The Elmdale Sub Thread

Any historical questions can be posted here. Answers would certainly help as well :)
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MQT1223
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The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by MQT1223 »

Lately I have had some interest in the once mighty Elmdale Sub and I was hoping that some people on here would be able to provide some answers for me since a huge chunk of the Elmdale Sub was removed when I moved to this side of the state in 2007.

When were the tracks from Lowell to Elmdale removed? Does CSX still own the ROW or does the Mid Michigan? Did CSX use the line for anything besides car storage?

When was the through track that took the line through Malta removed? As far as I can tell, the way the GRE accesses Lowell was built after CSX quit going into Lowell and instead ended at the small interchange yard just west of Malta. A pair of relay cases still stand before and near the former junction.

How different would've things been if the line reached its intended target of Hastings instead of ending at Freeport? Would Saginaw to Hastings have been a major rail corridor for a period of time?

More questions to come later...
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by SD80MAC »

The tracks were removed between Lowell and Elmdale in 2003-2004. They had been used for car storage for years before that. After Railtex got the GRE from the Central Michigan, it didn't make sense to have two interchanges with CSX, so all the interchange from the GRE and MMRR was shifted to Grand Rapids. Sometime not long after (perhaps at the same time) the track was torn up, the junction at Malta was reconfigured to its present layout, though the diamond may have been removed before then. Before the redo, MMRR would pull south across the diamond and back into the yard to interchange with GRE.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by BDG »

MQT1223 wrote:Does CSX still own the ROW or does the Mid Michigan?
Answers can be found here:
http://gis.kentcountymi.gov/public/publ ... index.html

MMRR owns the line from Elmdale to Lowell, except one parcel near Elmdale where a house was built. North of Foreman St. in Lowell was sold to the DNR.

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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by MQT1223 »

Does anyone have any historical records/photos or anything of the sort as to when the old Lowell and Hastings Enginehouse was last used and knocked down? There was a small enginehouse and turntable located in between the interchange track and the mainline south of Grand River Ave.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by wyrickj »

It shows the interchange track still belongs to CSX but the rest to MMRR. Why would CSX only own that part still? Is the country records wrong?
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by Mark F »

I thought that some of the tracks were still in place about 2006. I know that the car storage ended and most of the tracks were pulled after a cut of cars got loose and derailed at Grand River and Segwun.

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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

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Mark F wrote:I thought that some of the tracks were still in place about 2006. I know that the car storage ended and most of the tracks were pulled after a cut of cars got loose and derailed at Grand River and Segwun.
Those railcars got loose in May of 2000. http://lowellledger.kdl.org/The%20Lowel ... 4-2000.pdf

Up until the most recent resurfacing of Segwun at Grand River Dr. (not sure what year), you could still see the "scars" in the road surface from the wheels of the boxcar that rolled across it.
SD80MAC wrote:The tracks were removed between Lowell and Elmdale in 2003-2004.
I'd say a bit later than that. I swear I took this pic in the fall of 2004:
GrandRiverOverpass.jpg
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by J T »

A couple pics of the cars being stored near Hilltop. These would have been taken in the winter of 00/01.
MontcalmRoad-1.jpg
MontcalmRoad-2.jpg
The second photo is on the north side of I-96. I was parked right near the overpass for that shot.
Last edited by J T on Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

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MQT1223 wrote: Does CSX still own the ROW or does the Mid Michigan?
There's a guy who thinks he owns part of the ROW in Elmdale. He even built a house smack dab in the middle of it. :lol:

Oops, that's not right...
elmdaleROW.jpg
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by MQT1223 »

J T wrote:
MQT1223 wrote: Does CSX still own the ROW or does the Mid Michigan?
There's a guy who thinks he owns part of the ROW in Elmdale. He even built a house smack dab in the middle of it. :lol:

Oops, that's not right...
elmdaleROW.jpg
Yeah I've heard this is weird thing here. What's the deal on this?
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

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Word on the street is that he filed a quitclaim deed and built his house there. It was Ionia county and they have no zoning or land use planning (or due diligence at the court house) so no one objected to the quit claim and he built his house. Shouldn't have happened but it did. At least that's how story gets told around here. Maybe somebody else knows otherwise or its just a bunch of BS. Either way from what I understand he basically no more than a squatter that officials have turned a blind eye to. Probably wouldn't have happened in lets say Kent, Eaton, Ottawa, or most other counties in Michigan.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by BDG »

Jetlink wrote:Word on the street is that he filed a quitclaim deed and built his house there. It was Ionia county and they have no zoning or land use planning (or due diligence at the court house) so no one objected to the quit claim and he built his house. Shouldn't have happened but it did. At least that's how story gets told around here. Maybe somebody else knows otherwise or its just a bunch of BS. Either way from what I understand he basically no more than a squatter that officials have turned a blind eye to. Probably wouldn't have happened in lets say Kent, Eaton, Ottawa, or most other counties in Michigan.
The property is in Kent county according to the GIS link I posted above.

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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by Doktor No »

According to the Kent County Road Commission map I have the north/south street thru Elmdale is the dividing line. The house is in, according to the map, Ionia County by many feets....feets I say. Technically the divider would be in the middle of the road right of way. So it SHOULD BE well within Ionia County.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by Raildudes dad »

Pretty sure the county dividing line is the tree line to the east of the house. Both the road and tracks lay west of the county line. A lot of the ROW lies just west of the county line in Kent.

Somehow the parcel got on the Kent County delinquent tax sale - that should not have happened but it did. Bought by an investor in California, flipped to the property owner just to the east in Ionia County. Should never have been able to get a building permit IMHO because Bowne township should have known it was RR property. Township shouldn't have let it get sold the first time.

I have looked at he title work summary for the proposed sale from MMRR to the DNR. The original deeds for this line have lots of issues like the description of a parcel has the town and range wrong so the property described is not on the corridor.

The sale to the DNR was imminent until G&W bought RA. New lawyers, new requirements that the State could meet. (My employer was helping Kent County Parks help the DNR acquire the corridor for trail purposes)

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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

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If I were the railroad/county I'd demand he pay up for being a squatter or I'll come and demo it :D
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by Jetlink »

Raildudes dad wrote:Pretty sure the county dividing line is the tree line to the east of the house. Both the road and tracks lay west of the county line. A lot of the ROW lies just west of the county line in Kent.

Somehow the parcel got on the Kent County delinquent tax sale - that should not have happened but it did. Bought by an investor in California, flipped to the property owner just to the east in Ionia County. Should never have been able to get a building permit IMHO because Bowne township should have known it was RR property. Township shouldn't have let it get sold the first time.

I have looked at he title work summary for the proposed sale from MMRR to the DNR. The original deeds for this line have lots of issues like the description of a parcel has the town and range wrong so the property described is not on the corridor.

The sale to the DNR was imminent until G&W bought RA. New lawyers, new requirements that the State could meet. (My employer was helping Kent County Parks help the DNR acquire the corridor for trail purposes)
This sounds like the most amount of truth yet. Way more believable than the local coffee shop talk. Thanks RDD. So in your opinion what should or will be the likely eventual disposition of the property?
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

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Raildudes dad wrote:
The sale to the DNR was imminent until G&W bought RA. New lawyers, new requirements that the State could meet. (My employer was helping Kent County Parks help the DNR acquire the corridor for trail purposes)

Interesting so is the state still going to purchase it in the end? Sounds like a lot of red tape to go through just for something that's not used anymore. What's the hold up to being able to purchase it? I would not mind making it my backyard hah
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by MQT1223 »

The house still could get removed in case of say eminent domain or other things couldn't it?
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by trnwatcher »

Was doing some snooping today and found my July 1957 C&O RR Stations and Junctions book. This line is shown as the Saginaw Division -Saginaw to Elmdale line. Elmdale is shown as the junction with another sub-division listed in this book. Malta is shown as a station on the RR but no junction, siding or agent. Lowell is listed as the junction with another RR as well as having a station manned with an agent. I was always under the impression that Malta was the tower at the crossing with the GTW and that Lowell was the stop at the actual depot closer to town. By 1957 the C&O apparently didn't consider Malta more than a point on the RR nor did they consider it the actual junction with the GTW. I wonder if that was due to the fact the GTW would have actually controlled the crossing.
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Re: The Elmdale Sub Thread

Unread post by Raildudes dad »

Jetlink wrote:
Raildudes dad wrote:Pretty sure the county dividing line is the tree line to the east of the house. Both the road and tracks lay west of the county line. A lot of the ROW lies just west of the county line in Kent.

Somehow the parcel got on the Kent County delinquent tax sale - that should not have happened but it did. Bought by an investor in California, flipped to the property owner just to the east in Ionia County. Should never have been able to get a building permit IMHO because Bowne township should have known it was RR property. Township shouldn't have let it get sold the first time.

I have looked at he title work summary for the proposed sale from MMRR to the DNR. The original deeds for this line have lots of issues like the description of a parcel has the town and range wrong so the property described is not on the corridor.

The sale to the DNR was imminent until G&W bought RA. New lawyers, new requirements that the State could meet. (My employer was helping Kent County Parks help the DNR acquire the corridor for trail purposes)
This sounds like the most amount of truth yet. Way more believable than the local coffee shop talk. Thanks RDD. So in your opinion what should or will be the likely eventual disposition of the property?
G&W wants some type indemnification that state cannot currently give per state law. The legislature has to change the law which the DNR would like to have happen. There's room in the road ROW to get past the house.

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