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GRE Questions

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:54 pm
by PM1946
I'm curious about the Grand Rapids Eastern. I believe it has only two customers, Amway in Ada and King Milling in Lowell. (I'm not aware of any others.) My guess is that Amway receives raw materials by rail on a limited basis but does not ship out finished product by rail. As far as I know, the GRE trundles grain hoppers out to Lowell Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. My question is, do the hoppers bring raw grain to King Milling, or do they take milled grain to a packaging plant somewhere, or both? I'd appreciate any input. Thanks.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 4:07 pm
by AARR
King's receives wheat (maybe something else) but mostly wheat. They don't ship anything out.

Amway gets plastic pellets, liquids for detergent and maybe soda ash.

There is a small plastic plant in Grand Rapids that gets occasional service too.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 5:19 pm
by kd_1014
GRE brings raw grain to King, where it is milled into flour. GRE also has an interchange with the Coopersville and Marne, interchanging loaded centerbeams for Standard Lumber in Walker. Interchange is done just west of Ann St. Yard at the old St. Mary's Cement spur.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:36 pm
by ~Z~
Customer lists with info on what they get can be found in the wiki as well. Scroll down to GRE info: http://railroadfan.com/wiki/index.php/M ... R,_MS,_GRE

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 7:40 am
by railrod1949
~Z~ wrote:Customer lists with info on what they get can be found in the wiki as well. Scroll down to GRE info: http://railroadfan.com/wiki/index.php/M ... R,_MS,_GRE
Is there a google map that show all MM and MS rail customers? If so, please post the map. Where is Groenleer Hardware exactly located in Ferrysburg? Where is Shape Co. and Bay Logistics exactly located in Spring Lake? There are no trackage? Where is Brinks Refinery exactly located in North Muskegon?

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:06 am
by Doktor No
Is there a google map? Try looking in Google Maps!! Groenleer Hardware unloaded in Ferrysburg just west and under US31 but havn't in years as far as I know. They used to get CP hopper fertilizer loads. Brinks is at the old Zephyr tank farm in North Muskegon just across the Muskegon River bridge.
Even try the Consumers Energy outage maps. They show all the rail lines as they exist today.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:05 am
by railrod1949
Doktor No wrote:Is there a google map? Try looking in Google Maps!! Groenleer Hardware unloaded in Ferrysburg just west and under US31 but havn't in years as far as I know. They used to get CP hopper fertilizer loads. Brinks is at the old Zephyr tank farm in North Muskegon just across the Muskegon River bridge.
Even try the Consumers Energy outage maps. They show all the rail lines as they exist today.
Got it! Brinks Refinery (old Zephyr Tank Farm is located on the east side of the MMS trackage and the south side of Holton Road (M-120) in North Muskegon. Bay Logstics and Shape co are in Spring Lake but no trackage. Where exactly in Spring Lake are located? Groenleer Hardware was located on Elm Street west of US-31 in Ferrysburg. Nugent Sand is now at their new location in Berry Junction.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:20 am
by AARR
Shape doesn't have a spur but Bay Logistics does. It's a 5-bay spur with run around track.
railrod1949 wrote:Bay Logstics and Shape co are in Spring Lake but no trackage.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:22 am
by SD80MAC
FWIW, neither Shape nor Bay Logistics currently does anything by rail.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:23 am
by DLM
Bay Logistics is north of Pontaluma Rd. in the big warehouse buildings along tracks. Closer to Norton Shores than Spring Lake.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:34 am
by railrod1949
DLM wrote:Bay Logistics is north of Pontaluma Rd. in the big warehouse buildings along tracks. Closer to Norton Shores than Spring Lake.
Got it! Bay Logstics is on north side of E Pontaluma Road, just west of US-31 in Spring Lake Township.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:56 am
by AARR
When Grand Rapids Press built its new plant in Walker and consolidated operations with several other papers Bay was supposed to get the news print. Around the same time Shape started shipping from the Bay Warehouse and was sending several cars out every day. I don't know what happened but it doesn't seem the news print ever was delivered to Bay by rail.
SD80MAC wrote:FWIW, neither Shape nor Bay Logistics currently does anything by rail.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:27 pm
by Doktor No
Amway also receives tank car loads of a sweetener product that is also labeled as a marine pollutant. Out of Iowa IIRC.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:21 pm
by EWRice
For anybody looking for Bay Logistics, they are in Norton Shores but have a Spring Lake mailing address. That whole area around Pontaluna and Grand Haven Rd is like that. It seems like when Bay was still shipping it averaged 3-5 cars a night. Then it just died. It was fun watching them switch with the loco in between the inbound and outbound cars.

Dok, do you know what the siding was that was just south of Bay? The tracks are long gone but the ties are still there.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:24 pm
by Doktor No
Never been over there EW.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 9:35 am
by chapmaja
EWRice wrote:
Dok, do you know what the siding was that was just south of Bay? The tracks are long gone but the ties are still there.

I'm not Doc, but I think that siding would have been a team track of some sort, or a spur for a single customer that would truck their product to that location then load it because they lacked direct rail access. There are plenty of customers I could see using a team track in that area.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 11:46 am
by Doktor No
There was a Rycynga Lumber and Truss at one time. I have set out more then a few cars there in the 90's. There was another lumber concern right close by that may have also had a siding...whenever I was doing the CannonBall it was late night dark.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 12:27 am
by chapmaja
Doktor No wrote:There was a Rycynga Lumber and Truss at one time. I have set out more then a few cars there in the 90's. There was another lumber concern right close by that may have also had a siding...whenever I was doing the CannonBall it was late night dark.
Rycynga has a facility in Grand Haven, which brings up a question. I thought I recalled that at one time, tracks from the CSX mainline (now Michigan Shore) extended across US31 to the east.

In fact, looking at Google Street view, there is still track in the ground in several locations. This line appears run along Adams St to the east. The switch to this line is still in place just north of Jackson St. per Google Street view.

What was this line and when would it have been take out of service?

I just found another image which shows the tracks ending at what is now Grand Valley Marina. The tracks are still clearly in place in the pavement at the Marina and it appears in the Rycynga property in Grand Haven.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:33 am
by Standard Railfan
chapmaja wrote:
Doktor No wrote:There was a Rycynga Lumber and Truss at one time. I have set out more then a few cars there in the 90's. There was another lumber concern right close by that may have also had a siding...whenever I was doing the CannonBall it was late night dark.
Rycynga has a facility in Grand Haven, which brings up a question. I thought I recalled that at one time, tracks from the CSX mainline (now Michigan Shore) extended across US31 to the east.

In fact, looking at Google Street view, there is still track in the ground in several locations. This line appears run along Adams St to the east. The switch to this line is still in place just north of Jackson St. per Google Street view.

What was this line and when would it have been take out of service?

I just found another image which shows the tracks ending at what is now Grand Valley Marina. The tracks are still clearly in place in the pavement at the Marina and it appears in the Rycynga property in Grand Haven.
In 1920 and probably before and after that year, Eagle Ottawa Leather company stood where the RV park now lies on Beechtree at the end of Fulton.

The Sanborn Insurance map from 1920 shows rail lines into the facility coming from the west. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4114gm.g040211920/?sp=20

Other pages of the same map indicate the siding ran along the ROW of Adams St.

Re: GRE Questions

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:28 am
by SD80MAC
FWIW, the GRE will soon be going to 5 days per week operations.