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Before the line was abandoned, when did the last train run on this "branch line."
Was there ever any interchange traffic between the MSO and INE?
And where do the tracks end in Sturgis?

When MSO still serviced Coldwater customers some tank cars were interchanged. I'm not aware of any interchange between the two since INE took over Coldwater customers.

Tracks in Sturgis end east of town at Big Hill Rd. Drove the Old Road today. INER stops at Wheeler Rd. west of Coldwater, tracks gone from there thru Batavia, Bronson and Burr Oak. MDOT can now take out the US-12 overhead bridge at Batavia. The caboose that was in Colon now sits on the ROW west of Bronson. Speaking of cabooses Gordie Morris ex-Santa-Fe 04945 has been drug out of the weeds in White Piegon within the last week and now sits by the MSO engine house. It used to be at end of track on the wye that was never hooked up to the Grand Elk to the north. That caboose hadn't moved in years anybody know whats going on with it? MSO still has their shoving platform caboose ALAB 00005 at the east engine house. The 04945 sits at the west engine house.

Super Chief wrote:MDOT can now take out the US-12 overhead bridge at Batavia.

That is already planned for 2018:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/ ... 2180_7.pdf
Page 73

Super Chief wrote:Tracks in Sturgis end east of town at Big Hill Rd. Drove the Old Road today. INER stops at Wheeler Rd. west of Coldwater, tracks gone from there thru Batavia, Bronson and Burr Oak. MDOT can now take out the US-12 overhead bridge at Batavia. The caboose that was in Colon now sits on the ROW west of Bronson. Speaking of cabooses Gordie Morris ex-Santa-Fe 04945 has been drug out of the weeds in White Piegon within the last week and now sits by the MSO engine house. It used to be at end of track on the wye that was never hooked up to the Grand Elk to the north. That caboose hadn't moved in years anybody know whats going on with it? MSO still has their shoving platform caboose ALAB 00005 at the east engine house. The 04945 sits at the west engine house.

Thanks for the update on the caboose in White Piegon! Can the caboose in Bronson be seen from the road? I don't want to venture on private property.
Why does the INER end at Wheeler Rd? That seems kind of odd.
Totally unrelated, but does OmniSource have a switcher at the Sturgis scrapyard?

I thought that scrap yard closed a few years ago. Back in the 1990's that was a busy place shipping up to 30 cars a week.

NS3322 wrote:Totally unrelated, but does OmniSource have a switcher at the Sturgis scrapyard?

INER has kept that track in place for car storage. Its east of the bridge MDOT wants to remove and theirs always hope that something may develope around there. As for OmniSource the yard is totally empty and the switcher must be gone or hidden. Switch is still in to the yard. If you ever get to go to Coldwater stop in the LRRR depot and look at the history of the Old Road. The trees planted between Quincy and Coldwater were Corneilius Vanderbilt's wifes idea. Every hundred feet theirs a Ponderosa pine tree with yellow needles all winter long. She told her husband that the line was not very scenic when she rode it to Chicago so he had the company plant them. Just one of the many stories that grace the walls of the depot. The Batavia depot is be hind the other one there so two for the price of one.

AARR wrote:I thought that scrap yard closed a few years ago. Back in the 1990's that was a busy place shipping up to 30 cars a week.

NS3322 wrote:Totally unrelated, but does OmniSource have a switcher at the Sturgis scrapyard?

Looking at Google maps, the place is pretty well cleared out. I caught the railroad going in a few years ago, after the supposed closure, but I heard there was some other company using the property for some reason or another.

I wonder why they would have cleared the location and closed down. I assume it was because it was purchased by OmniSource which has many other locations. When it was Sturgis Iron and Metal it was a very large shipper from everything I've heard and seen.

Super Chief wrote:Speaking of cabooses Gordie Morris ex-Santa-Fe 04945 has been drug out of the weeds in White Piegon within the last week and now sits by the MSO engine house. It used to be at end of track on the wye that was never hooked up to the Grand Elk to the north. That caboose hadn't moved in years anybody know whats going on with it?

Is the Morris caboose still by the engine house?

chapmaja wrote:

AARR wrote:I thought that scrap yard closed a few years ago. Back in the 1990's that was a busy place shipping up to 30 cars a week.

NS3322 wrote:Totally unrelated, but does OmniSource have a switcher at the Sturgis scrapyard?

Looking at Google maps, the place is pretty well cleared out. I caught the railroad going in a few years ago, after the supposed closure, but I heard there was some other company using the property for some reason or another.

I wonder why they would have cleared the location and closed down. I assume it was because it was purchased by OmniSource which has many other locations. When it was Sturgis Iron and Metal it was a very large shipper from everything I've heard and seen.

MSO was shipping OMNX gons of scrap here just within the last month. When CSX scrapped a bunch of their old cars a lot went to sturgis to meet the torch.

1TrackMind wrote:MSO was shipping OMNX gons of scrap here just within the last month. When CSX scrapped a bunch of their old cars a lot went to sturgis to meet the torch.

Just caught this today .
The track speed in Sturgis makes it easy to chase.
I will throw the rest of the photos in the "Trip Reports" section.

This is more of an MSO question in general, but does anyone know how often you can catch the MSO working between White Pigeon and Sturgis? Is there a usual time of day that these operations take place? This operation appears to be less documented and I'm looking forward to filming their operations someday in the future.

MiRailProductions wrote:This is more of an MSO question in general, but does anyone know how often you can catch the MSO working between White Pigeon and Sturgis? Is there a usual time of day that these operations take place? This operation appears to be less documented and I'm looking forward to filming their operations someday in the future.

My information is a bit out of date, but they used to run pretty reliably on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. From what I understood, they had a couple of crews that would run either the Michigan Southern, Elkhart & Western, Kendalville Terminal, West Michigan (when it was owned by Pioneer) and even the ND&W depending on what was needed on any given day.

MiRailProductions wrote:This is more of an MSO question in general, but does anyone know how often you can catch the MSO working between White Pigeon and Sturgis? Is there a usual time of day that these operations take place? This operation appears to be less documented and I'm looking forward to filming their operations someday in the future.

They were out and about on yesterday (Friday) around 5pm/5:30pm.
The crew did not seem happy I was chasing them either...

Thanks, you two. I hope I can get out and see them one day!

Is this an accurate list of the current customers of the MSO?

White Pigeon:
Commodity Concepts
White Pigeon Paper
Michigan Southern Transload
Tank Car Cleaning Service???
White Pigeon Grain Elevator???
Gravel Pit???

Sturgis:
Iceberg Molding
Atlantic Packaging
Abbott Nutrition
OmniSource
Frank Miller & Sons

Your list looks good. Just a couple notes:
- I'm not familiar with Commodity Concepts
- The gravel pit was closed last I heard but someone was shipping sand from their spur
- I don't think WP Grain ships anything by rail
- Is Atlantic Packaging the same as Independent Paper?

NS3322 wrote:Is this an accurate list of the current customers of the MSO?

White Pigeon:
Commodity Concepts
White Pigeon Paper
Michigan Southern Transload
Tank Car Cleaning Service???
White Pigeon Grain Elevator???
Gravel Pit???

Sturgis:
Iceberg Molding
Atlantic Packaging???
Abbott Nutrition
OmniSource
Frank Miller & Sons

List looks complete except tank car cleaning hasn't happen in a while. The yard didn't have any while I was there but not to say it might start up again some time.

Yes Don paper company changed names. Prarie River Material transloads sand from Muskegon to hopper cars for thr IHB in Gibson. They have been an engine sand supplier for some time now. Little history on the papermill site, when NYC and PRR went thru town it was the Transogram Toy Co. Had a siding off both roads right at the diamond. Pumpkinvine from Goshen crossed at a 45 degree angle as well so it had 3 diamonds and RK tower right there. Met John Uckley once at the tower doing his magazine thing. Transogram made the Dragnet board game and Hands Up Harry. Boxcars outbound and plastic pellets inbound. Sturgis was one of four manufacturing plants. As a matter of fact when the CEO came to town from New York on the Old Road he would stay at my Grandma's tourist home 2 blocks north of the NYC depot.

AARR wrote:Your list looks good. Just a couple notes:
- I'm not familiar with Commodity Concepts

I believe this is what the lumber yard by the GDLK interchange is called.