TOWN LIFE PT19; EASTER SUNDAY

It's Easter Sunday, and the street in front of the church is filled with cars as a woman crosses on her way to the morning service.

A man holds his son as they wait outside for the service to begin. 

Even the back lot is filled. As you can expect, the only other time this occurs is Christmas!

Gen-set 300 has a short, but impressive train today.

Several of the workers in the yard admire the sculpture loaded in the gondola. It is headed to a church in Farmingdale.

GPL 11

Last week, we saw GPL10 leave Hillsdale Yard. This week the train returns as GPL11.

Gen-set 300 enters the yard, train in tow.

Following is a short train of empty woodchip hoppers and a pair of boxcars.

APW 14084 is a repainted car, now with reflective striping.

The other two hoppers are more NS cars.

One of the two boxcars is this hi-cube boxcar for carrying rolls of paper. This is a former CSX car, hence the "BIG BLUE" logo and the red "EASE UP" stickers on the ends of the car.

The final car is this SP insulated boxcar, picked up from Johnson Foods. It will be taking canned vegetables back west.

GPL 10

Train GPL10 is the local run to the paper mill in Dale City.

Gen-set 300 heads out with GPL10.

Trailing is a string of loaded cars, including wood chip hoppers on the head end.

On of the wood chip cars is actually a gondola, an older car from the mid-seventies. It has about a hundred cubic feet less capacity than the larger hoppers on either side of it; significant when talking about lightweight wood chips. 

There is also a string of kaolin tank cars in the train. Kaolin is used to coat the paper for magazines and catalogs, and is most often shipped in slurry form in tank cars.

A pair of APW high-cube boxcars bring up the rear. These cars are used to carry large rolls of newsprint and other types of paper; here they are loaded with baled paper and cardboard for recycling.

OUTDOORS PT1

Last year, I took some photos outside on a diorama. Here are some pictures from the track outside of Hillsdale -literally!

A plastic pellet hopper. The bright sunlight hi-lights the weathering on the side of the car.

Another covered hopper. Again, the rust streaks are hi-lighted.

The realism of the picture.

An old junker on the side of the tracks.

The mobile crane is there with a short train. The sunlight brings out the conspicuity striping on the cars, even though it's paint and not actual reflective tape!

The crane operator waits on the others. Soon, the car will be lifted up from the ditch, and placed into the gon behind the crane - and eventually unloaded at Wilson Steel Works for scrap!