IN THE YARDS PT21

A string of Herzog gondolas sit in the yard, loaded with granite blocks.

The blocks are headed to a local rock-crushing operator, to be ground into gravel for use in road-building projects around the state.

Also in the yard, are a pair of gons loaded with contaminated dirt. The loads are completely encased in the tarps. With the rise of fracking projects in southwestern Pennsylvania, such loads are becoming increasingly common,

ES44AC 9485 sits in the yard, displaying the new "star" logo.

The shop is going green! A set of newly installed solar panels are seen on the roof. While not enough to power the shop itself, they are sufficient for the office -and its a/c unit on the ground!

The Steel City rolls through on its way to Washington, D.C. So far, the train is being well-received, so it looks like it will be around for a while!

IN THE YARDS PT20

Earl waits for Ricardo on 3163, as they get ready to depart for Dale City with DBW10.

The first gondola is filled with scrap aluminum.

The next two are loaded with scrap steel.

Gon 23261 is still lettered for the Appalachian Railroad, nearly thirty years after the merger!

These three gons are loaded with baled scrap steel.

The last three cars are two empty bulkhead flatcars, including a "short-wall", and the caboose. The flats, like the other cars, will come back loaded.

LOCAL OIL TRAIN

A new business has open up in the area -an oil distributor.

Gen-set 300 has the duty for the inaugural run of train HLO6.

Short bay window caboose 4368 supports the local, but in a different way; as a 'buffer car' between the engine and the flammable tank cars. This is a temporary set-up; eventually a retired freight car will be used for this purpose.

The tank cars are GATX "Tank Train" cars. Most commonly seen in Southern California, they actually do roam the country a bit. They are so-named because they are inter-connected by hoses between the cars, as  seen here. This feature allows them to be loaded or unloaded from one end of the string, instead of the traditional individual cars, saving time. The oil dealership is set up to unload these cars.

The train carefully pulls out. The tank cars in the background are empty vegetable oil cars, brought in from Johnson Foods. And behind them are plastic pellet hoppers in storage.

As the train departs, the yard men watch carefully for any signs of trouble; with this train, the last thing anyone wants is a derailment!

One of the shop workers sits and watches the train roll out. Hopefully, he's on break; if not, the shop Foreman won't be happy!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

Today, as we celebrate our great nation, a special train passes through Hillsdale...

A high-n-wide extra, with a special engine pulling it... The 'other' America unit!

91101 is painted to commemorate the heroism that occurred on that fateful day in history. Ex-5047, the GE B40-8 was a decade old when the planes hit. In the Cumberland shops that day with engine trouble, she was plastered with American flag stickers when she came out. A month later, she went into the paint booth and emerged looking like this. Like her more famous sisters, she has a silver under-frame and, of course, a red, white and blue paint scheme! The rooftop a/c's are a recent addition.

Originally purchased for intermodal freights, the growing weight of those trains eventually worked against the use of four-axle power; now her other B40-8 brethren are in mostly local service. 91101 herself is used on special movements, like this one.

And on a patriotic day, what better car to be in the consist than the Armed Forces car? Actually, the two are usually seen together anyway. And note the Operation Lifesaver gon, a normal member of the Christmas Train; this is what it usually does the other 11 months of the year! 

Those two cars are in support of the movement of this giant Schnabel car, returning back to its upper Midwest base.

AP&W engineering car 30 and HDTX caboose 714 finish off the train. Car 30 was converted from a WWII surplus sleeping car in the late 40's by the Appalachian Railroad into a dynamometer car, to measure the performance of the early post-war diesels it tested; not only is the car still in service, but it still has its Allied full-cushion express trucks, which were banned from interchange service around the time of the car's conversion!

HDTX is the Heavy Duty Transport division of the AP&W, handling many over-sized movements over the railroad. Note the caboose now has a fuel tank (just ahead of the rear truck) and a rooftop a/c unit. Note too, that it has also been through the wheel-painting program!