38 & 39E coming off April 16

[ConrailMan5]

Rumor has it 38 and 39E are being cut to Wayne. No freights between Wayne and Chelsea. To be replaced with through freight Jackson to Kalamazoo with the GDLK.

[DelayInBlock]

Rumor has it 38 and 39E are being cut to Wayne. No freights between Wayne and Chelsea. To be replaced with through freight Jackson to Kalamazoo with the GDLK.

That has been a rumor for months now. I've heard NS and GDLK haven't been able to reach an agreement. I honestly don't see it happening...Though, I would welcome it warmly. We haven't had a EBD freight in ages between Kalamazoo and Jackson.

[Ypsi]

Supposed to run elky from elkhart to the zoo, and then NS take it zoo to JXN. On the flip all other trains terminate at wayne. So no road freight between wayne and jackson after the 16th. Basically the issue is the crews get two train slips and get paid twice because of break test and such. Do Dave NS money and get one step closer to dumping the entire MC

[ConrailMan5]

Rumor has it 38 and 39E are being cut to Wayne. No freights between Wayne and Chelsea. To be replaced with through freight Jackson to Kalamazoo with the GDLK.

That has been a rumor for months now. I've heard NS and GDLK haven't been able to reach an agreement. I honestly don't see it happening...Though, I would welcome it warmly. We haven't had a EBD freight in ages between Kalamazoo and Jackson.

Heard this from several people, both Amtrak and NS today. The Jackson crews are supposed to start requalifying on that end soon. Supposedly an agreement has been reached,

[iandt]

So this means fewer freights through Ann Arbor and Ypsi? Currently 38E and 39E, along with a couple locals, are the only freights that go through here. That'd be real unfortunate for the trainwatching here, which would consist only of Amtraks and sporadic locals after that. The freights will be much shorter too, since they only have to deliver to Chelsea past Willow Run.

[ConrailMan5]

So this means fewer freights through Ann Arbor and Ypsi? Currently 38E and 39E, along with a couple locals, are the only freights that go through here. That'd be real unfortunate for the trainwatching here, which would consist only of Amtraks and sporadic locals after that. The freights will be much shorter too, since they only have to deliver to Chelsea past Willow Run.

That means 0 regular freights between Wayne and Chelsea. Locals out of Wayne and Jackson will still run. But between Chelsea and Wayne only sporadic moves. Not sure how they are going to cycle power for maintainence so I suspect that will still run.
And the only regular trains through ypsi and as right now are 38 and 39E, b90 comes out as needed, which is very infrequenly

[iandt]

That means 0 regular freights between Wayne and Chelsea. Locals out of Wayne and Jackson will still run. But between Chelsea and Wayne only sporadic moves. Not sure how they are going to cycle power for maintainence so I suspect that will still run.
And the only regular trains through ypsi and as right now are 38 and 39E, b90 comes out as needed, which is very infrequenly

That's what I figured. That's too bad, since I assume that Chelsea is served by a local out of Jackson, and all the industries west of Wayne can be worked without ever reaching Ypsi, that almost means 0 freights at all through Ypsi and Ann Arbor. I guess it's not all bad, my favorite stretch east of Wayne is still a buzz of activity

[Ypsi]

Yep.. You can know with basically 120% confidence what you will see. Maybe if GDLK gets the line one day (I assume WATCO still would take over freight rights)We will see road freights again, but for now the line will go quite on the east half of the east end.

[AARR]

If Watco combines the NS traffic with their own between Hellcart and Kzoo it will result in some monster car counts. IIRC Watco's train already runs 100+ cars some days. Add the 20-30+ NS cars will be interesting.

[DelayInBlock]

If Watco combines the NS traffic with their own between Hellcart and Kzoo it will result in some monster car counts. IIRC Watco's train already runs 100+ cars some days. Add the 20-30+ NS cars will be interesting.

WATCO will never, I repeat, never get the Michigan Line. Why would NS ever forfeit their trackage rights? They don't have to maintain a thing...they laughed all the way to the bank when MDOT offered them so much money...and right now, it's pretty much 95% profit for them.

[Ypsi]

Realistically at this point, NS has has what they wanted, wayne yard, jackson yard, and locals to work them. Little overhead ect. I will say I do believe that NS could and may exit one day, but not with the current set up. (However I do believe the elimination of 38/39E does take them one step closer assuming it does end next week)

[NSSD70ACe]

Hold on a minute, I'm confused.

NS is rumored to be killing 38/39E at Wayne Yard on April 16th only to create a separate road train to take the cars to Kalamazoo/other on-line customers? When did this come about?

[Ypsi]

Yesterday when we talked to a number of the NS jackson guys at Ann arbor. B92 was switching the private cars are new center and they had a wait on 352 and a late 355. Still a rumor but I tend to believe the people that actually work there and will be doing the jobs.

38/39E gets two time slips because of some regulation with brake test or something (can't remember the exact wording, but crew work every other day, and get basically double pay for each run from how he explained it). NS didn't like this and is trying to eliminate it.

Now my understanding of the new system, and I asked a couple times "this means no more freight between wayne and jackson?" And the answer was yes.

-NS will run as far as Wayne on the east end, keeping locals and what not into Wayne
-GDLK runs the Jackson cars up from Elkhart to Kalamazoo.
-A local job out of jackson (or glorified local as we described it with him last night) will get the cars from Kalamazoo, and switch Battle Creek on the return.
-NS will keep locals in Jackson
-No regular freight between wayne and Jackson.
-They will switch Chelsea and such out of Jackson.

So that's my understanding starting the 16th, I asked questions as it stinks for our end with less freights, but it makes more sense. Still classify as it a rumor, but I'm going to say this comes true next week.

[chapmaja]

Yesterday when we talked to a number of the NS jackson guys at Ann arbor. B92 was switching the private cars are new center and they had a wait on 352 and a late 355. Still a rumor but I tend to believe the people that actually work there and will be doing the jobs.

38/39E gets two time slips because of some regulation with brake test or something (can't remember the exact wording, but crew work every other day, and get basically double pay for each run from how he explained it). NS didn't like this and is trying to eliminate it.

Now my understanding of the new system, and I asked a couple times "this means no more freight between wayne and jackson?" And the answer was yes.

-NS will run as far as Wayne on the east end, keeping locals and what not into Wayne
-GDLK runs the Jackson cars up from Elkhart to Kalamazoo.
-A local job out of jackson (or glorified local as we described it with him last night) will get the cars from Kalamazoo, and switch Battle Creek on the return.
-NS will keep locals in Jackson
-No regular freight between wayne and Jackson.
-They will switch Chelsea and such out of Jackson.

So that's my understanding starting the 16th, I asked questions as it stinks for our end with less freights, but it makes more sense. Still classify as it a rumor, but I'm going to say this comes true next week.

So if this does indeed happen, we will see a local running Jackson-Chelsea and return to serve two customers in Chelsea. There are no other customers between Chelsea and Jackson are there? Are there any customers east of the yard in Jackson?

Also, what trains were servicing Chelsea previously? Was it served by the road trains, or was their a local running this traffic?

[railohio]

And the Chicago Line is still only about an hour away from Ann Arbor. Just sayin'

[ConrailMan5]

There already is a local serving Chelsea. That is not changing, nor are any of the other locals as I understand it. They are just switching the elkharts from a Jackson-Wayne-Toledo-Elkhart routing to a jackso-Kalamazoo-Elkhart routing.

[M.D.Bentley]

They tried this before ( to fix something that is NOT broke ) it all comes down to how to move the freight in the most efficient manner.

[Saturnalia]

They tried this before ( to fix something that is NOT broke ) it all comes down to how to move the freight in the most efficient manner.

Scratch out efficient and go for least-expensive.

Or scratch out both and realize both those require logic and it doesn't always apply to railroading!

GDLK had a size able 302 to Elkhart today...60-70? If I had to guess.

[JStryker722]

Yep.. You can know with basically 120% confidence what you will see. Maybe if GDLK gets the line one day (I assume WATCO still would take over freight rights)We will see road freights again, but for now the line will go quite on the east half of the east end.

You mean the west half of the east end. I live east of Wayne and even with the cut back I'm still gonna be hearing trains all day long,Amtrak and NS freights and locals.

[iandt]

You mean the west half of the east end. I live east of Wayne and even with the cut back I'm still gonna be hearing trains all day long,Amtrak and NS freights and locals.

That's exactly what I was trying to figure out earlier, and I'm happy this is the case, since I live east of Wayne part of the week. It's a real shame, though, for the other 4 days that I live in Ann Arbor, since I never get a chance to see an Ann Arbor train (the line is kind of far from campus, and spotty service), it means no train-watching for me anymore, save for Amtraks.

They tried this before ( to fix something that is NOT broke ) it all comes down to how to move the freight in the most efficient manner.

I remember hearing this before, when was it that NS tried running freights east to Jackson, like 2006? If I remember right, that was 38J/39J's designated route at some point, instead of it the route through Wayne.