Examining New Industries and New Freight Traffic / The Relocated Ralph's Grocery Warehouse

 Greetings All,

Examining New Industries and New Freight Traffic 

Ralph's Grocery Warehouse & Distribution Center

Bedford, NY

Today we'll take a look at the freight traffic for the newly relocated Ralph's Grocery Warehouse now in the town of Bedford and served by Trains BT-27 and BT-28 out of Terminal Yard. While not a new industry for the layout per se it has a new location and railroad serving it making for some operational challenges which will have a ripple effect that we'll examine today.

The Ralph's Grocery Warehouse & Distribution Center which can now handle up to five 40' boxcars is an increase of one car from the old Empire City location.

The RGW&DC has always been a rail served industry and the freight traffic will basically be the same so the only paperwork adjustment is to correct the address on the waybills and provide a new car card box.

The Ripple Effect

Where the wheels meet the rails however is a different story that we'll have to scrutinize. With the addition of the RGW&DC the town of Bedford now has six industries, University Millwork (four car siding), Berk Enterprises (two car siding), Hostess (four to five car siding), Shaefer Brewery (four car siding), Neubaum's Imports (two car siding) plus Ralph's Grocery (five car siding). 

From PCCM 108

Four TP&W RBLs at the University Millwork siding.

Four covered hoppers spotted at the Hostess / Wonder Bread Plant.

Only two 40' boxcars for the Schaefer Brewery this day. The BT-27/BT-28 was handled by two SW8 switchers on this date.

This means that Trains BT-27 and BT-28, The Bedford Turn, can now max out at twenty two cars. We'll need to make sure that the Turn has sufficient power to drag a longer freight train back up the ruling 2.5% grade back to Terminal Yard. While that should be easy enough there is a ripple effect as the Bedford Turn just got longer again. This RS2-GP7-RS2 consist will power our test train.

Train lengths of the BT-27 / BT-28 now have to be examined. Will the train with its full compliment of freight cars, three locomotives and a caboose even fit on the Bedford Secondary track?

The BT-27 test train departs Terminal Yard.

Working Train BT-27 / BT-28 

In previous op sessions Train BT-27 would leave Terminal Yard with at most a maximum of seventeen cars, a caboose and a pair of locomotives. Today's test train with three engines, twenty cars plus caboose rolls under the overbuild still under construction.

The caboose clears the overbuild

The BT-27 would then continue on to clear the switch into the siding and make the long shove caboose first into the Hostess / Berk / University Millwork loading docks pulling out up to twelve freight cars. This puts the caboose on the rear of the freight cars going back to the yard in Train BT-28.

The locomotives are just short of Bedford Tower and Bedford Park Yard at this point.

The caboose clears the switch to make the long pull from the Bedford Siding.

The engines however are now in the Bedford Park Yard Limits and there is not enough railroad to handle the long pull from Bedford. 

Plan B

The engines have shoved back for the freight cars to clear the switch to the Hostess-Ralph's siding.

The caboose however fouls the main line which I wanted to avoid.

Plan C

Biting the bullet the dispatcher has now granted the BT-27 permission to occupy the mainline.

A second caboose was added and will be used to couple onto the freight cars being pulled for return to Terminal Yard.

The BT-27 starts working Neubaum's Importers and the Schaefer Brewery siding pulling six cars.

Next stop is the Hostess Plant to pull four covered hoppers. This makes ten cars which will constitute pull #1 which will be placed on the secondary track.

Pull #2 also consists of a total of ten cars from Berk (2), University Millwork (4) and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse (4).

As you can see the BT-27 has the mainline and secondary track blocked while it works the siding. There is a lot of local traffic this day with a total of forty freight cars, three engines and two cabooses being moved.

It's time to place the inbound cars. The BT-27 has pulled past Bedford Tower on the mainline to enter the secondary track. As we can see the second caboose while it looked good was not needed.

The switching work is done and the mainline is now clear. Angry commuters glare at the lightning striped locomotives!!!

The APRR covered hoppers from Hostess will be the headend of Train BT-28 and sit on the secondary track clear of the mainline.

The locomotives have made their runaround move and await clearance to head back to Terminal Yard as Train BT-28. The engineer has shoved back from the overbuild so he doesn't asphyxiate from the Alco smoke. He may be here awhile as thru freights and passenger trains will take priority now that the mainline is back open.

Final Thoughts and Comments

Wow, that was a lot of train movements!!! It took time to figure out how to handle the increased freight traffic but it was an enjoyable endeavor. Today's test train is just about the maximum number of freight cars that would be moving in the BT-27 and BT-28.

When the Bedford Turn is dispatched the dispatcher will need to provide a good window of time as the Turn will need the secondary and mainline tracks depending on its length to accomplish its assignment. Having the Turn occupy the main for this length of time is something I tried to avoid and will try to keep the train to the secondary track when freight traffic permits.

If hosting an op session with other operators the Bedford Turn may have to be limited in size and/or be run in multiple to keep the mainline fluid.

Next installment we'll visit the Quaker Oats Plant in Empire City that replaced Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!