New Grand Trunk Western and Great Northern Boxcars

 Greetings All,

I recently stopped at an Antique Mall in Buford, GA that has a Lindy's Trains booth which is a Trainz.com enterprise. I was looking for a 40' boxcar that I could convert into a track cleaning car to fulfill a track cleaning car request from Sir Neal for his Atlantic Pacific RR.. 

In addition to the target 40' boxcar I came across two Great Northern 40' boxcars in two different paint paint schemes and one Grand Trunk Western 40' boxcar that I decided I couldn't do without. The three built up boxcars each have Kadee couplers and metal wheelsets.

Perfect for the track cleaning car project was this unbuilt and still new in the box GN 40' boxcar 11374 that was chosen to become the track cleaning car that will be be forwarded to the APRR.

A couple days later GN 11374 is pulled out of the shop after being modified with a track cleaning pad and upgraded to meet NYCTL and APRR rolling stock standards.

Kadee #37 underset shank couplers were installed to meet the Kadee coupler height gauge without raising the car height. Proto 2000 metal wheelsets (APRR preferred wheelsets) and additional weight were also added.

The track cleaning car and pad was tested extensively around the layout and you can see it picked up some black gunk along the way. This will be cleaned using a toothbrush and Isopropyl alcohol prior to shipment.  

The track cleaning pad, made of hardboard also known as Masonite, with two finish nails is easily removed for cleaning and is easy to install.

On Friday the GN track cleaning boxcar arrived at The Atlantic Pacific Rock Ridge Yard and was immediately put to work behind leased EBRR GP38 #8163. See link below to catch train X8163 in action on the APRR.

Photo by Sir Neal. Used with permission

Putting the Other Cars in Play

The other three cars cycled thru the NYCTL shops getting cleaned and receiving the standard spray of Testor's Dullcote, rattle can painting of weights, underframe, trucks, additional weight and the correct wheels and couplers.

All three of the boxcars came with Kadee #5 couplers and rib backed metal wheelsets. The #5 couplers were swapped in favor of #37 underset shank couplers. The rib backed wheelsets were swapped with plain back wheelsets from some ice bunker reefers.

GTW 40' boxcar 516158 is now ready for revenue service.

GN double door boxcar 6739 features a small grain loading door on the upper right of the right hand door and damage free hardware as indicated by the DF on the left. This car is painted in the "Big Sky Blue" paint scheme introduced in 1967 and used up the 1970 merger into the Burlington Northern.

GN boxcar 27024 is a standard sliding door car in the GN Glacier Green paint and lettering scheme introduced in 1961 and used until 1967.

Getting the Newly Added Boxcars 

into Revenue Service

I prepared the car cards and waybills so that the newly added boxcars can be blocked with some cars in the existing fleet so they can be run in blocks or as a single car.

With the car cards and waybills complete I set up an inbound train of mostly pre BN predecessor roads like the Spokane Portland & Seattle Railway 50' boxcar to be used in a pre PCCM 111 op session.

The GN 6739 is coupled up to a pair of similar NP boxcars to create a three car block.

Grand Trunk Western 40' boxcar 516158 is paired up with a similar CN 40' boxcar. The GTW became part of the Canadian government owned Canadian National in 1923.

Penn Central F7A-F7B-GP-7 with a Great Northern GP7 painted in Pullman Green and Omaha Orange dubbed the "Simplified Scheme" that was introduced in 1962 power the boxcar laden train designated as Train TY-24 thru Empire City.

Catch Train TY-24 roll thru Empire City and Bedford as it makes its way to Terminal Yard.

Final Thoughts and Comments

I was happy to be of service and help the APRR to keep their tracks clean and earn revenue. Similar track cleaning cars have been in service on my layout for over a decade now and they work great. 

The new GN and GTW boxcars have fit right in with the other BN and predecessor road freight cars. I like having the three car blocks of similar cars from similar destinations. The blocked cars can also move individually from place to place if I'm so inclined.

Look for the freight cars from Train TY-24 in the upcoming PCCM 111.

Additional Links and Reading

Great Northern Paint Schemes Thru The Years

Grand Trunk Western Railroad History

Atlantic Pacific Railroad Train X8163

Shove Moves for Efficient Operations

 Greetings All,

Shove Moves for Efficient Operations

or How I Learned to Embrace The Shove

A railroad shove move can be basically defined as a train movement where the locomotive is at the rear of a train and shoves any number of cars to their destination. The shove move would be protected by a trainman using a radio, lantern or hand signals. 

Trainmen can be seen holding onto the first car of the shove or in some cases when a RR deems it warranted a caboose or shoving platform will be used for longer moves to protect the trainman, the train and the public.

A trainman rides a caboose now converted to a shoving platform to protect a shove move. Note the plated over windows.

"Waiting All Day" by Leo Blackwelder is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.

On the Union RR, a class III switching railroad, that served three steel mills in Alleghany County, PA, shove moves are an integral part of their daily operations.

"Union Railroad Caboose" by joseph a is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Union RR switch engines pull a cut of gondolas with a caboose on the rear. The URR often pulls and shoves long strings of freight cars that support the steel industry.

"Union Railroad" by joseph a is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

On The Layout

The need for a shove move to service the Bedford Park Ford Plant has been an on again off again endeavor dating back to the earliest days of the layout as seen in this "Protecting the Shove" blog photo from July 02, 2013.

Clinchfield RR caboose #1064 is modeled after the1:1 scale CRR 1064 at the Southeastern Railway Museum with a horn and lights added by modeler Sam Rehonic who gifted it to me about 15 years ago.

Learning To Embrace The Shove

For more years than I care to admit I have been resistant to running the BP-41 as a shove move from Terminal Yard to Bedford Park Yard. One of the reasons was that the 86' and 89' cars were prone to derailment when shoved.  

The NYCTL Shops corrected these issues several years ago on both the 86' boxcars and the 89' auto racks.

A 2-56 Kadee plastic screw through the long tongue that allows the car to negotiate tighter radius curves when being pulled cures the talgo shoving woes while still allowing some swivel movements.

The 89' Bachmann Tri Level auto racks come with talgo mounted couplers. Some with a very long shank coupler and others with a long talgo mounted coupler box like the BB 86' boxcars.

I varied the cars from body mounted couplers with Kadee long shank couplers and modified McHenry talgo mounted couplers. This works well when the cars are shoved thru the tight turnouts at the Ford Plant. Not sure where the screw came from on the bottom car but it was needed to control the side to side wobble of the car.

But I still didn't like the look of the train being shoved from Terminal Yard through Bedford to Bedford Park. It didn't matter that the Ford Plant and the other industries in Bedford Park could be easily and more efficiently served without the need for a runaround move that required freight cars at American Hardware Supply to be moved and put back to accomplish the runaround. 

Add in the limited amount of space that restricted train length to a few cars and the tight radius that often led to derailments of the 86' and 89' cars the BP-41 was not a train I enjoyed operating.

In this PCCM 81 photo the BP-41 prepares to make its runaround move as it passes the empty American Hardware Siding with the max number of freight cars that will allow it.

A Reversal of Thought

All that changed after an ongoing conversation with friend and fellow HO Scale modeler PC Ralph who is frequently mentioned on this blog when he began to have his Kings Port & Western RR serve Hedberg Aggregates in Marion, NY from Williams Yard in Kings Port NY via a shove move up the mountain.

Photo by PC Ralph. Used with Permission

A special purpose KP&W caboose was outfitted to help protect the shove move. 

Photo by PC Ralph. Used with Permission

The First Shove!!

Train BP-41 prepares to leave Terminal Yard. Normally, with the RS11 in this position this photo would be of counterpart train BP-12 bringing Bedford Park freight traffic into Terminal Yard.

The headend of the BP-41 is the NYC Transfer Caboose that will protect the shove move to Bedford Park.

The BP-41 has arrived in Bedford Park and prepares to cut off the caboose.

The RS11 shoves the boxcars and auto racks into the Ford Plant.

The following day it's time to pull the loaded auto racks and empty 60' auto parts cars from the Ford Plant.

The BP-12 is at Terminal Yard and a Bedford Park trainman strolls towards the PC caboose that will protect the Train BP-41 shove back to Bedford Park.

PC RS11 #7608 is coupled onto the Wabash 86' boxcar and is ready to shove the BP-41 out of Terminal Yard.

Three 86' auto parts cars and three 89' auto racks are shoved into the Ford Plant.

The 86' Wabash boxcar was one car too many for the Ford Plant and is gingerly delivered to the Bedford Park Yard to await movement to the Ford Plant.

Several days later we're back at Bedford Park Yard with the crew getting ready to work the local industries.

A WM boxcar from American Hardware Supply and two boxcars from All City Storage will be heading back to Terminal Yard.

Empty Coil Cars have been pulled from the Ford Plant Steel Track for their trip to Terminal Yard. 

Train BP-12 with a full compliment of freight traffic from the Bedford Park industries rolls past Bedford Tower.

Train BP-41A has returned to Bedford Park and delivers two cars of steel coils to the Ford Plant Steel track via a trailing point turnout.

Two boxcars are delivered to American Hardware Supply which sits on a double ended siding.

Train BP-12A will run caboose lite to Terminal Yard.

The Bedford Park Yard RS11 couples up to a 50' boxcar that is going to All City Storage for the big shove to Bedford Park.

A BPY trainmen signals the engineer as two flatcars of automobile frames are shoved into the Ford Plant.

The work at the Ford Plant is completed and the crew heads to All City Storage.

Two 50' boxcars are shoved into the All City Storage siding.

The BPY crew ties down in the yard after another productive day moving tonnage. 

Checkout the various BP-12s and BP-41s that were run during these experimental ops.

Final Thoughts and Comments

The tight radius curves, facing point turnouts and limited space are still a factor in Bedford Park. The BP-41 shove move when appropriate minimizes some of these issues and allows for much more efficient operations. 

The first BP-41 train that took care of the trailing point sidings and the second shove move BP-41 that took care of the facing point sidings worked very well and is something that I plan to continue with.

And there it is, efficient train moves that have been over a decade in the making have finally come to be. The question is why did it take so long?!!!

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!

Penn Central Car Movements #110 Part 7 / Conclusion of Virtual Operations

 Greetings All,

Welcome Back to Penn Central Car Movements #110

Our three layout virtual op with my layout interchanging freight traffic with Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division concludes today with a B&O Transfer Run and the Bedford Turn making its final PCCM run to close out PCCM 110.

The action starts in Terminal Yard with Big Mike and Kar Knocker preparing to inspect Trains EC-2 and BT-28 from yesterday's post. A union rep has been summoned to file a grievance about the long work hours in this virtual op. 

Three empty PCCM Reefers (2 BNFE and on UPFE) are placed on track #7 for pick up by the B&O during the third trick.

A string of non PCCM freight cars are shoved into track #3 for movement to Selkirk.

With the yard in good shape and his PCCM 110 work now done Big Mike ties down the U23Cs in the engine terminal.

It's the start of a new day and the third trick B&O crew are on the move from 16th Street Yard to the Pier 16 Grain Silos.

The crew couples up to the CB&Q covered hopper to pull a long string of non PCCM cars from the silos and move our PCCM covered hoppers to the loading track.

PCCM and non PCCM covered hoppers are moved and interchanged with the Penn Central at Terminal Yard.

The non PCCM covered hoppers are shoved into track #3 to join the other non PCCM cars going to Selkirk.

The B&O couples onto its interchange traffic going back to 16th Street Yard.

The caboose is ready to lead the shove move back to 16th Street Yard.

The B&O heads back to 16th Street Yard.

The three PCCM reefers will be fueled and cleaned in preparation to move to their next PCCM loads.

The first trick PC yard job is on duty and pulls a group of cabooses from the caboose track.

PC transfer caboose 18227 is coupled onto three B&M RBLs loaded with soup from Habitant Soup for movement to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

Over in the engine terminal it's Alco Joe, don't cha know!!! Alco Joe is once again called for The Bedford Turn. 

In a now familiar scene Conductor Murray signals Alco Joe to a smooth coupling. Checkout the NYC Early Bird boxcar in the background awaiting movement to North Side Yard and its next PCCM load.

Train BT-27 departs Terminal Yard.

After dropping the caboose on the secondary track the RS2s shove the B&M RBLs into the Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding.

Two empty APRR RBLs and one empty TP&W boxcar pulled from the Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding are coupled onto the caboose.  

The long wait is now over as the B&M RBLs loaded with canned soup from the Habitant Soup Company are shoved into the Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding.

Conductor Murray rides the porch and guides Alco Joe to another smooth coupling. Once all the connections are made and the air pressure built up they'll be ready for an air test and to head back to Terminal Yard as Train BT-28.

The BT-28 heads back to Terminal Yard.

Put it in the books!!! Finally!!!!

This wraps up PCCM 110 on the NYCTL. Be sure to catch all the action on Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR and PC Ralph's Kings Port Division

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!