My version of Penn Central

[conrailman75]

The HPRX 45 and 4500 are now in NS' Gest Street yard in Cincinnati, so its up to them to get those units back to the HPR now

[legostudios34]

The HPRX units have been put on a light power move from Cincinatti to Atlanta.

[conrailman75]

Storm damage UPDATE: As you may have read, there was a very powerful line of storms that ran thru Penn Central's territory yesterday in Indiana and Ohio and the track maintainers have been out hi-railing effected lines trying to assess the damage and help clear the tracks. The reports have finally reached the CEO's desk and it doesn't look very good:

Fort Wayne, IN
PC shops lost power and the dispatcher office is on emergency backup generators currently. The headquarters building is also without power, so all employees that work there have been told to stay home. AEP is telling us that we may not get power back until the end of Wednesday next week The hump tower was evacuated during the storm but the building thankfully suffered no damage. Several freight cars did get blown over on their sides by the powerful winds(wind gust at the NWS office was recorded at 91 MPH!) in the departure yard and the wreck crane worked thru the night to rerail everything and get the yard cleaned up. The tower at Mike reported some shingles blown off the roof, but otherwise no other damage to it. The tower operator at Junction reported that the building shook and swayed during the storm, but did not suffer any damage thankfully. The tower at Adams reported that the home signal governing movements off the Ft. Wayne Secondary onto the mainline was blown completely over and is going to have to be replaced as it was bent at the base. The tower building itself suffered damage as shingles were blown off the roof and a drain gutter was ripped off and sent flying into a nearby farmers field. A couple trees came crashing down on the mainline at Adams, but maintainers have gotten those cleared off the tracks as of this morning.

Columbus, OH
Damage at Buckeye yard was severe as quite a few railroad cars were blown off the rails by the winds and the hump tower had its windows blown in and shattered. No injuries thankfully as the railroad had instituted its severe weather procedures and had evacuated all the yard crewmen into the yard office building, so the hump tower was empty when the storms hit. Several locomotives that were sitting outside also were derailed by the wind. The car shop in Buckeye survived, but its doors were open at the time and are bent and twisted and will need to be replaced. Hulcher, RJ Corman, and the PC wreck train are out trying to clean up the yard this morning. Power is also out in Buckeye yard and a majority of the Columbus area and AEP Ohio is saying it could take 5-7 days to restore power to the area. The towers in the Columbus area that PC uses survived the storm, but several reported roof damage.

Dayton, OH
PC's Dayton yard shut down during the storm, but train CODY-9 which had arrived before the storms hit had several cars derailed by the wind. A reported 82 MPH wind gust took out PC's massive radio tower in the yard and snapped it like a twig, so PC's radio base in Dayton is out of commission for several days. Thankfully it didn't land on any buildings or fall outside the yard property, but it did land on several freight cars, crushing them. Just like the other affected areas, power is out down here and the earliest estimates is 5-7 days for it to be restored. There are trees and power lines down all across the Dayton area that are affecting train operations. A power line is down across PC's ex NYC Columbus to Dayton mainline in nearby Fairborn that has to be removed by the power company before operations can resume on it. Several trees that were blocking the tracks were removed last night by maintainers so that limited operations can resume.

The mainlines and branches
The Fort Wayne mainline suffered damage to its code line poles as a lot were snapped or bent over by the storm, disrupting communication to the signals and forcing it to go back to train order operation for all trains from Warsaw to Lima until the code line can be repaired as the signals are giving a lot of false indications right now. The north south GR&I Branch suffered some damage in the Ft. Wayne area to its code line, so all trains are running on train orders only from LaOtto to Junction until the signal system can be restored to the branch. Due to the power failures across the area, there are a massive amount of stop and flag crossing protection orders being issued to those trains that are able to make it across the system right now. The Waterloo Branch is out of service south of Fourth Street as there are trees and power lines across the tracks right now in Ft. Wayne. Down in Richmond, the yard doesn't have power and a few of the buildings suffered wind damage from the storms, but due to the fact that a lot of the lines are train order operation out of there, the damage is less than it could be due to a lack of code line to take out. Over in Arcanum, OH the SPIN-9 was stopped due to the issuance of a severe weather warning and had quite a bit of its train blown over by the winds so the Springfield Branch is out of service until the line can be cleared of the wreckage. Train was okay though, which was the most important thing The rest of the lines in the Southern Region in the Columbus to Dayton suffered damage from downed trees and power lines. A maintainer reported in Springfield that the control box for CP175 had a piece of plywood driven through the side of it Trees were blocking the mainline at CP 189 near Enon, OH and as reported before, a power line is blocking the mainline in Fairborn. The Chicago to Columbus mainline suffered some damage in Piqua, OH with downed trees blocking the mainline that are being cleared this morning. There are some reports over in West Virginia where the PC/TSCR joint Columbus to Pittsburgh mainline runs thru that there are trees and power lines down across the tracks all over the place near Weirton Jct.

The list could go on and on, but as you can tell, Mother Nature has dealt a devastating blow to Penn Central and its customers in Ohio and Indiana and its going to take a few days to clean up from this mess. All service guarantees have been suspended until further notice and traffic moving thru the affected areas can expect massive delays.

[conrailman75]

Due to the severe weather that rolled thru here a couple days, the start of the AW/PC New York to Indianapolis service has been delayed until after the 4th of July. Penn Central is getting help from fellow class ones CSX and NS to assist with clearing the mainlines of trees and restoring the code line again. A basic update to some of the reported damage yesterday:

Arcanum, OH
the derailed cars of SPIN-9 have been cleared from the tracks and the rail inspected for any damage and minor repairs made, so this line has been reopened as of 10am this morning. The head end of Friday's train uncoupled from the derailed part and continued on to its destination in Indianapolis.

Dayton, OH area
The power line disrupting operations in the Fairborn area has been lifted and removed from the tracks by power company crews with Dayton Power and Light, allowing PC to reopen the line as of 9am this morning. The downed limbs and pole lines were cleared out yesterday between Fairborn and Springfield. The control box in Fairborn, CP-198, is running on a temporary generator right now as power is still out in that part of town and is estimated to be restored by this Wednesday. The radio tower is a much more complicated issue and won't be repaired until next weekend at the earliest. So PC has established a temporary shortwave radio base at the site of the old Dayton Union Station, which will at least enable the crews, dispatchers, and yardmasters to talk to each other over the radio. Dayton yard is finally up and running after all the derailed and smashed cars were cleared out of the way, but they still do not have any power unfortunately.

Columbus, OH
The damage at Buckeye yard is continuing to be cleaned up. The locomotives that derailed in the storm were rerailed and ran thru the shop to inspect them for damage and make any needed the repairs. The class yards are finally open after PC, Hulcher, and RJ Corman spent all of yesterday cleaning out all the derailed and blown over cars in them. Sadly the hump tower's tall glass observation deck has been boarded up until repairs can be made to it. In the meantime, the humpmaster will use an office on a lower floor with a window that faces out into the class yards to observe movements. The tracks still have some debris on them and the earliest estimate is that the yard won't be reopened until sometime tomorrow now.

Fort Wayne, IN
Power was restored to the Baker Street Station(home of PC's dispatcher office), the headquarters building, and the car and locomotive shops over at Piqua yard early this morning. The hump tower and yard office still do not have power, nor does Adams Tower currently. Structural repairs to the towers will take a few weeks, but should be finished by the end of July. Trains are still running thru town on train orders because the signal system is still out and the code line repairs are expected to last well into next week unfortunately. The new home signal at Adams was installed yesterday and was put into operation as of 1030am this morning, replacing the one that was damaged in the storm.

A lot of progress was made in clearing trees and other debris off the other affected lines yesterday and excluding the areas mentioned above, are pretty much back up and running again. PC wants to thank all those who offered to host detours and or provide help in clearing up its mainlines as it was really appreciated as we try to recover from this destructive storm.

[conrailman75]

Due to the extensive storm damage and the efforts to recover from them ongoing, Penn Central CEO Chris Howe has canceled his plans to attend the NS Heritage locomotive Fest down in Spencer, NC. The original plan was to depart today on the business train and run on NS trackage rights from Cincinnati to Spencer, but mother nature has changed those plans. PC will still be represented at the event though, as the company's vice-president will fly down there tomorrow to be on hand Tuesday and Wednesday during the event.

[DT&I]

We have hirail trucks inspecting our joint line to make sure everything was cleaned up correctly, also today another series of strong storms hit the northern most Ohio area. So TSCR operations might be screwed up for a few days due to unfinished MOW work that had to be halted due to a tornado warning.

[conrailman75]

We have hirail trucks inspecting our joint line to make sure everything was cleaned up correctly, also today another series of strong storms hit the northern most Ohio area. So TSCR operations might be screwed up for a few days due to unfinished MOW work that had to be halted due to a tornado warning.

Yeah, PC had to go back out and inspect its lines around Dayton, Springfield, and Cincinnati again because of a line of severe storms that packed straight line winds of up 60 mph in places to check for new fallen trees or power lines. No new power or pole lines down thankfully, but found a few more trees that need cleared from the tracks unfortunately.

[DT&I]

We have hirail trucks inspecting our joint line to make sure everything was cleaned up correctly, also today another series of strong storms hit the northern most Ohio area. So TSCR operations might be screwed up for a few days due to unfinished MOW work that had to be halted due to a tornado warning.

Yeah, PC had to go back out and inspect its lines around Dayton, Springfield, and Cincinnati again because of a line of severe storms that packed straight line winds of up 60 mph in places to check for new fallen trees or power lines. No new power or pole lines down thankfully, but found a few more trees that need cleared from the tracks unfortunately.

Ok what about Buckeye Yard? Is everything ok there? Only thing with DT&C was 9914 had the left windsheild shattered by a large branch as it was parked on a spur with 9916. Should be an easy repair for LLC.

[conrailman75]

Storm damage UPDATE: Penn Central has been busy recovering from the powerful storms that roared thru its territory Friday and Sunday and here is the latest updates:

Ft. Wayne, IN
The hump tower, yard office, and Adams Tower finally got power restored to them about 3am this morning. The code line thru Ft. Wayne has been replaced, but there are still code line outages going east and west of there along the Fort Wayne mainline so train order operations continues for mainline trains from Lima to Warsaw. The structural repairs on the towers and other damaged buildings will begin after the July 4th holiday.

Columbus, OH
The efforts to clean up Buckeye yard continues. All the debris has been cleaned up and removed from the yard, allowing PC to reopen it as of 9:30am this morning. Quite a few cars have been run through the car shop the last couple days and all of the engines that were derailed in the storm have been inspected and repairs made where needed. The glass to replace the shattered windows in the hump tower has been ordered and will arrive by the end of next week, so the yardmaster and humpmaster operators will be sharing an office in the yard office building that faces the yard so that they can view what's going on inside the yard. As of 10am today, Penn Central has resumed accepting and sending interchange/transfer trains at Buckeye with all the railroads in the Columbus area on a limited basis as the yard still is without power and several of the lights in the middle of the yard need to be replaced as the storm toppled several of our spotlight towers there. Trains can only be accepted from sunrise to sunset until power and the lighting towers replaced.

Dayton/Springfield, OH
Last night some powerful storms hit the Springfield, OH and dealt a setback to restoring operations in that city. The storm downed more trees, especially on the Springfield Branch in New Carlisle, OH where several large trees blocked the tracks and had to be removed today. Operations on that line should return to normal sometime this evening. Unfortunately Sunday's storm knocked out power at the small yard in Springfield and has not been restored yet as of this posting. As for the mainlines, more trees were found downed across the tracks and removed and all the mainline routes have been restored to normal operation as of 2:30pm today.

Over in Dayton, things continue to try to get back to normal as the storm recovery continues. The yard finally had its power restored this afternoon around 1pm, allowing it to finally resume full operations. The power company has advised Penn Central that they will need us to temporarily halt our trains thru Fairborn when they get ready to straighten the leaning line of power poles that faces our mainline in town around 6pm tonight, so a PC flagman will be out to protect the mainline and prevent any movements thru the work area from 5:30pm tonight until the project is completed.

Elsewhere around the system, things are slowly returning to normal thankfully. The yard at Richmond had its power restored last night at 11:00pm, the Chicago to Columbus mainline is back open after the power line was removed from the tracks in Piqua, OH yesterday morning. There are still scattered pockets of code line outages that are slowly being restored as well. The joint line is back open and running as of 6am today after the TSCR/PC inspected and cleared the damage that was blocking the mainline in the Weirton, WV area. PC again thanks all those who have helped out with the massive clean up, like RJ Corman, Hulcher, CSX, NS, and TSCR; your efforts have been greatly appreciated and will be returned if you need help cleaning up from a natural disaster the next time.

[DT&I]

Ok since we are ready to start work on the 3rd track on the TSCR/PC joint line. We will be starting in Pittsburgh, PA and working our way west. We will have a 35 MPH speed restriction in the work area and a mile in each direction to let trains have time to slow, this means speed will be 25 MPH. TSCR will supply the rail, ballast, ties, spikes, etc. All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments. We will ha e TSCR and PC MOW crew working together on this project. We'd like to start this by Friday and we will split the cost half and half.

[Saturnalia]

All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments.

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

[DT&I]

All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments.

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

Yep its Penn Central Port-a-Potty Co.

[Michigan Railfan]

All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments.

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

Yep its Penn Central Port-a-Potty Co.

PCPP???

[conrailman75]

All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments.

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

Yep its Penn Central Port-a-Potty Co.

What the...? I'm the CEO and I didn't know we diversified into port-a-potties, LOL! Gonna have to have a talk with the company treasurer now about how he's spending our money

[DT&I]

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

Yep its Penn Central Port-a-Potty Co.

What the...? I'm the CEO and I didn't know we diversified into port-a-potties, LOL! Gonna have to have a talk with the company treasurer now about how he's spending our money

LOL you get on that Ok we have all our equipment prepped and ready to go plus we have 5 ballast trains in the yard waiting and ready for Friday.

[conrailman75]

Ok since we are ready to start work on the 3rd track on the TSCR/PC joint line. We will be starting in Pittsburgh, PA and working our way west. We will have a 35 MPH speed restriction in the work area and a mile in each direction to let trains have time to slow, this means speed will be 25 MPH. TSCR will supply the rail, ballast, ties, spikes, etc. All we need you to do is provide Machinery, portable restrooms, MoW camp cars, and A LOT of refreshments. We will ha e TSCR and PC MOW crew working together on this project. We'd like to start this by Friday and we will split the cost half and half.

Okay, we'll be sure to get some camp cars and track equipment out to you by Friday, along with an old heavyweight kitchen and dining car so that the crews have someplace to eat and get something to drink. And I'll be sure to rent you some of those portable restrooms I didn't know we had for the duration of the project My main PC track gang is on a work train right now, WOR-509, heading up the Eastern Branch to Fostoria to get ready for tomorrow's big joint NS/CSX/PC project of installing the diamonds for the Eastern Branch to cross the CSX and NS mainlines at F Tower. Once the Eastern Branch is completed(which I hope is by the end of the month), Penn Central will focus all of its efforts into helping you get the triple track project completed. Until then, we'll provide as many workers as we can safely spare to help you out in the meantime.

[DT&I]

Oh that reminds me, when you complete you eastern branch do you wish to share Stanley Yard? We would be perfectly fine with sharing it be it may need an expansion becuase its kind of packed right now.

[Saturnalia]

What? Does PC have 5-star porta jons or someting?

Yep its Penn Central Port-a-Potty Co.

What the...? I'm the CEO and I didn't know we diversified into port-a-potties, LOL! Gonna have to have a talk with the company treasurer now about how he's spending our money

They put MQT Porta-Potties Inc out of business

[conrailman75]

Eastern Branch UPDATE: A work train is heading up the Eastern Branch today, symbol WOR-509 powered by PC 7091 and 7088, with camp cars filled with the track gang crew that is going to work with CSX and NS track crews tomorrow as they install the diamonds at F Tower in Fostoria for the Eastern Branch to cross CSX and NS' busy mainlines in town. This diamond installation will be controlled by nearby F Tower as part of our agreement with CSX and NS that has allowed this diamond to be reinstalled again. Once the diamonds are installed, which is to be completed by sunset tomorrow, the crews will take the rest of the week off to help with storm cleanup. Then next week the crew will return to Fostoria to begin the final push to get the rest of the line completed all the way to Toledo by the end of the month. PC definitely would like to complete this project by then as we will be shifting our resources and attention to the massive triple tracking project of the TSCR/PC joint line from Columbus to Pittsburgh and management wants all hands on deck to help with what is going to be a critical project in keeping this key line fluid.

[conrailman75]

Oh that reminds me, when you complete you eastern branch do you wish to share Stanley Yard? We would be perfectly fine with sharing it be it may need an expansion becuase its kind of packed right now.

Penn Central currently owns a yard near Stanley(its a fictional one that never existed) in Lime City, Ohio but I have no problems tying the Eastern Branch back into the south end of Stanley since that's where it originally connected anyways and using Stanley would help me keep my Lime City yard more fluid, so yeah, I'll share ownership of Stanley with you. I probably won't originate more than 2 pairs of trains a day out of there for the time being since it sounds like its sort of congested right now I'll know more once I sit down later this month and start figuring out a schedule for all of my Toledo trains and their running times on the Eastern Branch.