P.C.C.M. #55: Unit Coal Train URN-4 from Rochester to Terminal Yard

Hello everyone!

You may remember this virtual op but its been a while since a unit coal train ran between the Kings Port Division and the New York Central Train Layout!  The recent addition of  five more PC hopper cars on my layout got us talking about re-activating the moves from the Genesee Coal Docks in Rochester, NY to Hudson Coal on the N.Y.C.T.L. with a return of loaded hoppers to Rochester.   Four of these new cars are H43D 100 ton hoppers that were recently painted and decaled by me thanks to a Highball Graphics decal set ("F-159 Penn Central 100 ton hoppers")  John R. notified me about. 


The project was a long time in the making as I had some difficulty obtaining four appropriate cars with 12 panels on the side to accommodate the decals.  I finally managed to find three decorated for other roads at a recent train sale and one on eBay. 

The fifth car, a PC H39 coal hopper, was a gift from John!  My roster of PC hoppers has been greatly increased!

P.C.C.M. #55 will follow Unit Coal Train URN-4, a long string of empty hoppers that left the Genesee Coal Docks in Rochester for Hudson Coal on John's layout.  The train will stop at West Mill on my layout for a crew change.

Click the link below to get a little information about the docks.
Genesse Docks

Click below for a color photo of the docks.
Genesee Dock photo

Things are relatively quiet at West Mill this afternoon...

....until the rumble of three EMD F7As with a combined 4500 horsepower emerge from the tunnel on the south end of town...

...pulling the long string of empty hoppers.

Click on the video below to watch the train arrive at West Mill. 

The pooled power consist of one Penn Central and two B&O F7s reflects the Genesee Docks being a B&O operation while the PC unit takes the head end on its home road tracks.  Here they are seen stopping at West Mill for a crew change.

As the new crew prepares URN-4 for departure, a short local serving industries south of West Mill rolls by in the opposite direction.  The GP30/ GP9B lashup on this train is becoming a favorite of mine after seeing the prototype featured  in the JPM video "Railfanning with the Bednars Vol. 6".

Watch a video of this train meet below

URN-4 gets permission to proceed to Selkirk where it will then turn the corner and head south to Terminal Yard.

Watch the entire train pass by WM tower in the video below.

The cars pass this ACI scanner by WM tower...

....which provides an accurate print out of the train's manifest (as long as dirt doesn't obscure the ACI plaques on the cars!)

  
The train reaches Kings Port....

...its length stretching across town

Watch the train pass through Kings Port and meet another local in the video below.

The train is later seen successfully beating the grade toward Marion

Campers near Hedberg Aggregates in Marion, NY hear the approaching unit train and pause their activities to watch.

Watch the video of the train passing by Hedberg Aggregates and heading downward toward Selkirk below.

Thanks for watching! Keep an eye on John's blog in the next day or two for continuation of the action!

New Years Layout Resolutions

Hello and Happy New Year!  

This is traditionally the time for resolutions so I've decided to make some regarding my layout as a way of creating a little accountability and motivation for myself.

Among the layout improvements I wish to complete this year is adding more details to my various shelf layout components that I use for photographing "off-layout" scenes such as The Kings Port & Western's Mountain Branch industries seen below.  Right now they have just enough structures and scenery to convey the idea but I'd like to make them look better.

Here is another one that I place in front of some industries in the Mayfield Area such as Cavendish Foods, Peerless Appliance, and ACME Auto Parts.  Its simply a ballasted track that could benefit from more scenic treatments.

Another project involves finishing the least completed section of my layout, a little corner near K.P. Steel.   I made the traveling crane a long time ago and always intended to add track to create a coal unloading scene.  Time to get that done!  

While I've started adding new metal wheels to several of my vintage Tyco, Bachmann, and Athearn Blue Box cars I'd like to focus on these hoppers that roll poorly.  

They all have talgo tucks or horn hook couplers.  Eventually 'd like to change them all out for magnetic couplers but I've found that in the mean time new metal wheels greatly improve performance, even when the cars back up though several switches.  So far I've added new wheels to eight hoppers.

Below is a video of a  KP&W op I developed in which coal hoppers from Mayfield run to the West Mill car float.    The new wheels make it possible for these old cars to negotiate being pushed through several turnouts and the incline down to the barge without derailing.  I'm looking forward to making the same improved performance possible for the rest of the hoppers shown in the box above. 

Additional resolutions include further reinforcing the idea that the Kings Port & Western as well as the PC have connections to the B&M...

...and the Lehigh Valley

One last resolution is to finally get around to ballasting the staging track leading off layout to the KP&W's Mountain And Mayfield Branches!

I imagine I may come up with more projects but this seems like a good start.  Posting about them should help me be mindful of them and start ticking them off the list!  Thanks for taking a look!

P.C.C.M. #54: Mail and Express Ops!

Hello everyone!

Continuing the recent theme of portraying special operations in our blog posts, (we recently covered intermodal and auto industry car movements) our virtual ops community of five layouts is now taking a look at Mail and Express operations!  Admittedly the extent of M&E ops on the Kings Port Division is small to pretty much nonexistent so I had to get creative and pull out some vintage equipment to get involved.  It was fun to come up with something to post and I greatly appreciate conversations I had with fellow modeler John R. regarding these operations which are much more extensive on his New York Central Train Layout. 

To get things started I looked in my box of hardly used rolling stock and pulled out my Mantua PRR baggage car and some Tyco PC passenger cars I painted  to make them look more accurate than their original green striped livery.  

John R. helped validate the decision to employ the PRR baggage car by sending me this quote:

From the Express, Mail and Merchandise Service book Page 38:  "The term baggage car is a bit of a misnomer because, although such cars were certainly used for passenger baggage, their primary use was to carry bags of US Mail and parcels for the Railway Express Agency(REA). They are more accurately called baggage express cars and the AAR classified them as BE."

Here then is a baggage express car on the Kings Port Division having just been loaded.

The car is later seen rolling through Kings Port as part of the "Dewitt Clinton", headed by FP7 #4369

Watch the train cross Ulster Ave at speed in the video below.

Sometime after the dust cleared from the Dewitt Clinton's passing a switcher pulls out an old wood sided REA car for interchange.  This car has been sitting idle in a box for years!  Nice to run it!

Later that afternoon a classic PC oddball consist of GP30 #2228 and GP9B #3836 pulls a short train of TOFCs loaded with mail.  This is my best effort at simulating mail trains composed of Flexi-vans like those featured in Green Frog's PC Volume 4.  The GP30 is one of my recently completed painting projects; a Bachmann shell provided by John R. that was originally decorated as a C&O loco.

Prototype Penn Central GP30/GP9B lashups are featured in JPM's "Railfanning with the Bednars Vol.6 " DVD and are the inspiration for this grouping. 

Mail's here!

But its not only the Penn Central getting involved in M&E operations today.  The freelanced Kings Port & Western gets in the act with its Budd RDC-3 that includes a Railway Post Office compartment along with its 48 passenger seats.  Here the RDC is being loaded at Williams Yard for a daily run up the Mountain Branch to Bloomberg.

The Budd Car later arrives at Bloomberg Station near the Agway elevator. 

John R. mentioned that some of my custom painted KP&W plug door boxcars resemble reefers. Below is a comparison of a photo of a reefer he sent with a pic of one of my cars.  Notice the stirrup near the door on both cars.   John informed me that sometimes after reefers were emptied of their perishable loads they would be cleaned and so called "dry" or non-refrigerated loads would be placed inside, utilizing the refer as a boxcar for commodities that could include mail.

With that possibility in mind I'll end this blog post with KP&W S-12 switcher #34 pulling a string of KP&W reefers to a loading platform at Williams Yard so they can be loaded with mail and sent out on the next KP&W hot shot to its western terminus of Salamanca, NY.

That's it for M&E ops on the Kings Port Division but check the other layout blogs to see what they come up with this time around!

John R.'s New York Central Train Layout 

Neal's Atlantic Pacific R.R. 

John B.'s LF&NW

Brian's Ralston Creek R.R. 

P.C.C.M. #53: Unexpected Epilogue!

 Hello all,

Well, the Kings Port Division thought it had completed this last series of car forwarding without a hitch..that is until this communique reached the desk of West Mill Freight Agent "Tweed" Simpson.

 

"To:       Freight Agent, West Mill

From:    Freight Agent, Terminal Yard

Subject: Inquiry from shipper American Hardware Supply re; loaded PC boxcar 272242.

1. American Hardware Supply in Bedford Park NY has made a freight claim to this office after being notified by consignee Peerless Appliance in Mayfield NY that freight loaded into Penn Central boxcar 272242 has failed to reach its destination.

2. Investigation in this matter reveals the following;

A. December 08th: PC boxcar 272242 is picked up loaded at American Hardware Supply by Bedford Park Yard Job. PC 272242 is then forwarded to Terminal Yard in PC train Extra 2857.

B. December 09th: PC 272242 is recorded as leaving Terminal Yard for Selkirk in Train NG-3

C. December 11th: PC 272242 is recorded as an arriving empty for Peerless Appliance upon arriving at West Mill.

D. December 12th: PC 272242 is delivered to ACME Auto Parts in Mayfield NY.

E. Company records (attached) indicate that the car in question, PC 272242 , is last reported as loaded from American Hardware Supply consigned to Peerless Appliance.

Please make all available inquiries to determine the status of the load and freight car so that we may report back to American Hardware Supply.

Submitted for your information;

Terminal Yard Freight Agent."

 

 

 ***********************************************************

The car in question, Penn Central Hi Cube #272242, was last seen being set out at ACME Auto Parts and identified as Empty!

 

Tweed gets on the horn to his KP&W counterpart, the Freight Agent in Mayfield, Mick Micklin.

"Hey Mick, don't you guys on that little railroad like your jobs?

"What's up Tweed?"

"Mick, I got the Terminal Yard Freight Agent on my back about a load of missing hardware...supposed to go to Peerless?"

"Oh yeah!  The PC Hi Cube!  I was just gonna call ya about that.  We set it out as an empty at ACME according to your waybill but its actually loaded for Peerless Appliance.  A kid filling in at the ACME loading dock during the lunch hour signed for it.  We got an earful from the ACME dock foreman about a half hour later."

"Aw geez.  OK, can you help me out here and forward the car to Peerless ASAP?"

"Sure!  Its being done as we speak.  A crew is heading over there now.  Your Hi Cube should be delivered by 3PM."

"That's great Mick!  Thanks.  I owe you a six pack of Heileman's."

"Throw in a pint of Cavendish and ya got a deal!  So, what happened?"

"Best we can tell the ACI scanner at WM Tower didn't pick the car up because of excessive dirt on the plaque.  Great system except when it ain't!"

 

"It sat dark in the yard until the crew wanted to move it." 

 

"Then someone pulled last week's waybill and didn't notice the date so it got sent to its prior destination...ACME as an empty." 

"We shoulda caught that one too Tweed.  Oh well.  At least its not a  perishable load!   Good luck with the Terminal Yard Agent."

"Aw, he's a good guy.  I'll tell him what happened so he can put the customer's mind to rest.  Catch ya later Mick!"

Shortly after this call was concluded a KP&W S-12 approaches the Hi Cube while ACME employees hang around to watch.

A short time later PC #272242 is set out at its proper location and Peerless Appliance gets its hardware!

NOW, the King Port Division's role in this series is completed!  Remember...ship by rail!  :)