Friday, November 27, 2009

ANOTHER DAY #2

A UPS van sits on Main St. while the driver makes her pick-ups and deliveries to the local businesses.

A dump truck waits at the busy intersection of Market and Main streets. Meanwhile, Mr Phillips is taking his usual daily jog. Looks like that old Toyota J4 has seen a few dirt (mud?) trails!

Behind the R&O Packing truck is a City of Hillsdale tractor. Normally used for mowing the grass in the park and on school grounds, today it seems to be headed for other uses as the mowing unit is not attached.

Sam and Bill give directions to a lost motorist. Wrong turn off the Interstate?

A rare glimpse of the Trackmobile owned by the new bottling plant and used to spot cars around the facility. Normally, the Hillsdale local simply drops off loads and picks up empties on the two outside receiving tracks and this little guy does the rest. Today, it seems a car was slow to get unloaded and missed the local, so the Trackmobile brought it over to the yard and dropped it off. While it was only one car and a short trip down the line (12 miles), given the short range -and slow speed- of the Trackmobile, it had better not become a habit!

Friday, November 20, 2009

ANOTHER DAY


Found in the yard recently, was this weathered and 'tagged' RailBox boxcar, still in it's (faded) as-delivered paint scheme.


A new customer in the area is a soda bottling plant in Dale City. Making 'budget-priced' sodas, the new plant requires A LOT of corn syrup. Several tank cars a week are shuffled in and out of the facility, adding an extra bit of revenue for the railroad.
A tractor-trailer turns out of downtown, after picking up a loaded container from a customer in the Industrial District.



Sam and Bill check out a 'hot-rodded' car. The owner converted it from an old Checker taxi cab by removing the bumpers, signs and hood ornament; shaving the door handles; Frenching the headlights; and adding fog lights and rear pipes through the rear body. Now if only he would get a license plate...

Saturday, October 10, 2009

UPDATES

Recent updates to the layout.

The maintenance shop now has propane heat for those cold Eastern winters. Next to the propane tank are oxygen tanks for welding. Above both is a sign warning "NO SMOKING"!

A view of the Hillsdale Public Library on Market St. Across the alley is a drugstore, and beside that is a pawnshop.




Three views of the newly completed downtown parking garage. I added a baseplate to the Vollmer structure kit to make it easier to move and place, as well as allowing me to make a smoother transition to the street. Simply setting the building in place made the entrance and exit points curb height! The baseplate also enabled me to add barriers to the sides of the entrance/exit routes to keep traffic in it's proper place. Lastly, the baseplate allowed me to make room for a sidewalk around the outside, and a partial parking lot between the garage and the Market. I also added an exit gate and stop sign for exiting traffic.
Since the exposed foamboard can't be seen from a normal viewing angle, I may just leave it as-is. Or I may get 'motivated' and finish the parking lot!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

STACK TRAIN #2

Here's another stack train, this one a short 'non-domestic' led by a BNSF unit.

The lead unit, BNSF SD40-2 6752 pulls into Hillsdale yard.

The head end of the train is loaded with Maersk and Maersk/Sealand containers.

Given the fact that they are double-stacked, those 20' containers are probably empties. Otherwise, their combined loaded weights would exceed the capacity of the wells.

Also in the train, are these 'K' Line containers. Notice the weathering on the top container -these things get dirty travelling around the globe!


More 'international' containers, including these Chinese-owned Cosco containers. Headed back home to get more cheap goods for the dollar stores to sell!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

TOWN LIFE PT5

An old Plymouth GTX sits outside the parking lot for the warehouse. The owner added new rims; is a new paint job next?

A group of bikers is seen hanging out in the alley behind The Pub. Who owns the 'flamed' F100?

This is the parking lot between the Kibri Apartments and the Domino's Pizza. How about that old Cadillac station wagon!

The boys gather in the parking lot at the end of the day. It's Friday, and the men are ready to spend the weekend camping and fishing, as evidenced by the two camping trailers at the ready. The railroad may work seven days a week, but they don't!

Speaking of the weekend, it looks like someone else plans to spend it at the lake as well- notice the windsurfing gear on the roof!