Layout changes: End of 2024

 

 Hello!

A year ago I made a major change on my layout by removing a large loop and transforming a continuous run track plan on two levels into an "out and back" configuration with a new yard for building and staging trains.   I've been enjoying this new arrangement that provides more operations options.

I posted about this change in February of 2023.

Since then I've been looking at ways to further enhance the appearance of this set up and to increase its model railroad operations potential.

While the new Williams Yard worked well, I regretted losing the locomotive facilities I had on the original layout and I also thought the yard seemed too visibly "close" to the rest of  the layout.    I wanted trains to appear to travel farther to and from the staging yard.

In December 2023 I resolved this proximity issue by creating the visual divider that can be seen on the right side of the photo below.   Light blue foam core boards reinforced with wood strips separate the yard lead to Williams Yard (its tower can be seen in the foreground)

.....from the rest of the yard and the new city scene in the background on the other side.  Buildings extending over the tracks cover the holes in the foam core divider on either side.

The advantage of this new arrangement is that trains staged in the yard are relatively out of sight and seem to come out on the left side of the divider as if they had traveled some distance before emerging on the scene.  The Penn Central U Boat and the B&M Geeps seen at the bottom right of the photo below represent trains coming out of Williams Yard.

If you look in the background of the photo above you will see the new location for Peerless Appliance.  This industry was originally one of my "Facade Industries"  that I used in our Penn Central Car Movement (PCCM) virtual ops with John and Neal to increase the number of businesses they could send cars to.

Here is is as it used to be...a mere building flat on my shelf layout for staged photos to suggest KP&W switching action at the industry.

 

 Now its a three dimensional industry where I can actually perform switching operations.!

Battaglia Brother's Warehouse was another PCCM industry that was just a building flat.   Its location didn't allow for a track to serve it

So, I imagined that it shared the industrial spur that passed under Blue Ribbon Flour by the green tower seen below.  I suggested the set outs at Battaglia Brothers by shoving freight cars under the bridge where they would supposedly reach a lower level loading dock at the warehouse.

After creating a brick building to disguise the opening on the Williams Yard side of the visual divider it occurred to me that it, along with an already existing long brick building behind the yard tracks, could become the new Battaglia Brother's Warehouse, another three dimensional switchable business and a sizeable PCCM consignee!

 I also took this new remodeling as an opportunity to add features that I previously kept in storage and only brought out as needed for PCCM moves such as the dock where pipes are off loaded for the Hudson Valley Co-op.   The crane has just unloaded the flat car at the dock.

You can see one of the locomotive facility's sand towers to the right of the crane.

Here is an image of the locomotive service area before I removed the large loop from the original layout.  The narrow straight section I created in the loop's place to create Williams Yard didn't provide space for the engine house.

 

Here is a photo from November 2023 of Williams Yard on its narrow straight benchwork.  No room for the locomotive servicing area!

I recently added this removable four inch wide extension to the front of the Williams Yard scene that allows me to place the engine house over one live track in the yard and create two additional dummy tracks to make the scene look like a busy locomotive servicing area. 

That little bit of extra width helped create this scene.  The track emerging from the farthest engine house door is the live track.   A locomotive can now be called from the house to later couple up with cars on other tracks prior to being dispatched from Williams Yard.

That's the update from Kings Port!   As John recently noted, it is often said that a model railroad is never really finished!  Stay tuned for photos and video featuring this remodeled portion of the layout in future PCCM virtual ops series!

PCCM 108: Part 6 on the KPD

 Hello again! 

If you're reading this you know that we are running Penn Central Car Movement Series 108,  a  three layout "virtual ops" exchange of freight cars between John's New York Central Train Layout , Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR, and my own Kings Port Division. 

This is the final installment from the Kings Port Division for this series.

After previous installments in which several trains were dispatched from West Mill Yard to deliver cars to their respective consignees its time to head over to the Kings Port & Western's Williams Yard where a sizeable "Steel Job" is being prepared for nearby KP Steel.  The train includes a number of gondolas loaded with scrap metal, a group of Evans coil coach cars, and a string of hoppers loaded with coal. 

The Steel Job is ready to depart Williams Yard and arrive at KP Steel

The Steel job arrives at KP Steel where industrial switcher #3 moves cars around at the steel complex.

And that concludes the PCCM 108 ops...sort of....

And now for the OOPS! part of our program.  I tend make at least one error per series while managing the movement of so many freight cars.  This seems almost prototypical when modeling the Penn Central railroad!  :)

 

In any case, back at West Mill, Yardmaster Cappy Foster ain't happy.  

He's staring at two MEC bulkhead flats that were supposed to have been directed to Mechanicville from Selkirk Yard.  Instead, they ended up being included on a VW-1 transfer and set out here by mistake.

The old NYC Pacemaker car was supposed to have been included in a cut of cars for a Kings Port & Western transfer to take back with them to Mayfield Yard but it was missed in the yard.

The red and gray NYC boxcar is included on the next West Mill transfer run to the KP&W's Mayfield Yard in a relatively humble move compared to its glory days in Pacemaker unit train service!

The KP&W later spots the car at Amalgamated Container Co.

The two errant MEC bulkhead flats are set on a siding for the next WV-2 to pick up and take to Selkirk for forwarding to Mechanicville.

And THAT concludes the involvement of the Kings Port Division in PCCM 108.  Please direct any complaints to the Division Supervisor!   Thanks for following along!

PCCM 108: Part 5 on the KPD

Hello! 

We are continuing Penn Central Car Movement Series 108,  a three layout "virtual ops" exchange of freight cars between John's New York Central Train Layout , Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR, and my own Kings Port Division.  

At the end of the last installment West Mill Yard sent a long transfer to the KP&W's Williams Yard.   This freed up a lot of space at West Mill but there are still several PCCM cars to move.

The next train out of West Mill will be a Kings Port Turn that will deliver cars to local industries.  The train will be powered by a pair of RSD12s.

Two cars have been placed in front of the locomotives to facilitate easy set outs at Sal's Salvage and Empire Grain, just outside of the yard. 

The rest that will be going to Kings Port trail the locomotives as usual.

The Kings Port Turn departs under the watchful eyes of  Yardmaster Cappy Foster and "old head" brakeman Swede Torkelton.  It sets out a new Caterpillar excavator at Sal's Salvage.      

After dropping off the excavator at Sal's the Turn backs up on the mainline to access Empire Grain.

The RSD12s are uncoupled from the rest of the train so it can push the Cargill hopper into Empire Grain's loading track.

The Cargill hopper is set out and the Turn heads to Kings Port.

The first task at Kings Port is to set out former Early Bird service boxcar #90718 at the Team Track platform.   It is carrying Prestige Gears for LaRoche Cycle.    The bicycle manufacturer does not have direct access to a rail siding so it sends a truck to the team track to pick up the delivery.

The Early Bird is set out for LaRoche Cycle.

The RSD12s return to the train and pull forward while the power that took the long transfer to Williams Yard yesterday returns caboose lite to West Mill.   The Turn then performs runaround moves to set out three tankers at Gulf.

The Turn then gains permission to cross the main to work Blue Ribbon Flour and Battaglia Brother's Warehouse.

Watch the Turn drop off PC #360152 at Battaglia Brother's Warehouse and NYC covered hopper #892010 at Blue Ribbon Flour while a KP&W RDC from Marion arrives at the upper level Kings Port Station.  

The Kings Port Turn's work is done and it returns to West Mill caboose lite

West Mill crews continue to be busy assembling trains to clear the yard.  The next train is today's Bloomberg Turn that heads up the Catskills to work an industrial park.

The PCCM cars on this train are the three B&M RBLs loaded with Yankee veneers for Zenith TV in Bloomberg's industrial park.

Watch the Bloomberg Turn back out of West Mill Yard, stop for orders at WM Tower and then proceed on the branch line up to the Catskills.

The three B&M RBLs are later set out at Zenith TVs

That will do for today.  We'll wrap up the Kings Port Division's involvement in this series tomorrow!

PCCM 108: Part 4 on the KPD

Welcome back to Penn Central Car Movement Series 108,  a  three layout "virtual ops" exchange of freight cars between John's New York Central Train Layout , Neal's Atlantic Pacific RR, and my own Kings Port Division.   

West Mill Yard's switcher begins this installment by setting out a pair of 38 foot hoppers for the Kings Port & Western to pick up when their next scheduled transfer from Mayfield Yard arrives later this morning.

The expected transfer arrives with an RS3/ F7A consist pulling some coal hoppers from the Lehigh Valley Connection and a pair of NYC double door box cars it picked up from Williams Yard that it will take back to Mayfield for later delivery to Peerless Appliance.

After setting out the coal hoppers that will be delivered to the Port Owen Con Ed power plant the transfer's consist performs runaround moves and gets ready to return to Mayfield.

The Transfer leaves West Mill

Later in the afternoon the KP&W sets out the two NYC double door boxcars at Peerless Appliance near Mayfield Yard.

Shortly after the Mayfield Transfer dropped off the coal hoppers SD9 #6922 shoves them onto the car float.   EL boxcar #73510, loaded with iron ore from T&R Gravel, will ride the car float to Port Owen Brick Co. while the hoppers will be delivered to the Con Ed plant. 

SD9 #6922 carefully loads the car float.

After the car flat docks at Port Owen EL #73501 is set out at Port Owen Brick Co.

West Mill is anticipating the arrival of a KP&W WiBi-4 (Williams Yard to Binghamton transfer) that will pick up two Lehigh Valley boxcars.  SW9 #8951 sets the cars out for easy pick up.

Meanwhile over at Williams Yard the WiBi-4 is preparing to depart

Watch the WiBi-4's consist roll by, couple up to the train, and take it out of Williams Yard to West Mill.

The Wibi-4's consist cuts off from the train and picks up the two LV cars.  The #7120 is returning empty to Buffalo's Frontier Yard while the also empty #8247 is returning to Flint, MI.

 Watch the pick up in the video below:

The pick up completed, all connections checked, and the air up; the WiBi-4 calls the Kings Port dispatcher for permission to proceed toward Binghamton and then heads out of West Mill.

 Its time to clear more yard space!   The next train to be dispatched from West Mill will be a transfer to the KP&W's Williams Yard in Kings Port.  It will be a good sized train with several coal hoppers, steel coil coaches, and gondolas loaded with scrap metal, all for KP Steel, and a gondola load of pipe for the Hudson Valley Co-op that receives shipments at Williams Yard.

The yard switcher assembles the transfer.

A GP9m/GP20/GP20 combo is called to power the transfer to Williams Yard.  Watch it leave the engine service tracks, pick up orders at WM Tower, and then lead the transfer out of West Mill for Williams Yard.

After the transfer arrives KP&W switcher #24 breaks down the train and takes the EBRR gon loaded with pipe for the Hudson Valley Co-Op to the unloading dock.

 

That's a wrap for today!  Come back tomorrow for more action at both West Mil and Williams Yard!