PCCM 115: Part 2 on the KPD

 Hello again!

John and I are engaged in a two layout, one weekend Penn Central Car Movement series.  

Yesterday the Penn Central and the Kings Port & Western sent freight cars toward West Mill Yard for eventual forwarding to John's Terminal Yard on his  New York Central Train Layout

West Mill's crew has arranged the outgoing cars on two tracks to be picked up by the next WV-2 Weehawken to Selkirk transfer.  The cars include six cement hoppers, three flats with CAT heavy equipment, a pair of non player bulkhead flats, and five gondolas loaded with newly treated railroad ties.

 While we wait for the WV-2 lets head over to Kings Port where a switcher from Williams Yard has been sent to move three tank cars from the Gulf facility to the interchange track.   The tankers and six hoppers loaded with aggregate that were placed on the interchange track yesterday are scheduled to be picked up by the WV-2 to Selkirk.

The WV-2 from Weehawken arrives at West Mill!

The U33C-GP38 consist uncouples from the train to pick up several cars at West Mill.

WV-2 completes the pick ups... 

 ...and continues on its way to Selkirk with one more stop at Kings Port to pick up the three tankers and six open hoppers the KP&W left on the interchange track.

 The WV-2 is given permission to proceed to Selkirk.  It will arrive at the big yard an hour and a half later.

WV-2 arrives at Selkirk!  As WV-2 slowly rolls to a stop Train VE-1 for Enola heads out in the opposite direction.

 

Freight cars scheduled to be forwarded to Terminal Yard will be pulled from the train and assembled into Train LI-2.   The two bulkhead flats with plywood loads will be sent to Mechanicville, NY via Rotterdam Jct.

Train (LI-2) for Terminal Yard on John's New York Central Train Layout is now ready to go.    Its manifest includes six hoppers of aggregate, five cars of treated ties, three CAT loads, three tankers, and six cement hoppers.  It pulls out of Selkirk while some of the cars that were removed from WV-2 are assembled into a train for Rotterdam Jct.

 

Before we call it a day lets follow the NY-20 transfer to Rotterdam Jct. and Mechanicville.  The train leaves Selkirk with a mixed manifest including  MEC bulkhead flats 1400 and 1414.

The NY-20 leaves Selkirk behind a pair of GP40s while a freight heading toward the old Boston & Albany line passes by with an FP7-F7B-FP7 consist.

 NY-20 reaches Mechanicville and meets B&M Train BM-7 arriving from Boston.

 

Follow what happens next on John's blog.  Be sure to check back here on Sunday when the cars return to the KPD!
 

PCCM 115: Part 1 on the KPD

 Hello there!

John and I are running a one weekend Penn Central Car Movement series (PCCM) that will feature mostly MOW and construction related loads.   I'm starting today (Thursday) because I ended up creating more content that I originally planned!  I hope you enjoy it.

You can follow the action on John's New York Central Train Layout blog Here starting on Saturday!

Meanwhile, its 5:45 AM at West Mill Yard and the sun has yet to make an appearance.   The first trick crew has just arrived for work.

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After large quantities of coffee were consumed, opinions about last night's ballgame were disputed, and switchlists were reviewed in the crew lounge the guys are ready to head out to the yard tracks.  Sunrise starts to light up the day at West Mill Yard.

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The first train of the day is the South Local which will serve Half Moon Wholesale Lumber Distributors and Tri Mount Cement.   All of the outgoing cars are empties for Half Moon.

A trio of MEC bulkhead flats is coupled onto the boxcars, completing the manifest.

The South Local will be powered by a GP9/GP7 set, the GP9 #7085 still in its PRR merger compliant livery.   The engineer and fireman head toward the lead unit's cab. 

After powering up, the two First Generation Geeps move away from the engine service area to couple up to their train.

 The Yard's SW9 #8951 tacks on a caboose for the run.

After the caboose is secured, connections are checked, and the air pumped up the South Local backs out of the yard and heads out of town.   Why all of this focus on a trainload of non-PCCM cars?  The South Local will return with six PS-2 hoppers of cement from Tri Mount Cement to be forwarded to the Long Island RR via John's Terminal Yard and North Side Yard.

 Let's move on from West Mill Yard to Hedberg Aggregates where Kings Port & Western GP9 #769 spent the night after delivering six empty hoppers.  The loco's morning crew has arrived by van and is preparing to fire up the unit to take the now loaded hoppers and a couple of PS-2s back down to Williams Yard in Kings Port.

The train heads downgrade until it reaches the junction at the north end of Williams Yard.  It then backs into the yard tracks.

 KP&W #24 is assigned to set the six hoppers loaded with aggregate out on the interchange track where they will later be picked up by a Penn Central Transfer to Selkirk. 

This post is a bit of a travelogue as we change locations again!   We're now moving over to the Binghamton, NY area to observe a set out and pick up at Milton CAT.  This new industry on the KPD was inspired by John's Caterpillar dealer in Empire City.  The NYC depressed well flatcar was recently purchased to join its PC counterpart in moving heavy CAT equipment.

 KP&W local Extra #566 sets out two empty flat cars and then picks up the three cars loaded with heavy equipment.  The three loads are consigned to Empire City Caterpillar.

Our next stop is the KP&W's CS Yard in Binghamton. 

Among the freight cars sitting in the KP&W yard are five gondola loads of treated railroad ties.   These will eventually be forwarded to the Long Island Railroad via John's Empire Belt at North Side Yard.  

The KP&W's CS Yard interchanges with the Erie Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley, and the Delaware & Hudson Railroads.   The daily D&H transfer from their Liberty Street Yard arrives shortly before KP&W Extra #566 returns with the CAT loads.  The first four cars on the D&H train are recent gifts from John and Neal!  Thanks guys!

 The CS Yard crew assembles a BiWi-3 transfer to Williams Yard in Kings Port with the CAT vehicles and treated ties included in the manifest.  An F7A-B-A set is assigned to haul the train to Kings Port with an intermediate stop at West Mill to interchange with the Penn Central.

 As the BiWi-3 works its way toward West Mill lets go back there...

 

....to catch the return of the South Local which made pick ups at Half Moon Wholesale Lumber Distributors and Tri Mount Cement.

The six cement hoppers will be forwarded to the LIRR while the two bulkhead flats loaded with plywood will be routed to Mechanicville.

 Things get quiet for a couple of hours until a horn blast at the south tunnel heralds the arrival of the BiW-3 dispatched from Binghamton.

 The BiWi-3's crew uncouples the gondolas loaded with ties and the three cars carrying CAT heavy duty equipment for set out at West Mill 

 

 The F7A-B-A set pulls the eight cars past the yard lead by WM Tower and shoves them into the yard tracks.

 After completing the set out the KP&W consist returns to its train.

 

 The engineer receives permission to proceed to Kings Port!

 

 That's plenty of action for one day!  Come back tomorrow as we complete the outbound portion of this series and send cars to John's N.Y.C.T.L.!

Improving the Binghamton Yard scene!

 Hello,

I recently improved the backdrops I use to represent "Selkirk" and "Mechanicville" when I'm photographing and filming virtual ops scenes for our PCCM series posts.   As often happens for me, one project snowballs into another and I found myself wanting to make similar enhancements to my "Binghamton" yard scene to make it look better for our operations.  John and I have referred to the way our participation in PCCMs motivates layout improvements as the "Virtual Ops Catalyst".  Its been effective for me lately!

Here is what Binghamton used to look like on my layout:

It was OK, but the scenery was underwhelming.  Setting it up was also a little inconvenient.  I had to connect two separate foam core sheets representing the sky and strategically place the oversized water tower in the middle of the picture to hide the seam between them.  

After I added better looking Northeastern US mountain scenery to my Selkirk and Mechancville scenes I wanted to create something similar for this one as well.

 Once again I permanently joined two foam core sheets and covered them with cloud printed paper that I found at Michael's craft store.  I then printed off several images of the Catskill Mountains that I found online, and after cropping them for my particular needs glued them to the foam board backdrop.   I replaced the smaller buildings and grain elevator on the left of the original scene with more print-outs of larger brick factory structures similar to those actually seen at Binghamton.  

I then glued all of the scenic elements together so the backdrop is easily moved and stored. 

 Here is how things look now:

This is the Kings Port & Western's fictional CS Yard at Binghamton.  The large background building in the middle is a blow up image of an actual structure in Binghamton.   The long grey freight house creates a staging area for trains from the LV, D&H, and EL to appear from or to duck behind as a way of suggesting interchange with the KP&W in a large yard.  Binghamton Tower is the same structure used for Williams Yard Tower.  I applied the Binghamton name to the other side.

I'm hoping that the long K&W freight house can serve as another PCCM consignee for car forwarding routes yet to be determined.

 I mentioned in my previous post that recent trackwork changes allow me to film trains leaving yards and arriving at my "facade industries" without having to remove cars by hand from my regular layout and place then on my former shelf for photography and filming.   Now I can roll trains directly from CS Yard to the site on my layout where I stage the facade industries like ACME Auto Parts.

Speaking of ACME, the following video shows a KP&W local heading out of CS Yard in Binghamton to serve the Auto Parts maker with a couple of steel coil coaches and a number of boxcars loaded with batteries and other parts.

 

 That completes my new yard scenes!  I'm hoping that they will enhance photos and videos of the KPD's participation in PCCM virtual ops with John's N.Y.C.T.L.  and Neal's  Atlantic Pacific R.R. !

Layout changes for better visuals and ops in PCCM posts

 Hello!

Over the years the many Penn Central Car Movement series that I have participated in with John's New York Central Train Layout and Neal's  Atlantic Pacific RR have motivated several changes on my own layout, most notably my efforts to increase the number of industries, businesses, or consignees that might send or receive cars in our three-way virtual operations scheme.   Since space on my layout is limited I created a number of what I refer to as "facade industries" or building flats that I temporarily set up while running our virtual ops.

A few examples of these building flat "facade industries" include:

Half Moon Wholesale Lumber Distributors

 

 Van Winkle Canning and Woodstock Hills Natural Soda

Quality Fabrications

 

 ...Agway and Bell Pole (across the tracks from the grain elevator) among others.

 

While I would have liked to permanently added many of these industries to the layout, space limitations required me to come up with creative ways of temporarily representing them while photographing car movements for our PCCMs.   I originally used a small diorama with removable structures to give the impression that businesses like Agway (seen below) and others were involved in pick ups and set outs of our PCCM freight cars..

 

Hoping to expand the facade industry scenes I eventually built a small shelf layout on a lower level of the original layout's benchwork.   It was independent from the rest of the layout.

 

 

On the positive side, this set up was an improvement visually and even let me film locomotives occasionally moving with freight cars in front of the various industries.    

The downside was that the lower level location of the shelf often had me sitting on the floor to take photos and it took time and effort to set up the various industry scenes by switching out buildings and foreground scenery.

The biggest drawback was that I had to physically remove cars from the main layout and stage them by hand on the shelf layout to simulate their movement from yard to customer.   

 A new idea occurred to me one day while I was working my West Mill Yard.   It occurred to me that I could extend two of the yard tracks a few feet further along the front of the layout's fascia and include an engine escape turnout.  It didn't take much time or effort to add this section but it provides significant payoffs in increased yard capacity and locomotive movements.  Here are a couple of shots from early development of the idea.  I was able to recycle track and scenic materials from the shelf layout for this project so it didn't cost a dime!

 

 Looking at this new section in front of the fascia I had the inspiration to locate my interchangeable facade industries there.  

 

As an example, here is Agway sitting behind the tracks seen above with a temporary backdrop behind the grain elevator

 

 Three immediate benefits result from this arrangement:

1. I don't have to sit or stoop to set up or photograph these industries as they are now placed at regular layout height.

2.  Cars can stay on the tracks in movements from yard to consignee!

3. I will be able to video more realistic set-outs and pick-ups in front of the facade industries. 

 The next consideration was creating a way to include foreground scenery for the facade industries like I used to on the shelf layout.  I'd want to be able to easily set up a scene in front of the tracks to convey a sense of depth to the scenes and place structures related to the industries there for pics and videos.

 My solution was to build a platform on top of a rolling cart I was already using to store rolling stock.

 

The platform aligns temporary scenes in front of the tracks on the new yard extension... 

 

I then experimented with some backgrounds for the facade industry scenes and finally came up with this easily installed and removable Masonite panel covered with blue paper for sky and tree images printed off my computer.  I searched for images of the Catskills and cropped segments of trees.  I then copied them repeatedly and layered them on top of each other to create a tree covered hill effect.  

 

 Focusing my phone camera closely on the industry scene with the rolling car platform in place creates videos like this set-out at Van Winkle Canning:

And this example; a set-out at Agway and a pick-up at Bell Pole: 

I really like being able to show more detailed action at these industries  and look forward to making more videos for PCCM series posting!

When not in use for PCCM operations the cart is easily tucked away and the West Mill extension is used for my solo operations.

 

After creating the backdrop for PCCM ops at the location above I looked at some of the photos and videos that I've taken with backdrops I've used for my scenes representing Selkirk and Mechanicville.  I represented these scenes by temporarily removing and adding features to West Mill Yard including a two panel foam core backdrop that I placed in front of Empire Grain.

Here is an early photo of the Selkirk backdrop disguising Empire Grain at West Mill.  The hump yard is simply printed images of the hump yard office and freight cars cut out and pasted to foam core.

 

 A lot of my Selkirk images in PCCM posts looked like this.  I decided that there was room for improvement, especially the background.

 

After finding some useful Catskill Mountains photos online and gaining experience cutting and pasting them to create a backdrop (the old fashioned way with scissors and glue!) I decided to try to improve my Selkirk scene.

First I increased the length of the hump yard with its paper cut-outs of freight cars.  Then I added new background hills.   I also utilized a roll of cloud printed paper I found at a Michael's craft store. 

Here is an image of the backdrop revealing the disguise at West Mill 

 

 A cropped photo creates an improved Selkirk scene for PCCM pics and videos.   Extending the length of the hump yard backdrop allowed me to take a photo of the yard from father back than before which adds more depth to the image and makes the yard look suitably massive. I added more printed cut-out light towers as well.  The towers hide seams between the printed images of the background mountains.

 I took a similar approach to representing the yard at Mechanicville.  After taking this picture I removed the tall light fixture behind XO Tower.  I had glued it to the back of the tower years ago to help hide a seam between two foam core panels in the old backdrop.  I joined those panels and covered them with the cloud paper so the unrealistically placed light tower is no longer needed.

 

All of these efforts have spurred a momentum that is prompting me to make some similar improvements to my Binghamton Yard scene on the other side of the layout.  More on that later!

Thanks for taking a look, and keep an eye open for these new scenes in future PCCM photos and videos!