Bedford Station

Greetings All,

Last week we took a look at the new Bedford Tower so let's take a look this week at the new Bedford Station.

An oldie but goody Model Power train station that I built when first getting back into the hobby about 20 years ago. I added the 'Bedford Station' sign to the structure for it's current assignment 

A New York Central RDC is the first passenger car to stop at Bedford Station. An R.EA. truck exchanges express shipments. 1/87th scale Sir Neal Himself , 1/87th scale Engineer Ed and 1/87th scale PC Ralph watch the action while a passenger asks the conductor 'does this train stop at 42nd Street'?

The Bedford Station covered platforms

A local train has rolled in while the camera man gets a friendly wave from a waiting passenger

NYC GP7 5756 is today's power while the head end cars get worked during the stop

Carefully unloading the NYS&W 40' boxcar while under supervision

The Lee Way truck will take the large crate to it's consignee. The truck and trailer are Athearn kits and represent the first 1/87th scale tractor trailer kit I bought and built. 

A NYC SW 8 with a short string of Pacemaker Cars has stopped at Bedford Station to pick up additional L.T.L. freight and lo and behold the NYC employees receive a surprise when opening the door.

HOBO's! Aboard a Pacemaker car no less! The Bulls will take care of this ASAP

Progressing thru the years Bedford Station continues to serve the passengers and businesses of Bedford  well into the PC era. 

A later REA Express tractor trailer and a pair of PC B60B baggage cars  behind a PC E7A 

We're into the PC era as a mix of NYC and NH passenger cars make up this passenger train. That guy waving is still a commuter and what changes he has seen. If he could talk he would scream! 

New signage has been added to the covered platforms. 1/87th scale Sir Neal's private varnish 'Nassau County' has rolled in behind 1/87th scale PC Ralph's private sleeper car. Looks like 1/87th scale PC Ralph and 1/87th scale Engineer Ed are discussing important matters on the platform.

 1/87th scale PC Ralph's private car and his corvette at Bedford Station

The 1/87th scale gang talk it over on the platform before boarding their respective cars. 1/87th scale Engineer Ed has assured the boys that he will be at the throttle and the trip will be fast and smooth. Meanwhile a trainman looks to make a quick call to his bookie to place some action on today's races at Aqueduct Race Track. This being before O.T.B. came to be.  

Thanks for Reading!

Bedford Tower

Greetings All,

A couple of entries ago I introduced the shelf portions of my layout formerly known as 'Shelf City' or 'Industry City' as the newly named Bedford NY. With naming assistance from fellow modeler and blogger John Bruce this section of the layout now has a nice identity, a sense of purpose and some visual interest. In keeping with N.Y.C.T.L. tradition the new Bedford Tower operator will be named 1/87th scale John B. to show my appreciation for his assistance.

Check out 1:1 John Bruce's modeling and blog here:

http://modelrrmisc.blogspot.com/

Lets take a look at this newly upgraded area of the New York Central Train Layout;

The karma must have been right. I remembered I had this BEDFORD water tower for many years and now I can finally use it with the name facing forward. Here it below as I start to gather some details and scenery for the area. 

The soon to be Bedford Tower and Tower Operator 1/87th scale John B.

A little more mock up has a walkway leading to the tower and a small freight platform for the operators to receive supplies.

I've added some walls in this area for pedestrian safety and railroad right of way security.

The red zone is for Tower Operator parking only. A perk of the job that 1/87th scale John B insisted on.
Truth be told he would have a long commute!
To the right of the red zone is the entry to the walkway that leads to the tower.

Bedford Station building and passenger platforms are to the left. 

Mail and Express shipments going in and out of Bedford Station can be staged here. 

An REA tractor trailer makes a scheduled stop.

I removed the building flat that can be seen in photo number 1 and added fauna, flora, trees and other details to the scene. I think it is coming together very nicely.

A wider angle with some new trees blending into the backdrop

Bedford Tower operator 1/87th scale John B. has left the tower and waits on the platform with a green signal and maybe some train orders. Part of the labor negotiations to bring 1/87th scale John B to Bedford included unlimited fresh milk as noted by the milk cans on the platform.

 Looking down the tracks 1/87th scale John B. has aligned the tracks and is outside the giving a green lantern signal. A Policeman is at the tower's walkway entrance which is restricted to railroad employees and authorized visitors. 

The Patrolman keeps a watch on 1/87th scale John B's car and the red zone which is for tower operator parking only. Looks like John may have already had a hubcap nicked.
That black Cadillac convertible sure looks familiar.

Well look at that! 1/87th scale Sir Neal, 1/87th scale PC Ralph, 1/87th scale Engineer Ed and
 1/87th scale Larry D pay 1/87th scale John B a visit and welcome him to the layout
as a joint PC / A.P.R.R. caboose hop rolls by . 

The PC / A.P.R.R. caboose hop to North Side Yard heads towards the richly wooded curve that will take the train onto the High Line and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Memorial Bridge. 

Next episode I'll focus on the new Bedford Station passenger station and platforms. 

Thanks for reading!

Two new freight cars added to the N.Y.C.T.L. fleet

Greetings All,

A few weeks ago my good buddy and fellow train operator 1:1 scale Engineer Ed came over for a long overdue ops session. E.E. brought over some of his old HO scale equipment for us to check out and was kind enough to give me a few pieces of rolling stock. The cars were vintage and provided some nice projects.

As delivered a Bachmann 89' tri level auto rack, a TYCO Gulf three dome tank car and a Lionel frame that looks to belong to a hopper car.

As readers of this blog know I have been working on expanding my auto rack fleet over the past year and I did not wait long to get this car into service. A shot of Testors Dullcote and the painting of the top rails from yellow to green blend this car right into my fleet.  

Body mounted Kadee #5 couplers installed using a small shim to keep the coupler box level. Note the front corners were trimmed slightly to give the coupler a little more swing. I coupled it to two same length auto racks with talgo couplers and the three cars handled the layouts smaller 22" curves with no problems.

The next project was little more challenging. Some research on the Gulf three dome 62' tank car indicates it   originally rode on three axle trucks with talgo mounted couplers. This car looks to be from about 1975 and is known as TYCO 357-B  http://tycotrain.tripod.com/freightcars/id21.html  After scouring my parts boxes I was unable to come up with a set of three axle trucks. But I find an old pair of metal two axle trucks that looked to be a good fit.

New trucks and Kadee short over set shank couplers liberated from an no longer being used Kadee #452 Bachmann F7 coupler conversion kit.

The trucks are made of metal with separate springs.Getting the coupler box open to remove the horn hook coupler was a hammer and screwdriver affair.

Holding the trucks in place are two Allen head screws from an erector set.

The 2-56 screws holding the couplers in place needed to be filed slightly so they did not snag the car rivets

On the money!

 After some dullcote to tone down the paint scheme and black paint added to the trucks the Gulf car performed very well during testing.

  A couple of nice and easy projects are in the books and two new cars have been added to the fleet.

Thanks for Reading! 

Penn Central Car Movement Series #14

Greetings All,

During the ops session with 1:1 Engineer Ed last week we set up some of the next virtual ops session between the N.Y.C.T.L. and Ralph V's Kings Port Division. This, the 14th installment of Penn Central Car Movement Series has taken on a special meaning. Last week the Kings Port Division formally opened the newly expanded and improved West Mill Float Yard. This important railroad hub needed a train from the N.Y.C.T.L. worthy of all the work that was performed. With that in mind the 14 series will feature the largest amount of cars virtually forwarded layout to layout. A total of 27 cars will be making the trek from Terminal Yard to the West Mill Float Yard.

For more on the West Mill Float Yard expansion see here
 http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-one-yard-gain.html

So with the K.P.D. milestone in the books I also turned my attention once again to naming the shelf portion of the N.Y.C.T.L. I received some great suggestions from fellow modeler and blogger John Bruce who pointed out the Ford Plant and some creative names using that and some others from the PRR, PC and CR. After mulling those over I thought the name Bedford would work. It has a NY feel, There is a main artery in Brooklyn known as Bedford Ave. There is a town of about 17,000 people called Bedford about 48 miles north of NYC located within Westchester County. So with this information my fictitious industrial town was born. Thanks John!

For more on John B's model railroading click here;
 http://modelrrmisc.blogspot.com/  

So let's take a look at what transpired on the N.Y.C.T.L. after the actual ops session with Engineer Ed to put together this outbound train:

The L.I.R.R. FA units ran very nicely during the ops session with E.E. and they have been rewarded as power for today's train, EC-1, the Empire City Turn. EC turn arrives in...get ready for it...Bedford an industrial town on the outskirts of Empire City. 

Making the long pull

Most but not all of these cars will be headed out to industries on the Kings Port Division

Picking up iron ore loads at T&R Gravel

Over in Empire City at the North Side Yard the Empire Belt Railroad is using PC U30B #2875 as today's power

The 2875 leaves North Side yard to attend to today's switching assignments. The five covered hoppers on the industrial lead were placed there as the last car movement by E.E. and I will attend to those today.

An A.P.R.R. 50' combo door boxcar is shoved into Neal's Lumber and Hardware. The crew will pull the PC boxcar and spot the A.P.R.R. car. The crew is being extra careful as 1/87th Scale Sir Neal Himself  stands on the sidewalk admiring one of his vast fleet of freight cars.

The Empire Belt crew has switched out Cargill, Neal's Lumber and Caterpillar.Here they are shoving those cars into track 3 of North Side yard for pick up by the Empire City Turn due in this afternoon. 

The EC Turn has arrived and the EB power idles out of the way on track 2.

Normally foreign road power like the L.I.R.R. units can be found leased to the Empire Belt and utilized in North Side Yard. Today's heavy rail traffic going back to Terminal Yard will be too much for the U30B so  the FA units will be working out of Terminal Yard for at least another day before being transferred to the Empire Belt. The FAs will run around their train, enter the yard from the east side and pull track 1. They'll couple up their train, add the caboose conduct a terminal air test and then head out. 

Heading over the High Line and Cornelius Vanderbilt Memorial Bridge (Thanks John B!)

Yes, this train would have been too much for the single U30B

The L.I.R.R. FAs will uncouple for their train here at Bedford Tower and then work the Ford Plant and local industries.

Three empty 50' double door boxcars being pulled from All City Storage. The boxcars are specially equipped for shipping appliances and assigned to Peerless Appliance.

The empty KP&W and NYC cars are in pool service assigned to ACME Auto Parts -Ford service

The length of the train overwhelms the available track lengths in Terminal Yard. The train has been cut and doubled into the yard starting on track 4.  

The second half of the EC Turn arrives and heads into track 3

After some serious switching and blocking train WM-2 (Terminal Yard to West Mill Float Yard) has received it power and it almost ready for departure 

Block with cars for West Mill Float Yard

Block 1 will be cut after the Rock Island car and have 10 empty covered hoppers cut in as block 2. Both of these blocks will be worked at West Mill Float Yard

Block 3 consist of cars going beyond West Mill to the Williams Yard on the K.P.D.

The end of block 3

Sample car cards being used for this series

WM-2 has left Terminal Yard and head thru Bedford on it's way to West Mill

WM-2 is now on the main line

Heading over the High Line

Block 2 on the High Line

Block 3 rolling across the High Line

And finally caboose 18401 brings up the rear

And there it is. The longest train ever sent out in the virtual ops is now on it's way. Let's see if Ralph V is still talking with me when he sees this! 

Thanks for Reading!