HBS 701 at Bethlehem Shipyard 27 August 1960

HBS 701 27 August 1960

Certificate of Occupancy

HOBOKEN, NJ September 12 — The Port of New York Railroad Department of Planning, R.O.W. Division issued this day a notification to the Hoboken Shore Railroad of a certificate of occupancy upon substantial completion of track installation along the Hudson River route.

Of the total 9.45 total track mileage and 1.68 mile long straightaway from its southern terminus approximately 200 feet north of First Street at the Port of New York Authority property of Pier A, extending northerly over property of the Port of New York Port Authority to the south line of Fourth Street, continues northerly along the waterfront to the northerly line of Fifth Street; from this point continuing northerly along the waterfront in the city of Hoboken over fee-owned right-of-way approximately 50 feet wide known as River Road to a point in the easterly line of Hudson Street just south of Eleventh Street where the railroad enters upon Hudson Street and continues northerly on Hudson Street to the northerly line of Fourteenth Street; then from the northerly line of Fourteenth Street in a westerly direction over its fee-owned property of various widths ranging from 80-100 feet to a point just east of Park Avenue (at the intersection of Fifteenth Street with Park Avenue) and thence in a northerly direction over its fee-owned right-of-way approximately 100 feet wide to its connection with the Erie Railroad Company at a point just north of Seventeenth Street, it extends easterly - all in the City of Hoboken, County of Hudson, State of New Jersey, the Hoboken Shore Railroad has laid to date approximately 9.25 miles and 1.57 miles in good working order for operations as it sees fit.

Cars have already begun to populate the working docks, businesses and shipyards in the Mile Square City. Regular operating procedures and shift assignments are still formulating even as railroad workers try to keep up with the burgeoning demand for service. All spots are deemed in right and working order save for the New York Port Authority services which require substantial, but straightforward pier construction before track can be installed.

One locomotive is in service currently, with another engine expected to be available "soon." It is not known whether another GE 44-tonner No.700 will be the next locomotive, or if the HH660 HBS No.600 will be delivered prior. A total of 5 HBS locomotives and 1 Erie switcher are expected to be in use at any given time.

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Pier 16 is fully operational (and for sale!).

A statement from the Thomas J Lipton Company indicated that they have already received service form the HBS, and they are looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship with the HBS along the shores of the Hudson River. 

Some of the most recent track work has occurred at the Hoboken Dock Stores and Holland-America Lines near Pier No.8 at 6th Street. HBS 701 recharges its battery in the background after a couple of weeks of irregular operation over the newly-completed sections of the railroad. A full charge is obtained in less than 30 minutes, with an estimated continuous run time of 2-3 hours (unconfirmed). Stripes from an American flag being installed for preparations of the Golden Spike Ceremony flaps in the breeze over the Red Star Lines loading facility. Three ships a week are expected to call upon the pier keeping the HBS busy even during a general downturn of steamship traffic as airlines begin regular trans-Atlantic jet service.

HMRR Sweeper 10 February 1936

HMRR 500 16 June 1933

Sea change

I found an oopsie while laying track around the Pennsy Marine facility this evening. Turns out there was no drop in bench work to allow for any marine things to reach the repair facility.

Before: There is no water at the marine facility.

Before: Fortunately this is a layout full of modules.

After: The sea change resulted in a standard 1-1/2" drop. I don't know how I determined that was where the tide was back in the summer of '13 when I started installing modules, but that's what it is.

After: A nice little chunk of harbor now allows vessels to reach the Pennsy Marine facility.

And the "main line" is now in from soup (Weehawken) to nuts (Port Authority Pier), and I am closing in on the golden spike. Sounds like a ceremony is in order soon. Where should it take place?

Micro Tsunami overheating

The CVP CONVRTR chip and AirWire 5000 battery installation can be deemed a success at this point. What is not so successful, is that the micro-Tsunami crapped out after about 15 minutes of running yesterday. It restarted after a few minutes of what I assumes was cooling down. Today I attached an aluminum heat sink to the flat bottom of the decoder using some ArcticSilver 5, which is a high-density polysynthetic silver thermal compound. After getting everything back in the shell with some shifting around of the individual pieces, I ran the locomotive for about 45 minutes with no problems. I'll declare victory on the overheating problem for now.

Things are shaping up nicely, and I can see doing more installations soon, now that I have a feel for the components. So far, I have run the locomotive for about an hour on a single battery charge. The set up is a Tenergy 1-4 Cells Li-PO/Li-Fe Balance Charger + Tenergy 11.1V 1000mAh Li-Po Airsoft Stick Battery Pack from All-Battery.com.

Connection from the decoder to the CONVRTR chip and battery. Just two wires substituting for the track pick up and decoder signals.

ArcticSilver 5 thermal compoind from the Rat Shack. $12.

'Tinting' the heat sink rubs the compound into the micro-grooves and pits of the heat sink surface. Just use a hard (clean) piece of plastic to scrape back and forth on the surface. Try not to get finger oil into the mix as this degrades the thermal conduction. I don't think it is that critical here, but a good practice nonetheless.

The heat sink bound tightly to the micro-Tsunami with Kapton tape. I ended up having to remove the back of the speaker baffle and relocate the capacitor to over the trucks to fit the shell on completely. The capacitor needs better securing, because it is hitting the drive gear every so often making a bit of a grinding noise and adding unnecessary load to the motor.