P.CC.M. 37G / The E.B.R.R. Delivers

Greetings All,

Today we'll take a look at the Empire Belt delivering some of the freight cars that came out of West Mill in PC Train WV-2 on Ralph's excellent Kings Port Division layout. It's worth another look so check out the originating installments posted on Ralph's blog: http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/ It's a great way to start your day! 

Welcome Back from from your tour of West Mill!

We'll pick up the action at Empire City's North Side Yard now firmly under control of the Empire Belt RR. Below E.B.R.R. GP30 #2160 couples up to caboose #1605 to pull it out of the way and set up the yard moves for this mornings deliveries.

With #1605 out of the way the Long Island RR block has been cut behind BM #110. 

E.B.R.R. GP30s #2160 and #2161 have pulled the Empire City block out of the yard and crossed over to the industrial lead. Here they are headed to the West Side and passing Hohman Ave.

 First stop of the day is Superior Furniture.

BM #109 and #110 are spotted on Superior Furniture's lead. Both cars are loaded with mirrors and sheet glass from Corning Glass in Corning NY. 

The E.B.R.R. crew has traveled around Empire City and is now coming thru the East side of town.

 Next stop is Neal's Lumber & Hardware where the crew is pulling out A.P.R.R. 50' RBL #60392 to make room for PC #77047

PC 40' boxcar  #77047 loaded with bagged aggregate from Hedberg Aggregate in Marion NY is shoved into place.

The crew is now working the Gervais Pipe / Ralph's Grocery lead pulling cars from Gervais Pipe & Fitting and shoving back to pick up the cars at Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

PC #229046 loaded with cake mix from Blue Ribbon Flour in Kings Port NY and L.F.N.W. #160 loaded with wine from the Vintners Co-op in Jaques CA are both spotted at Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. An interesting note about Jaques CA. It's named after pioneer modeler and nature painter Francis Lee Jaques who had a stamp issued commemorating him. He was a true pioneer who started modeling before World War I and his layout, the Great North Road, was featured in an early 1960's issue of Model Railroader Magazine. See end of entry for more.

Two breadbox trough hoppers loaded with steel coils from Kings Port Steel in Kings Port NY are spotted at Gervais Pipe & Fitting

It's work now complete the crew heads back towards Hohman Ave on the industrial lead track

That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll wrap up P.C.C.M. #37.

Thanks for reading! 

All information on Francis Lee Jaques in this blog entry is courtesy of fellow model railroader and blogger John Bruce. The town of Jaques CA is a freelance town on John's layout. For more on Francis Lee Jaques and his layout check out these links;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Lee_Jaques

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jterry618/4733661247/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jterry618/4733661287/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jterry618/4733661331/in/photostream/
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/18065?page=9 

P.C.C.M. 37F / Dispatch of Empire Belt Train EC-1

Greetings All,

This is the first concluding series P.C.C.M. on the N.Y.C.T.L since the arrival of the Empire Belt Railroad at Empire City's North Side Yard and I apologize in advance if I rail fanned these installments a little too much. 

Last installment we recorded the arrival of PC Train VN-4 at Terminal Yard. VN-4 left Selkirk with cars from West Mill via Train WV-2 http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/2017/08/pccm-37b-wv-2-picks-up-cut-for-terminal.html and a block of cars from Clearing Yard in Chicago that originated in California.

Let's pick up the action at Terminal Yard as the TY switch crew breaks down VN-4 into blocks for the Empire Belt and the PC Bedford industries. As always the crew at West Mill under Cappy Foster were on their A game in blocking the cars sent out on WV-2. 

The all important Dispatch Sheet and my switch list.

The Terminal Yard switch crew is back to using the tried and true EMD SW8s. Here they are setting up an outbound train for industries in Bedford NY.

 A block of cars for Bedford NY include the red TPFX 50' boxcar #5510, jade green plug door boxcar #160502 and covered hopper NYC #892010 are all from West Mill NY having traveled on PC Train WV-2 to Selkirk before being cut into PC Train VN-4.

The TY crew is now setting up cars for Empire City industries via the Empire Belt's North Side Yard. With the inception of the Empire Belt RR what was formerly one train is now two. How's that for progress!

Below the TY switch crew is setting up the cars for North Side Yard on track 6 which have been cut from the Long Island RR block sitting on track 9.

The L.I.R.R. block has been re positioned to the head of train EC-1 (Terminal Yard - Empire City) with a MILW boxcar added as a buffer car (plus it will clean the track!). By doing this here the E.B.R.R. crew at N.S.Yard will not have to handle the car twice. 

L.F.N.W. #160 is cut into the block of cars for North Side Yard. The car was picked up by the Los Feliz and North Western loaded with wine from Vintners Co-op in Jaques, CA. The car was interchanged with the A.T.S.F. and forwarded to the Belt Railway of Chicago's Clearing Yard for interchange with the PC to head east. 

 The Empire Belt's GP30s couple up to EC-1.

 And EC-1 heads out of Terminal Yard towards Empire City.

 EC-1 meets the Coal Job at Bedford NY

 And rolls thru Bedford Station.

 EC-1 passing Bedford Tower

 And now on the High Line

 Passing Hohman Ave Tower Operator 1/87th scale Larry D

Arriving North Side Yard with 1/87th scale Sir Neal giving a roll by inspection.

Crawling along track 2 while 1/87th scale conductor John checks his watch. Man that guy's uptight about the time all the time!

Meanwhile at Terminal Yard the Coal Job has arrived and is going thru the weigh in motion scale on track#8.

With the tracks clear in Bedford 1/87th scale Sir Neal and his GP9ms are pulling a transfer freight extra to Terminal Yard  

 The E.B.R.R. Extra heads to the scales on track 9.

That's it for the Coal Job and the E.B.R.R. transfer freight. Both are now officially in the yard and off the sheet.

With the transfer freight out of the way the Empire Belt GP30s have left the yard and are now on the main heading back towards Hohman Ave to reenter the yard and pull the cars for the Empire City Industries.

The GP30s couple up to their caboose and get ready to work the Empire City industries. We'll pick that up in tomorrow's episode. Same bat time, same bat channel! 

Thanks for reading!!!

P.C.C.M. 37E / PC Train VN-4 arrives at Terminal Yard.

Greetings All,

Today we'll get the remainder of the freight cars sent out from West Mill Yard via PC Train WV-2 Weehawken - Selkirk) on Ralph's excellent Kings Port Division layout to my Terminal Yard via PC Train VN-4 (Selkirk - Empire City)

It's a fine summer day in Empire City as PC Train VN-4 from Selkirk rolls thru downtown on it's way to Terminal Yard. The lineman in back of PC#7692 has a great vantage point to get a face full of exhaust. Good thing this is not an ALCO consist!

After crossing the Cornelius Vanderbilt Memorial Bridge VN-4 passes Bedford Tower as tower operator 1/87th scale John B does a double take when spotting the first freight car in the train. The Los Feliz and North Western is 1:1 scale fellow modeler and blogger John B's freelance home road. We recently exchanged home road decals and he did a great job on an E.B.R.R. hopper. Check it out here: https://modelrrmisc.blogspot.com/2017/08/empire-belt-hopper.html

 VN-4 rolls past the Coal Job at Bedford Station.

The four Penn Central EMDs check out some newly painted PC coal hoppers. 

The first block of cars in VN-4's train is this cut from the west coast that came thru Clearing Yard in Chicago. LFNW #160 is loaded with wine from Vintner's Co-op in Jacques CA. The load is consigned to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse in Empire City NY

The West Mill block starts at P&E #3638 and stretches all the way back to the caboose. P&E #3638 is loaded with packaged meals from Cavendish Food & Spirits in Mayfield NY and consigned to Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood NY. The bridge girder is from Kings Port Steel and is headed for NYS DOT Region 10 in Hauppauge NY. Both served by the Long Island Railroad.  

B&M #109 and #110 originated at Corning Glass in Corning NY and are loaded with mirrors and sheet glass for Superior Furniture in Empire City.

A pair of coil steel coaches from Kings Port Steel loaded with coil steel are headed to Gervais Pipe and Fitting in Empire City. 

VN-4's four unit EMD lash up easily hauls the tonnage up the grade towards Terminal Yard

VN-4 arrives at Terminal Yard

And heads to the weigh in motion scale on track 9.

The TY scale master, weight watcher, Jenny Craig(?) has come out of his shack to inspect the bridge girder and spacer cars.

VN-4 has officially arrived and the TY switch crew gets to work pulling off the caboose.

Tomorrow we'll check out what happens with VN-4s freight cars.

Thanks for reading!!

P.C.C.M. 37D / Dispatch of PC Train BP-12

Greetings All,

Today we'll focus on getting Train BP-12, the second half of the Bedford Park Turn, out of Terminal Yard with it's freight cars and pinch hitting power.

Complicating matters is that the Terminal Yard train master  is under orders to use any engines for Bedford Park except EMDs because BP Yard serves the Bedford Park Ford Plant. And of course at this time Terminal Yard is loaded with EMDs. Let's see how all this plays out...

Last installment we left off with PC Train BP-41 being led into Terminal Yard with a trio of helper engines due to BP-41's malfunctioning ALCO RS2. This left 1/87th scale PC Ralph and the Terminal Yard train master scrambling to come up with non EMD power units for BP-12s departure scheduled for one hour from now.

"Bring em right back!" The TY train master has come up with a trio of GE baby U Boats led by PC U30B 2875. Below he is telling 1/87th scale PC Ralph to work the Ford Plant and then bring the engines right back as they are the power for PC Train BF-1 due out later in the day.

1/87th scale PC Ralph is no doubt smiling at his good fortune getting this trio of relatively new high power units for BP-12 instead of the smoky old ALCO he started the day with.

The engines are cut off at Bedford Station for a run around move. A Heileman Brewery dock worker checks out the action surprised at the three unit GE lash up working this time of the day. "Is that you Ralph"? he asks knowing that BP-12 and 1/87th scale PC Ralph are usually right in this spot at this time of the day.

The baby U Boats are ready to shove the train towards the Ford Plant and Bedford Park Yard. The three auto parts boxcars below are from ACME Auto Parts in Mayfield NY and came out of West Mill on Train WV-2.

Shoving past Bedford Tower

With the trio of auto boxcars spotted and the empty auto racks in place it's time for BP-12 to return caboose light to Terminal Yard.

Now running as Extra 2857 train heads thru Bedford NY towards Terminal Yard.

Good to his word 1/87th scale PC Ralph has brought the GE's back to Terminal Yard and coupled the engines up to the head end of Train BF-1(Empire City - East St Louis).

As a yard hostler works with BF-1 the Terminal Yard personnel transport vehicle has arrived to pick up 1/87th scale PC Ralph, his crew and the TY train master.

Now at the Terminal Yard shop we see that the ex NH RS-2 is in the shop and hostler 1/87th scale AT JOE has pulled an old favorite from the shop, ALCO C424 #2415, that has served Bedford Park Yard extremely well in the past. 

The C424 boasts 900 more hp than the RS-2 and is about 10 years younger. In the tight environs of Bedford Park a single engine with 2,400 hp should be the standard. 

A short time later 1/87th scale PC Ralph is at the controls of PC C424 #2415 and running long hood forward thru Bedford NY 

Caboose #21505 proclaiming the NYC as the "Road to the Future" follows along as they pass the Coal Job holding on track#3. 

Thanks for reading!

Tomorrow we'll follow up with the arrival of PC Train VN-4 from Selkirk.