AARR wrote:Quite a few small customers. The big one was the lime place by Sand Lake-Pierson. Received 400-500 cars annually. There was a paper mill just north of Comstock that received/shipped quite a few cars. A scrap paper company started up around 1980ish and loaded at a team track in Howard City around 8 cars a week. Wolverine had a couple plants north of Grand Rapids. I think they received chemicals and shipped out leather bales. A smattering of small lumber yards, grain elevators, oil dealers, etc.
North of Cadillac the big customer (besides the ferry traffic) was the gas plant south of Kalkaska that open around 1978ish. They were switched 3-5x per week. A Cadillac Local would switch them.
After they acquired the Chessie lines Traverse City had the cherry plant, scrap yard and lumber dealer. MIGN would head to TC 3-5 times per week.
Then the line to Petoskey had Petoskey Plastics and Petoskey Gas. Service about once a week with PP getting 1-2 and PG 1.
I'll take a look at my notes (which includes information from Ben Higdon) and see if anything else is worth posting.
i995impalass wrote:Good info. Correct me if wrong, but didn't the MIGN operate Alma to Frankfort at one point also?
AARR wrote: ferry traffic ended in April of 1982 so nothing there for MIGN. There were other customers on the Alma-Frankfort segment.
Pixl wrote:I used to see a car or two spoted at Pet Foods in Frankfort. I think this was even after the ferry service was closed.
Posted by TC John on 11/13/2019, 3:28 pm
Traverse City also had a customer by the name of Burwood- they received hoppers of plastic pellets. They remained a customer of TSBY into the 90's or early 2000's (Parson's Road on the Williamsburg branch). They made clocks and such. Also another customer along Woodmere Avenue (name escapes me- they are still in business today) received an occasional box car of animal feed. Square Deal may be the name. GLC removed the switch several years ago. Also, Wicke's Lumber in Grawn received box cars and center beam loads.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests