Cannot speak for the Holly sub, but the MTC sub was about as close as you can get to becoming a trail in 1990. I had the opportunity to interview the late Gerald Maas, who was the president of the Grand Trunk Corp., and he said that all of the necessary paper work had been prepared to abandon everything north of Gillen Yard (MP 11.67) to Tappan. It was about this time that the early plans for the new Port Huron tunnel were being solidified and that, of course, is what saved the line from oblivion. They surely wiped their collective brows when they realized just how close they came to making a monumental error.ConrailDetroit wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:22 pmWhat was the reason for spinoff of the Holly in the 90s? Back then with strong auto business from GM Pontiac, GM Poletown, loaded Coal in both directions, and overall more business in southeast Michigan, etc.
Word is the Mt Clemens Sub was nearly abandoned from Nolan to Richmond in the early 90s with only a few trains and a local and existing traffic going to the Romeo Sub before that was gone.
Somewhere, in a dark corner, I still have that interview on a cassette tape - need to dig it out and refresh the complete facts !
Man o' War