DOWNTOWN UPDATES

Here is Commerce Street, after all the buildings were finally completed and placed on the layout.

And here is Commerce Street after the street was finished and styrene sheet was used for the building bases/sidewalks. A noticable improvement. Now we need road markings, parking meters, and a meter maid!

Here is a shot I took of the Super Market from in between the hardware store and the Pawn Shop. Notice the bare foam board between the buildings.

I have since covered up the board with ground foam 'dirt'. Maybe next time I'll get a better photo!

Lastly, here is a shot of the parking garage from the alleyway between the Public Library and another building. The alley runs around the back of the buildings to the left and comes back out between The Pub and the furniture store. That car really shouldn't be parked there, but since there's no sign saying otherwise, it won't get towed!

THE ATHEARN UNIT

In 2007, Athearn celebrated their 60th anniversary by producing a special run of products, including an EMD GP40X locomotive decorated for Athearn and displaying their 60th anniversary logo. Being a big fan of Athearn, naturally, I had to buy one. I also got one of their '60th' boxcars; that was seen in an earlier post (and, unlike the locomotive, it's a replica of the real thing).

Here, the special unit rolls into Hillsdale yard with a short train of autoracks (car-carriers).

The unit rolls through the yard. Just as Athearn's 60th anniversary was unique, so was the GP40X. Only 23 were built by EMD in the early 80's; they were actually test units for newer technology. I added a front snowplow and a pair of BLMA A/C units to the roof to give it some character.


Here's the rest of the train, starting with an AP&W car on the head end.

BNSF and NS racks are also seen in the train.

Finally, on the tail end, are several articulated autoracks.

A STACK TRAIN

Intermodal trains are a common sight through Hillsdale, with a least two stack trains and one piggy-back a day in each direction.


Here, a domestic stack train passes through town with a variety of 53' containers, including these BNSF and Swift containers.

Here is a Pacer Stacktrain 53' container stacked on top of one of the AP&W's SCSU 48' containers. These are rapidly approaching retirement, as the intermodal industry has switched to 53' containers as the standard. The containers are riding in one of the AP&W's Husky Stack well cars. The 'Husky Stack' logo on the side identifies this car as being from the first order of 100 delivered by Gunderson in 1990. Later orders (300 more cars total) lacked the logo.

More Pacer Stacktrain 53' containers, along with two CIE Intermodal 53's, all placed in a rarely seen CIE Intermodal 3-unit NSC well car. The 'car' is actually three separate cars connected by drawbars to form one complete set. If needed, they can be separated, the drawbars replaced by conventional couplers, and run as individual cars. Delivered in 2000, CIEX 2002 is one of only 10 cars CIE Intermodal owns.

A close-up of the middle well car of CIEX 2002. All three have 53' wells.

Reinforcing that this is a domestic service stack train, is this shot of another rare bird- an Allied Van Lines 48' container! While the vast majority of Allied's fleet are conventional trailers, a small percentage are specially built containers that sometimes move by rail.

LAYOUT UPDATE

A Mountain Dew truck makes a delivery to the Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q, while a FedEx van makes a stop at another business. In the background, the newly added hotel can be seen (read on).

Another view of the relocated townhouses on Main Street. The billboard will eventually be relocated, adding another parking spot and better views for the tennants!

A close-up of the second townhouse. The building next to it was also relocated from downtown; it was displaced by the Delta Building. That looks like a Real Estate Agent standing out front. What business will occupy it next?

Here's a fun rooftop view of downtown Hillsdale, taken from atop the hardware store. The supermarket is across the street, the pawn shop is next door on the right, and the backs of the buildings on Bank Street can be seen. In the distance is the park, with the AP&W's tracks beyond that.

Finally, here is the newly added hotel. While still not complete, it does add to the 'height' of downtown and helps hide the trackage along the back of the layout.

THE TEST AND RESEARCH CAR

I recently completed aTest and Research car for the AP&W. The following are two 'under-construction' photos.

And here is what the completed car looks like.

I converted the car from a Bachmann Spectrum heavyweight combine, with windows cut out of an Eastern Car Works passenger car kit. I removed most of the underframe details and added Hi-Tech Details GE "EUC" boxes for equipment/battery boxes, along with a scratch built fuel tank (to feed the "onboard" generator) to which I added sight glasses made from modified Hi-Tech Details F-unit sight glasses and Details West GE fuel fillers. I also replaced the factory trucks with modified Walthers passenger car trucks, replaced the swinging coupler pockets with Sergent EN87's, and added work tables and computers from a Faller interior detail set. On the roof I added BLMA A/C units along with Details West antennas and GPS unit and a Utah Pacific smoke vent. Reversing the baggage doors provided the modenized look, the original end doors and diaphrams were replaced by Pikestuff doors, and a Details West cab-unit back-up light with a red MV lens helped fill out the detailing. A Rapido Easy-Peasy lighting kit provides interior lighting. Testors Deep Sea Blue is the AP&W's "Engineering" color, while Sewalls Point -the name of the car- was an important location on one of the AP&W's predecessor roads; it was the Eastern terminus -and deep sea port- of the Virginian Railroad. Today, Sewalls Point is Naval Station Norfolk; reportedly the Virginian's roundhouse location is now occupied by the Navy Exchange and it's parking lot!