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!