Reloading Yard 4 East

Many thanks to Bill Wulfert, who stayed late on Saturday and sent along some additional updates to add to the paving photos already posted.

With the rock spreading and paving done in Yard 4 East, it's time to move the storage cars back! The cars on track 43 were gingerly removed from the old, deteriorated track just about 25 months ago (as reported here, naturally). Late on Saturday it was time to reload Track 43 East. That meant three all-steel reefers needed to come back (of the five cars that used to live on this track, the ex-Alton automobile car is slated for eventual restoration and there wasn't space for the remaining reefer, given that the end of the barn is about 80' further east now).

Bill snapped a couple of photos of track 43 in the barn after it was emptied out.

The reefers were brought over one at a time by the Illinois Terminal Class B, which was needed to push them through Yard 4 West because the curve is so tight that the smaller diesels can't get the reefers around it. Oh, and the reason these cars need to come through Barn 4 from the west is because track 43 isn't connected at its east end.

The first two were URTX 68229, the yellow car on the left, and URTX 75524, the blue car to the right. Both have liveries unique in our reefer collection: the latter is the only one of our reefers in this blue American Beef Packers livery, while the former wears normal reefer orange but has a distinctive Mid-States Packing Company logo with a cow's head poking out of a big "M." 

And here comes the last car, URTX 37312, one of four identical Milwaukee Road-lettered reefers we have (one has been restored, as shown in the first photo here). The Class B is shoving it through Yard 4.

...complete with arcing and sparking.

Into the barn it goes!

And as nighttime falls, the now-coupled consist emerges from the east end of the barn. By this time, the Class B is no longer the motive power; this track doesn't have overhead wire and it's straight, so the Army 45-tonner was brought in for the "last mile" delivery.

Here comes the blue car...

...and the Milwaukee Road car...

...and finally the motive power.

And here's the aftermath; yecch. Regardless, many thanks to all who helped make this switch move happen. Next up will be reloading the storage cars on track 42, but that will be easier because they can just be pushed in from the east end. Moving all these cars back will clear out the Yard 8 connector track, which has been unusable for two years for this reason, and that will help a lot with operational flexibility.