Does anyone know the history behind this flatcar?
It is sitting just outside the True Value in Ontonagon, Michigan.
When I visited in 2016, I could not locate any reporting marks.
Can anyone identify this flatcar?
- James Sofonia
- Grand Traverse Dinner Train 1996
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- Location: Traverse City, Michigan
Re: Can anyone identify this flatcar?
I looks to me like it needs a trip to Traverse City Beacon!
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- Railroadfan...fan
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- Location: Three Rivers, Mi.--Indian Rocks Beach,Fl.
Re: Can anyone identify this flatcar?
I asked a gentleman in Syl's restaurant over breakfast the same question, he thought had something to do with the ill fated tug barge operation that the State forked a lot of money into that went belly up. The flat was some how used in the large building on the waterfront. I remember the tracks from the yard narrowing down to one crossing the street by the True Value and continuing inside that building.
Re: Can anyone identify this flatcar?
Syl's is a great place!Super Chief wrote:I asked a gentleman in Syl's restaurant over breakfast the same question, he thought had something to do with the ill fated tug barge operation that the State forked a lot of money into that went belly up. The flat was some how used in the large building on the waterfront. I remember the tracks from the yard narrowing down to one crossing the street by the True Value and continuing inside that building.
Not much I could find on the barge operation (everything is behind a paywall). Did it have something to do with Smurfit-Stone?
Funny that the flatcar was the only thing that survived from the operation.
Did you happen to figure out the heritage of the flatcar?
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- RedNeck Train Chaser
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Re: Can anyone identify this flatcar?
The state back in the 80s or 90s commissioned a ship builder in Ontonagon to build a new rug and barge car ferry to run out of Frankfort. Half way through the project was mixed and the tug and barge were sold to somebody else. I believe they ended up in Seattle. It was supposedly scrapped in the 2000s