RailRoadFan.com

I recently moved up to Livonia Michigan back when I was 7. Now I am not 13 I always wondered this question what was railfanning in Plymouth and Livonia Michigan back in the late 1980s and 1990s? Now there is barely 15 trains a day in Plymouth. But I heard that traffic is continuing to go back to its peak with maybe 25 trains a day by 2020.

I'd like to know where you heard that.

Traffic is doing more falling off its peak than climbing up to it right now... Especially on the Michigan CSX.

IDK where you got 25 trains a day in Plymouth in 4 years, would need some big traffic boom.

All you'd need is CP to come back...but let's not turn this into another one of THOSE threads...

Saturnalia wrote:All you'd need is CP to come back...but let's not turn this into another one of THOSE threads...

Lol...

I can give you an idea of 2004-2008 when I hung around there, there were a ton of trains, you had CP trains going from Windsor to Chicago, CSX trains Detroit-Chicago, Coal from Virgina going to West Olive, and grain trains. It wasn't uncommon for me to go out after school and catch 2 or 3 or more trains on the Plymouth sub in an hour or two. The westbound CP trains often had some big new locomotives from EMD in London on the head end, along with a lot of cool freight cars you generally didn't see in Michigan.

I agree with CAT. Plymouth was the place to be in 2007-08. Lots of cool stuff.

Plymouth was indeed a great place between 2007-2010. The 90s was extremely busy up here as well. Back in the late 90s this town saw close to 45 trains a day. The decline here began in 1999 when Buick City closed in Flint, then another big hit was the majority of the CP trains leaving in 2005. Another negative blow was in 2010 when CP removed their final train through here and started cut a few others due to the recession. North of Plymouth is now far busier than west of Plymouth (which is sad, I remember when we complained about the Saginaw Sub being too quiet). There is some decent action still to be seen in Plymouth, but nothing like it was 90s or even 5 years ago. North of Plymouth is still the same volume of trains as it has been since early 2008 and west of Plymouth has been on a steep decline since 2011. I have indeed read that manufacturing is on the rise within the next 4 years due to economic problems in China, rising costs of production, and overseas shipping becoming more expensive, plus the opening of the Panama Canal, anything could be possible in the future for new traffic. Time will tell.

I just hope one day Plymouth Can be Busy again. But I doubt thats going to happen. Everywhere in the United States, trains are declining everywhere especially in Michigan. Back in like 2012 in the hot spots guidebook. Durand said to have 40 CN trains a day 2 Amtraks 1 move from the Huron and Eastern and one more move from the Great Lakes Central. Now its down to 25-30 trains on the CN and not even that sometimes. Very Sad. When I went to the famed UP triple Track in Nebraska back in August 2015. I excepted to be a train every 5 minutes. One day I was railfanning for 2-3 hours and saw only 5 trains. The triple track used to have 130-150 trains a day now its probably down to 50-70 trains a day. I was reading an article in trains magazine about the Declining Coal traffic in the east. It shut down the old Clinch field Railroad so that track is going to go to waste. I just read an article the other day and I was shocked about this: intermodal traffic declining. This is very sad. Well here is the good thing the trains in Fostoria and Deshler and the Chicago line are still going still going strong.

There was talk of a grade separation at Sheldon Road in Plymouth as early as the 1950's but It was probably the increased train traffic in the mid 2000's that pushed the Sheldon Road underpass to happen.

I believe there was still an operator at the Plymouth diamond until the early 90s. I can remember having my scanner on at all hours and hearing trains from all four directions radioing in for instructions, calling signals, and just generally joking with one operator in particular, a woman who's name escapes me right now. Add in communications with the dispatcher in Jacksonville and the Plymouth Yardmaster, and the scanner was seldom quiet. Seems like something was always moving.

The triple track used to have 130-150 trains a day now its probably down to 50-70 trains a day. I was reading an article in trains magazine about the Declining Coal traffic in the east. It shut down the old Clinch field Railroad so that track is going to go to waste. I just read an article the other day and I was shocked about this: intermodal traffic declining.

Reading between the lines here, it is just one more sign that the economy is not doing nearly as well as the government and the media would have you believe. The only reason the unemployment rate has come down is because millions of americans have exhausted their benefits and are no longer on the unemployment roles. Again, reading between the lines, the reason for the big push for $15 an hour for service employees is because those are the only jobs left for americans, and people are going to have to support themselves and their families flipping burgers.

It is all of that wonderful Keynesian economic BS

Cut the business taxes to 25%, scrap all the EPA emissions regulations from the last 6 years, and cut the BS at the Federal Reserve, and we'd easily have economic growth in the 3-5% range.

But instead, Obama, Hillary, Bernie and the rest of the "economic justice" crowd proposes MORE taxes, MORE regulation, and MORE government spending.

Classic liberalism. The answer to their failures is always that we did not go FAR ENOUGH with the taxes, regulations and government spending.