Penn Central Covered Hopper Project

Greetings All,

Another joint project of the N.Y.C.T.L. & A.P.R.R. is in the books! 

Looking to add some PC cars to his fleet and for use in the virtual ops 1:1 Sir Neal of the A.P.R.R. came across some undecorated Atlas 6 bay covered hoppers at a local train show. The Purchasing Department of the A.P.R.R. quickly authorized the purchase and the wheels were set in motion.

The N.Y.C.T.L. submitted a sealed bid to the A.P.R.R. when their Request For Proposals were filed and was awarded the contract.

The A.P.R.R provided some nice looking Penn Central Covered Hopper decals from High Ball Graphics for use in the project. https://highballgraphics.com/F-277.htm

Rivet counters and nit pickers should stop reading now. 

Both the cars and decals arrived at the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop in mid April. The decal sheet has decals for ex PRR H44, H44A and ex NYC 915-H 3 bay cylindrical covered hoppers. Since the PC did not have any six bay covered hoppers we took some liberties with the paint color using Sea Glass green for all cars. 

Let's take a look at the project and some of the modelers license that was used to get these cars painted and lettered.

Krylon rattle can sea glass green, decals, covered hoppers and Testors Gloss Coat used for the project. The Atlas cars are actually kits with the parts inside of the car body.  

Getting started I chose two cars to build, paint and decal. Here's the guide decals and the first 'sample' car.

After building, painting and lettering the first two cars I took on the other four. I try to do these type of projects assembly line fashion. I've cut out the decals needed for the cars and have them sorted in the little trays.

The covered hopper conga line! The cars await their turn for decals with their respective decals in the tray holding them off the bench work.

The work bench used for the project has the two 'sample' cars, the guide and car #3 is ready for decals.

The two sample cars were brought over to North Side Yard for 1/87th scale Sir Neal to check out along with some of the usual 1/87th scale suspects. 

PC 885226 just released from the paint shop. Yes the black lettering should be on a very light gray covered hopper but the paint shop could not find such rattle can paint that was suitable for this project. The car does look good though! 

 PC 885265 just released from the paint shop. 

As the rest of the newly painted covered hoppers are released from the N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop at Terminal Yard a passing of the torch moment occurs. Senior N.Y.C.T.L. Engineer 1/87th scale Sir Neal tosses the keys to AP GP38-2 #358 to newly minted engineer 1/87th scale PC Ralph with a "here you go kid, go get em'

 With 1/87th scale Sir Neal on the ground signaling 1/87th scale PC Ralph backs #358 to the covered hoppers and couples up nice and easy. Over on track #9 we see conductor John checking his watch while it looks like 1/87th scale Engineer Ed has either fainted or fallen over laughing. 

1/87th scale PC Ralph pulls the string of hoppers from the Paint Shop while 1/87th Scale Sir Neal does a roll by inspection.

1/87th scale Engineer Ed is back on his feet and has hooked up the air hoses to the caboose and turned the control valve. 1/87th scale Conductor John is checking his watch and 1/87th scale Sir Neal receives the 'keys' back from 1/87th scale PC Ralph.

 Next stop Rock Ridge Yard!

Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. 34B

Greetings All,

Today we'll wrap up the P.C.C.M. 34 series with installment #34B.

To:         Rock Ridge Yard / West Mill Yard
From:    North Side Yard
Subject: Disposition of of freight cars forwarded to North Side                       Yard by the Atlantic Pacific Railroad

Penn Central #9942 and #9881 are the yard power for this installment. Below they are working train VN-4 that arrived at 7:00. VN-4 brought in seven cars from the AP's Rock Ridge Yard that were interchanged into the PC at Weehawken. After traveling up the River Line in train WV-2 the cars ended up in Selkirk where they were were cut into train VN-4 a Selkirk to Empire City train.   

Let's get to work!  

The Empire City cut has been cut from VN-4 and rolls thru the West Side as Train # Extra 9942.

 Extra 9942 makes its way over the Empire City viaduct.

First stop is dropping this Railbox car from Marcal Paper Products at Moore & Co.

 Heading towards the East Side on the industrial running track.

Two AP 50' RBLs are consigned to Neal's Lumber & Hardware with specially cut lumber from Mikes's Lumber Distributors. However we only have space for one!

No problem. We'll set the other AP car here until we hear from Neal's Lumber. This car is placed in "Constructive Placement' status and the demurrage clock is ticking. 

Now it's time to work the Gervais Pipe and Ralph's Grocery lead. The tail end of SV-1 can be seen to the left

We're pulling four loads of pipe from Gervais and three 50' reefers from Ralph's.

Now we can spot two 50' Railbox cars loaded with paper products from Marcal and one Tropicana RBL loaded with Tropicana products.

With Terminal Yard out of service the North Side Yard yardmaster has directed the Extra 9942 to use the West Side auxiliary track and reverse track for temporary car storage. Below Extra 9942 is back on the West Side and the needed storage tracks are to the right.  

Empty reefers are spotted and the flatcars are shoved into the reverse track. The empties can sit here until we can get them out of town as they are home road cars. The four flatcars of pipe will need to be moved out on the next available train to Selkirk.

Extra 9942 heads back to Terminal yard under it's new name, Extra 9881

There's still more work to be done as the crew needs to get this covered hopper car over to the Hostess / Wonder bread Plant in Bedford NY

Once again known as Extra 9942 this short train heads over the High Line

Heading towards the Cornelius Vanderbilt Memorial Bridge and Bedford NY

Rolling thru Bedford Station

And we have some work to do to get this car spotted. Freight cars are sitting on track 2 waiting to get into Terminal Yard and I think the Coal Job is sitting on track 1, I can see the top of it's old cupola caboose in the lower right.

The Wonder Bread covered hopper is now spotted at Wonder Bread. The empty PC hopper will stay put for now as there is no way to get it out of town right now and North Side Yard cannot handle any more cars. But don't worry it's also a home road car and there will be no per diem charges.  

With it's work at Bedford completed Extra 9881 heads back to Empire City and North Side Yard. 

 Thanks for reading!

P.C.C.M. 34A

Greetings All,

P.C.C.M. 34 is underway! This installment originated at Rock Ridge Yard on 1:1 Sir Neal's A.P.R.R. train layout. Neal, still working on getting his blog up to speed http://atlanticpacificrailroad.blogspot.com/  sent this out to the membership via the original email method we formerly used. Let's take a look at the action starting out at Rock Ridge Yard;

AP GP38-2 #300 pulls two AP RBL cars to the west side of Rock Ridge where they will be temporarily spotted.

AP#300 has picked up this Tropicana Evans RBL from the Tropicana Plant and shoves it into the yard. 
That done AP#300 has assembled the outbound train with seven cars for the N.Y.C.T.L.s Metro Division. The train will be travel from Rock Ridge to Weehawken NJ where the cars for the N.Y.C.T.L. will be picked up by the PC in train WV-2 and head  up the River Line to Selkirk.

AP Train # ROWV-11 leaves Rock Ridge NJ. Next stop Weehawken Yard before PC Train WV-2s cutoff time. 


To:          Rock Ridge Yard/ West Mill Yard
From:     North Side Yard
Subject: Arrival of PC Train VN-4 at North Side Yard

With temporary shut down of the track running past Hudson Coal and into Terminal Yard all trains into Empire City will be using North Side Yard for the immediate future. 

PC Train VN-4 takes the middle track to North Side Yard. The High Line track to Bedford and Terminal Yard is to the left. 

The freight cars from ROWV-11 / WV-2 made the cutoff time and are inbound for Empire City industries. The Tropicana RBL and two Railbox cars are headed for Ralph's grocery Warehouse.

The AP boxcars will be going to Neal's Lumber and Hardware. The Railbox car will go to Moore & Co and the covered hopper will head over to the Hostess / Wonder Bread Plant in Bedford NY

VN-4 comes in the back door at North Side Yard

An EMD GP38-2 painted in the older AP scheme and PC GE U30B #2875 lead the train in on track 3 

 VN-4 rolls to a stop at the west end of North Side Yard

 VN-4s power has cut off from the train and is on track 1 getting refueled by a contract fuel company. PC 9942 and 9881 are the yard power for today and they are getting ready to break down VN-4 for local deliveries and interchanges. 

Next installment we'll check out the set outs and pick ups at the local industries.

Thanks for reading!!!

New Haven Daze Part 2

Greetings All,

The New Haven Daze concludes today. A couple of short videos are included. My new computer and video maker are giving me agita and I'm not really that pleased with the video quality so far. That said I wanted to give everyone a chance to check out the NH action on the layout at this time seeing I might not be able to get any new videos up and running any time soon. 

Proto 2000 New haven GP9 #1218 leads a passenger train towards Empire City Station.

The 1218 leads the train around the Market Street curve

Approaching Empire City Station

The 1218 and passenger train are coming out of the reverse track past the Empire City Post Office 

An aerial of of the action

The train crosses the Ship & Sanitary Canal as it enters Empire City Station.

Pulling in on track#1

Meanwhile on the upper level a pair of New Haven F7As and an SDP40 team up to move a long freight. Engines by Athearn. Disclaimer NH did not roster F7s or SDP40s

Still...It's a good looking engine and one of my favorites.

A short video of the F7s and SDP40

A NH RS2 with a short coal train at Bedford Station

NH RS-2 crossing the Cornelius Vanderbilt Memorial Bridge.

Thanks for reading and watching!