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Once a busy place to find industry and heavy switching is now a thing of the past for CSX, What does Lake States see in these two properties. What about the sidings between Novi and Flint? What does the future hold for them?

I'm certain that just about every bit of spare track us going to be utilized for car storage, if it hasn't already. It's not like there is any real hope of a traffic surge on that line developing from massive amounts of new business.

Lots of covered hoppers stored in Wixom.

Lots of cars stored on the Newark siding north of Holly

Is even the long siding in Clyde/Highland full of storage, or are they leaving that one open?

Back when things were humming, we used ALL of the sidings several times a day to meet trains. The only siding we ever blocked with storage cars (auto racks) was Blackmar. After the siding at Clyde was extended down to Highland, there was a hand-throw electric lock crossover near Wardlow Road near the middle of the siding. (Is it still there??) We had one officer insist that we were going to store some cars on the siding south of the crossover. We did our best to show this would be a disaster, but to no avail. So, a southbound would have to stop at the north end, engineer walk to the phone to get authority to pass the stop indication (no dispatcher radios yet), and then pull down to Wardlow to wait. Then they had to get the unlock on the crossovers, which we discovered would not unlock until the northbound had completely cleared the north end, throw the switches, pull out and line everything back. After a few days of tying up the railroad and trains dying, the cars where moved to one of the branch-line sidings (PH or Elmdale Sub) where they belonged in the first place!

C&O Dispatcher wrote:Back when things were humming, we used ALL of the sidings several times a day to meet trains. The only siding we ever blocked with storage cars (auto racks) was Blackmar. After the siding at Clyde was extended down to Highland, there was a hand-throw electric lock crossover near Wardlow Road near the middle of the siding. (Is it still there??) We had one officer insist that we were going to store some cars on the siding south of the crossover. We did our best to show this would be a disaster, but to no avail. So, a southbound would have to stop at the north end, engineer walk to the phone to get authority to pass the stop indication (no dispatcher radios yet), and then pull down to Wardlow to wait. Then they had to get the unlock on the crossovers, which we discovered would not unlock until the northbound had completely cleared the north end, throw the switches, pull out and line everything back. After a few days of tying up the railroad and trains dying, the cars where moved to one of the branch-line sidings (PH or Elmdale Sub) where they belonged in the first place!

Per Google Maps, no crossover on the Clyde siding.

chapmaja wrote: Per Google Maps, no crossover on the Clyde siding.

No crossover at Clyde shown on the 1995 company-sanctioned Beavers Maps either

atrainguy60 wrote:Is even the long siding in Clyde/Highland full of storage, or are they leaving that one open?

Nothing sitting in Clyde siding as of yet and the last time I was by Grand Blanc yard, most if not all of it had been ripped out.

Weren't these yards primarily set up for use in the automotive industry when things were good? If they were primarily used for one function then besides storage what wouldn't keep Lake State from removing any of the track?

I was just by there (Grand Blanc) yard the other day and as far as i can see the track is still there. You can see the yard from Reid rd.

MQT1223 wrote:Weren't these yards primarily set up for use in the automotive industry when things were good? If they were primarily used for one function then besides storage what wouldn't keep Lake State from removing any of the track?

The lease may preclude such a move.

DaveO wrote:

MQT1223 wrote:Weren't these yards primarily set up for use in the automotive industry when things were good? If they were primarily used for one function then besides storage what wouldn't keep Lake State from removing any of the track?

The lease may preclude such a move.

That was my other thought. If such a thing is included in the lease would Lake State have to consult CSX to remove track?

MQT1223 wrote:

DaveO wrote:

MQT1223 wrote:Weren't these yards primarily set up for use in the automotive industry when things were good? If they were primarily used for one function then besides storage what wouldn't keep Lake State from removing any of the track?

The lease may preclude such a move.

That was my other thought. If such a thing is included in the lease would Lake State have to consult CSX to remove track?

I would imagine they’d have to get CSX’s permission before doing any changes or deletions in this case to the physical plant like that. It would kind of be like leasing a sedan and removing the roof because you wanted a convertible... the dealer would be none too happy if you went and did that without permission.

The lease may actually go as far as CSX paying for track repairs and Maintanance while Lake State handles all operations. One would think the savings on labor, fuel and the like would offset the track maintenance costs by a fair bit.