P.C.C.M. 46N Arrival in Denver

Greetings, and welcome to the fourteenth and final segment of P.C.C.M. 46. A quick recap of where P.C.C.M. 46 has taken us. Our story started on John R's N.Y.C.T.L. with the pick up of an empty Celanese tank car at the Ford Plant in Bedford Park. It will be headed West to the Celanese Plant located on the banks of the mighty South Platte River, in the Globeville section of Denver.

Our next stop is Heileman Brewery to pick up an Empire Belt Boxcar full of Heileman Beer for thirsty customers in Denver. It will be delivered to Centennial Beverage Distributors.

From there we focus on Ralph's Kings Port Division and a New York Central Covered Hopper Car. It's loaded with spent grain products from the production of Cavendish Ales. It will be sent to Denver Union Stockyards as livestock feed. The Denver Union Stockyards are located on the East bank of the mighty South Platte River. Right across from Globeville. The sights and smells are shall we say breathtaking. 😉

Our journey continues on Neal's A.P.R.R. layout. Lots of car movements and deliveries after a rough start with some mechanical issues. E.E. is still tired from all that extra work involved from Weehawken to Rock Ridge.

Our next stop was the Classification Yard at Elkhart, Indiana. Our trio of cars was being hooked up to a set of pooled locomotives from the Penn Central and Burlington.

Now we conclude our journey of P.C.C.M. 46. The pooled motive power units were cutoff the train at Galesburg, IL. and sent back to Elkhart on train BN-2. Our cars continued on to Denver as train 63.
Train 63 has the honor of being delivered by a trio of F7 cab units. The F7's are working their final days for the CB&Q. Soon they will be traded in for some new SD45's. We'll enjoy the arrival of the vintage set of cab units at 31st Street Yard in Denver.

The cars from train 63 are being pulled off by the local switcher and will be delivered to their respective customers. Lets take a look at some of the sights around the 31st Street Yards.

With the cars on their way with the local, some other cars are being staged to be delivered to other customers or sent out to their next destination.

A PFE 57ft Mechanical Reefer is being sent over to the Union Pacific's 40th Street Yard for return to the produce fields in California.

A Northern Pacific Mechanical Reefer is being sent to Laurel, Montana via the Colorado & Southern.It will be delivered to the Yakima Valley in Washington for more produce.

The BRMX mechanical reefer is headed to Denver's Meat Packing row, conveniently located next to the Denver Union Stockyard. For fans of the Burlington Reefer service, BREX reporting marks are for reefers dedicated to produce delivery. BRMX reporting marks are meat carrying reefers.

Fresh from the Rattle Can Paint Shops, a Fort Worth & Denver 50ft gondola is headed back to Texas on the Colorado & Southern.The Rice Yard Switcher will be heading over soon to pick it up for it's trip down South.

Another Rattle Can graduate, is this Colorado & Southern 34ft Hopper. It will soon be headed to Northern Colorado with a unit Sugar Beet train I'm putting together. This car made it's internet debut on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJHjlc8-A7o  I thought the train needed a little bit of red to match the PC holiday green cars.

 

Some of my first railroad memories were of my Grandpa taking my Dad and I on a guided tour of these CB&Q F Units before they were retired from service. Great looking locomotives, too bad none of them made it to the Burlington Northern or Amtrak.

 

Changing of the Guard. Out with the old Cab Units and in with the new SD45's. 

 Speaking of Athearn Blue Box SD45's. Irv Athearn released the model SD45's before the Burlington actually received the real ones. The Burlington never had SD45's in the classic Chinese Red paint scheme. They were delivered in a green pre-merger paint scheme. I have some painted in the correct paint scheme for a future post. I really like the looks of the Red and Gray on the SD45's. I'm still thinking about the silver trucks. I want to thank John, Ralph and Neal for the great posts and segments of P.C.C.M. 46. Really great stuff! Thanks for reading!!! 

P.C.C.M. 46M, Welcome to Elkhart.

Greetings and welcome to segment 46M of the Penn Central Car Movement (P.C.C.M.) series. We left Neal and his A.P.R.R. on segment 46L. His local RC-2 was making deliveries to online industries Cargill and Tropicana. http://atlanticpacificrailroad.blogspot.com/2018/04/pccm-46l-deliveries-to-cargill-tropicana.html

Now we turn our attention farther West to Elkhart, Indiana. Site of a large Hump and Classification Yard used by the Penn Central.

Prior to the Penn Central, parent roads New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad had made Motive Power Pool arrangements with several connecting Mid-Western railroads. One of these being the Burlington Route (CB&Q). One could find PC power roaming as far West as Denver or North to the Twin Cities. On the other side, one could find Burlington units in the New York City area. One common connection that was popular in the Pool Power arrangements was Chicago, IL, to Elkhart, IN. For the Western connection on the P.C.C.M. series, Elkhart makes a perfect gateway. Several trains ran between Elkhart the other major PC terminals including Selkirk and Weehawken. With the opportunity to hitch a ride out West on the Burlington, Santa Fe and Rock Island from Elkhart.

Elkhart was located in an ideal location to process shipments of bulk commodities from the Mid-West, such as grain and other agricultural products. Along with manufactured products from the East and Upper Mid-West industrial centers.

Some other commodities that would go through Elkhart, included cement and fertilizers.

Another popular commodity in 1973 that several railroads were involved with, was the export grain being sent to the Soviet Union.

For this segment, we are interested in shipments a little bit closer to home. Two of those are from John's N.Y.C.T.L. Including an Empire Belt boxcar filled with some fine Heileman Beer. Being sent to Centennial Beverage Distributors in Denver, CO.

Another car being sent from the Ford Plant on the NYCTL is an empty tank car for the Celanese plant in the Globeville section of Denver.

From Ralph's Kings Port Division, a real treat for the livestock at Denver Union Stockyards, spent grain products made from fine Cavendish Ales. Left over from the brewing process, Cavendish is being a "green" manufacturer and using the excess grain for livestock feed.

For the trip West to Chicago on train BN-1, the Burlington has provided two Chinese Red hood units.

The first unit is a rattle can custom painted Bachmann GP30, number 944.

The second unit is an airbrushed Athearn Blue Box General Electric U28B number 109. The local Yardmaster is disappointed with the selection of road power. He's not a fan of either GP30's or General Electric locomotives. Both the Penn Central and Burlington Management know the reliable history of the GP30's and their continued good service.

Much to the Yardmasters dismay, the Penn Central side of the motive power includes two General Electric units for the trip to Chicago. He figures the guys in Chicago will have to deal with the locomotives and their supposed issues.

Aside of their grungy and dirty appearance, Penn Central's U33C's 6540 and 6557 should be reliable power to the trip to Chicago. Both are Athearn Blue Box Special Edition locomotives.

That's all from Elkhart. We'll next see our section of cars in Denver on PCCM 46N. Thanks for reading!!!