DCL9 PT2

From last week...

One final UP reefer, once again with graffiti.

Behind the reefers is a string of empty vegetable oil tank cars, returning to the Midwest processing plants.

The long train will be heading straight to the larger yard in Uniontown, since all of the cars will be headed west; no sense in crowding Hillsdale Yard. Plus there are cars in Uniontown to be forwarded to Hillsdale.

More empty cars; a string of pressure-differential hoppers is on the tail-end of the train. They, too, are headed back to the Midwest for reloading.

Finally, a caboose sighting! Still lettered for the AP, 4312 brings DCL9 to a close.

Just as the locomotive at the head end no longer works mainline freights, so too has the caboose been demoted to local service, as she brings up the rear. Gone from the rear of most trains for over three decades, an entire generation has grown up without seeing a caboose in service -and yet you STILL can't sell a train set without one!