Progress of Michigan Line M/W?

[twropr]

I have not seen any postings in more than a month relating to tie/rail replacement on Amtrak's newly acquired MI Line east of Kalamazoo. I have heard unconfirmed reports the MDOT is insisting upon warranty provisions for ballast that the stone quarries are not willing to meet - if this is true, could there be a stalement that is keeping the work from progressing?

Andy

[Ypsi]

There has been a good amount of activity from what I see in ypsi around mp 28-35. (not 100% sure of what they have all been doing though) I have seen Amtrak pickups along with other companies cars. They have had front end loaders out recently, and I believe that they were positioning some of the rails where they were dropped about a month ago. One rail that comes to mind is in Ypsilanti, depot town, they put a rail on the second track where the removed rail had been at the switch on the second track. Most of the rail seems to be positioned near curves on the outside rail. When they had the front end loaders out they also smoothed out the MOW truck path next to the tracks at least near mp 30

[JStryker722]

There is also a few stakes of ties marked " AMT " near the John Daly Rd crossing headed toward Beech Daly Rd in Inkster/Dearborn Heights area where I live.

[AARR]

Saw work being done in Chelsea.

[NSSD70ACe]

Ties laid down in Galesburg soon after purchase...rumor at another site of safetran signals there as well...

[Jetlink]

I saw NS delivering ballast loads to the Amtrak yard in Niles on Saturday.

[Ypsi]

I saw NS delivering ballast loads to the Amtrak yard in Niles on Saturday.

good amount of ballast cars floating around too, almost forgot. Saw a ballast train a couple weeks ago, it was laying ballast in Chelsea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnA8EY7YbPY

[GTW]

I thought Kalamazoo to Battle Creek was to be finished this year and then work east..

[JStryker722]

If you ask me,Dearborn-Ann Arbor needs work done on it more first,as that's where most of the 25-30 mph slow orders are.

[wagnew0923]

There are a lot of new ties along the line in Dearborn.

[j32885]

New Amtrak Station in Dearborn, still being built. Bunch of railroad ties + 3 dirt diggers between Mason-Monroe St. Have seen some neon yellow Amtrak tracks along the MC Line ROW.

[JStryker722]

About darn time,Amtrak trains that should be doing 79 through Dearborn-Wayne is lucky enough to be doing above 30mph half the time

[wagnew0923]

I wonder why they are not using cement ties.

[Ypsi]

Probably because the entire like is wood ties? That would be my best guess.. I would assume that when you want to make a line cement ties it takes a lot more time, money, and what not. Wouldn't make sense to have oke cement tie with a bunch of wood ties around it.

[Saturnalia]

Probably not enough traffic density and speed to be worth the extra cost.

[JStryker722]

To me,for the speed that Amtrak wants vs. the amount of tonnage traveling on the line on the line ( conservative number of 4 freights and 6 Amtrak trains Between Dearborn-Wayne ) , Amtrak can get away with wood ties for now,at least until the MiTrain kicks off next year supposedly. for now,when you only got 6-8 short 800 ton Amtrak trains running on the MI line as the bread and butter,there isn't a real need for concrete ties at 79 or 110 mph yet.

[Ypsi]

Also take into account that it is possible that for the time being, there are only a few limited spots between AA and Dearborn where you could actually go 110 even 79 in some spots. There are more grade crossings near Dearborn and AA, and also near AA there are a few tighter curves that could factor in speed.

One good spot that ones to mind that could be 110 east of AA is from CP Ypsi (mp 28) to Wayne junction (mp 18). Limited number of grade crossings, and pretty straight.

[railroadchoad]

Illinois had a great many of the concrete ties that have been installed on the CHI-STL corrdor turn out to be defective. I think the manufacturer replaced them but it still turned out to be a pain and slowed the progress somewhat. That, too, is a Line that sees very little freight traffic.

[JStryker722]

The whole Stretch from Wayne Junction to Dearborn Heights is fairly straight and could see 79-110mph easy.

[Ypsi]

Just got track authority to do work at milepost 29.6, laying track at the siding it ypsi. have track until 11:30am this morning. I will try and check it out soon. They are laying the track that had been previously removed. They are putting the rails back in so the SEMCOG train can get into "ypsi yard" for the heritage festival.