My Favorite TLU thread happens to also be the one that is generally most useful to me, but that’s because I live in west Michigan near the CSX, but it’s kind of a tie for me between CSX and Shortlines. On days when I’m working in Lansing, I regularly reference the CN and shortline threads too, to see what might be moving. When I was heading up to Mackinac last year, I checked in on the GLC thread and then posted an update when I had one.
I really enjoy the shortline thread because there are so many interesting shortlines across the state, and many of them are in areas far from where I live, but I’ve been there before. I can picture the INER working Coldwater or HESR in Durand or I&O at Carleton or Rat Line moving scrap in Detroit. I also really enjoy the Amtrak updates, since I’m passionate about passenger rail and know there is more to it than just the one round trip per day which passes near my house under cover of darkness.
We do have a concentration of west Michigan folks, but as an almost 20 year veteran of this board (!!!), it’s kind of always been that way. I will say that the concentrations of participants around the state has changed over this time. When I joined in 2004, I was living in Kalamazoo along with a small crew of other posters. We had daily eyes on movements of NS, CN, and Amtrak in the pre-Elk days. It seems we rarely get Kalamazoo reports these days. Next I moved to the AA-Ypsi area where there weren’t so many folks, but we did have peeps up and down the Michigan Line, which was helpful. It was also easy to cruise down to Milan if there was a good report on the NS line. And it was fun to post about occasionally seen movements on the elusive Ann Arbor RR, which was primarily a night operation at that point.
There used to be a whole team of folks around the Plymouth/romulus/Brighton area. Now we have a totally different little group monitoring South Lyon traffic day and night, which is a big help for Plymouth Subdivision folks, just in a different spot. I just happen to live in West MI near the CSXT and am able to participate most on that thread, but it wasn’t by design that way!
Lastly, I will add that I second the earlier note that some threads can be more helpful than others, because if someone just posts a symbol and a milepost, you gotta know SOMETHING in order for it to make sense. I sure don’t know every milepost and symbol in the state. Reading a few of these left me wondering and has helped me improve my own posts, I hope, as I now try to include town name and direction of travel in addition to whatever technical details there are.
Good poll topic GRHC!