti-O Paint Shop.

Cars and parts are painted, ready for partial assembly and decals.

A pair of Atlantic Pacific Intermodal units just lettered. I removed the CSX lettering using only the Intermodal portion of the decal.

Four of the five units is the Solvaset phase.

A surprise bay window caboose in A.P.R.R. colors for 1:1 Sir Neal dries on the Patti-O.

The five unit set has received a shot of Testor's Dullcote to protect the decals. The caboose is still in the solvaset phase.

The A.P.R.R. well cars are ready for their first load at the Terminal Yard intermodal ramp.

The loaded well cars are pulled past 1/87th scale Sir Neal and the NYCTL trainmen on their way to a departure track.

A close up of the B unit with two 48' trailers. The decal lettering was challenging and I often used a magnifying glass to see what it said and to place the decals properly.

The A unit followed by the E, D and C units. This five unit set is considered one rail car as all are dependent on each other. 

The A.P.R.R. set is coupled up to single CSX  and Coe Leasing stand alone cars and another five unit set of well cars.

This will be CSX Train Q-160. Terminal Yard to the CSX Terminal in Rock Ridge NJ. My one and only CSX engine gets the call.

Bringing up the rear of Q-160 will AP 79, Sir Neal's newly painted bay window caboose.

Q-160 leaves Terminal Yard for the CSX Rock Ridge NJ Ramp.

The Atlantic Pacific Intermodal set rumbles over the Empire City viaduct for the final time. This time they went back into their box fully painted, operational and headed for a layout where they will be appreciated and see their fair share of running time. After 20 plus years of waiting patiently they deserve no less. 

I really enjoyed this project and look forward to seeing this set in service on 1:1 Sir Neal's layout. If and when I get to visit I'll definitely look to run them again.

Here they are on Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon!!!

A Tuesday Op Session

Greetings All,

After a week long hiatus with no layout operations I was  quite happy to be able to easily start an op session where I last left off. Sitting on track #4 in Terminal Yard from my last op session was Train BT-27, The Bedford Local. With the car cards and waybills waiting for me it was very easy to get right back into the ops mode.

 Penn Central GP-7s 5699 and 5693 are our power for today.

First stop for BT-27 is Hudson Coal to deliver this bulldozer rented from Empire City Caterpillar.

The conductor has dropped the car card and waybill off.

BT-27 rolls into Bedford on the Bedford Secondary. There is a lot of work waiting for the crew today.

 BT-27 stops outside the "new" Neubaum and Heileman siding. Two loaded boxcars will be pulled from Heileman Brewery.

With the two loaded boxcars out of the way the crew pulls ahead with four boxcars brought from Terminal Yard. 

Three 40'ers are shoved into the Heileman Siding and Neubaum's Coffee & Tea Importers gets it's first shipment of coffee at it's new location in the EL 50' plug door boxcar.

The paperwork is dropped at the respective industries. 

After servicing the two industries the BT-27 engineer waits for permission to access the mainline for a runaround move.

The GP7s head down the main to start working the industries and to get behind their caboose. 

The crew makes their first long pull from University Millwork and Berk Enterprises.

 That pull is coupled onto the caboose.

A second pull from Berk and Hostess is underway to facilitate re-spotting three virtual ops cars and taking the NYC RBL back to Terminal Yard.

After several switching moves the work at these three Bedford Industries is completed.

The paperwork is dropped in the proper waybill slot. The hanging car cards and waybills are BT-27s freight car consist.

BT-27 shoves back into the siding to reclaim the caboose before heading for Terminal Yard. This is a perfect time to double check and verify the trains paperwork. It's also a good time to remember to take the paperwork with you!

 With everything in order BT-27 heads for home.

The freight cars and caboose are dropped on track 9. The conductor will drop the paperwork at the yard office.

The 5699 and 5693 pull up to the fuel rack and will be ready to go for their next assignment.

That closes out our op session for today. I was impressed how easy the car cards and waybills made it to start an op right back up after a hiatus. There is still plenty of work ahead as I continue filling out car cards and waybills for the rest of the fleet. 

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!

   

City Pallet Opens in Empire City

 Greetings All,

This week I took a break from the model railroad operations and focused on moving a layout industry and adding one. It all started innocently enough with 1:1 PC Ralph introducing two new industries for his Kings Port Division layout.

The Port Owen Power Plant 

and Port Owen Brick Company 
would be served by the Penn Central via the existing West Mill Float Yard.

Over on the Atlantic Pacific R.R. 1:1 Sir Neal has a Supermarket Distribution Center on the drawing board that might handle up to four cars at a time.
I wanted the NYCTL to have a complimentary industry to serve the new industries on the K.P.D. and A.P.R.R. and I thought a pallet company would fit the bill. But where to put it?  

So I took another look at Neubaum's Coffee & Tea Importers to the left of Moore & Company. Neubaum's is named after Steve Neubaum, a fellow modeler from the original TrainLife crew. 

Unfortunately this business gets very little rail car traffic in the virtual ops and this looked to be the best location for a pallet company. 

Over in Bedford this white warehouse with the Ocean Breeze Soap sign has been vacant for over five years. The siding is shared with Heileman Brewery and the warehouse can handle one 50' boxcar.

Or two 40' boxcars. 

After an imaginary five year legal battle to obscure the layout owners indecision the new owners of the building are offering to lease all or part of it. Neubaum's Coffee & Tea Importers have shown interest in moving to the newly refurbished building.

Back at Neubaum's Empire City location the pallet company is being mocked up to possibly move in to this location.

The pallet company however was hesitant to move into Empire City until they had a reliable source for lumber. So I reached out to 1:1 PC Ralph and he responded with Half Moon Wholesale Lumber that will be served by the PC out of West Mill Yard.

Half Moon Wholesale Lumber on the K.P.D. has also secured contracts to provide finished lumber to my Neal's Lumber & Hardware, University Millwork and off layout Long Island lumber yards as well as Mike's Lumber on Sir Neal's A.P.R.R.

With a buyer for the Empire City building Neubaum's Coffee & Tea Importers relocated to Bedford NY and took possession of the top floor of the warehouse. I've added two more loading dock doors and may another rail served business move in down the road. 

The new City Pallet Company has moved into the old Neubaum's site and are getting ready to start making their pallets.

A chain link fence and some stacks of Atlas lumber (Thanks Sir Neal!) simulate that a rail shipment from Half Moon Wholesale Lumber has arrived. 

A truck load of dimensional lumber from nearby Neal's Lumber & Hardware gets unloaded as City Pallet gets ready to open for business.

I have HO scale pallets on order and was hoping they would have arrived by today but they are somewhere within the USPS shipping chain at the moment.

This is the Virtual Ops Catalyst at it's best. Inspiring layout projects on all three layouts. What started as a simple "Other side of the River" scene on PC Ralph's K.P.D. showing a power plant has led to industry projects for all three virtual op layouts. 

Thanks for reading!!!!

See ya soon!!!