Greenville, Ionia, and other Misc questions

[Saturnalia]

Looking east from the Ashley Rd. crossing:

Looks like another RR rooler coaster

[pudgy]

A couple more shots of the first siding, taken in April of 2008:

Looking northeast from 4 mile Rd:



Looking east from the Ashley Rd. crossing:

Now, is this section of track still in place, or is this part of what was removed in 2010?

[GrandTrunkFan]

I dont think its the same one JT, but have been wondering about that one you posted pics of lately. Studying pictures has got me thinking, and my girlfriend grew up in Belding and showed me where that siding was. But There is another siding in Belding Ive wondered about. Do you know what siding is in this picture? Says north of Belding, but dont know the location or why it has boxes on it.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 732&nseq=0

[Mark F]

Does anyone know how the guy managed to build a house about 5 years ago on the rail corridor just north of Elmdale? The address is 6171 Montcalm Rd. If you go to the Kent County Parcel information web site there is no history of the railroad ever selling him this parcel. It is holding up several hundred thousand dollars in grant money to preserve the corridor and build a trail.

[Raildudes dad]

Does anyone know how the guy managed to build a house about 5 years ago on the rail corridor just north of Elmdale? The address is 6171 Montcalm Rd. If you go to the Kent County Parcel information web site there is no history of the railroad ever selling him this parcel. It is holding up several hundred thousand dollars in grant money to preserve the corridor and build a trail.

My understanding is a township FUBAR but I haven't dug into the story.

Dug a little deeper this morning, quit claim to this dude from a dude in CA. No apparent deed from the RR. Could get quite interesting.

Walk up and tell him thanks for the new trail office

[J T]

I dont think its the same one JT, but have been wondering about that one you posted pics of lately. Studying pictures has got me thinking, and my girlfriend grew up in Belding and showed me where that siding was. But There is another siding in Belding Ive wondered about. Do you know what siding is in this picture? Says north of Belding, but dont know the location or why it has boxes on it.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 732&nseq=0

That torn up siding in that picture looks somewhat familiar, but I don't think I documented it with photos like I did with other locations along the line. I have a really vague memory of seeing it...perhaps Jon Hall can add something. He and I followed the line together to get pics of #24 on one of its last journeys to G-ville.

[J T]

Does anyone know how the guy managed to build a house about 5 years ago on the rail corridor just north of Elmdale? The address is 6171 Montcalm Rd. If you go to the Kent County Parcel information web site there is no history of the railroad ever selling him this parcel. It is holding up several hundred thousand dollars in grant money to preserve the corridor and build a trail.

Has it really been more than 5+ years since the ripped out the rail? It doesn't seem like it. And it also seems like it would have taken at least a year or two to have a house in that location post-rail. It hasn't really been 6-7 years, has it?? I guess they were right when they said time goes by quicker the older you get.

Does anyone know how the guy managed to build a house about 5 years ago on the rail corridor just north of Elmdale? The address is 6171 Montcalm Rd. If you go to the Kent County Parcel information web site there is no history of the railroad ever selling him this parcel. It is holding up several hundred thousand dollars in grant money to preserve the corridor and build a trail.

My understanding is a township FUBAR but I haven't dug into the story.

Dug a little deeper this morning, quit claim to this dude from a dude in CA. No apparent deed from the RR. Could get quite interesting.

Walk up and tell him thanks for the new trail office

I often wonder why people build houses on old RR ROWs. Don't they know that some day a ghost train is going to come and blast right through their house??

[J T]

Does anyone know how the guy managed to build a house about 5 years ago on the rail corridor just north of Elmdale? The address is 6171 Montcalm Rd. If you go to the Kent County Parcel information web site there is no history of the railroad ever selling him this parcel. It is holding up several hundred thousand dollars in grant money to preserve the corridor and build a trail.

Has it really been more than 5+ years since the ripped out the rail? It doesn't seem like it. And it also seems like it would have taken at least a year or two to have a house in that location post-rail. It hasn't really been 6-7 years, has it?? I guess they were right when they said time goes by quicker the older you get.

I AM getting old too fast....

PIcs taken in November of 2004, and the rails came up shortly after that.

This is looking south about mile north of Elmdale:



And looking north:

[Raildudes dad]

Seems the township put that parcel up for back taxes. Not sure how they did that since RR's pay their property taxes to the state. Some guy in CA bought the parcel and then sold it to the neighbor who built a house on it. It appears to be a real mess.

[J T]

Seems the township put that parcel up for back taxes. Not sure how they did that since RR's pay their property taxes to the state. Some guy in CA bought the parcel and then sold it to the neighbor who built a house on it. It appears to be a real mess.

Do you know if the homeowner has been made aware of this situation? Would have been nice to see a bike trail from Elmdale to Lowell.

[Raildudes dad]

Seems the township put that parcel up for back taxes. Not sure how they did that since RR's pay their property taxes to the state. Some guy in CA bought the parcel and then sold it to the neighbor who built a house on it. It appears to be a real mess.

Do you know if the homeowner has been made aware of this situation? Would have been nice to see a bike trail from Elmdale to Lowell.

Don't know, just got involved last week. The trail will happen, this isn't a trail stopper

[GrandTrunkFan]

Does anyone know how St. Croix Valley 104 came to be in Greenville? Was it moved up by rail with its wheelsets still in place or was it on a flatcar and offloaded? Was it scrapped on site when MMRR abandoned the line?

[Raildudes dad]

Does anyone know how St. Croix Valley 104 came to be in Greenville? Was it moved up by rail with its wheelsets still in place or was it on a flatcar and offloaded? Was it scrapped on site when MMRR abandoned the line?

Pretty sure it came by rail, can't remember if they ever used it. It was scrapped on site.

[GrandTrunkFan]

Does anyone know how St. Croix Valley 104 came to be in Greenville? Was it moved up by rail with its wheelsets still in place or was it on a flatcar and offloaded? Was it scrapped on site when MMRR abandoned the line?

Pretty sure it came by rail, can't remember if they ever used it. It was scrapped on site.

Thats something I wonder myself. Id like to model it, but want to use it a little bit. Maybe make a working model and a torn up one for a scenery object.

[Raildudes dad]

Does anyone know how St. Croix Valley 104 came to be in Greenville? Was it moved up by rail with its wheelsets still in place or was it on a flatcar and offloaded? Was it scrapped on site when MMRR abandoned the line?

Pretty sure it came by rail, can't remember if they ever used it. It was scrapped on site.

Thats something I wonder myself. Id like to model it, but want to use it a little bit. Maybe make a working model and a torn up one for a scenery object.

Seems to me IIRC, they got it and used the trucks on another engine. The 104 sat on blocking for quite a while.

[amtrak1007]

As seen in this RP entry


http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=232247

[SD80MAC]

104 was a parts source for MMRR 24, IIRC.

[J T]

As seen in this RP entry


http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=232247

I took almost the same exact shot a year or so before that one. I love how it looked like the unit was floating.

Here's mine:

[GrandTrunkFan]

Went to the show in Saline this morning and purchased this picture. Written on the back is "MMRR 24 GP9 Ionia, MI 7-29-02". I bought the picture because, if Im not misteaken, the red flatcars that are somewhat visible, are from the company that puts on the Ionia Free Fair. Makes sense since the fair is from the very end of July to the beginning of August, if the date is right.


I also know theres a video on Youtube showing the whole fair train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgULq0j ... 1353880378

I was wondering though, where did they keep the flatcars and how were they unloaded in Ionia? How long did they bring the fair equipment into Ionia by rail? Any more pics exist of the fair train in Ionia? Im suprised this train didnt get the same amount of attention the circus train does when it comes to GR. I woulda gone out to catch it if I knew about it at the time.

[Lestoo]

I was in Ionia for the loading of some of the fair train in 2002.I finally got the pictures that I took with my old Vietnam war Nikon F uploaded. Lighting was tricky and I was more or less guessing on meter readings. I had another camera, but these are the only pictures I have due to some malfunction with the other camera.

The loading ramp car was by the old K-mart location on Steele Street. They staged in the Save-a Lot/closed K-Mart parking lot and then loaded on the main. Extra ballast was dumped to make a better ramp area. That extra ballast is still there. The flats were in three cuts going east. The passenger equipment was clear down by Jackson Street. People who worked the fair were walking and taking cars and carts back and forth half way across town. The Mid-Michigan engine from Greenville was sitting there on the cut they were loading.

The video at Saranac that early morning was mine. I would have loved to have followed the train to Ionia and spent the morning watching and filming them arriving and unloading. Unfortunately, I had a big day at work that started at 8:00 A.M. and i had spent all night by Ann Street watching and shooting video. I saw the train pass through Clarksville west bound in the evening, a bit before dark. I left shortly after for GR. There was a small crowd there in the early darkness hours, but they slowly departed until it was just me. Lots of time was spent shifting cars. they had to cross the river to Wye the ramp car for Ionia. Finally, they left for Ionia around 4:00. I tried video a couple of other places, but there was too little light surrounding the train, even for my night veiw Sony. At last, just as the first color of the pending sunrise was emerging, I got the location in Saranac to work for me. As bad as i wanted to continue to Ionia, I went home and got an hour of sleep and went to work.

I had a hunch this might have been a one time deal. I had hoped not. But I was really kind of expecting more guys to chase the train all over Michigan. There was a few cameras here or there, but no swarms of train fans with cameras.

-Les