Yard Job Makes Set Out At The Building Supply

On the afternoon of August 1 last year (2010) I was on a photo outing for more documentation and happened upon the yard job returning back to Goulding from the Pensacola Port.  He had six cement hoppers in tow along with a lone boxcar.  Seeing the boxcar on the end of the cut I was wondering if he might make a drop at W.R. Taylor and sure enough he did.  I captured the action in a few photos.



Yard job coming north up Tarragona St. from the port. Today's power is a far cry from the humble MP15s of the era I am modeling.  Modeling note - the siding is completely buried in clean ballast, grass, and weeds.

 

Traffic is stopped on Garden St. just north of the turnout to the building supply.  There are a number of steel plates that need to be opened for the turnout to be lined for the siding and the ground throw is below grade between the rails.



The cut is then backed into the siding to spot the ex-SP boxcar.  The ballast was so high as seen in the first photo above that it crunched as the boxcar was pushed to its spot on the siding.



Once the crewman carefully guided the engineer to align the boxcar with the loading ramp he set the brakes, pulled the pin with the cut lever, and the cement hoppers were pulled off the siding.  The crewman rode the last car to the turnout and then dropped off.  The train continued to a stop clear of traffic just north of Garden St.  Once the crewman had the turnout re-aligned he had to wait on traffic before crossing Garden St. and hopping back on the train for the ride north back to Goulding yard.

Here is the car spotted on the siding.  Note the relative neatness of the area around the siding as well as the many stacks of brick and block adjacent to the track.



This view looks south.  Note the close clearance to the loading dock.  In the shadow you can make out the edge of the metal drop plate that will bridge between the ramp and the car for unloading with a forklift.  Also note the Pensacola News-Journal building in the background.  It is just in the next block and is no longer rail served ...but it was in the era I'm modeling so that will be included as you can see in the Tarragona Module on the track plans page.