Penn Central Car Movements #100 Part 1 / The Gathering of Outbound Cars Begins

 Greetings All,

Welcome to Penn Central Car Movements #100!!!

Its hard to believe our PCCMs have now reached their centennial anniversary. From the humble beginning of a single boxcar and Penn Central Car Movement Card to our one hundredth PCCM the virtual ops have been a great source of friendship with fellow modelers and have spurred on many enjoyable model railroad projects that have benefitted my modeling and the layout greatly. 

The car and car movement card that started it all and gave our virtual operations its name.

PCCM 100 will be a four layout virtual with my NYCTL interchanging freight cars with special guest atjoe1972's Ralston Creek RR returning to the PCCMs for this special op along with usual suspects PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR.

PCCM 100 opens up late in the afternoon at Bedford NY with Long Island RR Train MA-3 from Fresh Pond heading towards Empire City to interchange PCCM freight cars with the Empire Belt RR.

LIRR Train MA-3 on the move to North Side Yard. 

LIRR engineer Jimmy Alco couples up to the freight cars to be moved to Fresh Pond Yard.

Jimmy Alco checks in with EBRR trainmen, Senior Engineer Sir Neal, conductor John, PC Ralph and brakeman Rocky. The topic seems to be 100 PCCMs!!! Holy moly!!!

The EBRR guys watch the LIRR train depart North Side Yard from the parking area as they are anxious to head for home. The newly delivered cars will be inspected by the car knockers and be ready for their next PCCM moves when the guys return to work.

LIRR Train MA-4 heads back to Fresh Pond Yard.

Next up today we see PC engineer Robert R has reported for duty in the always busy Bedford Park Yard. PC(ex NYC) RS11 #7608 has been assigned to BPY due to increased traffic and tonnage. 

The first move for today is pulling two empty coil coaches from the steel track of the Ford Plant. The empties will be forwarded back to Kings Port Steel for their next PCCM loads.

An empty Celanese tank car gets pulled from the Ford Plant tank car track for movement back to Celanese Chemicals in Denver, CO via the Ralston Creek RR.

Empty boxcars are pulled from the Ford Plant shipping and receiving tracks. The two PRR cars are non PCCM cars headed back to Cleveland.

Empty 86'ers are pulled out next. Designed to maximize cubic space for lighter loads like auto body parts the cars have been a big success for the RRs and auto manufacturers.

The empty APRR and EBRR 86'ers will be forwarded back to IDEAL Auto Parts in Rock Ridge, NJ for their next PCCM loads. 

PC Train BP-12 heads to Terminal Yard

After dropping the BP-12 cars Robert R has coupled up to freight cars going to the Bedford Park Ford Plant as train BP-41. The Terminal Yard yardmaster, yard job engineer Big Mike and Kar Knocker are all out to help with the quick turnaround.

PC Train BP-41 heads to Bedford Park.

Robert R is back at Bedford Park and prepares to deliver two non PCCM gondolas of Kings Port Steel steel coils to the Ford Steel Track.

Two non PCCM flatcars with large crates of assembly line machinery are shoved into the Ford Plant with C&NW 49019 making its PCCM debut. We'll leave Robert R to deliver the rest of the non PCCM cars and head back to Terminal Yard.

Back in Terminal Yard Alco Joe gets called for train BT-27, the Bedford Turn and is greeted by Kar Knocker who has cleared the train for departure and engine hostler Wet Willie who has provided the two Alco C-425s that will be today's BT-27/28 power.

PC Train BT-27 departs for Bedford.

The BT-27 gets to work at the Hostess Plant coupling up to three empty PC covered hoppers to be moved to the Pier 16 Grain Silos for their next PCCM loads. Conductor Murray has received three step protection as he prepares to climb the car to release the brakes.

Next stop is Berk Enterprises to pull PC boxcar #229036 loaded with printed packaging materials for Blue Ribbon Flour in Kings Port, NY.

Three empty non PCCM bulkhead flats get pulled from University Millwork for return to Boise Cascade in International Falls, MN.

The BT-27 finishes up its switching work at the Schaefer Brewery pulling loaded non PCCM boxcars of the one beer to have when having more than one as our friendly neighborhood RDC looks on. The sharp looking Schaefer boxcar was a gift from 1:1 atjoe1972.

Train BT-28 returns to Terminal Yard

 Alco Joe brings Train BT-28 back to Terminal Yard closing out part one of my outbound PCCM 100 operations.

We'll pick it up tomorrow in Empire City and spend the day with the Empire Belt RR.

Be sure to catch all of the PCCM 100 action on Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR, PC Ralph's Kings Port Division and atjoe 1972's Ralston Creek RR. 

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you tomorrow!!!

Freight Car Spotlight #5-2023 / C&NW Depressed Center 75' Four Truck Flatcar #48019

 Greetings All,

Freight Car Spotlight #5-2023 

C&NW Depressed Center 75'

Four Truck Flatcar #48019 

Welcome to another freight car spotlight. Today's spotlight will shine on the Chicago & North Western Railway and a Walthers model of CNW depressed center flatcar #48019 that I recently purchased during the Train Store Haul in May, 2023. Let's take a look at the CNW first.

Chicago & North Western Railway

"Chicago and North Western Railway" by contemplative imaging 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.

The CNW was a class one railroad that was chartered in June of 1859. The CNW purchased and merged several other railroads between 1959 and 1893 serving the upper mid west and accumulated large tracts of land in the upper peninsula in Michigan. 

"Chicago & North Western Railroad Map - 1977" by vxla is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

By 1899 the CNW had rostered 1,380 locomotives. 1,176 passenger cars and 49,484 freight cars. Changing traffic patterns into the mid 20th century eroded the CNWs rail traffic. After nine years in bankruptcy the CNW reorganized and rapidly dieselized their locomotive fleet.

"Boone, Iowa, CNW, Chicago North Western Railroad, Train, Boone Yard, Engine, Locomotive" by photolibrarian is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/jp/?ref=openverse.

The CNW opened Proviso Yard in 1929 which was the largest freight yard at the time with 260 miles of track and a 20,000 car capacity. Potatoes from the west were the main loading along with sugar beats and huge amounts of wheat and corn.

"Proviso Yard's new nerve center" by mod as hell 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.

In 1972 the Chicago North Western Railway was sold to its employees and became the Chicago North Western Transportation Company but retained the CNW reporting marks. 

"Yard Crew" by docmoreau is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/jp/?ref=openverse.
 

The "employee owned" heralds started to appear during this time.

In 1985 the CNWTC transferred their stock to the CNW Corporation which took over operations. More stock acquisitions followed and ultimately the CNW was purchased by the UP in 1995. UP commemorated this with the EMD SD70ACe CNW heritage unit #1995

"Employee Owned!!!!" by Patrick Dirden is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/jp/?ref=openverse.
  

Depressed Center Flatcars Prototype Info

Since their inception railroads have been called upon to carry extremely heavy and oversized loads often using specialized equipment like this Schnabel car. Note the tree trimming this car did along the way!

"A reactor vessel" by NRCgov is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.
 

In service, the smaller four truck 75' depressed center flatcars are used to carry large and bulky loads such as transformers, machinery and military equipment. All of these loads would exceed clearance restrictions if moved on standard equipment.

"Transformer component on hvy duty depressed center flatcar" by john_pittman 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.

Loads of this type are also extremely heavy and the load limit for these cars(combined weight of car and load) is almost 200 tons. The cars are built with high strength low alloy steels to help conserve weight and spread the weight among the two high capacity four axle trucks at each end of the car. 

With little to no room beneath the car, each set of trucks has its own air and hand brakes which are mounted on platforms at each end as seen on this well done model.

 

Depending on the types of cargo the car may be subjected to numerous restrictions while in transit. Speeds are kept low, usually 25 to 35 mph and the cars cannot be humped. With some types of cargo idler cars(generally empty conventional flatcars) may be placed at each end to improve train handling or increase clearance between the depressed center car and the others in the train.

If the load is especially tricky the car may be moved alone or with idler cars as a low speed extra and be restricted to daylight movements so clearances and track conditions can be monitored safely.

The Walthers Model

In the recent train store haul in early May I found the below Walthers kit of a C&NW #48019 four truck 75' depressed center flatcar that was sealed in the box.

The Build

As reported in a prior post the Layout Standards used for my model railroad rolling stock will be used for this model. This includes adding metal wheelsets, painted wheel faces, painting the trucks flat brown, Kadee knuckle couplers, Testor's Dullcote, touching up the paint as needed and a roll test. I won't be able to add additional weight to the car but may address that with the loads.

The kit comes with some prototype information. Note the kit includes plastic wheels, black trucks and horn hook X2F couplers.

On the flip side are the assembly directions which look pretty straight forward. Three weights are included that fit snugly into the models frame.

The car is basically assembled. If you look closely there are "dots" of unpainted styrene from cutting the parts from the sprues.

The unpainted styrene is also visible on the parts on the deck. The bare styrene will be painted with burnt umber.

To better secure the coupler box lid and eliminate the coupler sag I cut off the little push pins that held the lids in place. I then drilled a small hole and used some little screws that once held my talgo mounted Bachmann couplers in place.

 

Much better!!

The C&NW 48019 is mechanically ready for service. The trucks have been sprayed with red primer and both the trucks and wheel faces have been brush painted with burnt umber 

A Walthers transformer load fits and looks very good.

A Francis Style Turbine makes a nice looking load for this car.

On another day a Caterpillar heavy equipment load heads towards Empire City Caterpillar.

Good thing we verified this load with the Clearance Bureau in Philadelphia, PA to make sure it would fit thru the tunnel!!  

Train BP-41 shoves the oversized load towards the Bedford Park Ford Plant. A brakeman protects the shove move.

The BP-41 passes Bedford Station. 

The oversized crate containing a proprietary assembly line machine is shoved into the Ford Plant.

Building and securing the oversized crate

A few months ago I purchased two packages of 1:87 scale lumber from an ebay seller in Hungary with the intention of using it for an oversized load on a depressed center flatcar. 

However, the Hungarian wood as it has become known, was too long for the three PC depressed center flats in the fleet. With the purchase of the C&NW car the laser cut lumber strips could be built as is and it would fit the car without a lot of cutting.

 

A Bachmann under track uncoupling magnet fit this car perfectly and attached itself securely.

The magnet fits into the recess under the crate and holds it firmly in place on the car. The frame is made from hobby sticks from a local store.

Checkout this electric transformer move!

Final Thoughts and Comments

The addition of this "specialized car" to my fleet and the associated loads allows me to run what are known as High & Wide or Dimensional Loads. Movements of this type are visually interesting, move slowly in most cases and would require some careful handling and dispatching during an operations session. 

Adding and building two new transformer kits from Walthers gives me the option to run trains like the one in the video with all of the necessary components needed to get the transformers up and running. The wire loads from PC Ralph are perfect for this train.

Additional Reading and Links

CNW 48019 at Marshalltown, Iowa.

CNW Depressed Center Flatcar at Minneapolis, MN Note the ACI label and incorrect date and car number.

Chicago & North Western Railway history from wikipedia.