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URHS “Hudson Limited”
Restored New York Central observation car Hickory Creek was once again on home rails bringing up the markers of Amtrak 233 at Hudson, N.Y., on March 29. The United Railway Historical Society of New Jersey sponsored a series of “Hudson Limited” charters between New York Penn Station and Albany-Rensselaer. Built in 1948 by Pullman-Standard for the re-launch of the Twentieth Century Limited, the historic car was acquried by URHS in 1991 and rebuilt inside and out by Star Trak. The fully restored car made its debut in 2005.
PHOTO BY DAN HOWARD
the route, sometimes impacting the number of trains operated in daylight. When crew availability or other capac-
ity factors dictate, some empty crude oil trains are being routed west of Harris- burg, Pa., via the Virginia, Pocahontas, and Lake Divisions instead of the nor- mal route via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. For example, on March 16, Train 67W (Eddystone, Pa.–Chicago/BNSF) was routed from Harrisburg south to Hager- stown, Md., and down the Shenandoah Valley to Roanoke. From there it oper- ated west over the former N&W main to Columbus and Bellevue, Ohio, and back to its normal route via the Oak Harbor, Ohio, connection to the Cleveland–Chi- cago mainline. NS has established new local Train
K80 at its intermodal facility in Green- castle, Pa., along its mainline from Harrisburg south to Hagerstown and the Southeast. The crew goes on duty around 5:00 p.m. and, in addition to working around the intermodal facility, it works the Armada Greencastle Supply Chain Hub Center. Armada is a Pitts- burgh-based company providing logisti- cal services to the restaurant industry, with McDonald’s being its primary cus- tomer. The Greencastle hub center was opened in late 2013 to better service Mc- Donald’s sites in the region. NS handles frozen potato products into this distri- bution center that originate at a Sim- plot processing plant west of Portage La Prairie, Man., and are delivered to the NS at Chicago by Canadian Pacific. This traffic moves in Simplot’s fleet of refrig- erated boxcars. Recent additions to the merchandise carload network include Trains 123 (Frankfort, Ind.–Chattanooga via Cin- cinnati), 12Q (Elkhart, Ind.–Bellevue
via Oak Harbor, Ohio), 13K (Elkhart– Peru, Ind.), 13R (Enola, Pa.–Linwood, N.C.), 15A (Conway–Clearing/BRC), 16G (Clearing/BRC-Allentown, Pa.), 190 (Chicago-Linwood), and 37J (Bellevue– Blue Island, Illinois/IHB). Regarding these additions, Train 124
had been off and on the schedule plan for many years, and runs as a counter- part to 123 (Chattanooga–Decatur) on its route through Muncie and Frankfort, Ind. Train 190 is heavy on chemical, potash, and lumber traffic. Train 37J is blocked to not only Indiana Harbor Belt, but also connections destined to North Platte, Neb., on the Union Pacific, and Bensenville, Ill., and St. Paul, Minn., on Canadian Pacific. On the intermodal network, Train 25D
has been reinstated to operate Wednes- day–Sunday from the Rickenbacker in- termodal terminal at Columbus to the Airline Junction terminal at Toledo, Ohio. It departs Rickenbacker at 8:00 a.m. and is due into Toledo by late after- noon. The traffic on this train is destined to the Elizabeth (N.J.) Marine Terminal, and rides east from Airline Junction on Trains 24W (Ashland Avenue/Chicago– Harrisburg) and 22V (Harrisburg–Eliz- abeth). Recent schedule revisions include the extension of automotive Train 14T from being an Oakwood, Mich.–Bison Yard/ Buffalo train, to an Oakwood–Mechan- icville, N.Y., runthrough train to Pan Am Railways. It terminates at Ayer, Mass., in the automotive/intermodal terminal. Also, automotive Train 287 into Bellevue now originates at Mechanicville instead of Bison Yard. Manifest Train 326 now operates into Bellevue from Fort Wayne, instead of Chicago.
UNION PACIFIC KEVIN SNYDER
Locomotive News
Throughout March Union Pacific accept- ed from General Electric new C45AH locomotives numbered UP 2520–2522, 2526, 2528–2531, and 2534–2539. This crop of C45AHs is General Electric’s ES44AC T4C variation, which means that internally, the locomotives are Tier 3 but achieve Tier 4 emissions compli- ance by using emissions credits that manufacturer General Electric has earned through previous models in ser- vice that exceed specific EPA Tier re- quirements. Four SD40–2s had their nomenclature changed in March to reflect upgrades to SD40N models. Affected locomotives include UP 1948, 1978, 1980, and 1985. Four GP15-1s underwent a similar change in model designation following upgrades to GP15Ns. Those locomotives include UPY 564, 597, 668, and 679. Five SD40–2s had their numbers changed in March, although their conversion to SD40Ns has yet to be completed. Those locomotives are UP 1917 (ex-3342), 1930 (ex-3210), 1948 (ex-3251), 1985 (ex- 3304), and 1993 (ex-3255). Finally, two locomotives representing
fallen flags on UP’s roster received “the dreaded patch” in March. On March 17, Cotton Belt (SSW) GP60 9647 became UP 1117 and on March 20, Southern Pacific (SP) AC4400CW 192 became UP 6254. As of press time, just ten Southern Pacific AC4400CWs remain, including SP 107, 144, 177, 187, 266, 309, 319, 335, 343, and 352, whereas the number of Cotton Belt GP60s is down to two: SSW 9642 and 9708.
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