Hello, is this thing on?!?

Yes, yes, I'm still here...I promised my friend Ted DiIorio that I would update my "freakin' blog" tonight, as I admit, it is long overdue.......I spent most of the summer "away" from model railroading (at least actively working on the layout that is), but it's soon to be Fall, and the guys are coming over enmass this weekend to get me ready for the next shakedown session in November. Big things are in the works, but I am not ready to divulge just what yet, so stay tuned.

So, I actually have done some work (mostly wiring, and who wants to see a post about wiring, Ted?) and a little bit of track work. So with that in mid, here's the track work.......

This siding was originally opposite (behind) this spot, and it never really sat well with me. So I figured one night while I was bored (must have been no good NCIS repeats on TV), what the heck, lets move it! Not only do I like it (it is visually appealing to me) but it also "hides" the curve in the backdrop here (the backdrop in this spot is the previously reported "hole in the wall" that needs fixing this weekend). Eariler this Summer, Ted also suggested I rearrange my CNJ yard leads, which I did....

No, that's not the crack in Amy Pond's bedroom wall in the background...C'mon, no Dr. Who fans out there? Really?!?

Trust me when I say that the leads were a cluster *#@% before this......It all began when I wanted more of a switching lead, and Ted's suggestions were great and well reasoned......I even added a second passing siding. This extra part of the layout (the CNJ's Henderson St. Branch) is a fun addition to an all-LV layout, enough to keep two guys very occupied all night (or so I hope).

So, that's it. Nope, really, that's it......Don't make me take a photo of the wiring work Dave Ramos did last time he was here.......I'll do it, I swear!

Now see what you made me go and do Ted? You said "post to your %#!$ blog, Ralph", and I said "But Ted, I got nuthin'!", and you said "Stop slacking!".....OK, fine, you asked for it!

 

 

So, with that, exit our layout builder, stage right.......Hopefully, I'll have some exciting progress photos to share after this Saturday....Or at least some goofy photos of the guys trying to fix my layout. Either way, it should be interesting!

 



Nothing to see here folks, move along.......

This pretty much says it all........Yeah, not much to say this time around, but lest it be said that I have forsaken my blog, I felt it necessary to stop in a say hello......

About the closest thing I have done with the layout in well over a month is to purchase four new Broadway Limited NYC boxcars from my good friend Dave Ramos at his last op session. How does that classify as doing anything with the layout? Well, I put one of the cars on the layout and rolled it back and forth......

Speaking of Dave's layout, here's a few photos to keep ya busy......


Carfloats seem to get everybody talking......

NYC's 30th St. yard

Erie's W.28th St. yard

Jim D. and Perry S. seem to be enjoying the job at the LV's W.27th St. yard

Street level view of the NYC running down 12th Ave, and in front of the Erie's yard

"All the world's a stage(ing)"

"The Hands of God", aka Tom C., aka The Loveable Leprechaun, working the Erie's carfloat

Two Teds, no waiting! Ted D (left) and Ted P. (right) weigh their options, as Superintendent Ramos mans the NYC active staging yard in the background.

Jim D. works the LV carfloat as Tony K. chats in the background.

Perry S. and Jim D. plot their next moves within the confines of the Starrett Lehigh Building, as Tony K. "observes".

Looking down the NYC's "High Line" far above the 30th St. yard.

Scott D., Rich T., Neil H. (being anti-social with his back to the camera!), and Tom C. (hiding behind the pole guarding his carfloat and his gold!) strike a pose for the camera.....Seems that Ed K. is the only one busy working!

So, that's it...Make sure you visit Dave's website at http://www.nyhrr.com/ for more goodies.

Till next time.....

Better Late Than Never! (aka "The RPM Report")

Well, here we are, now 2 weeks after the always fun Valley Forge (Malvern, PA) RPM meet, held every 2 years (it swaps locations with one in the Pittsburg area), that myself and the "Jersey Crew" make a point in attending.

It's fun, informative, and a great way to drink a lot of alcohol in the name of model railroading! (rule G does NOT apply!) We'd all attend anyway, but since most of the gang are usually presenting something (gee, the people who come to this thing must surely be getting bored of us by now, after seeing the bunch of us talk about something for the last 3 to 4 "gatherings"!), we'd be there anyway. And the show organizers keep asking us back, so we keep talking!

This year, we got to participate in a Friday morning op session on one of three local layouts, and myself along with pals "Scary" Ted DiIorio, "Klingon" Dave Ramos, and Craig "Mutton Chops" Bisgeier", op'ed on Steve Salotti's NYS&W layout. Steve's double decked HO scale DCC with sound-equipped layout models the eastern end of the RR in New Jersey, and features local industrial switching mixed in with local commuter traffic. Fun stuff. But as always, I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.....

As you can see, Steve really likes the urban action, but his railroad covers some nice "country" scenery, too (sorry, no photos). That, and if you don't like Alcos, you're outta luck!

Now, what I REALLY need to do is get back downstairs and get finished for the April shakedown...Right now, the Edgewater Branch has been severed so I can put two Blue Point manual turnout contollers in with remote cabling -

Talk about the end of the line!

So, until I get my butt back downstairs, the railroad ain't goin' anywhere! Doesn't help that I feel a cold coming on.......Here's to gettin' some gumption!

New And Improved Paperwork Primer

Since I've been working on my car forwarding paperwork for my presentation at this weeks Valley Forge, Pennsylvania RPM meet, I figured I'd not talk about one of my favorite subjects (car forwarding paperwork), but also update on a previous post about the same thing. Not only were those images poor, but the paperwork in some cases has completely changed. So with that being said, I'll try my best to keep this interesting!

Firstly and most importantly, let me say that if you are not already familiar with my choice of car forwarding operation, that I do not use the typical car card and waybill (CC&WB) system that most layouts use, be it the "classic Old Line Graphics-style, the more recently popular "simplified" or color coded system, or the even more recent "super detailed" waybill-only system that is popular on layouts here in Northern New Jersey.

Now while I certainly enjoy the look of the realistic waybill-only system and have been championing it's use at various RPM and NMRA convention/meets since 2006 (though I do not claim to have invented any of it, mind you), I instead found out that because of the operational nature of my layout, it was actually too much information and thus, too much work to create for too little return on investment. Now, I know that I could have set up a mail merge system in MS Word like my friend Dave Ramos did for his waybills (www.nyhrr.com), but I just didn't want to get that into it, as most of the cars traveling across my Code 83 rails are through cars, and thus, WHO CARES! I sure don't (much)!

OK, I can go on and on explaining my view point and the pluses and minuses of this topic, but let me get get down to brass tacks here and show you what I'm doing......It's really kind of simple, actually.

First up, this is the standard defacto car tag that will follow thru cars traveling Eastbound to the carfloats and the 13 different harbor destinations, or for cars coming off the carfloats and moving across the layout to one of three "gateways" for traffic moving West/North/South. This tag is as simple as it gets, and is based off many prototype cards as seen here -

The "real" thing......

And my version......

This is just enough info to get the car from the west end staging yard (typically the LV's Oak Island Yard, where all classification was done) to Jersey City (where the car floats were, and the modeled part of the layout) and onto the right carfloat. Typically, the cars were sent east in bunches via a Pullout (LV-speak for a transfer run) for a particular interchange destination, and a scheduled carfloat "floating", so the cars wouldn't sit around taking up space (much, that is)

Now, in my travels across the 'net in search of more car tag examples, I have come across some "specialty" tags, for specific types of ladings and/or industries, car requirements, and even LCL....

These car tags in particular are great for when you have large industries that have multiple tracks, or at least handle multiple inbound and outbound loads. Come to think of it, these would be great for that MR Beer Line project RR.....

And speaking of LCL, this kind of traffic is a big part of my layouts operating scheme, and something I want my crews to pay attention to when transferring cars across the layout. Along with cars being dispatched and also terminating on the layout at the grand Street LCL Freight Station/Transfer, there are also thru cars moving from eastern carfloat connections to the west via Oak Island yard, and vice versa. Since my transfer runs have a strict car limit of 15 cars, and there may be more than that that require transfer between yards, I wanted a way for my crews to be able to tell an LCL car from your typical boxcar load at a quick glance. I have LCL waybills and LCL waybill pouches from various railroads, but until I got my hands on the PRR prototype sample below, I never knew LCL car tags existed (lucky me!)

As you can see, I patterned mine in a similar manner, and even used a colored cardstock to make it stand out, though you can't tell by the image below.....

And as you can see, TOFC traffic is also important traffic on the layout (the LV had it's first TOFC "terminal" here in Jersey City in 1954), so I just used the same "template" to draw attention and prompt handling to this traffic with the following car tag......

Now, lest we forget about local (on layout) car deliveries, I have these two cards (but not waybills!) to designate and route cars (non-LCL and TOFC) to the various industries located within the terminal area. This Erie card "inspired" me to design my version, as well as an LIRR Car Placement Slip (not shown)

And lest we forget about empty cars, here's what we use for them...Pretty self explanatory, used for stealing those otherwise thru cars to load on the layout! Not sure which RR I patterned this one after......

As you may have gathered along the way of me explaining this, not a one of these car tags is based on a specific Lehigh Valley car tag, but that's only because I haven't found one yet!
I'm pretty sure the LV had to have used them since almost all the other NY Harbor area RR's did, too, so it's perfectly logical to assume, as well as prototypical, to operate my LV like this (not to mention it's simpler!)
I have found that these tags were used in large terminal settings like St. Louis, Chicago, and Kansas City, where there seemed to be many more railroads and railroad lines coming together, as well as the presence of terminal switching/connecting/belt railroads, which is something the NY/NJ area did not have.
Not to mention, the terminating railroads around here didn't for the most part, play well together and share terminal operations, but instead had a yard here, there and everywhere, instead of having one large yard where everything, and everyone else, came and went to, in order to exchange cars. But I digress once again.....

During the last two shakedown session, we have started to use these car tags, and they have been generally received well by the yard crews. The simple nature of them is important, and while I want my guys to pay attention to the details and intricacies of car movements, I also want them to not have to think too much about where a car has to go, and how it needs to get there. I think I'm on the right track, so to speak, but time will tell....

All for now,

Ralph

Welcome To Jersey City!

While putting together my presentation for this month's RPM meet, I came across this image, and thought it would be too neat not to share with everyone. It comes via the Life Magazine image archives on Google, and was take by Andreas Feininger in 1951.

Ya gotta love these kind of photos that really put your project or interest into perfect perspective, just like this one does for me.

Another Successful Shakedown

Yes, I'm sure some of you have been wondering where the evidence of last Friday's Shakedown #4 are, so here's the proof!

But before I let the pictures do the talking, let me say that despite the nasty rain and wind here in New Jersey last Friday, the guys did their best to slog through it and the ensuing traffic and pile into the basement, with one operator in particular coming from as far away as Hershey, PA! (that's a good 3 hours away if you aren't familiar with the NJ/PA area).

We identified some new trouble spots and more than anything, identified that I need to spend the summer working on my engine and car fleets, making sure coupler "airhoses" aren't too low (they just LOVED picking the crossings and turnouts the other night!), and that the cars are properly weighted. As crew member Tom Callan liked to yell at me across the room last Friday, "I found another Helium Car!" (his crafty name for cars with absolutely no weight, if you haven't already guessed)

So, without further ado, enjoy the photographic hijinx!

It takes three to tango.........Float yard switcher engineers Neil "The Happy Viking" Henning and Ted "C&O" Pamprin are under the iron fist of Washington Street Yardmaster Jim Dalberg , aka "Herr Dalberg"

"Where's my train?"......Oak Island/East Claremont staging Yardmaster Dave "NY Harbor" Ramos takes a tour of the property during a lull in the action.

No, it's not a hobo........It's Harbor Master Craig "1892" Bisgeier, who is the guy in charge of staging the carfloatsfor the evening, seen here keeping the chair warm, and the beer safe in between carfloats (I think he was really busy Facebooking or eBay'ing....Slacker!)

"We gots ourselves another Helium Car, Ralphie!......Here we see West Yard switcher engineer Tom "Scotch" Callan hard at work rerailing......Something!

"MORE cars? Just where do you want me to put them?" Here we see West Yard Yardmaster and Communipaw Ave. Block Operator (the guy who controls trains going into and out of the yard on the other side of the backdrop in front of him) Jim "I'll go anywhere for an op session" Schweitzer, hard at work directing the transfer of cars between his yard and Washington Street Yard.

Apparently, I'm not keeping these guys busy enough........"Scary" Ted DiIorio and Dave Ramos are seen here busy debating the finer points of car forwarding.....Yeah, sure they are.

Is it me, or does Dave look like he just saw a ghost train? That, or Ted just dropped some LCL, if you catch my drift......

A busy crew is a happy crew. Neil, Ted P, and Jim D are hard at work at Washington Street, while straight ahead, Bob Rose is seen working the CNJ Henderson Branch.

Team work at Grand Street....Seen here on the new connecting track I recently installed in this location, Ted assists Tom in cutting off some TOFC and reefer cars to place for loading.

Well, that about wraps it up. The guys had fun, I had fun, and I have a nice big bunch of things to fix before the next session in April! Yay me! Until next time..................

Countdown To Shakedown

With only 4 days left, I got a lot done these past two weeks to get ready for this Friday's Shakedown #3. And there's still plenty to get done.......

The trains are getting longer! And the Staging is getting BIGGGGGER!

In regards to making my crews happy, after the last session when my West Staging Yardmaster said he was forced to put 10 pounds of train into a 5 pound track (so to speak), I took time to extend staging another 3+ feet. Now the maximum train length (12 cars on the Main Line to Oak Island, 10 to East Claremont on the NDR) can be run, and trains do not need to double onto a staging track. And yes, this is a active staging yard, not only by the nature of busy terminal railroading, but lack of room for a dozen or so tracks! This weekend, my father helped me drop 18 track feeders to provide the staging tracks with ample power conductivity the length of the tracks, which was also a problem before, and would be even worse now that everything has been extended.

Here's another track addition since last session, the new trackage between West Yard and Grand Street in the back end of the layout. The tracks leading up to the top and to the right along the backdrop is the Edgewater Branch, a approx. 9 ft long industrial branch serving 7 industries. I simplified the track leads to the LCL freight transfer and team tracks, and also installed a runaround/escape track for the yard, even though one didn't actually exist. However, sometimes ya just gotta bow to what makes operating a model better, as opposed to what the real thing was like or operated. I mean, it COULD have been like this, it just WASN'T!

Here's the real yard, almost same orientation as the photo above. Edgewater Branch curves off to the right at top, the Grand Street freight station towards the number "43", and the National Docks Branch straight up, towards the NYC at NJ Tower and Weehawken. taken from a Sanborn Map.

The last major track addition is an extra runaround track on the Jersey Central's Henderson Street Branch. I though the flexibility of another siding would come in VERY handy, as I plan to have a lot of cars being constantly switched on this 8 ft long branch with 9 industries. I figure the guys would run out of room real quick, so it was easy enough to put in, and it just LOOKS right.....Again, it was never there, as seen in the Sanborn Map below......

There were plenty of tracks here at one time, just not the one I chose to put in! The extra sidings would be alongside the one that curves down to the bottom of the map.

So now, all I have to do it spend my next two evenings soldering......YAY!.......Among other things, like cleaning and staging the layout.......But as long as I don't get distracted by episodes of NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, and other such nonsense, I think I'll be OK...Besides, I have Friday off!

Wish me luck.........