PASSING TRAINS PT 31; SND40 PT 2

 SND40 continued...

A Hyundai 53' box rides a Stoughton 53 footer. Both are in a NSC 53' single-unit well car.

The contrast between relatively clean containers and heavily weathered well car is evident in this photo. Another NSC car.

Another MAXI IV well car. This is the "B" unit.

The "C" unit.

The "A" unit.

A white Schneider container is mixed in with the regular orange boxes; note the top container has reflective striping along the bottom. The car is a 53' single-unit Husky Stack, that has been "patched" with the new logo -making it stand out even more!

Another NSC 53' single unit well car, just as grimy as the first two.

Yet another MAXI IV.

CIEX 2012 is a former Pacer Stack Train MAXI IV car which had BRAN (BRANdon Rail) reporting marks.

The "C" unit carries the graffiti.

The "B" unit. Most, if not all, of Pacer Stack Train's fleet of cars has been sold off to other operators.

More SND40 next week!

PASSING TRAINS PT 31; SND40

 Train SND40, the New York-Dayton, Oh. Schneider National intermodal train rolls through Hillsdale...

Rolling behind a pair of almost-new ET44AC's, SND40 enters the yard, with 517 on the point.

528 is the second unit. (Nor coincidentally, 5/17 and 5/28 are my parent's birthdays!)

The Athearn 75th Anniversary unit is sitting in the yard, as SND40 rolls past.

The first car is an FEC (Florida East Coast) 53' Husky Stack  It is also an all-purpose car, with hitches at both ends. Note the two different shades of orange; the top container is an ex-Martin box, and still has a white roof!

CIEX 2002 is a three-unit, drawbar-connected, NSC 53' well car, and a frequent member of both SND40 and the eastbound SDN40.

Another frequent sight in these trains are Gunderson MAXI IV well cars, such as this one. This is the A unit.

The middle C unit.

The B unit, which has the brake wheel.

More of the train next week.

THE 80'S PT 4

 A final look at Hillsdale in the 80's...

A Mack R600 pulls a City Market trailer into town, heading for the grocery distributor warehouse downtown.

A Kenworth K100 Aerodyne pulls a Transamerica trailer out of town. The trailer has been stretched from 40' to 45' and repainted into Transamerica's classic blue and red striped scheme. During the 80's,  and 90's Tranamerica leased trailers, containers and chassis. In 1999, the company was bought by a Dutch firm Aegon, and in 2000, it sold off its intermodal unit to Interpool.

A Peterbilt 359 pulls an Intermodal Systems Inc. reefer trailer into town, headed for the grocery distributor. The slogan on the side of the trailer says "WE CONSERVE ENERGY DOLLARS" -hence the green "Dollar Bill"-shaped graphics.

Yet another 80's classic semi: another Peterbilt 359 pulls another reefer, this one owned by Leaseway Transportation. Seen leaving town after making a pick-up at the dairy plant. Leaseway was also known for the dark blue trucks of its auto-hauling division, and by 1980 was the fourth largest highway transportation company, behind UPS, Consolidated Freightways and Roadway. The 80's recession, however, especially the auto industry's slowdown in the late 80's, hit Leaseway hard; after being taken private at the end of 1986, the company went bankrupt in 1992. It merged with Penske Truck Leasing in 1995.

A shot of Hillsdale Yard, circa 1986. Note the stored 53' Railgons; a common sight during the early 80's. Formed in 1979 as a subsidiary of Trailer Train, the purpose was the same as Railbox; to provide the railroads with a pool of gondolas to ship goods in. By the 70's, many of the gons currently in use were aging (much the same as the nation's boxcar fleet was, which lead to the creation of Railbox), so Trailer Train sought to solve this by creating Railgon. Unfortunately, the early 80's recession shut down lots of steel mills around the country, just as four thousand brand new gondolas were being delivered, resulting in most either being stored or transferred to member railroads; half wound up on either Chessie System or Seaboard System. The situation improved by the late 80's, and Railgon is still rolling on today.

The Norfolk & Western-Southern merger that created the modern-day Norfolk Southern is four years old, but the identities of the two originals remain. The boxcar on the left has been recently repainted into a simplified scheme, while the other one is still in its original paint. (The original NS was a North Carolina railroad that ran from Norfolk, Va. down to New Bern, N.C., and from Elizabeth City west to Charlotte. It was known for its fleet of Baldwin diesels and was purchased by the Southern in 1974).

An APRR 65' gon sits in the yard as well, wearing the tan paint of the newly formed AP&W. This car was recently repainted, but not re-lettered!

A car that has been re-lettered is this former 12-1 sleeper car. Converted into a training car by the APRR in 1970, the Whitefish is resplendent in its new tan and brown paint!

THE 80'S PT 3

 In the mid 80's, the Appalachian Railroad tested new technology...

One of the EMD SD60 demonstrator units, EMD1, leads a short intermodal train comprised of another 80's innovation; the IMPACK spine car.

The train is carrying UPS trailers between Trenton, NJ., and Pittsburgh, Pa.

Most of the trailers are the iconic "possum belly" 40' parcel trailers.

There are also several conventional 40' straight trailers.

There are also a pair of 40' refrigerated MARTRAC trailers as well. MARTRAC is UPS' refrigerated subsidiary, shipping fresh produce from the West Coast, and regular packages back from the east.

The SD60 represented a major advance in locomotive technology for EMD. First, was a boost in horsepower, from the 3500 h.p. of the SD50 to 3800 h.p. Second, was in increase in reliability, by upgrading the engine from the 645F, which was over stressed by the increase from 3000 h.p. in the SD40-2, to 3500 (then 3600 h.p.) in the SD50, to the 710G. Third, was the adaptation of microprocessor controls for improved performance, and a new wheelslip system for improved traction control. The combination made the 60-series very popular with the railroads, as it allowed for unit reduction on heavy trains; two SD60's could replace three SD40-2's, saving fuel -and money. They were also popular in intermodal service as well, due to their high horsepower.

EMD1 drags the short train through Hillsdale Yard. What is seen here is the first car in the train -a ten-unit set of articulated spine cars!

A pair of non-UPS trailers bring up the rear. AVAILCO was a leasing firm that leased trailers to both railroads and shippers, often adorned with the "PREFERRED POOL" slogan. The first trailer has the "PREFERRED 45" slogan that advertised the newly adopted 45' length, which became legal nationwide in 1981.

SD60 demo EMD1 rolls out of town, UPS trailers in tow. The pending merger of the APRR, MC&K, DT&I, and SL-SF put locomotive purchases on hold until 1986, when the newly formed AP&W purchased 25 SD60's -the first of 150 the new road would acquire, along with 50 more SD60M widecabs purchased for intermodal service in 1992.

While UPS was famous for their "possum-bellies", they also had quite a few straight trailers as well, including these two.

The "classic" drop-frame 40 trailers. Some of the trailers have color-coding corners and ends, which UPS discontinued during the 90's. Yellow ends indicate the trailer is equipped with a pintle hook; these trailers carry UPOZ reporting marks: red indicates it is not equipped with pintle hooks; these carry the regular UPSZ reporting marks. In the 90's, UPS removed the pintle hooks, and when the trailers were re-painted, the colored ends disappeared.

The train rounds the curve out of town. There are only two cars in this train! SSIX 100101 and 100102 were 10-unit spine cars that were built to showcase the new design. The IMPACK (InterModal PACKage) cars were an improved version of  the Santa Fe's pioneering Fuel Foiler design, with the ability to carry both 40' and 45' trailers. The elimination of the conventional flatcar deck saved tons of weight, and the lower profile of the loaded trailers, as well as the closer spacing, improved fuel economy as well; the Santa Fe calculated a 35% fuel savings over standard 89' flatcars. The IMPACK cars were built for interchange service (unlike the SF's Fuel Foilers) and were sold in various configurations; 3-, 4-, 5-, 8-, and 10-unit versions were built, with the 5-units being the most common. The APRR would purchase 10 10-unit sets in 1984, with another 20 5-unit sets in 1985 for use on its ex-Erie Lackawanna Chicago-Buffalo piggyback trains, which carried a lot of UPS traffic. The new AP&W would look at spine cars, especially with the advent of 48' trailers in 1985, but ultimately decided against purchasing any, instead opting to rely on Trailer Train to supply the necessary equipment. All future intermodal car purchases would be of double stack well cars.

A last look at the 80's next week.