TOWN LIFE PT 10; MORE TRUCKS!

 Truck traffic through Hillsdale stays high, as spring has arrived...

With the coming of spring, lots of fresh mulch will be laid down. This may not be the last truckload this season!

Construction projects are also in full swing, as a Smitty Lumber truck rolls down County Lane. The lowered lift axle is put to good use carrying a load of building materials. The piggyback forklift will then come in handy for unloading at the job site.

Springtime also means spring cleaning! The city's side-loader rolls up County Lane headed for the dump site. From there, the trash will be taken to a landfill elsewhere in the county.

Back in the late '70's/early '80's, trucks like this brought goods to the Super Market.

Today, trucks like this bring fresh produce to the Super Market.

And trucks like this one bring the ice. Note, too, that the lawn is being cut at the church. Easter is next week!

A semi tows a COSCO container, bound for the internet retailer. Another shipment of Chinese goods -bought cheap, sold dear to the public!

A food tanker leaves town after loading up at the dairy plant. With the arrival of warmer temperatures, this milk may wind up being made into ice cream to be sold at the Dairy Queen behind the truck!

A Walmart semi heads for the downtown warehouses. Note the tractor has been equipped with aerodynamic wheel covers over the rear wheels to help with fuel economy, along with the trailer skirting. With the average semi only getting about 8 miles per gallon, any little improvement helps!

IN THE YARDS PT 7

A lone gondola of scrap metal sits with the local caboose.

Several days later, another gon of scrap has arrived, along with Gen-set 300, in an otherwise empty Hillsdale Yard.

Paul and Jim are out with the maintenance truck, getting ready to inspect the signals and equipment cabinets along the line. The modern hi-rail lift truck is a lot better than the old handcars!

Jake has checked the securements on the tie handler and is now preparing to drive the machine to Dale City, where work on one of the sidings for the paper mill is ongoing.

A string of reefers awaits delivery to Johnson Foods. With Easter coming up, food production is in high gear -especially their potato salad!

3163 rests between moves. She'll be busy again soon enough.

A set of gons, filled with tarped loads of contaminated soil from a oil spill when a derailment occurred on MXCB90, the Cumberland-Baltimore manifest. Several oil tank cars derailed and, unfortunately, exploded and spilled their contents onto the ground. The contaminated soil is heading to a treatment center in Ohio.

AC4400 8105, the Interstate unit, is now part of Hillsdale's local switcher fleet. Here she arrives from Uniontown with a short train in tow.

A very short train -only two cars!

Actually, the boxcar is a track cleaning car. Made by MNP, it is a modified Walthers car with a pair of motorized cleaning pads underneath. The car is DC only, so I had to use a non-DCC locomotive to pull it. The car is also VERY heavy, hence the short train. The EOT is made by MAC Rails. While not "functional" (non-blinking), it is much easier to add and remove from a car, unlike the Ring Engineering unit, which requires a truck replacement (but does blink). 

A longer local train leaves out next week!
 

ROCK TRAIN E-RM108 PT 2

 Last week, E-RM108, the west-bound rock train, rolled into town. Now, the rest of the train...

Following last week's hopper loads of crushed rock, here is a string of Herzog gons, loaded with granite blocks.

More granite blocks.

Tacked onto the end of E-RM108 is a string of company cars hauling materials from recent track work, including several gons of used ties.

A look at one of the gondolas, and it's load.

Also tacked on are several Difco dump cars, loaded with rip-rap, headed to Pittsburgh for shoring up several areas alongside the Monongahela river.

And tacked onto the end of the train is a Jordan spreader.

Acting as a "caboose", spreader X784 closes out E-RM108.

PASSING TRAINS PT 17; ROCK TRAIN E-RM108

 Another week, another train...

A westbound freight rolls under the bridge and into Hillsdale Yard.

Train E-RM108 is a loaded rock train, carrying various sizes and grades of rock from central Pennsylvania to western Pa, and eastern Ohio. Today, Heritage unit 1992, the D&H unit, is in charge.

The second unit is KCS de Mexico 4668; a LONG way from home!

E-RM108 passes through Hillsdale Yard -slowly. With a train loaded with rock, the two 4400hp units are lugging for all their worth!

The two GE ES44AC's pass a fellow ES44 as they slog their way onward.

On the head end is a string of loaded Ortner three bay hoppers. Designed for heavy aggregate loads, these cars are proving their worth today!

Behind the Ortner cars is a string of Greenville two bay hoppers. Again designed for heavy loading, these cars carry dark grey loads of aggregate.

A pair of Vulcan hoppers follows. The second half of the train will be seen next week, including the Herzog gons seen here. More rock to come!