Lansing Boxcars

[NS3322]

I saw that Conrail boxcar sitting across from the yard office at Ensel Yard yesterday afternoon. It apparently was interchanged by JAIL to CSXT. Since half of the Conrail assets went to CSXT, perhaps JAIL was simply returning the car to its owner. The car looks to be in decent condition.

Nope

So the car is in Ensel Yard?

[Tim]

Saginaw Yard is full of tank cars (propane was the placard on the north car in #1, 3 and 4 tracks) and two bay covered hoppers (AOKX, CBFX, HWCX, RGCX were the ones visible, frac sand?) with the Main the only clear track at the north end and the lead foul of tracks 3 through 9. I was unable to see the ends of #5 to 9, but if they are all full of CH that would be around 86 tank cars and 250 CH. I wasn’t able to see the south end without trespassing. On the tracks between Saginaw and Michigan, the Blunder holds about 30 tank cars with Fisher #11, 12 and the Lead holding around 90 covered hoppers. St Joe holds about 30 tank cars and Clare St has 38 covered hoppers. In the Hollow Yard, New Hollow #7 and 8 hold 17 each with the Lead and #9 around 30, Old Hollow and New Hollow Mains around 25 each with the Olds Main around 30 to 35 for a total of around 145 CH. Total for the Belt would be roughly 520 hoppers and 145 tank cars. Didn’t check out South Yard but would imagine it’s full also. As reported earlier, all three of the cars stored under MLK/Logan are no longer in the Hollow.

[Dan Cluley]

Yes, south yard is full as well. In the last week I have also seen storage cars on the team track at Jolly rd, and the siding at Mason.

[jrgerber]

There are also 4-5 tank cars on the siding in Holt near Depot St.

[Tim]

I talked to the retired CR-NS car knocker who inspected the three cars recently removed from the Hollow. He said they came up to Lansing as storage cars around 30 years ago. He inspected them a half dozen times when they were supposed to be returned to service and says there wasn't anything wrong with them except a slightly out of date COTS. And no there were no forgotten '86 Oldsmobile’s inside either one!!

[NYCMan]

Tim said he spoke with the retired CR-NS carman who inspected the cars. I am confused (which comes easy when one passes 70), but when did this retired carman inspect these cars? NS has been gone from Lansing since 2010. CR has been gone from Lansing since 1999. If the guy is retired, he is drawing his Railroad Retirement, which precludes him from working for ANY railroad (or face stiff criminal penalties!). If the guy inspected these cars recently (as in "during 2016"), then the question becomes WHY did he do so?

[MiddleMI]

Tim said he spoke with the retired CR-NS carman who inspected the cars. I am confused (which comes easy when one passes 70), but when did this retired carman inspect these cars? NS has been gone from Lansing since 2010. CR has been gone from Lansing since 1999. If the guy is retired, he is drawing his Railroad Retirement, which precludes him from working for ANY railroad (or face stiff criminal penalties!). If the guy inspected these cars recently (as in "during 2016"), then the question becomes WHY did he do so?

He didn't say that he recently inspected the cars. It reads that he inspected the cars recently moved.

[MP73point4]

Tim said he spoke with the retired CR-NS carman who inspected the cars. I am confused (which comes easy when one passes 70), but when did this retired carman inspect these cars? NS has been gone from Lansing since 2010. CR has been gone from Lansing since 1999. If the guy is retired, he is drawing his Railroad Retirement, which precludes him from working for ANY railroad (or face stiff criminal penalties!). If the guy inspected these cars recently (as in "during 2016"), then the question becomes WHY did he do so?

Tim did not mean the guy inspected them recently. He meant that the guy had inspected them prior to his retirement when he was employed as a car knocker. On those occasions, years ago, they checked out fine. So to answer your question, the retired carman inspected them many many years ago.
Obviously some one else, currently employed, must have checked them recently before they were moved.

[MiddleMI]

I was down by Reid Machinery, today, and noticed what looked to be some covered hoppers just west of the crossing behind the property. Is this just storage, or is Reid being serviced? I know from another thread some said this line is still used sporadically, but I hadn't seen any trains down this way in many years. I'm down there maybe once or twice a week so maybe I've just never noticed. I was just surprised to see anything on the line.

[Dan Cluley]

The cars by Reid's are more of the storage cars. The have them on both sides of MLK.

[MiddleMI]

Yeah, I'd realized when I went back down the next day they were storage, as this time I saw the one's east of MLK. But, it takes my posts four days to get posted, so no quick responses. lol I wonder when this is going to end?

Also saw the ones down in South/Cavanaugh yard, today, but those look like tankers.

[iNFEKT]

In walking around west side park over the weekend it looked like the majority of the hoppers were brand new made by trinity industries for haliburton likely for cement. Most of them had a pretty clear manufacturing date of 3/16 being that trinity and railcar industries sales have pretty collapsed id guess they're storing excess cars they built.

[MiddleMI]

I also noticed to Saturday's ago a long line of similarly painted hoppers on the westside. Unforuntately, I was on the other side of the Grand River, so I could tell if they were in the old Hollow Yard or on the sidings that run along the north side of Grand River Park. I couldn't tell if they were servicing Eckert Station or if they were just storage cars. Either way, there seems to be quite a bit of storage going on in Lansing, lately.

[NS3322]

Could the ADBF be fixing up the Old Town line just for car storage purposes?
Boy, that would sure make some people angry...just like with Watco in Saline.

[MiddleMI]

Could the ADBF be fixing up the Old Town line just for car storage purposes?
Boy, that would sure make some people angry...just like with Watco in Saline.

Unless they are only going to store them between Grand River and Oakland, it wouldn't seem to make sense given the how close the crossings are.

[GrandTrunkFan]

Could the ADBF be fixing up the Old Town line just for car storage purposes?
Boy, that would sure make some people angry...just like with Watco in Saline.

Unless they are only going to store them between Grand River and Oakland, it wouldn't seem to make since given the how close the crossings are.

Talk about an easy target for vandals if that's the case, right next to the park and river walk.

[MiddleMI]

Even more hoppers, now. I see they now have a few of them stored between Washington and Mount Hope, and then right immediately south of Mt. Hope behind Gerdau Steel. Before you know it, the entire line from Holmes up to Cedar will be storage. lol

[NS3322]

According to someone on the MichiganRailroads.com board, the JTTX flat car that had been stored in the Hollow Yard for at least two decades is now on the Saginaw Team Track.