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!
Hi all,
One of the characteristic features of Penn Central era rolling stock was Automatic Car Identification (ACI) labels. I was aware that these multi-colored striped plaques were applied to locomotives and freight cars during the late 1960s /early 1970s but really didn't know much about them other than that they were intended to be part of a computerized system for keeping track of rolling stock...and that they made neat details on my HO equipment!
Very few of my freight cars and locos came with factory applied ACI labels. I occasionally added some when the whim hit me during a project when I happened to have some ACI decals included on Microscale decal sheets of freight car information or NYC/PC caboose lettering, but most of my equipment remained without these clear indicators of my layout's era.
As I recently mentioned in a previous post, I decided to paint my second Atlas RSD12 as a Penn Central unit to match its twin sister. After completing the painting, all of that black made me think that adding the ACI labels to these two units would make an eye catching feature.
After finishing off the pair of RSD12s, I still had several ACI labels left on some NYC/PC caboose decal sheets so I decided to go on bit of a decaling spree. I added ACI labels to 14 Penn Central units on my roster.
Some of those now sporting the striped plaques include:
Old Athearn F7A, F7B, and SD9
Bachmann GP40
Atlas Yellow Box FP7s and GP38
Athearn GP38-2
That's not all of them but you get the idea! I used prototype photos and Microscale's informational sheets to help decide where to locate the ACI labels on each locomotive.
I did some research about ACI labels and learned that in the 1960s there were several companies working on computerized automatic tracking of cars. According to this Wiki article (below) that seems to be corroborated by other sources I've found, four car tracking systems were tested on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1967. Of the four General Telephone and Electronics "KarTrak" system was chosen to be the best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KarTrak
I hadn't come across the KarTrak name before but this appears to be the ACI system with the multi-colored bars we see during the Penn Central era.
I found a site that explains the functions of each stripe on the KarTrak labels.
http://www.nakina.net/other/aci/aci.html
I have dozens of freight cars that I'd like to add ACI labels to. So far I've only found ACI labels on the above mentioned freight car data and NYC/PC caboose decal sheets. I was wishing that Microscale offered a sheet of just these little labels but then recently discovered that they DO! See below.
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MC-4280&Store_Code=MD&search=ACI&offset=&filter_cat=&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=&sort=&range_low=&range_high=
That's 160 labels on one sheet...enough for 80 pieces of rolling stock! A little decal shopping and I'll have plenty of supplies for a long term project! I can imagine applying a few an evening. I'm making it one of my hobby resolutions for 2017 to add ACI labels to as much of my equipment as possible. ACI plates nicely reinforce a sense of time period on the model railroad.
Thanks for reading!
Wrapping up P.C.C.M. 22, the final train to leave West Mill with cars originally from Terminal Yard is Train WW-2, the "Kings Port Turn".
Powered by a matched set of RSD12s (yes, I happily decided to update my other Atlas RSD12 that was originally painted as a Pennsy unit) the locomotives couple onto the train and head out of town.
Car movements for this version of the Turn, among others not shown, include picking up empty boxcars EL #73510 and PC #77047 from the Team Track and a setting out PC boxcar #46150 loaded with Heilemans Beer at Reynolds Beverage Distributors next door...
(Picking up)
(Setting out)
...and setting out two empty steel coil cars at KP Steel. Word reached West Mill Yardmaster Cappy Foster that recent labor disputes at KP Steel prompted a temporary walkout at the steel plant, shutting it down for deliveries today.
STRIKE!
Despite being unable to deliver them to KP Steel, Cappy decided he wanted the coil cars out of his yard and arranged to have them "constructively placed" on a siding near the steel mill for later delivery.
Cutting the cars from the rest of the train
Rolling past the siding for a back up move...
"Constructively placing" the cars on the siding. As soon as work resumes at KP Steel they will likely be delivered by the "Steel Job", a local from nearby Williams Yard that will include these two cars on its switch list.
"Constructive Placement"
After setting out other cars at Williams Yard, and delivering new B&M boxcar #110 to Battaglia Bros.Warehouse, the Turn's power does a runaround for the return trip to West Mill.
The caboose was set on the next track for later pick up at the new end of the train.
The conductor climbs aboard as the train (now designated WW-3) is ready to leave.
Passing the striking workers again, the crew gives them a sympathetic "thumbs up" as they head back to West Mill. Hopefully management and labor can come to an agreement soon.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading.
