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Lately I’ve been seeing/hearing of lots of Reading & Northern open hoppers on the HESR. The Durand train came into town the other day with 9 of them. They apparently come from GLC who picks them up from the Ann Arbor. Who on the HESR is getting anthracite?

Someone said they might be going to Sargent's Dock & Terminal in Saginaw for transloading

SD80MAC wrote:Lately I’ve been seeing/hearing of lots of Reading & Northern open hoppers on the HESR. The Durand train came into town the other day with 9 of them. They apparently come from GLC who picks them up from the Ann Arbor. Who on the HESR is getting anthracite?

It's been about two years so I have decided to audit the list again. Plus, I am also creating an interactive Google Map of the HESR with all of the customers.

Here's what I have: Possibly inactive customers I have questions about:
Cooperative Elevator Fertilizer - Bad Axe
Tri-State Forest Products - Buena Vista
Cooperative Elevator - Deckerville
Farmers Co-Op Grain - Elkton
ADM Edible Bean - Fairgrove
Midwestern BioAg - Kinde
Central Warehouse - Saginaw
M.A.C. Sand Sales - Vassar

I live in bad axe near tracks and can confirm the co op does get infrequent rail service. I pass it everyday on my way to work and in the past year I would say there may have been about ten times I have seen hoppers,usually 1 or 2, at the plant.

Also as of late last year there were still tank cars going to kinde or at least that was the last time I noticed cars at kinde.

One last note last week the southbound out of bad axe had a boxcar with it something very unusual to see at this end of the line unfortunately I don't know what customer it may have ended up at.

Outflow wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 12:56 am

One last note last week the southbound out of bad axe had a boxcar with it something very unusual to see at this end of the line unfortunately I don't know what customer it may have ended up at.

The box car may have been for bean loading at either Ubly or Ruth

Outflow wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 12:56 am

I live in bad axe near tracks and can confirm the co op does get infrequent rail service. I pass it everyday on my way to work and in the past year I would say there may have been about ten times I have seen hoppers,usually 1 or 2, at the plant.

Also as of late last year there were still tank cars going to kinde or at least that was the last time I noticed cars at kinde.

One last note last week the southbound out of bad axe had a boxcar with it something very unusual to see at this end of the line unfortunately I don't know what customer it may have ended up at.

Thanks for the update on the Co-op in Bad Axe!

AARR wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 7:22 am

Outflow wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 12:56 am

One last note last week the southbound out of bad axe had a boxcar with it something very unusual to see at this end of the line unfortunately I don't know what customer it may have ended up at.

The box car may have been for bean loading at either Ubly or Ruth

That is what I am thinking.

Related question, does anyone know if the elevator in Akron has a locomotive switcher or is it just a farm tractor with hi-rails?
It kind of looks like a Plymouth switcher on Google Maps, but the more I look at it the more I think it's just a tractor.

NS3322 wrote: ↑

Sat May 01, 2021 9:43 pm

It's been about two years so I have decided to audit the list again. Plus, I am also creating an interactive Google Map of the HESR with all of the customers.

Here's what I have:
hesrcustomers1.JPG
hesrcustomers2.JPG

Possibly inactive customers I have questions about:
Cooperative Elevator Fertilizer - Bad Axe
Tri-State Forest Products - Buena Vista
Cooperative Elevator - Deckerville
Farmers Co-Op Grain - Elkton
ADM Edible Bean - Fairgrove
Midwestern BioAg - Kinde
Central Warehouse - Saginaw
M.A.C. Sand Sales - Vassar

For an update I was passing through Elkton today and noticed 1 boxcar at the farmers co op warehouse that wasn't there a few weeks prior so I would think they are still actively using rail

NS3322 wrote: ↑

Tue May 04, 2021 3:56 pm

Related question, does anyone know if the elevator in Akron has a locomotive switcher or is it just a farm tractor with hi-rails?
It kind of looks like a Plymouth switcher on Google Maps, but the more I look at it the more I think it's just a tractor.

Id say tractor.

I thought I had heard a few years ago the elevator at Colling (north of Caro) was going to resume shipping by rail? Yea or nay?

They received a couple car loads of fertilizer and nothing since that I know of.

SW wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:09 pm

I thought I had heard a few years ago the elevator at Colling (north of Caro) was going to resume shipping by rail? Yea or nay?

The Elevator north of Caro (Vita Plus in Colling) no longer ships by rail, due to OSHA restrictions. They do NOT have the Fall Restraint System needed to protect workers on top of covered hoppers. Presently, that section of track is being used to store a couple hundred un-used rail cars.

R Bedell wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:19 am

The Elevator north of Caro (Vita Plus in Colling) no longer ships by rail, due to OSHA restrictions. They do NOT have the Fall Restraint System needed to protect workers on top of covered hoppers. Presently, that section of track is being used to store a couple hundred un-used rail cars.

Thanks. I remember the OSHA thing was why they stopped, but I thought they were going to fix that. Apparently not.

does anyone know if the elevator in Akron has a locomotive switcher or is it just a farm tractor with hi-rails?

No Locomotive. A Farm Tractor.

On my paper railroad Vita Plus installed the proper safety harness system and trucks its grain from several other of its MI Thumb elevators to Colling where they load small blocks of 15-25 cars totaling 300-400 cars a year

SW wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 12:44 pm

R Bedell wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:19 am

The Elevator north of Caro (Vita Plus in Colling) no longer ships by rail, due to OSHA restrictions. They do NOT have the Fall Restraint System needed to protect workers on top of covered hoppers. Presently, that section of track is being used to store a couple hundred un-used rail cars.

Thanks. I remember the OSHA thing was why they stopped, but I thought they were going to fix that. Apparently not.

Presently, that section of track is being used to store a couple hundred un-used rail cars.

The cars are still in storage. But I will go and look again and snap a picture if there is a restraint system there.

R Bedell wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:06 am

Presently, that section of track is being used to store a couple hundred un-used rail cars.

The cars are still in storage. But I will go and look again and snap a picture if there is a restraint system there.

Do you know what kind of cars are stored up there? I know on Google maps they had an empty coal train from DTE visible but they pulled it out when they lost the contract to LSRC/CSX

As far as I can see, 100% Covered Hoppers.

NS3322 wrote: ↑

Sat May 01, 2021 9:43 pm

Possibly inactive customers I have questions about:
Midwestern BioAg - Kinde

I was riding around early today and happen to go past Midwestern bioag, the small spur havd very little in the way of weeds around it and the ones that are around the tracks are only a few inches tall so at a minimum they appear to be keeping the spur in a decent shape should they a delivery.

On a related note, there is a derailer on the mainline at Midwestern bioag currently so no traffic is currently going to the elevator at kinde and there is nothing there to be pickup up either. The mile from Midwestern bioag north to kinde has some really rotted ties and I wonder if they are planning to do some maintenance before the fall harvest traffic starts.

NS3322 wrote: ↑

Sat May 01, 2021 9:43 pm

It's been about two years so I have decided to audit the list again. Plus, I am also creating an interactive Google Map of the HESR with all of the customers.

Here's what I have:
hesrcustomers1.JPG
hesrcustomers2.JPG

Possibly inactive customers I have questions about:
Cooperative Elevator Fertilizer - Bad Axe
Tri-State Forest Products - Buena Vista
Cooperative Elevator - Deckerville
Farmers Co-Op Grain - Elkton
ADM Edible Bean - Fairgrove
Midwestern BioAg - Kinde
Central Warehouse - Saginaw
M.A.C. Sand Sales - Vassar

Central Warehouse has been closed for years. Tri State Forest Products still gets service, although I'm not sure how often.