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I noticed the other day when chasing the Pfizer Coal train through Kzoo what appears to be a couple of older 50 ton hoppers at the end of the former GR&I within the Pfizer plant. They have definitely been there a while and had older Pfizer logos on them. Did Pfizer use to have a fleet of these or were these something they bought for personal use that now sit and rot at the end of the property? Also looks like some older tank cars are there as well unless those have moved.

Pfizer would receive their coal, empty it and pile it in the back of the plant. They would reload the coal into their own Pfizer coal cars and have their own switcher move the cars to the dump pit. This is still the practice AFAIK.

AARR wrote:Pfizer would receive their coal, empty it and pile it in the back of the plant. They would reload the coal into their own Pfizer coal cars and have their own switcher move the cars to the dump pit. This is still the practice AFAIK.

Hmm, wish there was a way to see this. However the cars in question are shoved at the end of the line and don't appear to have moved in a very long time, unless now they don't do this. Wish there was a way to confirm.

Pfizer was averaging 700-800 carloads a year of coal

MQT1223 wrote:I noticed the other day when chasing the Pfizer Coal train through Kzoo what appears to be a couple of older 50 ton hoppers at the end of the former GR&I within the Pfizer plant. They have definitely been there a while and had older Pfizer logos on them. Did Pfizer use to have a fleet of these or were these something they bought for personal use that now sit and rot at the end of the property? Also looks like some older tank cars are there as well unless those have moved.

I checked Google Earth and the are four hoppers sitting at the end of the line near Centre Avenue in every image since 2015. I can see a hopper car spotted just outside the Pfizer power plant in multiple images. My guess is the four cars you saw are "spares".

19 years ago,when I worked there as a contractor, they had 4 privately owned 70T hoppers. I worked in Blg 41 for almost 7 years and I saw them mostly use CR/NS 3 and 4 bay 100T hoppers. They did unload and reload coal into their own hoppers but I never saw them actually placed in or near the Powerhouse.