ADBF STB Petition for Declaratory Relief: CE

[jimnorthwood]

A lengthy petition (135 pages) concerning a dispute between the railroad and the power company over easements for power line poles in the city of Adrian. Some interesting points within, such as the number of cars the railroad handles on an annual basis (2,500); the number of customers (10, plus an unknown number of others via transload); mention of construction of a new interchange track with NS in the northeast quadrant; mention of possible new interchange with NS in Milan, which would mean ADBF locomotives having to be equipped for PTC operation when run on NS; mention of NS upping its minimum requirement for grain trains from 75 cars to 85 cars.

https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 244634.pdf

[AARR]

Thanks for the summary Jim

[SousaKerry]

Interchange in Milan? So haul South to Riga, trackage rights on I&O to Dundee turn North on the AA to Milan. He must stay up nights staring at rail maps.

[Waddy]

WOW! the BS is thick in that document. It's mostly nothing but lies.

[Waddy]

Interchange in Milan? So haul South to Riga, trackage rights on I&O to Dundee turn North on the AA to Milan. He must stay up nights staring at rail maps.

The proposed plan was to run from Adrian to Milan on NS, but NS has already shot it down. The matter has been discussed since this summer.

[SousaKerry]

Interchange in Milan? So haul South to Riga, trackage rights on I&O to Dundee turn North on the AA to Milan. He must stay up nights staring at rail maps.

The proposed plan was to run from Adrian to Milan on NS, but NS has already shot it down. The matter has been discussed since this summer.

I think I vaguely remember that now. Just don't know why they would rather interchange in Milan then in Adrian.

[Buster Manning]

WOW! the BS is thick in that document. It's mostly nothing but lies.

Care to elaborate on the lies??

[Waddy]

Interchange in Milan? So haul South to Riga, trackage rights on I&O to Dundee turn North on the AA to Milan. He must stay up nights staring at rail maps.

The proposed plan was to run from Adrian to Milan on NS, but NS has already shot it down. The matter has been discussed since this summer.

I think I vaguely remember that now. Just don't know why they would rather interchange in Milan then in Adrian.

Because NS stopped running a local to Adrian. The A&B needed a way to get their cars, the temporary fix was for a road train to stop and drop off/pick up. They may end as the Michigan days get colder.

[AARR]

10 on-line customers? I can think of five: Ethanol Plant and MAC in Blissfield. Scrap, plastic and biofuel in Adrian. Who are the other five?

WOW! the BS is thick in that document. It's mostly nothing but lies.

Care to elaborate on the lies??

[Waddy]

10 on-line customers? I can think of five: Ethanol Plant and MAC in Blissfield. Scrap, plastic and biofuel in Adrian. Who are the other five?

WOW! the BS is thick in that document. It's mostly nothing but lies.

Care to elaborate on the lies??

CPS is the only other one I can think of. No body has used the transload track in at least three years either.

[AARR]

I suspected that 10 online customers was an embellishment Unless they are counting number of commodities handled as individual customers

10 on-line customers? I can think of five: Ethanol Plant and MAC in Blissfield. Scrap, plastic and biofuel in Adrian. Who are the other five?
CPS is the only other one I can think of. No body has used the transload track in at least three years either.

[jimnorthwood]

Questions:
1. Does the lumber yard in Adrian still get service? I guess I should have phrased the question "is the lumber yard still there?" I haven't traveled to that part of Adrian in a long time.
2. ADBF seems to be searching for new interchange possibilities (proposal to re-build to Ottawa Lake; proposal to build new interchange in NE quadrant in Adrian, etc). Why not use Riga? LCRC did so. Does I&O not run their line often enough? Or bad interchange rates? Or?
3. Several years ago ADBF attempted a takeover of SMRS. They lost in court. Was this related to wanting to construct a new interchange with NS @ Raisin Center?

Finally, a new company has moved into the former Merillat factory at end of track in Adrian. They assemble cabinets, as Merillat did there for many years. But unlike Merillat, they don't do any cabinet production. All of the cabinet components are imported, likely from China. So, no potential for service there, as finished cabinets are too time sensitive to move by rail. My brother in law worked for Merillat for nearly 40 years. Recently I asked him about rail service there. He said that when he was first hired, at around the time PC went away, Merillat received a considerable number of shipments of particle board by rail. He didn't recall any outbound shipments of finished cabinets during his tenure, although that likely occurred way back when. When LCRC started, before they built their engine house in Adrian, he said he thinks recalling that Merillat provided an inside place for them to park their locomotives in the winter. Over the years Merillat gradually transitioned their particle board shipments from rail to all truck, on account issues with service and late arrival of product. Having to shut down cabinet production because of an overdue boxcar was not a desirable financial option for them.

[BnOEngr]

Questions:
3. Several years ago ADBF attempted a takeover of SMRS. They lost in court. Was this related to wanting to construct a new interchange with NS @ Raisin Center?

Yes

[AARR]

1. Stevenson Lumber (an independent co.) was acquired by a chain (Big L IIRC) who has a rail-served distribution center in West MI so I don't think Adrian gets rail service anymore.

2. Grain shipped from Blissfield ends up on CSX or NS customer lines so interchanging at Riga and using IORY to interchange with CSX reduces revenue distribution.

3. I doubt ADBF wanted the SMRS to establish interchange at Raisin Center. Most likely they wanted it to store rail cars.

Questions:
1. Does the lumber yard in Adrian still get service? I guess I should have phrased the question "is the lumber yard still there?" I haven't traveled to that part of Adrian in a long time.
2. ADBF seems to be searching for new interchange possibilities (proposal to re-build to Ottawa Lake; proposal to build new interchange in NE quadrant in Adrian, etc). Why not use Riga? LCRC did so. Does I&O not run their line often enough? Or bad interchange rates? Or?
3. Several years ago ADBF attempted a takeover of SMRS. They lost in court. Was this related to wanting to construct a new interchange with NS @ Raisin Center?

[SousaKerry]

.

3. I doubt ADBF wanted the SMRS to establish interchange at Raisin Center. Most likely they wanted it to store rail cars.

There were many facets to the takeover attempt. I was not there during that time but the stories abound. Basically He wanted the South end for interchange with NS to avoid the hassle of Adrian. North of RC would be car storage and possible commercial use into Tecumseh. North of Tecumseh would have been abandoned and ripped out by the sand pits South of Clinton.

[SousaKerry]

Finally, a new company has moved into the former Merillat factory at end of track in Adrian. They assemble cabinets, as Merillat did there for many years. But unlike Merillat, they don't do any cabinet production. All of the cabinet components are imported, likely from China. So, no potential for service there, as finished cabinets are too time sensitive to move by rail. My brother in law worked for Merillat for nearly 40 years. Recently I asked him about rail service there. He said that when he was first hired, at around the time PC went away, Merillat received a considerable number of shipments of particle board by rail. He didn't recall any outbound shipments of finished cabinets during his tenure, although that likely occurred way back when. When LCRC started, before they built their engine house in Adrian, he said he thinks recalling that Merillat provided an inside place for them to park their locomotives in the winter. Over the years Merillat gradually transitioned their particle board shipments from rail to all truck, on account issues with service and late arrival of product. Having to shut down cabinet production because of an overdue boxcar was not a desirable financial option for them.

Believe it or not I have some inside information on this as well. About 15 years ago I worked for a company in Ohio called Lamtech. They supplied laminated particle board(the stuff with the pretty pictures of wood on it) and custom cut particle board products among other things. They also were an importer and broker of Luann plywood. One of our customers was Merillat for laminated particle board and several trucks a week went to them.

A great deal of the raw board they used arrived by rail. At the time they used a team track for unloading. Rail cars took approximately 3 weeks to arrive from the mill to our door some planned orders this was fine, but a good deal of our business was short lead time small runs so the needs were unpredictable. With a 3 week lead time from the mill for a rail car a lot of board was bought on speculation and sometimes we were wrong and sat on board in the warehouse for quite a while until it was sold or used. The owner Fast Freddie Zoeller was the used car salesman of particle board and was always wheeling and dealing, sometimes he would pick up railcars of board that were canceled by the buyer while the car was in transit. Fast Freddie would buy the car load at the mills cost or below the railroad would redirect the car to our destination and Freddie would make a killing reselling at a later date.

Anyways we never shipped by rail only ever received and not in a hurry. Great for a stable predictable output from your factory, horrible if your sales go up and down and you never know what your going to need. When we needed board in a hurry it came by truck of coarse direct from Canada, or Boise.

Sorry for the Hi-Jack

[jimnorthwood]

That is interesting info, SousaKerry. Was the idea to re-install the diamond at RC, or to build two new interchange tracks, one in a quadrant to the south of RC and the other to the north of RC? MDOT has on its wish list among other things, a goal of getting the interchange out of Adrian.

Fast Freddie the king of particle board. I like that. Do other speculative commodities such as lumber still roam the rails as essentially rolling warehouses? Or has the switch to just in time for most things served to put an end to that practice?

[AARR]

Yes, lumber still does. Chemicals and plastics are stored in SIT yards until purchased. I'm sure there's other commodities that roam around until acquired.

Do other speculative commodities such as lumber still roam the rails as essentially rolling warehouses?