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Flint aerial, 1967

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:28 pm
by Steve B
From the USGS Explorer Site. This shows the Dort Hwy. plants of AC Spark Plug, with the C&O beltline running along the right side of the picture, crossing the GTW old main towards the bottom, with Kearsley Tower in the southeast diamond quadrant. Quite a change from the vacant wasteland that's there now.

Re: Flint aerial, 1967

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:24 am
by jimnorthwood
Thanks for sharing this, Steve B. About two years after this photograph was taken one of those warehouses on the "new" C&O main became the home of a business that was owned by my uncle. He bought the warehouse specifically because he wanted rail access. His business wasn't a big user of rail service, but they did use it occasionally. One day his business partner happened to wander to the back of their property, and noticed that the switch to their siding had been removed. My uncle called what was by then CSX, and they told him that they were pulling siding switches for customers that didn't generate sufficient business to justify the cost of maintaining the switch. When my uncle protested CSX said "sue us." He didn't bother, as his business didn't use rail sufficiently to justify the cost of possible legal action. My uncle retired and sold the business a few years later. It only lasted a couple of years under the new owner, before folding.

Re: Flint aerial, 1967

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 1:02 pm
by Steve B
(Concentrating future replies on old Flint on this thread, better spot for it than the general board)
That's interesting to hear, jimnorthwood, about your uncle's warehouse. So it's nothing new for railroads abruptly pulling out switches when the cost isn't justified. Tonight I'll probably post another couple of aerial shots, including of the C&O north of Davision Rd. Many spurs on that stretch. I think I-475 downtown opened in 1981. For many years it was unfinished between Court St. and N. Saginaw St. The wretched condition of the Stevenson St. crossing reminds me of the CSX Carpenter Rd. crossing. It was always horrible, don't know how it is now. After GTW severed its old main downtown, it pulled back to the west riverbank. By the mid-1980s it had cut back to Grand Traverse St., and that remained in use until the end of Delphi West service.

I certainly wish I knew what the occasional group of hopper cars west of the N. Kearsley diamond was for. Sometimes they were parked just east of it, too. The CSX line was built in 1922. As the junior road, maybe it was responsible for diamond maintenance and that's why GTW was in no hurry to remove it. I have no idea. I don't even know if after removing Franklin to Dort circa 1988, GTW ever again used the NW quadrant wye to serve AC. But, that had to have been the only reason the diamond was kept. The switch to James Lumber was torn out when the line was cut back to the west side of Dort.