TOWN LIFE PT1

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it's time for New Year's Eve!

Two friends meet for lunch at the Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q. Given that the two vehicles are a Range Rover and a Cadillac Escalade, this may be a business meeting.

An AC Delco delivery van makes a call to Tony's Garage, with genuine GM parts -even though the lot has no GM vehicles!

The Domino's Pizza truck rolls past the old store location to the new location downtown. College Bowl season means lots of pizza parties!

Bowl season also means lots of bags of ice will be sold; the Union Cold Storage delivery truck heads out after making its stops.

After the holiday rush, comes the "New-Year's restock"; the internet retailer is stocking up on spring items -as well as close-out deals on winter merchandise. Thus, the departing UPS Freight truck passing the incoming FedEx double-bottom. Actually, the two trailers are for two different customers; the other one is R O Packaging.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Holiday Train continues its trek eastward to D.C. Here, the two GE 70-tonners lead the way.

The traditional pine tree is loaded in the gondola. The following hopper has "snow", but the Santa Claus Coal Express car is missing. Political correctness?

The usual string of Christmas boxcars are in the mix, including this one. While most trains don't run on Christmas, this one definitely does! Brad and Chris may be on the job this holiday, but 1) it's only for 4 hours, and 2) they're getting paid triple-time!

Also getting paid are the train crew, including "Santa's helper" waiving from the caboose platform. The extra money is just compensation for wearing her Santa outfit -including a short mini-skirt!
This weekend will be a busy time, with college bowl games and the New Year's celebration. Stay tuned...
And meantime, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS EVE

The AP&W Holiday Train has arrived!

Engines 12 and 25 bring the train into Hillsdale.

The crew car this year is sleeper  New York City.

The local kids from The Hillsdale House gather to meet Santa -and get their gifts!

While the train is parked, New York City receives some mechanical attention.

The engines also receive attention. They, like the sleeper car, were built in the 1950's, and some require loving care to stay in shape!

CHRISTMAS TIME! PT1

The Holiday rush is on!

Jackie's Fine Fashions' sidewalk sale is on, and the sales are brisk, as a father and daughter walk out with their purchases.

UPS is busy as well, with deliveries to town merchants.

More holiday shopping; a couple heads to their car after leaving The Mad Hatter.

Holiday travel; the Steel City Express rolls westward from D.C. towards Pittsburgh, behind Phase I heritage unit 156.

For those making a longer (time wise) trip, Greyhound is the way. Smitty Lumber is also busy, delivering supplies for those not only making repairs and upgrades to their homes for the holidays, but also for some of those wild, spectacular light displays often seen along county roads!

And, of course, there's the annual Christmas train!
More to come...Soon!

PASSING TRAINS PT2; JBHTKC110 PT2

The rest of JBHTKC110...

Numerous 53' reefer containers, in both with and without "Intermodal", ride in the top position.

The popular "How cool is that?" reefer box makes an appearance in the train.

Sometimes these boxes get really dirty and grimy, like this one (based on an actual one I saw).

The "sore thumb" really does stick out among the other containers!

Like the Schneider train, this one also has trailers on the end; here are three, all with different logos!
The holiday season is here! Next week, the final Christmas rush in Hillsdale!

PASSING TRAINS PT2; JBHTKC110 (1)

Last week, we saw a special train for trucking company Schneider National. This week, we'll see one for their rival, JB Hunt...

Train JBHTKC110, is a special Trenton, NJ. to Kansas City train for JB Hunt. Today, the train is lead by a pair of BNSF GE Dash 9-44CW's. BNSF handles a lot of Hunt equipment out west; the two railroads share a joint intermodal terminal in KC and often pool locomotives on these trains, hence the frequent sight of BNSF equipment rolling through Hillsdale!

While this is a JB Hunt train, the first two containers are BNSF and Swift!

Also on the head-end are UPS containers; this is a priority train, and the AP&W will add UPS and other priority intermodal freight to fill out the train whenever possible.

Both the older JB Hunt and newer JB Hunt Intermodal equipment are represented in the train, along with a BNSF stack car.

This view of BNSF 4567, shows off not only its fun number, but the main difference from her sister in front; the area below the lower stripe on the nose is orange instead of green. These two engines are from two different orders, thus the color change. Of course, today the BNSF has slightly different paint scheme -the green has been replaced by black, and a new logo adorns the nose and sides; however, the area under the lower stripe on the nose is now black instead of orange!
More of this train next week...

PASSING TRAINS PT1: SDN40

Train SDN40, the Dayton, Oh. to New York City special intermodal train for Schneider National, rolls into town.

Today's power is SD70MAC 8663 and AC4400 8900, running "elephant style".

Behind them are the familiar orange containers of Schneider National.

Chris and Paul prepare to inspect the  train as it rolls by, watching for any issues.

A pair of M.O.W. flatcars and a well-weathered boxcar sit in Hillsdale Yard as SDN40 rolls through.

The tail end is made up of spine cars, mostly loaded with trailers, though a lone container is among them. The sight of Schneider trailers is becoming an increasingly rare sight as the company moves to containers for shipping, liking the versatility of intermodal operation -and seeing lower costs as well.

SDN40 rolls around the bend and out of Hillsdale. While CSX is Schneider's preferred eastern partner, the AP&W has made inroads with faster service between Chicago and the Northeast. In fact, this train was proposed by the AP&W in response to Schneider's Buckeye Connection train between Marion, Oh and Kansas City as an eastern version. Schneider already liked the speed and service of the ND/DN39 intermoodal train between Dayton and NYC; having its own dedicated train was even better.
Schneider National is not the only trucking company the AP&W gives preferential service to. Stay tuned next week to see another one.

A BAD CAR

Train DBW11, the Wilson Steel Works local, returns from Dale City...

Genset 300 is stopped on the east end of the yard with a string of pipe loads.

A group of workers is gathered around one of the cars, looking at an apparent problem underneath the car.

The problem is with the brake gear; part of it is broken and hanging loose from the car's underbody. The car will be set out in front of the shop for emergency repairs.

A day later, the car has been repaired, and is ready to be sent out to join its fellow cars, already headed west to a new gas pipeline project.

A new project for the layout; a storage building, made from an old surplus boxcar.

Now painted, the building also has rooftop vents installed. The roof overhang provides partial protection for a pair of vending machines.
The "surplus" boxcar is an old Accurail car that I wound up "parting out", thus the extra body shell. The rooftop ventilators are also from Accurail; the truck securing pins found in the kits, which I trimmed down on the ends to provide a flat top. The roof itself is made from left-over roofing material from a Pikestuff building kit. And it all is tied together with Evergreen strip styrene, and Floquil reefer grey paint. The building was inspired by a photo of a similar building along the Rock Island in Mediapolis, Iowa, which was actually the local headquarters! Of course. the real building had windows -one with an a/c unit, an oil tank for heating, and a semaphore by the tracks.
More trains next week; until then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

THE 60's; PT5

Finishing the train -and the 60's- from last week...

The final set of reefers in the train is this pair of orange ART cars, with the heralds of Norfolk & Western and the Missouri Pacific, two of the owner roads. The N&W inherited its ownership via its purchase and merger with the Wabash in  1964.

After the brightly colored reefers come the more common drab brown boxcars. The first one is a 50' CGW (Chicago Great Western) car with a large "DF" to indicate restraining devices for "Damage-Free" loading. The next three cars are 40' APRR boxcars with two different slogans.

As seen here, not only do the cars have different slogans, but different lettering schemes as well. The car on the right has the "THE ALL-PURPOSE ROAD" slogan, along with APPALACHIAN RR spelled out over the reporting marks; the car on the left has the "ALWAYS PROFESSIONAL SERVICE" slogan, with a small APPALACHIAN at the top corner of the car. As indicated by the different car numbers, these are also two different boxcars; note the different roofs.

Another pair of 50' boxcars, a New York Central car and a Detroit & Toledo Shore Line car. The D&TS served much of the Detroit area auto industry, leading to its slogan "Expressway For Industry". The line was jointly owned by the Grand Trunk Western and the N&W (inherited from the Nickel Plate). GTW bought out the N&W's half in 1981 and merged the D&TS.

A trio of bright, white hopper cars, owned by W.R. Grace & Co., returning to Clifton, NJ.

Another pair of hoppers follow a Hooker Chemicals tank car. The grey hopper is a AP car loaded with corn meal, while the other hopper is an ACF demonstrator.

ACFX 44504 is ACF's (American Car Foundry) demo car, showcasing the advantages of their "Center Flow" concept: by eliminating the center sill underframe, the car now could be unloaded more easily and efficiently, as there were no longer any interior obstructions for the load to catch on. The concept caught on, and the modern covered hopper car -with single full-width hopper outlet gates, instead of twin gates- was born. Bringing up the rear is the traditional red caboose, with the road name stretched across nearly the entire side of the car, and "ALWAYS PROFESSIONAL SERVICE" prominently displayed at the top. 809 is part of the I-9 class of cabooses, and was purchased during the early 50's. The I-9's were a bit shorter than most of the cabooses purchased by the AP, measuring only 32' long; most AP cabooses were 35' long. Nearly 70 years after it was built, 809 lives on as a display piece in a park.
This is probably the last "60's" look at Hillsdale. I've decided to concentrate on the modern era (post 1980's) and so much of the equipment seen these past few weeks will be sold off as time goes on (but not all of it). And so, back to the present time next week!