Flea Market Finds

 Greetings All,

Flea Market Finds

During an October visit to Queen of Hearts Antiques in Buford, Georgia I came across the Lindy's Trains booth and scored the following freight cars.

Getting The New Freight Cars Into Revenue Service

All freight cars from this purchase received basically the same treatments that included a blast of Testor's Dullcote, metal wheels with their faces painted either black or burnt umber where required, additional weight, Kadee couplers, confirmation of coupler heights meeting the Kadee gauge, painted trucks and underframes.

By keeping to the above minimum standards every locomotive and piece of rolling stock can couple up with each other for reliable operation and provide a somewhat uniform non toy like look for equipment that is running on the layout.

DT&I 50' Boxcar #13650

Accurail DT&I 50' double door boxcar with an A-Line track cleaning pad system installed. The DT&I is one of my favorite railroads and the track slider pads are the preferred track cleaning method for the layout so this was a nice surprise. The DT&I was also known as Henry Ford's Railroad and was later controlled by the PRR and PC. This was the most expensive purchase of the day, twelve dollars.

The DT&I 13650 is now in service. A strip of wood was added on each side of the slider pad that is painted black. This was necessary on a 50' car as the center of the car off tracks enough to allow the pad to get stuck in turnouts.

B&O 40' Boxcars

A pair of Athearn BB B&O 40' boxcars with metal wheels and EZ Mate knuckle couplers. Five dollars each.

The weights were already painted as well!

One B&O 466378 is now in service with Kadee #5s in lieu of the EZ-Mates. The other B&O 466378 headed to the Patti O Paint Shop for stripping and repainting. More on that later.

Union Pacific 50' RBL #451360

A Details West 50' UP RBL kit caught my eye during the box browsing. I like the detailed the paint job on this car and I thought it would be an interesting build since I don't recall ever building a model from this company. Purchase price: five dollars.

The UP 451360 enters revenue service. This was a tricky kit to build. Attaching the ladders with styrene cement and a small brush without marring the paint was a challenge that took a good amount of patience. The kit does not come with weights so I added about 3.5 ounces of weight using a metal weight from my weights box and 1/4 ounce stick on wheel weights. The black trucks were sprayed with gray primer and brake wheel and assembly were painted silver to match the prototype. 

American President Line Containers

As I was leaving the booth I saw a stack of APL 45' and 40' intermodal shipping containers that caught my eye and were a great find. I've been on the lookout for some since I added a five unit double stack well cars last year.

The APL containers were priced at one dollar each. I bought ten! The containers look to be Walthers products with some being painted and lettered by a prior owner using different numbers. They were in kit form and required adding the inter-box connectors from the sprue that held the container floor. There are a few of these IBCs still flying around the train room!

DIY/ZIM 40' Container

This Athearn DIY/ZIM 40' intermodal container was sitting next to the APL containers and looking sad when I started to leave with the APL containers so for a buck I added it to the haul. You can see these on the roads and rails today.

Stacking The APL Containers

The APL containers have been stacked in this configuration using the inter-box connectors from the container sprues or homemade IBCs using a 1:87 scale drain pipe from an IHC house kit.

The lower containers each received one ounce of weight using 1/4 ounce self stick wheel weights. Note the well car can only handle 40' containers in the well.

The arrangement of the 40'ers on the bottom and 45'ers on top is prototypical. BTW, the Union Pacific outsourced it's domestic intermodal business to the APL with a ten year agreement in the mid 1980s. The APL containers look right at home in the yellow well cars.

Last But Not Least

Remember the second B&O 40" boxcar mentioned above going to the Patti-O Paint Shop? Here it is still under the auspices of the paint shop for final touch ups of some overspray. 

The TH&B 3650 will join TH&B 3284 which is another Patti-O Paint Shop alumni.

Final Thoughts and Comments

I went to check out Lindy's Trains hoping to find an Athearn BB 40' boxcar that I could paint as the TH&B 3650. Although I did manage to come home with more than that I want to state for the record I used a lot of restraint and left some good stuff for other modelers.

The ten APL containers were the biggest and best score which filled out the previously empty five unit well car set.

Thanks for reading

See you soon

HO Scale Auto Frame Loads

 Greetings All,

HO Scale Auto Frame Loads

Model railroaders of a certain age will remember that American made automobiles were made with steel frames until the early 1970's when unibody construction appeared under mid size and smaller cars. To this date certain cars continued to use the full steel frames along with pickup trucks and some other large SUVs.

"Trailer Train Flatcar with Auto/Truck Frames" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/?ref=openverse.

Looking to increase realistic traffic and some interesting flatcar loads for the Bedford Park Ford Plant on my layout I came across JJM Railroad Enterprises Auto Frame Load Kits in September, 2024. I purchased four boxes. Each box contains 80 frames. purchased four  kits that would be sufficient for four flatcar loads.

Here are one of eight sprues containing ten auto frames. Four boxes means cutting ten auto frames from thirty two sprues. The directions call for stacking the frames thirteen high but I chose to go twelve high which gave me six stacks per box with eight left over. The twelve high was done to make sure the subsequential blocking wouldn't make the loads excess height and prevent movement around the layout.

It took awhile but I finally glued all seventy two stacks together and then glued two stacks together to create three double side by side stacks per flatcar. The stacks were then painted with rattle can gloss black and a coat of Testor's Dullcote.

To block the frames and secure them to the flatcars I used Bass strip wood and the metal pole from a few lawn flags. The wood and poles have been painted with a rattle can rust colored primer.

Two stacks completed!!!  I toyed with adding the thirteenth frames to the stacks but decided not to. As shown the flatcar with loads are as high as a Hi-Cube boxcar.

Six stacks completed on two Bachmann PC 50' flatcars. I chose to use 50' flatcars in lieu of 89' flatcars due to curve restrictions at Bedford Park.

Six more stacks completed for use on Athearn BB 50' flatcars. The loads for the BB flatcars are removable.

After some touch up paint the auto frames are ready for movement to the Bedford Park Ford Plant. The auto frame loads are glued to the PC flatcars using CA. I have five of these cars and swapping an empty flat for the loaded one will be a simple affair.

The Wabash and PRR Blue Box flats with their metal stakes allowed for easy blocking, insertion and removal of the loads which can be used on other BB 50' flatcars as needed.

Ford here we come!!!

The following week a monster Train FAST-50 was lensed crossing the Empire City Highline with various freight cars for the Bedford Park Ford Plant

Two PC flatcars of auto frames was sandwiched between APRR and KP&W auto parts cars.

On the headend PRR and Wabash flatcars of auto frames cross the Cornelius Vanderbilt Bridge as the head to the City of Bedford.

The Fast-50 heads to Terminal Yard.

After the FAST-50 arrived in Terminal Yard a pair of Alco C425s hustle a block of cars to the Ford Plant.

Train BP-41 heads to Bedford Park with hot cars for the Ford Plant.

Note that the BP-41consists of steel coils, lubricating oil, auto parts and auto frames

along with boxcars from Ford parts suppliers IDEAL in Rock Ridge, NJ and ACME in Mayfield, NY head to the Ford Plant.

Final Thought and Comments

As you can see the auto frames make for a unique and interesting loads that can be used on flatcars of various lengths (50'-60'-89') or in gondolas with proper bracing. American Model Builders manufactured kit #350 for the gondola loads. Unfortunately they are no longer in business.

The JJM kit directions recommend using Plastruct dimensional products and scale chains to create the tie down system or 12"x12" lumber for the deck supports and 6"x6" lumber for the tie downs which is pretty much what I chose.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!!

See you soon!!!

September 2024 Layout Operations Part 3 Finale

 Greetings All,

September 2024 Layout Operations Part 3

Finale

Welcome back to the closing segment of this exploratory series of model train layout operations. As a reminder the focus of this series of op session is based on the baseball strategy above. Get the rolling stock and trains on the layout, move them as needed to their intended industry or interchange and them get them moving back off layout and into their boxes (staging) so other rolling stock and locomotives can be added to the operations on a recurring basis.

Beginning on September 12, 2024 I embarked on and documented a series of model railroad operations to focus on train sequences and cycling rolling stock and motive power on and off the layout. The goal is to improve the overall operational continuity of the layout by determining what works well, what needs improvement, what needs to be discarded, what could be added and what should be added.

Days 5 thru 12

September 16 thru 27, 2024

Day 5

Mainline Cleanup

Day 5 started out with some clean up work to clear the mainlines of Train NH-2 and SK-9 that were dispatched to Cedar Hill and Selkirk in day 4. The two consists included forty five (45) freight cars and eight (8) locomotives that were cycled off the layout to their respective boxes to await their next calls to operations duty.

Freight Yard Status

This was followed by some admin work checking the freight yard status of the four on layout freight yards.

Terminal Yard: 48 freight cars, 6 passenger cars

B&O 16th Street Yard: 4 freight cars

Bedford Park Yard: 2 freight cars

EBRR North Side Yard: 25 freight cars

Total: 73 freight cars and 6 passenger cars

Transfer Runs to Clear Yard Space

Our first trains of the day were Train EC-1and EB-2 to clear yard space in both Terminal Yard and the Empire Belt's North Side Yard and deliver the interchange traffic needed to keep the operations moving along.

Train EC-1

Terminal Yard to North Side Yard

The EC-1 powered by four GP20s brings sixteen (16) freight cars of interchange traffic to North Side Yard.

Train EB-2

North Side Yard - Terminal Yard

In a dispatcher scheduled meet three EBRR GP18s with twenty one (21) freight cars of interchange traffic for Terminal Yard meets and passes Train EC-1 at Bedford. 

Days six and seven were spent focusing on local service.

Day 8

September 21, 2024

Ford Auto Service Train / FAST 50

Selkirk - Terminal Yard

Hot shot train FAST 50 from Selkirk heads into Terminal Yard with auto parts and TOFC traffic. The Four EMDs power the train up the 2.5% grade into the Terminal Yard tunnel.

The FAST-50 is one of the hottest trains to run on the layout consisting of auto parts and high priority TOFC traffic. The FAST-50 often has run thru pool power from the SSW, UP or ATSF.

Fast Forward to Day 12

September 27, 2024

Last Op of the Month

Day 12 ops consisted of the Bedford Turn handing freight traffic to and from Bedford industries, two thru trains to Selkirk and recrewing a transfer run from North Side Yard that had died on the law at Bedford on day 11. 

Train Extra 1862

Terminal Yard - Selkirk 

Extra 1862 powered by five F7As took eighteen cars (18) from Terminal Yard to Selkirk. Motive power and freight cars were cycled off layout and back into their respective boxes. 

Empire Belt Train EB-2

North Side Yard - Terminal Yard

The EB-2 powered by three GP18s outlawed on the Bedford Secondary on day 11 due to yard congestion at Terminal Yard and was recrewed this day to complete its journey with twenty two (22) freight cars of interchange traffic.

Train BT-27 / BT28 

The Bedford Turn

Terminal Yard - Bedford - Terminal Yard

The BT-27 powered by RS2s 5229-0503-9932 delivered seven (7) freight cars to Bedford based industries, The BT-28 returned to Terminal Yard with ten (10) freight cars.

Train SK-9

Terminal Yard - Selkirk

The SK-9 powered by four GP20s brought twenty six (26) freight cars to Selkirk. Motive power and freight cars were cycled off the layout and back into their respective boxes.  

End of September Layout Operations

The 12 days of ops came to an end on September 27, 2024. On this day forty four (44) freight cars were cycled off the layout along with nine (9) locomotives in two trains. 

Summary

Total Locomotives Used This Op Series: 44

Total Freight Cars Cycled Off Layout in Trains: 157

The remainder of locomotives on the layout were removed via the 0-5-0 switcher and as of this writing new locomotives are being readied for the October Operations Series.

Lessons Learned

The documenting of each days movements is a big improvement in the planning and execution of the layout operations. I plan to continue doing this going forward as it made managing the freight cars and locomotives much easier.

Using Available Resources

When I began working on fine tuning the layout operations I turned to a valuable resource who regularly holds operating session on his home layout, the renowned Atlantic Pacific Railroad and is a visiting engineer on other operations based layouts. Ongoing communications and consultations with 1:1 Sir Neal provided both insight and inspiration to better organize the train movements on the layout with simplified and specific instructions for each train. That is currently in the works. Thank you very much Sir Neal!!! 

 Streamlining The Operations

In October the plan is to streamline the layout operations using some simplified paperwork known as the Rockford Card which I experimented with in March of 2023. This will be a basic check the box listing of each train to be run in a specific sequence.

Compilation of the September Ops Trains

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

September 2024 Layout Operations Part 2

 Greetings All,

September 2024 Layout Operations Part 2

Day 3

September 14, 2024

Welcome back to the September 2024 Layout Operations series. As a reminder the focus of this series of op sessions is based on the baseball strategy above. Get the rolling stock and trains on the layout, move them as needed to their intended industry or interchange and them get them moving back off layout and into their boxes (staging) so other rolling stock and locomotives can be added to the operations on a recurring basis.

Beginning on September 12, 2024 I embarked on and documented a series of model railroad operations to focus on train sequences and cycling rolling stock and motive power on and off the layout. The goal is to improve the overall operational continuity of the layout by determining what works well, what needs improvement, what needs to be discarded, what could be added and what should be added.

Day 3 

The day started out with a review of the four freight yards currently being used in this op. 

Terminal Yard: 50 freight cars

B&O 16th Street Yard: 12 freight cars

EBRR North Side Yard: 23 freight cars

Bedford Park Yard: 2 freight cars

Train BP-12

The action starts at Bedford Park Yard with RS1 9909 getting ready to work the yard and local industries. When the switching work is done the 9909 will lead Train BP12 with 7 freight cars from Bedford Park to Terminal Yard .

Train BP-41

After delivering the BP12 to Terminal Yard the 9909 makes a quick turn and heads back to Bedford Park Yard as Train BP-41 with 6 cars. Four of these cars are delivered to local industries and 2 are placed in the yard for later delivery when sidings are clear.

Terminal Yard Yard Job

The yard job still powered by SD40s 6282 and 6102 took care of classifying the 7 freight cars brought into the yard by Train BP-12.

Train BT-27 / MR-1

The Bedford Turn

Train BT 27 was our next local train of the day that departed from Terminal Yard. It was combined with Train MR-1 to deliver 6 PS2 covered hoppers to T&R Gravel and 6 cars to Bedford industries. 

Train BT-28 / MR-2

The Bedford Turn

Upon completion of the above work the Turn is ready to go back to Terminal Yard with 11 freight cars as Train BT-28 pictured below.

Terminal Yard Yard Job

The SD40s took care of the inbound cars from Train BT-28/MR-2 and have the yard in order for the next operating session.

Empire Belt RR Belt Job

Our last train of day 3 is the Empire Belt RR's Belt Job that works their North Side Yard, services Empire City industries and a Team Track in North Side Yard.

The Belt job was quite busy this day blocking and classifying 23 freight cars in North Side Yard 16 of which came in on LIRR Train MA-3 on Day 2 and picking up 3 cars from the Hohman Ave Industrial Park Storage Track (below). 

When the smoke cleared 14 freight cars had been placed at local industries, 3 cars were placed at the Hohman Ave Storage track to await cleared sidings, 12 cars were delivered back to North Side Yard where they were blocked for movement or interchange. 

The final yard tally was 2 cars for local placement, 2 cars for the LIRR and 21 cars for Terminal Yard.

Freight Yard Status

North Side Yard: 25 freight cars

Terminal Yard: 50 freight cars and 6 passenger cars at E. Bedford Station on track 1.

16th Street Yard: 12 freight cars

Total time: 3:15

End of Day 3

September 15, 2024

Day 4

Day 4 started at Terminal Yard with the dispatch of Train SK-9 with 27 freight cars for Selkirk and powered by four GP38s. These freight cars and locomotives will be cycled off the layout and stored back in their boxes later in the op. 

Train SK-9 

The SK-9 heads to Selkirk.

New Haven Train HN-2 / NH-2

During this op session I experimented with making the HN-2 / NH-2 a turn job with it delivering freight cars to Terminal Yard from Cedar Hill Yard that includes a block of cars from the New Haven's Maybrook Gateway. The NH-2 would then shortly thereafter depart Terminal Yard for Cedar Hill Yard with a block of cars for delivery to the NH's Maybrook Yard if present in Terminal Yard. The idea of adding Maybrook Yard traffic to the ops was interesting to me and I'll cover this in a future blog post.

New Haven Train HN-2

Train HN-2 from Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven, CT passes RA Tower as it heads to Terminal Yard.

The HN-2 is powered by four H16-44s to get the 19 car train up the ruling grade of 2.5% from RA Tower on the lower level, up the slide which is track 1 (shown below) and into Terminal Yard. 

Terminal Yard Yard Job

The SD40s continued to work the yard and classified the 19 cars brought in on Train NH-2.

Pier 16 Switcher

B&O SW7 9552 pulled one loaded car from the Empire Power Authority, two loaded cars from Bruce Electric Equipment and delivered them to the 16th Street Yard.

B&O 16th Street Yard Transfer

B&O 6954-7071 & C&O 8238 continue to work 16th Street Yard and remained idling away in the yard.

Train NH-2

Below the NH-2 departs Terminal Yard with 11 freight cars, 10 TOFC and 1 boxcar. No Maybrook traffic today.

Shop Switcher

A nice little move that I rarely if ever run is the shop switcher delivering cars between the shop and Terminal Yard. Here it with a HD flatcar with a large crankshaft and two flatcars containing EMD prime movers going to the big shop at Selkirk, NY.

Pier 16 Switcher

B&O 9552 from Pier 16 picks up the HD flatcar with crankshaft at Terminal Yard for delivery to Pier 16 to be exported by ship. The car has had some wheel work done and this is a "hot move" as the ship loading is drawing to a close.

End of Day 4

Day 5 thru 12 coming tomorrow

which will conclude this series

Thanks for reading and watching

See you tomorrow

September 2024 Layout Operations Part 1

 Greetings All,

September 2024 Layout Operations

Get Them On, Get Them Over, Get Them In

The focus of this series of op sessions is based on the baseball strategy above. Get the rolling stock and trains on the layout, move them as needed to their intended industry or interchange and then get them moving back off layout and into their boxes (staging) so other rolling stock and locomotives can be added to the operations on a recurring basis.

Beginning on September 12, 2024 I embarked on and documented a series of model railroad operations to focus on train sequences, rolling stock and motive power cycling on and off the layout. I am looking to improve the overall operational continuity of the layout and determine what works well, what needs improvement, what needs to be dismissed and what could and should be added.

Day 1

September 12, 2024

LIRR Train MA-3

The September Operations started with Long Island RR Train MA-3 delivering twenty one freight cars from Fresh Pond Yard to the Empire Belt RRs North Side Yard. The LIRR had the lead off spot simply because North Side Yard had a block of cars there awaiting pick up.

After dropping the 21 cars in the yard LIRR Train MA-4 departs North Side Yard with 10 cars of interchange traffic for Fresh Pond Yard. 

Fresh Pond Staging

Fresh Pond Yard trains run from North Side Yard to Terminal Yard where they are placed in the LIRR staging box until a future MA-3 runs since I lack a staging track for the LIRR. My operations scheme has all the LIRR freight traffic moving from Fresh Pond Yard to North Side Yard so what goes out must come in.

Train NY-4

The next train heading to Terminal Yard is Train NY-4, the meats product train that originates in Chicago. Today's NY-4 is powered by four GP20s and features seven cars of livestock and nine iced reefers of dressed meat.

NY-4 Arrives and Terminates in Terminal Yard

After arriving in Terminal Yard the NY-4 power will head to the engine terminal and the freight consist will require special handling due to the livestock and iced reefers. 

B&O 16th Street Yard Transfer

The B&O 16th Street Yard power was called out and ran caboose lite to Terminal Yard. After arriving in Terminal Yard and hopefully in accordance with RR rules the NY-4 cars were picked up by the B&O and moved to 16th Street Yard

16th Street Yard

This is the only place on the layout where the livestock will get water and rest and the ice hatch reefers will be iced. The B&O will be paid for this service.

A look at the 16th Street Yard and Pier 16 freight cars and paperwork. This is getting to be a busy area on the layout.

Train VN-4

The last train of the day is Train VN-4 from Selkirk which is powered by a quartet of GP38s and brings 14 cars of mixed manifest traffic from Selkirk to Terminal Yard.

VN-4 Arrives and Terminates At Terminal Yard

After arriving at Terminal Yard the VN-4 power heads to the engine terminal.

Terminal Yard Yard Job

The Yard Job power for this op is a pair of PC SD40s. The Yard Job classifies and blocks the VN-4 freight traffic. The work also includes delivering one Southern Railway Flexi Van from the VN-4 to the TOFC /COFC track and pulling four Penn Central TOFC cars back to Terminal Yard for later movements.

Freight Yard Status End of Day 1

Terminal Yard

42 freight cars waiting for local and symbol train movement.

16 Street Yard

16 freight cars. 9 reefers and 7 livestock to be moved to Terminal Yard once the livestock is deemed rested and the reefers re-iced.

Empire Belt North Side Yard

28 freight cars. 2 boxcars from MA-3 awaiting movement to local industries. 14 cars from MA-3 and 12 additional cars that started the op in the yard awaiting movement to Terminal Yard.

Day 1 Totals

86 freight cars in yards, 61 from this op session trains. 2.5 hours to run the op.

Day 2 

September 13, 2024

B&O 16th Street Yard Transfer

Day 2 started off with the B&O 16th Street Yard Transfer delivering  the NY-4 rested and watered livestock and re-iced reefer cars from Day 1 to Terminal Yard. 

The NY-4 cars are set out on track 2. Note the livestock cars are on the headend to reduce slack action in the cars and prevent injury to the livestock.

Train EC-1

Next train out of Terminal Yard is Train EC-1 that will be powered by five PC F7s and will be delivering 21 freight cars to the Empire Belt RRs North Side Yard. The freight consist features 17 cars for the LIRR including the live stock and reefers and four cars for the Empire Belt served industries.

PC Train EC-1 heads to North Side Yard

Empire Belt Train EB-2

As Train EC-1 above is departing Terminal Yard Train EB-2 is departing North Side Yard powered by three GP18s with 26 cars for Terminal Yard. The dispatcher has arranged the EB-2 and EC-1 to pass each other at Bedford. 

Train EB-2 heads to Terminal Yard

EBRR Train EB-3 and PC Train EC-2

After dropping their freight cars at Terminal Yard and North Side Yard respectively EBRR Train EB-3 and PC Train EC-2 traveling caboose lite pass each other in Bedford on their back to their home road yards.

LIRR Trains MA-3 / MA-4

Last trains of the day were LIRR MA-3 from Fresh Pond Yard delivering 16 cars to the Empire Belt RR at North Side Yard and MA-4 below from North Side Yard heading back to Fresh Pond Yard with 16 cars for Long Island based consignees.

End of Day 2

Totals for the day

9 trains, 16 locomotives and 85* freight car movements.

Time to run op 3.5 hours.

Two Day Totals

15 Trains, 16 locomotives and 171* freight car movements

* Freight car tallies are based on the number of freight car movements used to move trains during the op session and not necessarily the number of freight cars on the layout. In most cases freight cars were moved from an off layout origin to an on layout railroad's freight yard. Many of these cars would need additional movements for interchanges and final deliveries.

Example: 

Movement #1: Train NY-4 from Selkirk used four (4) locomotives to get the freight train of sixteen (16) cars from Selkirk (off layout) to Terminal Yard.

Total Locomotives: Four (4)

Total Freight Car Movements: Sixteen (16)

Movement #2: The sixteen (16) reefers/ stock cars in that train were moved to 16th Street Yard by three (3) B&O locomotives. 

Total locomotives: Seven (7) 

Freight Car Movements: Thirty two (32)

Movement #3: On day 2 the B&O 16th Street Yard Transfer delivered the sixteen (16) reefers/ stock cars to Terminal Yard for their next move to in Train EC-1.

Total Locomotives: Seven (7)

Total Freight Car Movements: Forty Eight (48)

If the above calculations are wrong please let me know. I'm basing the counts on the "touches" each time a car is moved which would be billed and incur revenue in most cases.

We'll pick this up again tomorrow with additional train movements and then close it out in episode three.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you tomorrow!!!