TOWN LIFE PT 19

 

Traffic crosses the intersection of Market Street and County Lane on a busy weekday.

A backhoe rolls down County Lane, as fall preparations are under way in the city.

Winter preparations are also in mind, as Glover Park Hardware has new snow blowers on display.

The UPS driver stays busy during the week, making local deliveries.

A custom bulk hauler waits at the intersection for the light. A new bakery operation, Hubbard Mills Inc., has opened up in town, and they receive flour by truck Note the 50's sedan in front of him!

A wreck has closed the outbound lanes of County Lane, as police clear the area.

The wrecked truck has to be taken off by a flatbed. Judging by the looks of the truck, it will be taken straight to the junkyard for parts salvaging!

A Volkswagen Golf sits in front of Cristie's Pet Supply. Note the owner has added  blue rims to match the body color!

A cattle truck rolls through town. While southwestern Pennsylvania is not noted for cattle farming, there are a few herds which supply milk to the town's dairy plant. There are also a few pig farms as well. Thanks to the organic movement -and support for local farms- they are thriving; Pennsylvania was the number two state in organic sales in 2016.

FEL30

 Train FEL30, the ethanol train out of Uniontown passes through Hillsdale on its way to Farmingdale...

ET44AC 500, the Breast Cancer unit, leads today's train.

Farmingdale Ethanol Co. is an ADM-owned facility, so most of the hoppers are ADM-owned as well. These are Evans 4780 cuft. cars.

More ADM hoppers, this time NSC-built 5150 cuft. cars. Note that all of the cars have the newer "Leaf" logo.

The last car of grain is CGW 7801, a Trinity 5150 cuft. car. This is a Heritage car, celebrating the Chicago Great Western, which the APRR acquired in 1968 -much to the chagrin of the C&NW!

Another ADM car, this time a tank car, follows CGW 7801, with a string of ex-crude oil cars behind it.

With the decline in crude oil shipments during the end of 2019 and throughout 2020, many of these cars were re-assigned to other cargoes, with ethanol being one of them.

ADMX 28589 does not have the ADM logo, but does have plenty of large graffiti "scribbles" on the side. PPRX 660178 behind it is carrying gasoline, used to make the ethanol unfit for human consumption.

Four more covered hoppers bring up the rear, including three more ADM cars, and an ex-Penn Central car, now owned by Caldwell- Baker.

Another look at CGW 7801.

Another look at ADMX 28589, with its "scribbles".

PASSING TRAINS PT 31; SND40 PT 4

 The last of SND40...

The tail end of SND40 is UPS traffic. Here, a pair of AP&W 56' well cars carry UPS 28' containers.

Yet another MAXI VI car, this time owned by the Arkansas & Oklahoma (AOK), carries 53' UPS containers.

Note the lack of logos; only UPSU reporting marks.

A visitor far from home: A Ferromex 53' well car makes an appearance with more UPSU boxes.

A TTX 56' well car with more 28' containers. These cars were built specifically for these containers, and TTX and the AP&W were the only two buyers. AP&W bought them due to the volume of UPS traffic it carries; many of the cars can be found on the ex-Erie main between Buffalo and Chicago on either UPSZ76 or UPSZ77, the two UPS hotshot intermodals.

A newly repainted 56' well car, with the new red logo.

More 28' containers, in three paint schemes!

One more 56' well car, followed by the rear-end DPU pusher.

BNSF 4562 shoves hard on the rear, as it assists SND40 through town. While not really needed right now, it will come in handy when the train enters the hilly region around Uniontown, on through Wheeling, W. Va. and across the mountains to Zanesville, Oh., before continuing on across Ohio to Dayton. 

The string of UPS 28' boxes rolls through town.

4562 headlight is dimmed, to provide the required rear-end marker as SND40 heads west- and out of town.

PASSING TRAINS PT 31; SND40 PT 3

 SND40 continues...

The top container is a corrugated-side 53 footer, while the bottom one is an external post box. 

Another pair of corrugated and post side boxes, but reversed, with the top one being an early Hyundai.

The bottom container is another ex-Martin box, while the top one is a late production Hyundai.

A pair of rare white Schneider containers, with a third one in the next well of this BNSF MAXI IV car.

The white container has an orange OptiModal logo.

Back to the standard orange!

Another pair of OptiModal containers. OptiModal is the company's expedited container service run jointly with EMP; which, in turn, is run jointly by UP and NS (and Conrail, before the 1996 split). The AP&W became a partner in EMP in 1997, as a condition of the Conrail split, and now carries a fair amount of EMP and OptiModal traffic.

Again, back to the regular orange. Note that on the exterior-post containers, the posts aren't painted, only the side panels between them.

Two more exterior post containers.

The CIEX car rounds the curve out of town, as SND40 rolls on.

Another shot of SND40 passing downtown.

This shot shows what's to come; a string of UPS traffic tacked on the rear of SND40!

The UPS conclusion of SND40 next week.