TOWN LIFE PT 17, MORE TRUCKS

A custom Peterbilt 362 with a stretched frame rolls into town.

Delivery made, the same semi leaves, showing off its headache rack, steps and tool box. 
 

A more conventional semi (no pun intended), is this J&R Schugel reefer, pulled by a Kenworth T680.

Another reefer is this Swift semi, with special graphics on the trailer to honor veterans, as well as green graphics on the tractor denoting it as a hybrid.

A Kenworth W900 pulls a 20' Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) container on a chassis. Note the container features the single logo panel unique to MOL in the late 90's. They have since moved on to standard containers with full corrugations.

A UPS Freight semi rolls behind an International Prostar, still in the grey and brown colors used after UPS took over Overnight Trucking. Both the paint scheme and the Prostar have since been discontinued; UPS Freight now uses the standard full brown, while the Prostar received an update in 2017 and was renamed the LT.

PASSING TRAINS PT 26; CDB47 PT 4

 The conclusion to CDB47...

A stand-alone NSC 53' well car carries a red and blue Sea Star box atop a blue C.H. Robinson box.

A grimy J.B. Hunt box atop a Schneider National box, in a dirty FEC Trenton Works 53' all-purpose well car.

The rear DPU is another BNSF GE.

4562 is a GE Dash 9-44CW, one of hundreds on the BNSF.

The engine has a replacement a/c unit from an ex-Santa Fe "Warbonnet" engine. The once pristine silver underframe and trucks are now a dull, grimy brown/grey color from years of almost constant usage.

The headlight is lit, but dimmed, to signal the end of the train. Once upon a time, the rear engine would have been manned; however, it would  have been a helper engine helping move the train over the mountains, and would have been cut off long before the train got to Hillsdale. During the late 60's, the railroad -like others- experimented with Locotrol remote control technology to control engines mid-train and allow heavier tonnage to be moved across the mountains -without the need for manned helpers. Today's DPU technology allows extra engines to be added for the entire run, allowing even larger and heavier trains to be run than before -meaning more tonnage on fewer trains, with fewer personnel, for a more efficient railroad (so they say!).

PASSING TRAINS PT 26; CDB47 PT 3

 Train CDB47 is rolling east with a mix of both international and domestic traffic. The last two weeks we saw the international traffic, now let's look at the domestic traffic...

Three common shippers are seen here; Swift, J.B. Hunt, and EMP (the green container). HUB Group is a leasing company whose boxes show up quite often as well.

A Tiger Cool Express reefer box is atop a FedEx box, one of two in this picture. There is also a pair of XPO Logistics boxes and another Swift box.

A heavily weathered Pacer Stacktrain MAXI IV stack car leads the domestic section. A dirty HUB Group box rides a BNSF box.

Another HUB Group box beneath a grimy orange Schneider box. The HUB box has UPHU reporting marks, meaning it is leased to the Union Pacific.

The previously seen Swift/ J.B. Hunt combo. Note the Hunt box is a grey "Ocean Certified" unit.

The Tiger Cool Express reefer and FedEx boxes.

Chris stands safely off to the side, as the train rolls past, graffiti and all!

The tail end of the train has a colorful pair of containers in the center car, and a rear-end DPU pusher!

We'll look at the end of the train next week.

PASSING TRAINS PT 26; CDB47 PT 2

 Train CBD47 continues...

The first car is AP&W 96011, a brand-new 5-unit articulated well car, with 40' wells. The A unit features the AP&W "Star" logo, along with a well-worn MOL container atop a Hatsu Marine box.

The E unit (articulated cars have an "A" end and a "B" [brake] end, intermediate units are lettered from the "B" end) has no reporting marks or logo. A Dong Fang box rides a UASC box leased from Triton, hence the brown color instead of the more common green.

The D unit only has the small logo, along with a rusty APL container atop a China Shipping box.

The C unit, like the E unit, lacks either reporting marks or a logo, but does have a patched CNC Line container atop a Hapag Lloyd box.

The B unit has both the reporting marks and the logo. It also has a 45' Cronos container atop a 40' APC box.

A white ONE container rides in a ex-48' All-Purpose well car cut down to 40'. On top is a rusty K Line box. Following are several more ONE containers, both in white and magenta -note the colors of the container and lettering are reversed on each scheme. The next car is also rebuilt from a 48' well car into a 40' car -this time a 5-unit articulated car.

Another ex-48' well car is this Thrall car, with a NYK Logistics 45' container atop a 40' GOLD box. The next car is another rebuilt 40' Thrall car with another leased UASC box atop a HMM box.

A Gunderson MAXI I stack car has several loaded 20' containers in its last two wells, including a UASC box in the traditional green. as well as a pair of tank containers. The car also has the new red TTX logo, and is the last car hauling international containers.

Next week, the domestic container part of CDB47 begins!

PASSING TRAINS PT 26; CDB47 PT1

 Happy New Year! The AP&W rolls into the New Year with another train...

CBD47, the Chicago-Baltimore intermodal train, rolls into town.

Foreign power is on the head end, as a BNSF ES44C4 leads a GECX ET44AC demo unit.

As usual, a colorful variety of international containers follow.

More color. Note the ONE (Ocean Network Express) containers in two different, contrasting, colors!

BNSF 5538 shows off her special trucks. Instead of the usual C-C trucks, with traction motors on all three axles, the ES44C4 uses A-1-A trucks, with a center idler axle. When starting a train, the center axle is raised slightly to increase weight -and traction- on the two outside axles. Once the train gets going, the center axle is lowered back to normal. In theory, this gives you the economy of a 4-axle locomotive (fewer traction motors) with the weight -and pulling power- of a contemporary 6-axle locomotive. In reality, while this arrangement works for high-speed intermodal and general merchandise trains, you still need 6 powered axles for heavy trains, like unit coal and mineral trains. This is the reason why only the BNSF and Florida East Coast have purchased these locomotives; everyone else has stuck to the conventional ES44AC's.

The trailing unit, GECX 2040, is one of the pre-production ET44AC's which the AP&W has on long-term lease. While the BNSF unit is still clean (for now), the GECX is getting dirty!

The back half of GECX 2040, showing the dirt along the bottom of the unit.

More colorful containers, in a variety of sizes.

A number of 20' boxes are also in the train. Next week, we'll take a closer look at both the containers and the well cars. And yes, the second half of the train is made up of 53' domestic containers -stay tuned!