P.C.C.M. 40N

Greetings All,

P.C.C.M. 40N gets underway with 1/87th scale PC Ralph teaming up with 1/87th scale AT JOE and PC Ralph's trusty brakeman on the Bedford Local. Readers might remember that in P.C.C.M. 40I 1/87th scale PC Ralph and his brakeman marked off for a night on the town. After marking back up 1/87th scale PC Ralph was called for this train. He'll resume his regular duties at Bedford Park in the next P.C.C.M. But for now he's enjoying working during the daylight hours with 1/87th scale AT JOE who is assigned to the extra board and usually gets called for a daytime job at Terminal Yard.

The Bedford Local crew assembles and goes over their switching plan for the day. Today's power is this pair of NYC GP9s.

Arriving in Bedford NY the Bedford Local passes Berk Enterprises and P&E 40' boxcar #3638 loaded with packaging materials for Cavendish Fine Foods in Mayfield NY. The car will be picked up and taken to Terminal Yard as an intra layout move.

The local passes the Hostess Wonder Plant which will be switched out today. The A.P.R.R. is well represented here. Between the per diem payments and the shipping costs to Wonder / Hostess the A.P.R.R. coffers are overflowing! As well they should as 1:1 Sir Neal was instrumental giving this industry an identity and getting it operational.  

It's time for the local to get busy. First stop is to switch out Heileman's Brewery by pulling out three 40' reefers loaded with cases and kegs of beer. 

The local is spotting B&M 50' RBLs 109 and 110 loaded with new glass bottles from Corning Glass in Corning NY. That's 1/87th scale AT Joe climbing back onto the engines. After transporting 89' auto racks full of new cars a couple of boxcars of new bottles is light stuff for 1/87th scale PC Ralph!
It's time to work Berk Enterprises and the Hostess / Wonder Bread Plant. The cars from Wonder/Hostess are coupled up to the P&E 40' boxcar at Berk Enterprises. The CP Rail and multi-mark were cutting edge when introduced in 1968. 

Covered hopper ACFX 56670 painted in the Bicentennial / Wonder Bread / Hostess Cakes scheme originated at the large New Jersey Cargill Plant served by the A.P.R.R. and is loaded with flour.

1/87th scale AT JOE does the honors of connecting the air hoses as the local gets ready to head out.

Meanwhile over at North Side Yard 1/87th scale Conductor John has uncoupled these two covered hoppers as the E.B.R.R. does some switching at N.S. Yard in preparation for their transfer run to Terminal Yard and the pending arrival of the daily L.I.R.R. train.

The work at North Side Yard includes cutting the three loaded flat cars into the middle of the cars for the L.I.R.R. to protect their crew. PC 104478 is loaded with cement flux from Gern Industries and P&LE boxcar 35892 is loaded with packaging from Canton Box. Both of those industries are served by the K.P.D. and these cars are headed for Long Island consignees.

A group of empty coal hoppers is part of the North Side Yard transfer run to Terminal yard. These cars were left at N.S.Y. the previous day by the L.I.R.R. 1/87th scale Conductor John rides the rear platform of PC caboose 18418.

The E.B.R.R. transfer run meets the Bedford Local at Bedford Station. 1/87th scale PC Ralph and AT JOE are outside enjoying the nice weather and giving the E.B.R.R. train a roll by inspection.

The E.B.R.R. transfer arrives at Terminal Yard with these much needed empty coal hoppers. The Coal Job awaits them on track 7.  

The TY switcher gets right to work pulling the caboose and now the coal hoppers from the E.B.R.R.transfer train.

With the switch work done the Coal Job power has reconnected to their train and is departing Terminal Yard for Hudson Coal.

We'll take that up tomorrow when we wrap up the P.C.C.M series with installment 40-O. Lots of action still awaits including the L.I.R.R. Interchange, the E.B.R.R. returning to N.S. Yard and the return of the Bedford Local.

Thanks for reading!!!!  

P.C.C.M. 40M

Greetings All,

P.C.C.M. 40M starts just outside North Side Yard at Hohman Ave with the Empire Belt GP9ms coming out of the the yard and crossing Hohman Ave to get started on the freight cars recently left by EC-1.

1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal is at the helm of the E.B.R.R. power and he gets a friendly wave from Hohman Ave Tower Operator 1/87th scale Larry D.

The E.B.R.R. engines have crossed over to the industrial lead and are coupling up to the freight cars brought in by EC-1

1/87th scale Conductor John has connected the air hoses and is checking his watch to guesstimate how long it will take for the engine to pump up enough air pressure to release the trains brakes. He's hoping it's less than 15 minutes so he doesn't get another grade crossing ticket. 

1/87th scale conductor John is on the rear platform of the caboose protecting the shove move back into North Side Yard. In the past the Empire Belt pulled the cars off the main and shoved into the yard via Hohman Ave. With pooled cabooses agreement a lot of switching has been eliminated and the operation at N.S.Y. streamlined.

With the cars and caboose from EC-1 in the yard 1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal has run the power back around and entered the yard via Hohman Ave. Below 1/87th scale Sir Neal and conductor John go over the switch list and form a game plan.

The first move is cutting the cars for the L.I.R.R. from the cars for Empire City. 

With that accomplished the next stop is the Gervais / Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding. Here we are shoving into the siding to pull cars from both Gervais Pipe & Fitting and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.

With the outbound cars out of the way the crew spots BM 105 at Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. BM 105 is loaded with baked goods from the Freihofers New Jersey bakery served by the A.P.R.R. This car originated at the A.P.R.R.s Rock Ridge Yard.

With the work on the east side done the E.B.R.R. heads west towards midtown. NYC covered hopper 892010 sitting loaded at Red Wing Milling to the right will be picked up as part of an intra-layout move. The car will head back to Terminal Yard and eventually be forwarded to Empire Grain on Ralph's K.P.D. layout.

With the siding cleared the E.B.R.R. shoves a tired and worn Caterpillar excavator from Sal's Salvage on a Penn Central depressed center flat towards Empire City Caterpillar under the loading canopy of Red Wing Milling. The DC flat allows this piece of equipment to reach Caterpillar via this this shove move. 

The excavator arrives with no pieces of the Red Wing Milling canopy hanging off it. The equipment will be overhauled here and sent back to Sal's Salvage as soon as it's ready.

The midtown work done the E.B.R.R. heads over to service the West Side industries.

The train is cut to keep Hohman Ave open.

But not for long as the E.B.R.R shoves back into the Drywell Inks siding to pull these freight cars

and spot TP&W 627 loaded with new 55 gallon drums from KP Steel in Kingsport NY at Drywell Inks.

 Next move is to spot GM&O 21129 at Walsh Steel Wool Products. The boxcar is loaded with drums of cutting oil from Gulf Oil's Kings Port NY facility. 

The E.B.R.R. engines are now shoving NYC 50' boxcar 80779 thru the West Side reverse curve towards the Superior Furniture / Reliable Machine Works siding while an N.Y.C.T.L. signal maintainer poses for the camera.

Senior Engineer 1/87th scale Sir Neal continues to fearlessly run his engines under Superior Furniture much to the consternation of 1/87th scale Conductor John who wants him to use some buffer cars to reach under the factory to Reliable Machine. Who are you Willie Cicci with the buffers replies Sir Neal. And by the way it's spacer cars. Whatever... 

1/87th  scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal and his GP9ms emerge from under Superior Furniture, cross Hohman Ave and spot NYC 80779 loaded with machine parts from Quality Fabrications in Bloomberg NY.  

The E.B.R.R. engines run back to the south side to reconnect with  their train.

The switching work done 1/87th scale Senior Engineer Sir Neal takes the scenic route back to North Side Yard. 

That's it or today. Two more installments to go. Next the E.B.R.R. will run a transfer train from North Side Yard to Terminal Yard, we'll run our Bedford Local and catch up with the Coal Job.

Thanks for reading! 

P.C.C.M. 40L

Greetings All,

P.C.C.M. 40L continues the three layout virtual ops with a delay report, thru train action, yard action and transfer run action. 

To:         Terminal Yard / West Mill / Rock Rdige
From:    Selkirk Yard
Subject: Delay Report re; B&M RBL #105

B&M #105 removed from WV-2 upon arrival at Selkirk due to hot box indicator reporting hot axle bearing. B&M #105 removed to R.I.P. track and new axle installed. B&M #105 left Selkirk Yard for Terminal Yard on Train XN-2. Total delay at Selkirk 7 hours:

Selkirk Yard out...

Now let's get to the action!

To:     West Mill / Rock Ridge
From: Terminal Yard

Arrival of Train XN-2. (Dewitt -Selkirk-Terminal Yard) 
Dispatch of Train EC-1. (Empire City Turn)

Terminal Yard out...

PC Train XN-2 heads to Terminal Yard on the High Line with a string of cars from Dewitt and Selkirk Yards including B&M 105 fresh off the R.I.P. track. 

XN-2 power is quite colorful today. PC U30B #2875 leads APRR GP38 #358, PC GP38 #8024 and a pair of NH F7As as they pull XN-2 past Bedford Station.

B&M 105 loaded with baked goods from Freihofer's Bakery on the A.P.R.R. and consigned to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse in Empire City arrives at Terminal Yard.

The TY crew gets right to work on XN-2 pulling B&M 105 and coupling it up to the cars for North Side Yard on track 6.  

The crew does a little housekeeping putting the L.I.R.R. block in front of the Empire City industries block for easier switching at North Side Yard. This will be Train EC-1, the Empire City Turn.  

A pair of F7A's and a GP30 in NYC paint couple up to the freight cars on track 6 and the train is now designated as EC-1. They will perform a terminal air test after building up enough air pressure and then head out to North Side Yard. 1/87th scale Engineer Ed is the engineer for EC-1 and this is one of his favorite runs. 

EC-1 leaving Terminal Yard with a good sized block of cars for the L.I.R.R. Those nice looking AP RBL's are heading to Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood NY with baked good from Freihofers Bakery in New Jersey. The Tropicana car, loaded with Tropicana products from their NJ plant is destined for the A&P Supermarket Distribution Center in Garden City NY. The three cars originated from the A.P.R.R.'s Rock Ridge Yard.

The 5 car Empire City block includes NYC 80779 loaded with machine parts from Quality Fabrications in Bloomberg NY and consigned to Reliable Machine Works in Empire City. The PC depressed center flat is heading for E.C. Caterpillar with an excavator in need of service from Sal's Salvage in West Mill NY. 

New York Central diesels in a Penn Central looking consist lead EC-1 thru Bedford NY.

EC-1 arrives in Empire City on the industrial lead. This is a new move that came from the Empire Belt's suggestion box. It eliminates some run around moves and saves a fair amount of time.

The conductor from EC-1 has cut the train to clear Hohman Ave. Hello 1/87th scale Larry D!

The EC-1 power will disconnect here and crossover to the Empire City main.

Once on the EC Main the engines will couple up to the freight cars waiting in the distance. These cars were placed there earlier by the Empire Belt's North Side Yard crew.

The engines are coupled up and pumping up the air to release the brakes. The train will be heading back to Terminal Yard as EC-2 right after their mandated air test. 

EC-2 heads back to Terminal Yard and gets a wave from Hohman Ave Tower Operator 1/87th scale Larry D.

Green signals and a wave from Bedford Tower Operator 1/87th scale John B will have 1/87th scale E.E. back at Terminal Yard in time for lunch. Just how he likes it!

EC-1 rolls into Terminal Yard on track 1 and Double E is ready to go to beans right after he ties down the train. 

Next we'll get the freight cars in play to their consignees and interchange cars with the L.I.R.R.

Thanks for reading!