End of the year wrap up

Even though its always between 1968 and 1976 on my layout, 2016  was a great year for the Kings Port Division.   This past year has seen the acquisition of some cool rolling stock and locomotives, track plan changes and a yard expansion to increase operations potential, and the development and realization of the "virtual ops" scheme with the New York Central Train Layout owned by my friend John.   Put it all together and you get a year filled with model railroad fun!

A quick review:

New rolling stock!   These include cars received as gifts or purchased at flea markets, the introduction of cars purchased from ScaleTrains (the three B&M cars), and some custom made auto parts cars for the KP&W and PC.

Loco rosters increased on both the PC and the KP&W this year...
A trio of FP7s for the PC...

and an F7A&B and RS3 for the KP&W!

AND, the surprise best buy of the year...a very smooth running and nicely detailed NYC switcher found at a train show sale for $25.00 just as I was heading out the door!  This little engine has become the "go-to" switcher at West Mill Yard.

Cabooses!   A pair of "close-enough-to-NYC" bay window cars and a home made PC transfer caboose cobbled together from various components I had on hand.

New industry on the layout to switch!  
Reynolds Beverage Distributors.

New "Facade" Industries  (off-layout imaginary industries I "switch" by sending cars into staging) to increase operations

Track changes!
This crossover replaced an inconvenient switchback, making switching cars so much easier and realistic at King Port.

And of course...the major improvement of the year...the expansion of West Mill Yard!  Finally, a place to build and break down trains!

But wait!  There's more!
 
Updating Pennsy equipment for the PC.

A joint layout effort with the N.Y.C.T.L. in creating a series of removable loads for a gondola used in the virtual ops scheme.

Life comes to the KPD in the form of several home-painted people now seen in ops photos.

Ten videos uploaded to YouTube this year!
https://www.youtube.com/user/RalphPCvids/videos


And ....25 series of virtual operations exchanges between the KPD and N.Y.C.T.L. known as Penn Central Car Movements (P.C.C.M.s) that included planned switching moves for industries on both layouts with completed car cards.

2016 saw an increase in operations realism and fun that motivated several layout improvements.  I am anticipating several more that need to be made on the layout...but that's for the next blog entry..."Layout Resolutions for 2017!"

The Kings Port Division wishes everyone a Very Happy and Safe New Year! 

CHEERS!