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OK I am finally on site in Lowell. Can someone post an update on GRE operations? King Milling had quite a few cars in over the weekend and they keep disappearing, only 3-4 left now. I haven't figured out where they put their empties yet. Nice trackmobile they use. How often does GRE come out this way, and are they scheduled or simply "as needed"?

Expansion at King Milling seems to be coming along well. They have a tremendous amount of storage capacity!

Last I heard they were operating four days per week although I think M, W and F are the norm.

Funny, I went out to the corner because of a minor auto accident and I could hear what sounded like a locomotive bell. After helping clean up, I went into town and discovered the GRE had left about 20 C113s at King, and then I caught them on the way towards Ada with about 22 empties. I may try to post the video. Still not sure where they keep their empties--not on Kings property, not in the small yard south of the bridge, not on the bridge. And I assume GRE pushes the cars in? So many questions...

From observations of GRE, they bring empty grain cars back towards Fuller Junction for CSX Y297’s crew to pull back towards Wyoming Yard, which is later transferred to M327. Not every single car Y297 grabs from GRE will go to M327 but half of the time, they do

I think they push the empties east of the Flat River. Hard to see this time of year. They have been doing track work in the yard south of town. Maybe anticipating more traffic with the King expansion.

King pushes the empties out over the Flat River bridge for GRE to grab when they arrive. They pull them to the yard at Malta on the south side of the Grand River, then shove into King with all of the loads.

Once they get back to Grand Rapids, they split up their outbounds for CSX and GDLK (each RR has their own interchange track at Fuller), then put their engine in the barn.

GRE WB at the Fuller diamond around 12:45, waiting for NB MQT. GRE had around 10 cars.

Grand Rapids Eastern into Lowell with about 15 loads, left with 8 empties. 11am to 12:30am in town

Nice shot. I have not seen them crossing the Grand in GR yet, unless I missed them.

GRE was in Lowell on Tuesday, back again on Thursday. (no pictures) Looks like there were 10-15 loads on the property already and a few empties. After they pulled the empties, they placed about 10 cars on the north track (6/4 split at Hudson st) and also left about 10 loads on the siding at Segwun. No room in Lowell for these cars unless they shoved across Main st--not sure of the last time they placed cars north of main st?

Evidently they are maximizing tonnage on the hill out of Grand Rapids, as someone said earlier the yard was full.

Also, as an aside, I happened to roll by King Milling one morning and there was a solid line of trucks waiting to come in and unload. King seems to be a pretty major player in the milling industry!

GRE is moving to 5-day a week operations.

GRE heading west towards Ada with 14 empties

Grand Rapids Eastern seems to be running to Lowell on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday brought 14 empties, plus another 9 here on Thursday, making for 23 on the week. Here are Thursday's returning empties across the Grand River.

Lowell sidings are full and the Ann st. yard is full. Not sure where they would put additional cars. I don’t think they went east today.

There is about 2000' of track north of main street in Lowell that seems to be very capable of holding cars. (I'm not sure how often it has been used). So I'm guessing they've got about 30 at Grand Rapids/Fuller, 15 at Segwun/Malta, and about 30 onsite loaded or unloaded at King--so maybe 75 total cars online? That is a lot of demurrage to pay! (unless it works differently for grain cars?)

By the way--how do they switch Amway? Do they run into the yard on the outbound run from Grand Rapids or on the return trip? I would love to catch them switching there sometime. I can tell by how they work King that they are very efficient

AARR wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 25, 2023 3:03 pm

Last I heard they were operating four days per week although I think M, W and F are the norm.

I believe Tuesdays have been of higher occasion recently. I live just about trackside to the GRE

run8ed wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 12, 2023 10:48 pm

There is about 2000' of track north of main street in Lowell that seems to be very capable of holding cars. (I'm not sure how often it has been used). So I'm guessing they've got about 30 at Grand Rapids/Fuller, 15 at Segwun/Malta, and about 30 onsite loaded or unloaded at King--so maybe 75 total cars online? That is a lot of demurrage to pay! (unless it works differently for grain cars?)

By the way--how do they switch Amway? Do they run into the yard on the outbound run from Grand Rapids or on the return trip? I would love to catch them switching there sometime. I can tell by how they work King that they are very efficient

I could be wrong but from what i’ve seen, when they have work at Amway, it’s usually worked when they’re headed back west from Lowell

Amway is almost always switched on the east-bound trip. Sometimes they will leave the pulls from Amway in the runaround at Ada and stop and pick them up on their way back west. In the nearly 20 years I have kept tabs on the GRE, I’ve only seen them work Amway west-bound 2 or 3 times. It can be done, but it necessitates an extra runaround either in Amway’s yard or in the Ada runaround.

The only time i’ve seen them work Amway was on the westbound trip but usually they work it EB

SD80MAC wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2023 9:21 am

Once they get back to Grand Rapids, they split up their outbounds for CSX and GDLK (each RR has their own interchange track at Fuller), then put their engine in the barn.

Does GDLK interchange directly with MQT or CPMY? Or are both these handled via CSX and/or GRE?