A daily train leaves Hillsdale to make a round trip to Dale City and back, officially named DCL-8. It's purpose is to service both the food processing plant as well as the new soda bottling plant, City Fizz. The following sequence of photos show some of the action necessary to get the train ready.
The brakeman, Doug, stands off to the side as the train backs up to the string of reefers that it will drop off at the food processor.
The couple made, he reaches in to connect the air lines so the brakes can be charged up. He will also release the brakes on the reefers so that they can be moved.
As the train gets made up, he works in tandem with Chris, who throws the switches for the various tracks the cars are sitting on.
Here, Chris is throwing the switch. After the train leaves the yard, he will place a lock on the switch to prevent its unauthorized use -including by vandals.
The train made up and ready to go, Doug hops aboard the caboose for the ride to Dale City, where he will then be the one to throw switches and uncouple cars as the crew goes about it's job for the day - or so they planned. Unfortunately, the train suffered a major derailment on the way to Dale City, with half the train winding up on it's side - including eight tank cars full of corn syrup. While no one was seriously hurt, the mess tied up the line for three days due to clean-up ( nearly 100,000 gallons of corn syrup), damaged car removal (ten cars totaled and scrapped on site, several others damaged), and track repair (nearly 1/4 mile of track to replace)!
The couple made, he reaches in to connect the air lines so the brakes can be charged up. He will also release the brakes on the reefers so that they can be moved.
As the train gets made up, he works in tandem with Chris, who throws the switches for the various tracks the cars are sitting on.
Here, Chris is throwing the switch. After the train leaves the yard, he will place a lock on the switch to prevent its unauthorized use -including by vandals.
The train made up and ready to go, Doug hops aboard the caboose for the ride to Dale City, where he will then be the one to throw switches and uncouple cars as the crew goes about it's job for the day - or so they planned. Unfortunately, the train suffered a major derailment on the way to Dale City, with half the train winding up on it's side - including eight tank cars full of corn syrup. While no one was seriously hurt, the mess tied up the line for three days due to clean-up ( nearly 100,000 gallons of corn syrup), damaged car removal (ten cars totaled and scrapped on site, several others damaged), and track repair (nearly 1/4 mile of track to replace)!
1 comment:
I hope you didn't really have a crash with cars falling off the layout! Good story, and the people's poses really look good.
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