North Toledo Terminal Railroad

[chapmaja]

Effective on 8/26/2024 at 00:00 a new railroad has been formed in Toledo, OH.

The North Toledo Terminal Railroad (NTTR) will begin operations of the former Toledo Terminal from Hallett to Temperance Yard, including the GLOR's Temperance Yard.

The line was previously operated by CSX to Temperance Yard with the GLOR having trackage rights from Hallett to Temperance Yard.

The railroad will be a wholy owned subsidiary of the GLOR.

GLOR will "sell" two units for operations of the NTTR. These units will be

NTTR GP9R 4604 (ex-DLCX 4604, ex-GTW 4604)
NTTR GP9R 4605 (ex-DLCX 4605, ex-GTW 4605)

These units have been repainted into NTTR paint (basically the GLOR scheme with NTTR letters instead of GLOR letters).

Operations will commence at 07:00.

The operational plan is for the railroads crew NT-1 to work Temperance Yard before heading east, leaving their train on the main, pulling clear of the east end of the double track, backing west to switch Perstrop Polyols, reconnent with their train following that service, head east to the GLOR's Ottawa Yard and interchange with GLOR and CSX, before building their WB train. They will service OmniSource on the return trip to Temperance Yard, before handling any additional switching required in Temperance Yard.

Employees for the NTTR will be transfered from the GLOR as per the in effect labor agreement. NTTR will be bound by the labor agreements in effect for the GLOR prior to and continuing through the expiration of said labor agreement.

There are a few stipulations from CSX regarding this lease.

1) All cars from current (service within the previous 24 months), customers, must be interchanged to CSX in Toledo or a transfer payment will be due for each car not interchanged to CSX. The amount of this fee has not been disclosed.

2) All cars from non-current customers, or new customers to the railroad may be interchanged to any railroad.

The NTTR will maintain the following interchanges
1) CSX
2) GLOR
3) NS (via the GLOR)
4) CN (Via the GLOR)

Also available is W&LE, however no transfer of cars from the NTTR to the W&LE has occurred in the previous 24 months.

[AARR]

Not so long ago, but probably more than 24 months, "Fluff" was being transloaded into high top hoppers in Temperance Yard and interchanged with W&LE. It averaged 24-36 cars per week. Buster and I caught the movement once. But like I said it was well over 24 months ago. It would be an interesting operation to recreate on a paper railroad.

Also available is W&LE, however no transfer of cars from the NTTR to the W&LE has occurred in the previous 24 months.

[chapmaja]

Not so long ago, but probably more than 24 months, "Fluff" was being transloaded into high top hoppers in Temperance Yard and interchanged with W&LE. It averaged 24-36 cars per week. Buster and I caught the movement once. But like I said it was well over 24 months ago. It would be an interesting operation to recreate on a paper railroad.

Also available is W&LE, however no transfer of cars from the NTTR to the W&LE has occurred in the previous 24 months.

I actually went back to the Temperance Yard property years and years ago and saw how they unloaded the cars. They would actually run construction equipment along the top of the cars and scoop the "fluff" out of the cars to be loaded into trucks. I didn't know this was coming from the W&LE though.

[AARR]

Buster and I saw them on a W&LE train leaving Toledo going east.

Not so long ago, but probably more than 24 months, "Fluff" was being transloaded into high top hoppers in Temperance Yard and interchanged with W&LE. It averaged 24-36 cars per week. Buster and I caught the movement once. But like I said it was well over 24 months ago. It would be an interesting operation to recreate on a paper railroad.

Also available is W&LE, however no transfer of cars from the NTTR to the W&LE has occurred in the previous 24 months.

I actually went back to the Temperance Yard property years and years ago and saw how they unloaded the cars. They would actually run construction equipment along the top of the cars and scoop the "fluff" out of the cars to be loaded into trucks. I didn't know this was coming from the W&LE though.

[Buster Manning]

That place has had the Fluff stuff coming and going....

I had forgotten about that part of the trip there AAARRR....and I don't remember seeing any fluff cars going to the W&LE when I actually worked for the AARR (10-13 thru 06-14), even though I would catch jobs that would go to Temperance Yard and sometimes have to switch out the fluff cars that were there being loaded at that time......geez, what else have I forgotten....

[chapmaja]

The North Toledo Terminal Railroad operations have held steady recently. The railroads (GLOR and NTTR) have attempted to attract some new customers to a transload in Temperance Yard and are attempting to get GM to reinstitute rail traffic to and from the Toledo Propulsion Systems Plant adjacent to the yard, however at this time GM is unwilling to address rail service to the plant.

[chapmaja]

There is a slight change to the NTTR's operations. Previously NS had been providing rail service to Resource Reclmation Toledo, adjacent to NS's mainline and OmniSource. NTTR will now be the sole provider of switching servcies for both OmniSource and RRT. NTTR will also provide contact switching service for both locations using the centercab switcher that is onsite. This will better allow NTTR's crews to position the cars for pickup by the NTTR's road crew. As part of the agreements, NTTR will provide switching, but

Power for the NTTR continues to be the ex-GTW GP9R's. When one of those units needs to be off-line, GLOR leases a locomotive to the NTTR to provide service along the line.

NTTR is in the process of building a 2 stall locomotive shed at Temperance Yard.

The additional traffic being generated by the NTTR has stretched the GLOR's Ottawa Yard to capacity. GLOR had previously announced intentions to purchase the former CSX Boulevard Yard and reinstall some of the tracks in that yard as well as purchasing a portion of the Lang Yard as part of the decision with CN for the Shoreline Subdivision.

Boulevard Yard, upon reinstallation of and reconfigutation of the tracks, will become the yard the NTTR will terminate thier trains in.

As part of an agreement with NS, GLOR crews will be blocking cars for multiple NS destinations, which is another factor in expanding with the purchase of Boulevard Yard. While NS will interchange all traffic via their train B65, the cars from the GLOR / NTTR will be pre-blocked to cuts of cars for Bellevue and Elkhart which will be added to NS trains between the two locations. This was part of an agreement to eliminate some switching moves that have been occuring.

[chapmaja]

Here is a quick update from the NTTR, based on observations on Monday 11-25.

The crew started their day at Temperance Yard, pulling out of the incomplete shell of a engine house. The frame is up along with the roof, but the sides of the building are still waiting to be attached. This is due to some electrical work that needs to be done for the lighting.

The crew began by pulling 4 covered hoppers out of the Hometown foods sidings and putting them on the yard's departure track. (Farthest east of the yard tracks). They then pulled the last 3 remaining covered hoppers off the curved storage track (use to go to the GM plant), and placed them all three on the plants stub end siding.

Upon complettion of those switching duties, they pulled to cars off the transload track near the yard entrance, and attached those to the covered hoppers from Hometown foods. They then pulled 5 plastics covered hoppers from the second yard track and attached them to the departure track train. This was followed by getting 3 empty gondolas from the third track, and 6 tank cars from track 4. The crew then began the journey eastbound towards Ottawa Yard. They would stop their train on the mainline just west of Stickney Ave, cut off the 6 tank cars, pull foward to clear the siding switch then back to the Perstorp Spur. They would proceed south on the spur, leaving the cars on the stub track south of the Perstorp Switch. Then the crew back down the Perstorp lead, coupling to 5 tank cars on the passing siding before backing into Perstorp. At Perstorp they would pull three cars from the north track (track 1), drop them on the passing siding, pull clear of the pass and head back to Perstorp on the main. They would then drop 2 of the 5 tank cars from the passing siding on the north track of the facility to be unloaded. The remaining 3 tank cars would be taken to to track 3, where they were coupled to 2 cars already on the siding. Those cars would be transfered to track 2, while the 3 remaining passing siding cars would be spotted on track 3. The crew then coupled to cars set on track 2, pulled those, plus 1 car from track 4, and 2 from track 5 out of the facility and beyond the the end of the passing siding before coupling to the other cars on the passing siding. They then uncoupled from the cars, pulled clear and backed to Perstorp. They then coupled to the Perstorp track mobile, and pulled it out. They immediately left, pulling slowly back onto the NTTR siding and main. They proceeded to take the track mobile to the GLOR's Ottawa Yard, which took a long time, due to the 5 mph speed limit with the track mobile. After dropping the cars off, they returned to the Perstorp line, picked up the cars on the spur storage track, took them down and left them on the main, uncoupled, and then coupled to the cars left on the passing siding before departing. They then ran back to the main, coupled to the remaining track, seperated their train, with the cars behind the gondolas left on the main, and the cars including the gondolas pulled clear, then pulled south the clear the sput. They left the gondolas on the north end of the Perstorp line, returned to their train and headed to Ottawa Yard. They would drop their train in the GLOR yard, and pick up 31 cars from the GLOR, 10 flour, 3 sugar, 2 tank cars, 8 gondolas, and 8 plastics hoppers. They returned their train to Temperance Yard's arrival track (same as departure track), ran around the train, and and headed lite power back east. They coupled to the gondolas at Perstorp's spur, ran those back out to the main, ran around the train, headed west to OmniSource, pulling 4 loaded gondolas and placing 3 for loading. They then ran back to Temperance Yard, sorted their inbound train and outbound OmniSource cars and placed them on the appropriate track, then took the power to the engine shed.

[chapmaja]

The GLOR has sold an additional unit to the NTTR. GLOR #4602, another former GT GP9R, will be joining its fellow GP9R's from the GT on the NTTR roster. All 3 of the former GP9R's owned by the GLOR family of companies are on the NTTR roster. This unit, unlike the other two wears the GT black and red scheme as opposed to the blue and red scheme.

[chapmaja]

NTTR operations have remained steady over the last several months. Rebuilding of the Boulevard Yard is still underway as this will be the eastern terminus for the NTTR and serve as the interchange point between the NTTR, GLOR, CSX, NS, and CN. Operations will still begin at Temperance Yard and the crew will work EB to Boulevard Yard before returning WB. Recently the crew has been using all 3 GP9R's on the trains due to a heavier volume of traffic from several customers. Train lengths have often equalled or exceeded 30 cars leaving the east end of the railroad headed west. The third engine is allowing the railroad to operate with power on both ends of the train.