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!

 

 

 

PCCM 95: Part 3 on the KPD

 Hello again!

This is the third installment of my "outbound posts" in our 95th "virtual ops".   This Penn Central Car Movement series includes John's New York Central Train Layout, Neal's Atlantic Pacific R.R., and my own Kings Port Division.

At the end of yesterday's installment PC train WKV-2 was dispatched from West Mill and picked up cars at the Kings Port Interchange before continuing on to Selkirk.

While WKV-2 heads north, the West Mill crew gets busy assembling a cut of cars for Weehawken that will be forwarded from there to Rock Ridge Yard on Neal's APRR.

Watch the cut for the APRR get pulled out of the yard and set on a siding for the next VW-1 transfer from Selkirk to Weehawken.

The cars for Neal's APRR are ready for pick up.  The three Penn Central RBLs are loaded with container board for Tropicana from International Paper Co.

The two PC corrugated gons are running empty to Shapeless Steel.

The train that will pick up those cars, VW-1, is seen leaving Selkirk for Weehawken behind a pair of GP40s.  It arrives at West Mill an hour and a half later.

 The two GP40s are cut from the train near the yard tower.  Yardmaster Cappy Foster is getting a god view of the action from his perch on the top floor.

The APRR cut of gons and RBLs is picked up and brought back to the mainline to couple up with VW-1

The train leaves West Mill for Weehawken where the five cars will be forwarded to Rock Ridge Yard.  Those are the only Kings Port Division outbounds for Neal's layout in this series.  The Rail Traffic Management Form which determines our car movements schedules varied amounts of traffic for the APRR from West Mill.

Meanwhile at Mechanicville, B&M Train RM-3 from Rigby powered by an F7A and GP18 is seen arriving in the background with four virtual ops cars among its manifest; B&M #105, 109, and 110, and a Swift reefer.

The B&M RBLs are loaded with veneers from Eastern State Plywood for University Milling on John's layout.

The larger Swift reefer (SLRX #4244) is our virtual ops car loaded with frozen meat for Cavendish Foods.

The four cars are included on a transfer run to Selkirk and are later seen at the big yard on the track in front of the hump in this view.

Not long after the three B&M RBLs and the Swift reefer were spotted in the yard, Train MC-4 arrives from Buffalo headed by a Penn Central F unit A-B-B-A consist.

 

Virtual ops cars on this train include LV #7120 loaded with produce from Tarantino Foods for Empire Produce, and LV #8247 From Delco (Michigan) loaded with batteries for Ford....

 

 .....along with red TPFX #5510 and Dresser Magcobar car NIRX #42868.   Over the years we have accumulated and created many cars for each other to use in common in our virtual ops.  These two cars coupled together make for an interesting coincidence as the Triangle Pacific car is the first "virtual ops" car that was especially purchased to run between my layout and John's while the Dresser Magcobar car is the most recent rolling stock acquisition that creates a three layout car to share between John, Neal, and myself! 

The LV cars, the TPFX, and the Dresser Magcobar are cut from the train, shoved over the hump and set out on a yard track for the next train to Terminal Yard.

WKV-2, which had to take a siding just south of Selkirk to meet the southbound VW-1 now arrives with more cars for Terminal Yard.

That's it for outbound moves from the Kings Port Division in this series!  Come back next week to see trains arrive for the KPD, and check John's and Neal's blogs to see how they manage the incoming traffic on their respective layouts!