A week ago John's New York Central Train Layout , Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR , and my own Kings Port Division posted "outbound" installments for this current virtual ops series. This weekend we will be posting follow up "inbound" installments of the action as cars arrive on our layouts.
A Kings Port & Western maintenance crew is working on one of the crossbucks at Ulster Ave. in Kings Port when a horn can be heard on the north side of town
PC Extra #6552 emerges with a transfer run from Selkirk in tow.
The train's consist includes U33C #6552 and GP30 #2228. The GE and EMD lashups were noted for balancing traction and power.
Watch a video of train arriving below:
The train will set out some cars for the Kings Port/ Williams Yard area, including two empty Evans coil coach cars...
...for KP Steel...
Two gons loaded with pipe from Gervais Pipe and fittings for the Hudson Valley Ag Coop....
....which will be unloaded at Williams Yard.
...and TDLX 7241 (Cargill) from Empire City's Cargill complex...
... loaded with wheat flour for Blue Ribbon Flour.
The Penn Central crew's first step toward setting out a block of cars at Kings Port is to cut the Cargill hopper in front of an oversize transformer load on a depressed well flat.
Oh-oh! We have a very annoyed engineer in #6552 when he realizes his crew did not notice before leaving Selkirk that the depressed well flat with the transformer load is located in the middle of the block for Kings Port. This means the Kings Port cars will need to be set out in two sets of moves instead of one. The brakeman and conductor are getting an ear full! (Actually its my fault!) :)
Watch the switching action in the video below:
The first moves involve setting out the Cargill car for Blue Ribbon and the gons loaded with pipe for Williams Yard.
The second series of moves set out the Evans Coil Coaches for KP Steel. #6552's engineer is grousing that they could have been done by now!
The cars for KP Steel, Blue Ribbon Flour, and Williams Yard have finally been set out for the KP&W to take care of.
The Penn Central's work at Kings Port completed, Extra 6552 gets underway to West Mill with the rest of the cars from the N.Y.C.T.L.
Arriving later at Kings Port the large U Boat crawls slowly through the switches leading into West Mill Yard.
Watch video of the train arriving at West Mill below:
This is the train originally seen below dispatched from Rock Ridge Yard as AP Extra 300 for Selkirk with cars for the KPD and the N.Y.C.T.L.
The block of cars for the KPD, conveniently located at the end of AP Extra 300, is seen rolling by in the background.
While the yard's SW9 moves to pull the caboose off recently arrived PC Extra 6552, AP Extra 300 is backing the block of cars for West Mill into a receiving track in the background.
The two corrugated PC gons are at one end of the block being set out for West Mill. These cars are bringing steel stock to ACME Auto Parts.
As the SW9 pulls the caboose we can see more of the West Mill block from Rock Ridge including the sharp looking black and orange Hoschton Railway Co. car. The white LV car is loaded with baked goods including a pallet of Freihoefer cookies for the West Mill crew as a gift from the A.P.R.R. for assistance with a recent derailment that closed track south of Weehawken.
Two empty KP&W hoppers were sent from RMO Electric. They will be forwarded to the LV's coal country via the KP&W at Mayfield Yard.
After the caboose is stowed on a service track the SW9's crew will turn its attention to the cut of cars set out by AP Extra 300.
A string of empty hoppers was pulled from the car float this morning. They will be picked up by a "turn" from Mayfield that is bringing in loaded hoppers for Port Owen's power plant across the river.
The two empty KP&W hoppers sent from Rock Ridge will be added to this block
Watch the SW9 bring the cars into West Mill Yard in the video below.
Shortly after the cars from the A.P.R.R. were pulled into the yard KP&W's "West Mill Turn" with loaded coal hoppers arrives.
Watch as the KP&W empty coal train arrives
The KP&W train takes advantage of the spur leading to the car float to temporarily set out its caboose before shoving the loaded hoppers into the yard.
Strings of loaded and empty hoppers are a typical sight at West Mill Yard thanks to its coal connection with the Lehigh Valley via the KP&W.
KP&W's RS3 #566 uncouples from the loaded hoppers and moves over a track to link up with the empties. This exchange of loads and empties at West Mill is one of my favorite operations on the Kings Port Division.
The train of empties including the two KP&W hoppers sent from RMO Electric on Neal's layout pulls out of the yard.
Watch the empties get pulled out in the video below:
The hoppers are pulled beyond the yard entrance and set out on the mainline near WM Tower. The train's conductor and the Towerman confer before the cars are pushed onto the main.
The blue and orange Alco is cut from the string of hoppers so it can grab the caboose and tack it onto the back of the train.
I've only recently thought to use the spur to the car float as a temporary place to set cabooses during ops like this. Its working out very well!
After coupling the infamous "Spam Can" to the train RS3 #566 runs around to the front so it can haul it to Mayfield Yard.
Taking the branch to Mayfield.
The hoppers from Rock Ridge head out of town
To recap, we've seen two trains arrive with cars from the N.Y.C.T.L. and the A.P.R.R. We saw the PC drop off cars for the KP&W at Kings Port and for Blue Ribbon and KP Steel. Two KP&W hoppers were added to a train of empty hoppers running from West Mill to Mayfield Yard.
That leaves us with cars in West Mill Yard that need to be forwarded to local industries and some served by the KP&W. Stay tuned!
