PCCM 95: Part 6 on the KPD

 

Hello once again! 

We're wrapping up our 95th Penn Central Car Movement "virtual ops" that runs trains between  John's New York Central Train Layout, Neal's Atlantic Pacific R.R., and my own Kings Port Division.  This is the concluding post of the series from the Kings Port Division.

Here is the current situation at West Mill Yard.  There are virtual ops cars to be delivered to local industries.  Seen on the front track are three tankers for Gulf and PC boxcar #104478 for GERN. The PS2 hoppers and the NYC covered hopper in the background need to be sent out a little farther to Hedberg Aggregates and the PC/KP&W interchange track in Kings Port respectively.

These two cars need to be set up for the next WV-2 (Weehawken to Selkirk Transfer) to take to Selkirk for forwarding to New England.

Several cars are waiting for a car float ride to Port Owen.  KP&W boxcar #15638 is loaded with steel bands for Port Owen Brick Co. and the coal hoppers are destined for Con Ed.

And, there are three cars that need to be run up to Bloomberg's Industrial Park in the Catskills.  KP&W #644450 & 644455 are heading to Quality Fabrications while P&E #3638 is going to REVCO.

Yardmaster Cappy Foster and company confer about the most efficient way to get these jobs done.  

West Mill doesn't run a Bloomberg Turn unless there are at least five cars for the train and the current three car manifest is too small.  Same is true for the North Local.

The good news is that this morning's WV-2 Weehawken to Selkirk transfer run will be dropping off more cars (nonplayers) both for the Bloomberg area and for industries to the north of West Mill so the Turn and the Northbound Local can run later today.

So, the plan is to first deliver the three tank cars to Gulf and the PC boxcar to GERN as shove moves while pulling the NH and BAR cars to a siding for easy pick up by WV-2 later.

 Watch all of this action in the video below

That red G&MO car was picked up at Gulf for the next PCCM.

 Next, SD9 #6922 starts loading the car float while WV-2 arrives.

 Watch the carfloat action in the videos below.  The cars are pulled by SD9 #6922 to prepare for loading on the car float while WV-2 arrives.

The float is loaded with care to balance the barge.

When the car float loading is completed cars for West Mill are cut off the WV-2.

The P&LE and PC nonplayer boxcars will be added to the Bloomberg Turn to meet the minimum number for dispatching the run.

The gons of scrap are for KP Steel and the empty hoppers will go to Hedberg Aggregate to flesh out the Northbound Local.

Before continuing on to Selkirk the two cars set out for a journey to New England are picked up by the U33C/GP38-2/GP38-2 power.

The Bloomberg run and Northbound Local are assembled and ready for dispatch.  Watch the Bloomberg Turn back out of the yard, take the main and meet the pair of RSD12s that will power today's Northbound Local.

The RSD12s approach the Northbound Local cars and the train is quickly dispatched right after the Bloomberg Turn.

 The Northbound Local drops PS2 covered hoppers  KP&W #445052 and PC #883190 along with two PC open hoppers at Hedberg Aggregates. 

The three nonplayer gons of scrap are left for KP Steel's Basic Oxygen Furnace...

The NYC covered hopper for Blue Ribbon Flour is dropped off at the PC/KP&W interchange track.

The KP&W will set the car out at Blue Ribbon Flour later today.

Meanwhile the Bloomberg Turn has reached the industrial park in the Catskills and sets out empty P&E #3638 at REVCO.

And, the final move of the series involves KP&W #644450 & 644455 loaded with bulk hardware from American Hardware on Neal's APRR for Quality Fabrications.

That sigh of relief you hear coming collectively from West Mill, Mayfield, and Williams Yard is in response to the completion of a lot of work performed by the crews of all three yards!  Thanks for following it all on the Kings Port Division and be sure to check out what John and Neal did with their respective car forwarding challenges in this series!

Time to go to beans!

PCCM 95: Part 5 on the KPD

Hello again! 

We're presenting our 95th Penn Central Car Movement "virtual ops" running trains between  John's New York Central Train Layout , Neal's Atlantic Pacific R.R., and my own Kings Port Division.

Yesterday we left Williams Yard where WiBi-4 was about to be dispatched to Binghamton with a stop at West Mill to pick up a string of cement hoppers from Tri Mount Cement.

 

 Meanwhile, over at West Mill switcher #8951 pulls the string of cement hoppers from the yard and places them on a siding for WiBi-4 to pick up.

The always busy #8951's next job is to add a caboose to a string of loaded hoppers from Hudson Coal that will be going to Tri Mount Cement as The Cement Job.

The coal hoppers wait for their assigned power.

Penn Central GP9 #7175 gets the call to run the Cement Job.  Follow the action from West Mill to Tri Mount Cement:

While the Cement Job drops off its coal hoppers WiBi-4 has left Williams Yard.   It will stop at West Mill in about 45 minutes.

Wibi-4 is now arriving at West Mill to pick up the six cement hoppers headed to Binghamton.

A KP&W brakeman uncouples the F7 A&B from the train.

The cement cars are picked up and added to WiBi-4.

Watch the WiBi leave West Mill for Binghamton with the virtual ops cement cars and NYC double door boxcars in tow.  Note the BN hopper at the rear of the train.  This is the first one seen on the Kings Port Division since the 1970 merger of the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Chicago Burlington & Quincy, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. 

 A couple of days later the cement hoppers will delivered to a consignee near Binghamton while the two NYC double door boxcars loaded with wiring and cables from Bruce Electric will be spotted at IBM.  

Lets go back to West Mill.  Another day, another Mayfield Transfer.  This one is hauling loaded coal cars for the Con Ed plant at Port Owen.  The run is powered by a pooled LV/KP&W consist.

The transfer backs its coal cars into West Mill Yard.

The hoppers approach and couple up with a KP&W boxcar and a pair of hoppers that are also also going to Port Owen.   More coal for Con Ed and a boxcar load of steel banding for Port Owen Brick.

After setting out the coal cars the LV and KP&W geeps pick up a few cars to take back to Mayfield.

These include the Swift reefer full of meat for Cavendish Foods and the empty EBRR gon for ACCO...

...along with two KP&W empty boxcars being sent to a home yard.

The Transfer's power rolls by the cars it will pick up.

After getting to the head end the Mayfield Transfer backs out of West Mill Yard...

...and heads toward the branch line to Mayfield.

Before leaving West Mill the transfer picks up some covered hoppers from Empire Grain.

After completing their work at Empire Grain the transfer heads out of town.

The train reached Mayfield Yard where the cars were put on a local serving Amalgamated Container (the empty EBRR gon is set out)...

...and Cavendish Foods where the Swift reefer full of frozen meat is delivered.

 

 That's all for today!   Check out the last installment of the series on the KPD tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

PCCM 95: Part 4 on the KPD

Greetings!

We're now starting the "inbound" installments of this 95th Penn Central Car Movement series.   Trains from John's New York Central Train Layout and Neal's Atlantic Pacific R.R.  will arrive on my Kings Port Division with cars to be forwarded to various consignees.

Last weekend John dispatched SK-57, a long train with cars for both the APRR and the Kings Port Division from Terminal Yard to Selkirk.  Here is a photo John posted of the train leaving his Terminal Yard.

 

It is seen arriving at Selkirk in the video below.  As the train stops we see the the sixth coal hopper representing the end of the block for the KPD.  Cars for the APRR are unseen behind the last coal hopper in the KPD block.

The cars for the APRR are cut and will be dispatched to Weehawken (and then to Rock Ridge Yard) on a separate train.  The remaining cars for the Kings Port Division continue their way to Kings Port as train VKW-5 with their original four loco consist.  Kings Port is unusually quiet while awaiting the train's arrival.

An hour and a half later the silence at Kings Port is broken by the rumbling of Penn Central power as VKW-5 arrives!

A cut is made behind the block of cars that will be dropped off at Kings Port.

Cars dropped off by VKW-5 include five empty steel coil coaches for KP Steel, two NYC double door boxcars from Bruce Electric for IBM that will be later forwarded by a KP&W "WiBi" from Williams Yard, a gon load of pipe for the Hudson Valley Ag Coop, and a depressed center flatcar carrying a rebuilt EMD Prime Mover for the KP&W's locomotive shop.

After the work is taken care of at Kings Port, VKW-5 leaves town for West Mill.  The train may be a little over-powered but the tractive effort is always appreciated when climbing toward the Division's summit at Marion.

VKW-5 arrives at West Mill in time to enter the yard before...

....WV-2 (Weehawken to Selkirk) arrives with cars from Neal's APRR.  This was a nicely timed meet!  The WV-2 is powered by a GP30/F7B/GP38 consist.

After WV-2 comes to a stop its power receives permission to enter the yard to drop off cars. The cut for West Mill is uncoupled from the train.

Watch the set-out in the video below:

 The drop off completed, WV-2's power returns to its train for Selkirk.

The WV-2 receives clearance to run to Selkirk and leaves town.   Meanwhile back in Kings Port the cars that were set out earlier on the interchange by VKW-5 await handling by the Kings Port & Western.

A KP&W GP9 pulls the string of cars to the north of Ulster Ave out of the way and then shoves the five empty steel coil coaches into KP Steel's yard.

 The Geep comes back for the remaining cars.

 

 PC gon #288673 with a pipe load for the Hudson Valley Ag Coop will be brought back to Williams Yard along with the two NYC double door boxcars, but first that EMD Prime Mover on the depressed well flat needs to be delivered to the KP&W engine yard.  The gon is set aside for the delivery move.

The Prime Mover is now inside the KP&W shops.

The PC gon is reclaimed and the job gets ready to return to Williams Yard.

The PC gon #288673...is later seen being unloaded for HVAC in Williams Yard.

A pair of KP&W switchers begin assembling train WiBi-4, the next transfer run to Binghamton.  The two double door NYC boxcars are loaded with wiring and cables from Bruce Electric for IBM.

 After the WiBi is assembled a KP&W F7A&B set couples up to the head end and prepares for departure to Binghamton with a scheduled stop at West Mill to pick up six cement hoppers.

We'll stop here for today.  Tune in tomorrow for more KP&W and Penn Central action!