IN THE YARDS PT37

A look at some of the cars found in Hillsdale Yard...

A CHTT-marked 60' high-cube boxcar sits in the yard on a day in the early 2000's.

A companion car, with CRLE marks. These cars carry everything from lumber to appliances, and can often be seen at either R/O Packaging or the paper mill in Dale City carrying finished paper products.

A brand-new Trinity 5161 covered hopper, with CEI reporting marks, is seen in this 2012 photo.

Another new Trinity 5161. The CEI, formally the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, was a Chicago-based road, with lines to Evansville, In. and southern Illinois as well as a line St. Louis. It was acquired by the APRR during the late 60's along with the Monon and Chicago Great Western as the AP made its push westward into the Midwest in response to a similar expansion by arch-rival Norfolk & Western. The re-introduction of CEI reporting marks has not resulted in the return of the C&EI logo -at least not yet!

In the same string of hoppers is this AP-marked car, between CHTT-marked cars. Note the lighter shade of grey used on the AP car versus the CHTT cars. The CHTT, formally the Chicago Heights Terminal Transfer Railroad, was bought by the C&EI in 1927, and had its own small fleet of switching engines. Today, it -like it's parent- is a "paper railroad"; reporting marks only.

After looking at the past, a look to the future; a pair of GE ET44AC pre-production demos sit in the yard in 2015, as the AP&W continues to test the new engines. However, with a large influx of new locomotives between 2005 and 2014 (almost 2000!), the need for more new power is almost non-existent.

TOWN LIFE PT32

As the Easter season approaches, the local warehouses are ramping up their activity. Here is one of the trucks headed downtown with a delivery. Note the city truck in the garage lot, ready with snowplow and salt spreader. It's still winter!

Another truck, this one refrigerated, leaves town, after dropping off goods at the grocery distributor warehouse.

A JB Hunt semi, with a 53' container-on-chassis, makes its way downtown. Between the internet retailer, the dairy plant on the north side of town, and the grocery distributor, Hillsdale sees a lot of truck traffic!

The ice truck waits at the intersection for the green light as mid-day traffic rolls by on County Lane.

On Main Street, things are quiet, as the evening rush hour has passed. A man walks up to the the clothing store, only to find that the owner has closed early for the day!

PASSING TRAINS PT52(c)

The conclusion...

More orange Schneider 53' containers stretch around the curve past town.

Trailers are on the tail end of the train. The lightweight spine cars are carried on the end, behind the heavy double-stack cars, for better train handling.

A track worker watches as the train rolls past.

The spine cars carry a mix of trailers and containers, in keeping with their "all-purpose" capabilities.

After SDN39 passes out of town, the local snowplow, X11, sits in the yard, awaiting the call. With all of the Nor'Easters hitting the northeast, her sisters in eastern Pennsylvania and New York have been busy all winter, and X11 herself has been sent east numerous times. Southwestern Pennsylvania hasn't quite as much snow, but still enough to keep the venerable plow busy. Obviously, this view is from before the onset of winter; by now her plow and wings are nearly paint-free!

For a "vintage" look, here is the same photo in black and white.

PASSING TRAINS PT52(B)

From last week...

SDN40 is an all Schneider train, as the familiar orange containers roll through Hillsdale Yard.

While SDN40 rolls through, a string of plastic pellet hoppers sits in the yard, awaiting delivery to Pete's Plastics.

This car is a three-unit drawbar-connected NSC 53' wellcar, with six containers of multiple styles. Let's take a closer look.

The bottom container is a Stoughton exterior post container, while the top unit is a CMIC corrugated container.

Both containers in the middle unit are Stoughton boxes, but on these the exterior posts are painted.

Again, a pair of Stoughton containers, one with painted posts, one without. Both containers are facing the same direction; the logo is at the front on the top unit and at the rear on the bottom one.
Next week; the conclusion!