Michigan Rail Business news

Anything pertaining to railfanning in Michigan.
railroader and son
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by railroader and son »

The switch to the new Cargill Plant in Owosso is on the AA mainline. There's a north end switch,and looks like a South end switch also.

penn central
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by penn central »

railroader and son wrote:The switch to the new Cargill Plant in Owosso is on the AA mainline. There's a north end switch,and looks like a South end switch also.
Oh okay Railroader and Son thanks for the clarification. And 15 to 20 cars a week that will be impressive AARR.

David Lang
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by David Lang »

Just drove by Gearhart Yard in Kalamazoo and to the East of the yard along the railroad on Michigan Ave.

Stone Yard progress is being made on the large area to the East of the yard on the old Paper Mill site. Excavation is underway parallel to the railroad and on the former Paper Mill site. Don't know when the site will be completed, but looking forward to seeing stone trains in the area.

I will provide another update when I drive by again in the near future.

David Lang

GTW
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by GTW »

Dave, There is also a stone yard located at Rich Valley, Ind.on the Huntington Dist. east of Peru, Ind. that is also in the process of shipping stone up the Marion Dist. via Elkhart to South Bend. Might be Two trains a day to the Olive St. location of the old NJI&I yard. This might tie into the Kalamazoo site but don't know what the stone might be used for.

Waddy
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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Watched a video of a Great Lakes train leaving Cadillac with cars loaded with pulp wood. Anyone know whose shipping it?

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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Last I heard it is going to a Biewer mill in WI. Biewer has a mill in McBain where they load lumber and wood chips but choose to load the pulp wood from a team track in Cadillac.
Waddy wrote:Watched a video of a Great Lakes train leaving Cadillac with cars loaded with pulp wood. Anyone know whose shipping it?
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

KC8RBK
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by KC8RBK »

AARR wrote:Last I heard it is going to a Biewer mill in WI. Biewer has a mill in McBain where they load lumber and wood chips but choose to load the pulp wood from a team track in Cadillac.
Waddy wrote:Watched a video of a Great Lakes train leaving Cadillac with cars loaded with pulp wood. Anyone know whose shipping it?
They're staging logs at the lake city mill lately next to the shuttered plainer mill. Maybe destined for great lakes.

Super Chief
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by Super Chief »

Interesting between the above post and the logs in White Piegon going to Reedsburg Wi. you'd of thought Wisconsin would of had enough timber for their mills. I find it unusual but great for the railroads here. Reason being with all the paper mills that were shuttered over there you would think their forests would have abundant supply of trees.

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by AARR »

The wood chips from Biewer in McBain also go to a paper mill in WI
Super Chief wrote:Interesting between the above post and the logs in White Piegon going to Reedsburg Wi. you'd of thought Wisconsin would of had enough timber for their mills. I find it unusual but great for the railroads here. Reason being with all the paper mills that were shuttered over there you would think their forests would have abundant supply of trees.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

chapmaja
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by chapmaja »

penn central wrote:
railroader and son wrote:The switch to the new Cargill Plant in Owosso is on the AA mainline. There's a north end switch,and looks like a South end switch also.
Oh okay Railroader and Son thanks for the clarification. And 15 to 20 cars a week that will be impressive AARR.

Wasn't there some sort of agreement that all customers in Owosso were switched by the GT? I thought this was in place back when the AA went through bankruptcy and the AA wasn't allowed to service customers in Owosso proper because of this? Does this still apply? I think the customers that would have been impacted by that are all gone at this point because nothing is served by both railroads like what was capable of happening in the 1970's. Now all the customers are on either one railroad or the other, nothing could potentially be a shared customer.

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by AARR »

I don't recall the year (1990's?) but TSBY purchased the GTW track including the shop yard
(from either CMGN or HESR)
chapmaja wrote:Wasn't there some sort of agreement that all customers in Owosso were switched by the GT? I thought this was in place back when the AA went through bankruptcy and the AA wasn't allowed to service customers in Owosso proper because of this? Does this still apply? I think the customers that would have been impacted by that are all gone at this point because nothing is served by both railroads like what was capable of happening in the 1970's. Now all the customers are on either one railroad or the other, nothing could potentially be a shared customer.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

chapmaja
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by chapmaja »

AARR wrote:I don't recall the year (1990's?) but TSBY purchased the GTW track including the shop yard
(from either CMGN or HESR)
chapmaja wrote:Wasn't there some sort of agreement that all customers in Owosso were switched by the GT? I thought this was in place back when the AA went through bankruptcy and the AA wasn't allowed to service customers in Owosso proper because of this? Does this still apply? I think the customers that would have been impacted by that are all gone at this point because nothing is served by both railroads like what was capable of happening in the 1970's. Now all the customers are on either one railroad or the other, nothing could potentially be a shared customer.
Now that you mention it, I think I recall what happened.

At some point, during the mess of the 1970's, trackage in Owosso was sold to the GTW.

I did find an STB notice. In the late 1990's the TSBY purchased the following trackage from the GTW.

"Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway Company (TSBY), a Class III common
carrier, has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR 1150.41
for its acquisition of a Grand Trunk Western Railroad Incorporated
(GTW) rail line extending from milepost 105.0 to milepost 109.46, in
Owosso, MI, including a short connecting track extending from milepost
63.9 (approximately milepost 107.5 on the first segment) to milepost
64.4, in Owosso, a total distance of approximately 4.96 miles (Owosso
Trackage)."

They also filed to continue using the trackage rights over the GTW tracks

"(1) Over
GTW's line between milepost 94.0 and milepost 97.5, in Durand; (2) over
Central Michigan Railway Company's (CMGN) main line between milepost
97.5, in Durand, and milepost 105, in Owosso; and (3) within CMGN's San
Yard, between milepost 105 and milepost 106, in Owosso. The total
distance of TSBY's operations on the Durand-Owosso Line is
approximately 12 miles."

KC8RBK
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by KC8RBK »

I was talking to the property manager for the old Owens Illinois plant in Charlotte today. I was looking for a new place to park in the area and since that's what they've been using it for as of late I thought I would inquire with the gate keeper. He said renovations are to start there in August. The old oven building will be coming down since the ovens are long gone and that particular structure is partly fallen down already anyway. 3 new tenants are expected there. The largest projecting to have 600 full time employees is a company that makes modular houses with preformed concrete. They do plan on using the rail access afforded by the site although I have no clue to what extent. The second is a company that recycles plastic into diesel and industrial lubricants. They expect to employ 150-200 people at the site and have expressed interest in the rail access. The last is a company that makes some kind of a replacement for septic tanks. Somehow it takes the raw sewage and turns it into clean waste water. They expected to have 100-150 employees on site although each county would have local employees to install, inspect and maintain the systems as needed with total employment in the state of around 800. He made it sound like they had some interest in rail although I can't imagine what for. I don't know what goes into a system like that. I also have no idea how much of a sure thing any of the plans are. Either way the owner does plan to do something with the site starting this August, hopefully that will involve rail.

penn central
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by penn central »

I was going by the new Rifkin Scrap Iron and Metal site in Saginaw this week and noticed a sign on there fence line that said future headquarters of Rifkin Scrap Iron and Metal coming this fall, And a new rail spur has been built and the critter that was at the old site is sitting on that spur. There is new buildings being constructed at the new site also. This is on LSRC's Bay City Sub. They bought that site in about 2014 its not super new, They where supposed to make the move back then but for some reason they held off until now. I have to dig threw my old pics they may have bought it back in 2011 now that i think about it.

1TrackMind
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by 1TrackMind »

penn central wrote:I was going by the new Rifkin Scrap Iron and Metal site in Saginaw this week and noticed a sign on there fence line that said future headquarters of Rifkin Scrap Iron and Metal coming this fall, And a new rail spur has been built and the critter that was at the old site is sitting on that spur. There is new buildings being constructed at the new site also. This is on LSRC's Bay City Sub. They bought that site in about 2014 its not super new, They where supposed to make the move back then but for some reason they held off until now. I have to dig threw my old pics they may have bought it back in 2011 now that i think about it.
Google maps shows the new track and the critter on the track

penn central
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by penn central »

I was threw Brown City several times this week and noticed that the tracks threw town have been rehabilitated very nicely, Looks like it has been tamped and a ballast regulator gone threw there, The elevator in town had two huge piles of grain stored on the ground. FWIW was also threw Blissfield this week they also have at least one if not two huge piles of grain stored on the ground.

penn central
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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ZFS Ithaca, LLC is poised to take over the role of Michigan’s largest soybean processor, a title held by its affiliate, Zeeland Farm Services, Inc., for more than 20 years.

ZFS Ithaca will be a 40 million bushel per year soybean processing operation, a 4.5 million bushel grain storage facility and a feed ingredients transloading site serviced by both rail and truck. Located in the beautiful city of Ithaca in central Michigan, ZFS Ithaca is expected to quadruple the state’s soybean processing capacity and will impact agriculture in the state for decades. (Good news for the GLC. This was copied and pasted from there website.)

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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I was looking at a Satellite picture of the Cargill feed mill. I didn't see a rail spur. Anyone know what the status is?
railroader and son wrote:The switch to the new Cargill Plant in Owosso is on the AA mainline. There's a north end switch,and looks like a South end switch also.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

1TrackMind
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by 1TrackMind »

AARR wrote:I was looking at a Satellite picture of the Cargill feed mill. I didn't see a rail spur. Anyone know what the status is?
railroader and son wrote:The switch to the new Cargill Plant in Owosso is on the AA mainline. There's a north end switch,and looks like a South end switch also.
The building is in, I have seen pictures of rail cars spotted, but I can't remember where.

railroader and son
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by railroader and son »

Cargill is fully operational and receives several cars a week. Every time I go by they have at least 6-10 cars on their spur,and the north end switch is right at the King St. crossing.

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