Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

Daily whereabouts of train locations along with sightings for heads ups to other railfans.
TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Pixl wrote:I checked out the Grawn branch today. This is the recently cleaned up siding at Beacon recycling with the gon sitting there.

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Here they are loading it. Nice newer car with almost no graffiti.

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Rails near Brimley Rd. that haven't seen a train in a long time finaly get use.

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That last pic would not be near Brimley Road as the tracks near Brimley are the main into town. Along Cass near Hartmond? Or Williams Road closer to Chums?
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James Sofonia
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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TC Man wrote: That last pic would not be near Brimley Road as the tracks near Brimley are the main into town. Along Cass near Hartmond? Or Williams Road closer to Chums?
You're right. I got the name Brimley mixed up with Bietner. The actuall road I took the shot was on Hooser Valey Rd. near Chums with Bietner nearby.

TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Pixl wrote:
TC Man wrote: That last pic would not be near Brimley Road as the tracks near Brimley are the main into town. Along Cass near Hartmond? Or Williams Road closer to Chums?
You're right. I got the name Brimley mixed up with Bietner. The actuall road I took the shot was on Hooser Valey Rd. near Chums with Bietner nearby.
I think you mean Williams Road. Runs from US 31 then makes the 90 degree curve where you took the photo and then to Beitner. If you cross Beitner, it turns into Hoosier Valley Road.
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James Sofonia
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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TC Man wrote:
I think you mean Williams Road. Runs from US 31 then makes the 90 degree curve where you took the photo and then to Beitner. If you cross Beitner, it turns into Hoosier Valley Road.
No Williams Rd. is North of where I was. See the map, the rails run very close to Hooser Valley rd where the arrow is. There is a small drive that runs North crossing the row. Not that exciting of a shot but was meant to show the recent use of the Grawn branch.

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TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Pixl wrote:
TC Man wrote:
I think you mean Williams Road. Runs from US 31 then makes the 90 degree curve where you took the photo and then to Beitner. If you cross Beitner, it turns into Hoosier Valley Road.
No Williams Rd. is North of where I was. See the map, the rails run very close to Hooser Valley rd where the arrow is. There is a small drive that runs North crossing the row. Not that exciting of a shot but was meant to show the recent use of the Grawn branch.

Image
Ah, just looks very like Williams. And hey after 10 years almost, great to see those flange marks!
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penn central
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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TC Man wrote:]
Yep it was on Facebook a couple weeks ago that there was brush cutters and track maintenance equipment working on the old Rifkin Siding to revamp the tracks, Very nice to hear.[/quote]

Penn Central, can you link the Facebook page?[/quote]
I got outta work late last night, Im trying to find the original post on Facebook but no luck so far, Once i find it ill post okay.

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C&O6088
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Question: Did GLC go all the way to Grawn to switch around the gondola and bring back to the siding? If so that seems to be a long way out of the way. With the double track and switches by the depot you would think they could do the run around there, just like they do when they go to Amerhart the opposite way. I looked at mapquest and the old "wye" would be perfect but I'm sure that would not hold an engine anymore. C&O

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James Sofonia
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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C&O6088 wrote:Question: Did GLC go all the way to Grawn to switch around the gondola and bring back to the siding? If so that seems to be a long way out of the way. With the double track and switches by the depot you would think they could do the run around there. C&O
A move like that would be a long backing and having to cross busy 4 lane South Airport Rd. Also the run to Grawn might also have served as a test run recently having signal, signage and other maintenance.

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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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In Williamsburg, Amerhart's siding is on a grade, so thye can do a gravity switch there. No such grade at Beacon. That and they had only one engine with them. So collected the empty center beam from Amerhart, took the gon and center beam to Grawn. run around them and back up to Beacon. Otherwise with one engine, the conductor would be riding the car (in push fashion) for something like 3 miles and across the busiest 5 lane road north of Grand Rapids/Saginaw. I'm sure safety played a role.

Also, there are a couple property owners on the Grawn line toward Grawn who are very against the return of a train, so if I were GLC, I'd run one every chance I had (the property owners are trying to prove the tracks are not needed and should be taken out- so this shows they are used/needed (or appear to be needed).
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C&O6088
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Pixl wrote:
C&O6088 wrote:Question: Did GLC go all the way to Grawn to switch around the gondola and bring back to the siding? If so that seems to be a long way out of the way. With the double track and switches by the depot you would think they could do the run around there. C&O
A move like that would be a long backing and having to cross busy 4 lane South Airport Rd. Also the run to Grawn might also have served as a test run recently having signal, signage and other maintenance.
If GLC goes with 2 engines (like they typically do) then they could run one engine around by the Depot and then head over to Beacon with an engine on each end with gondolas in between. I'm all for the train running to Grawn but the time and diesel, signal upkeep, rail/tie and other costs are things to consider too. You want to make the 2nd customer in TC be a long time customer so the costs for them to ship by rail has to work.

Thanks for the feedback.
C&O

TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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C&O6088 wrote:
Pixl wrote:
C&O6088 wrote:Question: Did GLC go all the way to Grawn to switch around the gondola and bring back to the siding? If so that seems to be a long way out of the way. With the double track and switches by the depot you would think they could do the run around there. C&O
A move like that would be a long backing and having to cross busy 4 lane South Airport Rd. Also the run to Grawn might also have served as a test run recently having signal, signage and other maintenance.
If GLC goes with 2 engines (like they typically do) then they could run one engine around by the Depot and then head over to Beacon with an engine on each end with gondolas in between. I'm all for the train running to Grawn but the time and diesel, signal upkeep, rail/tie and other costs are things to consider too. You want to make the 2nd customer in TC be a long time customer so the costs for them to ship by rail has to work.

Thanks for the feedback.
C&O

Yes that makes most sense, but they only had one engine last week, so had to do with what they had...
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C&O6088
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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TC Man wrote: Yes that makes most sense, but they only had one engine last week, so had to do with what they had...
:)

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James Sofonia
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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I'm delighted that they had a reason to run to Grawn, shine up the tracks a little bit and give the branch some purpose. Might help keep the nimbys at bay.

AANscaleRunner
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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399 and 398 leaving Cadillac towards Clare at 0850 with 7 tie loads, 1 wood chip hopper and 3 pole loads.

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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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Does anyone know if this customer in Grawn will be a permanent customer, or is it just a one-time deal? If so, will the GLC be out in Grawn every time they go up to Traverse?
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AARR
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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I'm not sure if it is known whether this is a trial shipment with prospects for more business or a one time shipment.

As I said in an earlier post when TSBY which was led by Mr. TSB regained Integrity Iron and Metal in the late 1990's or early 2000's they built it up to up to 20 cars a week when they were busy. When busy they required switching round 3x per week.

It's too early to tell what will happen with Beacon.
MiRailProductions wrote:Does anyone know if this customer in Grawn will be a permanent customer, or is it just a one-time deal? If so, will the GLC be out in Grawn every time they go up to Traverse?
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TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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AARR wrote:I'm not sure if it is known whether this is a trial shipment with prospects for more business or a one time shipment.

As I said in an earlier post when TSBY which was led by Mr. TSB regained Integrity Iron and Metal in the late 1990's or early 2000's they built it up to up to 20 cars a week when they were busy. When busy they required switching round 3x per week.

It's too early to tell what will happen with Beacon.
MiRailProductions wrote:Does anyone know if this customer in Grawn will be a permanent customer, or is it just a one-time deal? If so, will the GLC be out in Grawn every time they go up to Traverse?

I'll ask the Beacon manager today- he's very nice and happy to answer questions.
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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GLC south through mount pleasant 1400

GLC 396
GLC 385

1 woodchip hopper
3 plastics hoppers
1 tank
9 tie gons (a few appeared to be loaded)

14 total

AANscaleRunner
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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398 and 399 back into Cadillac at 1540 with 3 coke hoppers, 1 covered hopper, 5 cement hoppers, 2 tanks, 1 cement hopper, 1 pole load, 2 tanks, 2 cement hoppers, 2 tie loads, 5 tanks and 1 covered hopper.

TC Man
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Re: Great Lakes Central Updates June 2017

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MiRailProductions wrote:Does anyone know if this customer in Grawn will be a permanent customer, or is it just a one-time deal? If so, will the GLC be out in Grawn every time they go up to Traverse?
Confirmed that: "the first one was loaded on Friday and will go out shortly....kind of trial run- if all goes well, we will continue to do more and more via rail".
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