CARPACK 5

A look back at some of the cars that could be found in Hillsdale Yard during the 80's...

 A 50' insulated boxcar belonging to the Saint Louis-San  Francisco (aka the Frisco) railroad, waiting to be delivered to what was then McMillen Foods (now Johnson Foods). After the 1985 merger that created the AP&W, lots of Frisco equipment started showing up in this area.

 GATX 46734 is a car made up from two single-bay airslide covered hoppers joined by a drawbar to create a single, high-capacity car. It, too, is headed to McMillen Foods, carrying a load of flour. The term 'airslide' refers to the design of the car; the outlet bays are lined with a permeable fabric through which air is pumped to loosen up the load and enable it to 'slide' out the gates. The car was designed especially for dense powders which tend to pack together during shipping, like sugar and flour, and which are hard to unload as a result.

 Another railroad involved in the 1985 merger was the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton. Once owned by Henry Ford to supply his Detroit factories, the DT&I was famous for its color-coded auto parts boxcars which traveled the country in various supply/delivery pools. This gondola was one of many the railroad had for steel shipments; here it is loaded with steel coils from Wilson Steel.

 Also loaded with Wilson Steel products, are these two Canadian-design bulkhead flatcars. Built during the early 70's to haul Canadian lumber, they were soon eclipsed by larger cars and were assigned to other uses, such as this shipment of plate steel.

In 1980, the Rock Island shut down. Afterwards, most of its property was sold at auction; the C&NW purchased a large number of its one-time competitor's freight cars, including this covered hopper. All of the Rock Island's markings were painted out with white paint, making the finished result quite distinctive!
And with this, we now enter a historical look back at Hillsdale during the late 80's, in the aftermath of the creation of the AP&W. Stay tuned...