Lansing Boxcars

[NYCMan]

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) does not have the authority to tell a railroad to "lose" a crossing or any track. That authority rests solely with the United States of America, Surface Transportation Board (STB). Plenty of Federal court decisions have made this fact perfectly clear to both state and local governmental agencies that have tried to tell a railroad what to do.

[Dan Cluley]

Northbound, about to cross W Michigan Ave in Lansing. April 20 2016

[TrainWatcher]

Woah, there's a relic. Great shot Dan.

[NS3322]

It was the '60. I was shooting video, so will try to grab a still once I upload the files. Pretty sure they had it with them when they headed out of Saginaw yard, but I didn't have time to catch them at Ensel, so not sure where the car will end up.

What do you think they will do with it? Scrap it?

[Dan Cluley]

They did not bring it to Mason on Wed, so it either went to CSX or they stashed it somewhere in Lansing.

[Raildudes dad]

The DOT does have authority over crossings. The state statute has authority over a number of railroad issues.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/%28S%28v5 ... 54-of-1993

[NYCMan]

Michigan also has a law that says a train cannot block a crossing for more than 10 minutes. The City of Plymouth kept issuing tickets to CSXT train crews for blocking crossings, and CSXT finally hauled the City of Plymouth into Federal court, where the court struck down the State law as being illegal when applied against a railroad. In fact, the City of Plymouth went after CSXT twice, once under state law (where City lost) and then under a city ordinance (where City lost again). The City of Kendallville, Indiana once went after Pioneer Rail Corp because of weeds growing along their tracks in violation of some city ordinance. The Federal court stepped in and told the City of Kendallville that the City had no authority to enforce a city ordinance against a railroad.

Just because the State has a law on the books does not mean that law is enforceable against a railroad. Just imagine, if a State could simply tell a railroad that a highway grade crossing is closed, interstate commerce would quickly come to a screeching halt.

[Buster Manning]

What do you think they will do with it? Scrap it?

Yep

[NS3322]

What do you think they will do with it? Scrap it?

Yep

So did they deliver it to Padnos?

[GrandTrunkFan]

From what I've heard crews have been working on removing asphalt and dirt from the Old Town spur in preperation for service soon.

Looking forward to seeing this. I'm kinda interested in knowing why Friedland stopped using rail anyway. Did the NS years scare them off?

JAIL nbd Lansing 4 20 2016.jpg

Northbound, about to cross W Michigan Ave in Lansing. April 20 2016

Awesome catch Dan! Be interesting to see where it turns up

[MQT1223]

From what I've heard crews have been working on removing asphalt and dirt from the Old Town spur in preperation for service soon.

Photos on Facebook back this up.

[AARR]

This from TC John at MIRR.com

Straight from Freidland Industries- no concrete plans to use rail service (when ask if they were going to start being that a locomotive was spotted on the branch a few months ago and recent crossing work):

"So what was it all about? First, a little history. Friedland used to ship by rail all the time. Through the years, especially as manufacturing in Michigan dwindled, the amount of scrap volume we processed decreased to the point where shipping by truck was far more cost-effective. Despite the rumor that the line was deemed inactive, it has always remained active; the landscaping just wasn’t kept up to date.

A few years ago, Adrian & Blissfield bought the rail line from Norfolk Southern. They’ve done a great job cleaning up the area. The train that came through was straightening out the track.

So are we going to ship by rail again?? I don’t know, maybe. If we land a large enough account to merit shipping by rail again, that would be awesome. Actually, that would be more than awesome for us. That would be awesome for everyone because it would be a good indicator that the economy is growing. We’ll see…

It sure was great to see a train in Old Town again. As Old Town goes through a revitalization, we’re crossing our fingers for a resurgence in industry as well."

From what I've heard crews have been working on removing asphalt and dirt from the Old Town spur in preperation for service soon.

Photos on Facebook back this up.

[Tim]

Drove by Pandos yesterday and the box car wasn't on any of the tracks there.

[NYCMan]

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.

[Buster Manning]

Drove by Pandos yesterday and the box car wasn't on any of the tracks there.

You probably are shaving with it by now....

The 86' boxcar is gone now from Sleepy Hollow yard too...haven't seen any photos of this move from someone who is intimate with the daily operations like I did on Facebook; but, pretty sure it met the torch also...said yard is now full of fairly new 2-bay covered hoppers--well, what's left of it as it looks like only 4 tracks left in service

[GrandTrunkFan]

Noticed theres also an old Conrail boxcar in Cavanaugh yard as well

[NS3322]

The 86' boxcar is gone now from Sleepy Hollow yard too...

Noticed theres also an old Conrail boxcar in Cavanaugh yard as well

How come there are so many names for the yards in Lansing?

[Buster Manning]

How come there are so many names for the yards in Lansing?

I don't know how to answer that without sounding like a smarty-pants...

[AARR]

Couple reasons I can think of:
1. There used to be more than the three railroads that went into Lansing and they used different names for their yards which still are used today.
2. Lansing used to have a lot more rail activity and the many yards were used for staging cars until the customers needed them. This was particular true for the many auto plants. So the yards were given different names so the train crews knew which cars to set out and pick up from.
There may be other reasons too.

How come there are so many names for the yards in Lansing?

[Waddy]

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