PASSING TRAINS PT50

There was no posting last week due to a flooded basement! However, now the basement is dry, and the trains are fine, so let's move on...

Train OM518 heads westbound, with an train of empty oil tankers headed from Baltimore to Chicago.

Another pair of GECX pre-production ET44AC's lead the way. The AP&W put it's allotment of units to good use!

A loaded carbon black hopper is on the head end acting as a buffer car. Since carbon black is produced at refineries (it's a byproduct of the refining process), it made sense to use the car as a buffer.

Following are the familiar black tank cars.

OM518 rolls through Hillsdale Yard. Note the GE test car sitting outside the shop, and the orange MOW flats in the foreground.

A BNSF hopper brings up the rear. The train will be handed off to the BNSF in Chicago, then return to North Dakota for re-loading with Bakken-crude oil. The entire round-trip cycle takes about a week.