PASSING TRAINS PT45; PHIL-28 PT1

A priority freight, PHIL-28, rolls through town...

Led by a pair of EMD Lease SD70ACe's, the train rounds the curve.

Units 1205 and 1203 represent EMD's latest, and are actually demonstrators units. Here they lead PHIL-28, with double stacks on the head end.

Members of the yard crew watch 1205 roll past. During the course of the year (2012), the AP&W will receive 100 new SD70ACe's, as it continues to upgrade its locomotive fleet with newer, more reliable motive power.

Behind the stacks are a string of boxcars; behind those are a string of tank cars. This is the modern day equivalent of a mixed-train; instead of passenger cars, it is intermodal equipment added to a general freight consist.

The tank cars represent the growth of oil and ethanol shipments by rail to the east coast in recent years. Note also the parked string of oil tankers in the yard; these are empties waiting to head back west.More of this train next week...