I began my adventure with a full tank of gas and departure from Ypsilanti at 0700. The sun was up by the western border of Saline and I was on my way! US-12 is a beautiful ride in the early morning.
I arrived at Hillsdale at about 0815. I noted a few Coldwater cars on the scale pocket track behind the Burger King on M-99, in addition to the usual assortment of storage cars on the yard tracks there. At the yard office, I found “Ugly Duckling” GP7u #1500 tied together with GP30 #2185. A crew was just starting the former Reading 30 up as I passed. Also present near the office was GP10 #1073, which returned to service in October. GP9 #1770 has been moved farther east in the yard, and in addition to GP9 #1603 and the hulk of GP30M #4216, there was quite the assortment of power around town today. I went to McDonald’s for some breakfast while keeping an eye through the front windows toward the yard tracks.
As I returned to my car with a nice warm coffee in hand (at sunup it was 9 degrees), I heard a P5 in the distance. I found the crew had uncoupled #2185 from the 1500 and was spotting a cut of three AEX open-top hopper cars north of the pocket track. I think these were cars that had been in storage. The crew then wyed the 2185 and brought it back behind the King, where they tied on to the Coldwater cars. At first I thought they were going to make a run to Coldwater, but then they tied on to the AEX cars too, and were now pointed toward the state line and Montpelier. I got out of town ahead of them to start chasing them south. The Coldwater cars were all from Darling, including 2 covered hoppers and 4 tankcars for tallow. Plus the three AEX cars from Hillsdale and they had 9 to take with them.
My first stop was at the S-curve south of Bankers. I’ve wanted to stop here before but this was my first successful attempt at getting a photo here. While stopped there I ran into a friendly INER crew who were going to repair a separated joint near the crossing. We discussed Nikon camera bodies and lenses while waiting for the train. It’s so nice to be able to talk with friendly railroad employees and not feel like you’re going to be run out of town. They informed me that not only was this train going south today, but there was a northbound underway from Edon, OH with 40 something cars for Reading and Hillsdale. They indicated that grain has really been moving and in general the INER has had several very busy months. After a successful pair of photos here, my next stop was Reading. The Andersons sidings were empty, and I caught the train at the M-49 crossing on the south side of town. The chase was on! The INER goes at a pretty decent clip from there south to the state line, and on the never-parallel roads of southern Michigan, even at highway speed I kept just barely missing them at every crossing. Which is still fine by me!
S curve south of Bankers
S curve closeup
Crossing a creek near Montgomery
I crossed into Indiana and caught them just south of Ray, at the E 750N crossing. While waiting for the train, an Indiana Conservation Officer stopped to see what I was doing. Again, so nice to have a pleasant conversation rather than being hassled. He took off just before the train passed me. With the train going slower in Indiana, I easily beat them to Fremont. It appears the old 76 ball in that town will outlast the venerable Co-op grain silos which are such a prominent fixture along the track. The demo equipment is already being staged. I also noted lots of covered hoppers at the industry just south of SR120 (is this the plastics place?).
At the E 750N crossing south of Ray
Passing the soon-to-be-gone elevators at Fremont
The train came by me and I was able to capture a last view of it with the soon-to-be-done grain elevator as a backdrop. This is the first time I’ve not seen them work Fremont. I was expecting to chase them farther into Indiana to the point where they would meet the northbound train. But as the 2185 passed me going south, I was surprised to see the northbound coming under the toll road bridge far in the distance! The meet was happening right here at Fremont.
Southbound 2185 in the siding meeting northbound 2230, 1601 and 1602 with a mixed freight
The 2185 and train backed into the spur track just south of town to let the northbound roll through. This proved to be quite a good sized train, 48 cars, led by the remainder of the INER’s active roster: GP30 #2230, GP7 #1601, and GP9 #1602. My mind had to completely reset to think about places which would be good for northbound photos in the morning. I got a couple photos of them crossing SR-827 in Fremont before capturing a video of the train crossing SR-120 on the north side of town. Then the chase was on (again)! I beat them up to the E 750N crossing again, beside the historic Duquid homestead of 1836, where I was able to use the zoom to capture them coming through the fields, before tearing off again and crossing back into Michigan. My next stop was just north of the border, at Duquid Road, where I was able to see them descending and ascending the hill there on their northward climb. I just beat them to Wigent Road, another favorite place of mine, for a curve sequence.
At the SR-827 crossing in Fremont
High hoods in consist
Back at E 750N, this time northbound
Grinding up the hill at Duquid Road
Grain hoppers still coming around the curve
Approaching the curve at Wigent Road
Video INER leaving Fremont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK5-ZuOavbM
The train arrived into Reading at around 1115. I watched while they cut off the power and spotted the 1602 at the elevator. As the sun was creeping across the sky, I realized that the photo opportunities were limited at best for a northbound through mid-day. I could have waited to watch them set off the grain cars and then continue north with the Hillsdale portion, but I elected to end my INER chase here and continue westward. Still, it seemed likely that the INER would run to Coldwater today, as I had seen them do in the past. I decided that if I could not find the MSO, which normally runs Mon-Wed-Fri, then I would head back east on 12 to see if I could find them.
Going west along US-12, I checked in on Sun-Gro Industries at Quincy, a shipper on the Old Road. They had two covered hoppers on their siding, an ATSF one at the unloader, and a BN airslide out near the main in full Cascade dress. Rolling stock wise, this is perhaps my favorite industry on the INER. They always get covered hoppers from the BNSF, and they’re almost always still in BN or Santa Fe paint. Star of the West in Quincy had several tankcars, a pair of covered hoppers, and a pair of gondolas on their siding.
After a lunch stop in Coldwater, I continued west. I checked in on the historic 4-way GE traffic signals in Coldwater, and then made a spur-of-the-moment detour off the highway to Burr Oak for another old traffic signal check-in. Burr Oak is home to the last remaining single-bulb W.S. Darley Company 4-way porthole beacon left operating in the state, a real rare light from ca. 1928! I had never actually seen this little relic, so I decided to find him, presiding over this very silent little town. In the process, I’m sad to report that the road commission has done chip-and-seal road resurfacing at at least two crossings in town and paved right over the out-of-service part of the Old Road. This could certainly be undone, but it’s just one more nail in the coffin for this portion of the line.
Video of ca. 1920s Darley signal doing its thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F3mpZV2nik
My next stop was at Sturgis, the home of voice legend Tom Bodett, now looking for the MSO. When I was last here in December, the sidings in Sturgis were packed full of storage cars and boxcars for International Paper. Today, only a few storage cars were present, and no boxcars were to be seen. No cars were present at the International Paper loading dock on the south side of the building, along the Old Road. Absolutely no sign of the MSO here. I continued on to White Pigeon. The first thing I noticed about White Pigeon was that it too was devoid of most storage cars. In December there had to be nearly 2 dozen boxcars in lines which were all of the type which go to International Paper. This day there was a single car. Only a few other covered hoppers and tankcars were scattered on the various tracks in town. I spied the Alco RS3m #7804 still outside the shop near the depot where it had been in December, and of course the RS2u #466 and S2 #66 still dead at the west end of the yard. I also found the real MSO, chugging east through town. Knowing that they don’t “cruise” very fast on their mainline, I decided to take a circle loop around the west side of town. 1 slurry tankcar was present at the unloading track for White Pigeon Paper. It appears there really is a transload operation going on on the old north leg of the wye, NW of the MSO engine house. Three covered hoppers were parked on its length, one with an unloading conveyor parked beside it. I’m not sure what they’re transloading here. This is the site where the lumber used to be cut up. At the end of this track is MSO’s old cupola caboose.
I jumped on US-131 to see if there were any interchange cars present at White Pigeon Junction. Which there were: two covered hoppers and two 50’ boxcars, one of them a red CP Rail car. I don’t understand this interchange. I’ve seen the Grand Elk set off cars here in addition to ones that are already on this track, but the MSO goes to Sturgis without getting any of them. Maybe these were cars which the MSO had just put out for the GDLK to pickup, but this is a westbound trailing switch, which the Grand Elk works on their southbound run with job 501. Today they were working in White Pigeon but didn’t bother to retrieve the interchange cars either. Who knows. I also took a look at that new place just west of the junction that gets reefer cars – but there were none parked on their siding. I went back over to the yard and found the MSO completing their train – two tankcars and a single 63’ NS hi-cube boxcar. I almost didn’t notice the new unit leading the train – PREX GP16 #1616! This is the one that came over from the West Michigan RR back in December sometime. Last time I saw the MSO around Christmas they were still using the GP9 #907, and the 1616 was nowhere to be seen. Now I found the 1616 and the 907 was nowhere to be found. Nevermind the unaccounted for presence of RS3 #977, and the recent reappearance of RS3m #7804. THIS LINE MAKES NO SENSE. Either way, they took off toward Sturgis and I was in slow pursuit.
Building the train at White Pigeon Yard
Profile crossing Kalamazoo Street on the way toward Sturgis
At the Huff Road crossing eastbound
Video of MSO eastbound at Huff Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKejghts0iI
There aren’t many crossings that are good for shooting eastbounds on this segment of the Old Road, but I did manage to get shots of them at Huff Road and again at White School Road. I took some photos of them switching beside the restored Sturgis depot, while they ran around the boxcar, then set off around the NW wye with tankcars leading, then the 1616, then the boxcar. They left the boxcar on the “mainline” and went into Abbot to switch. I wasted some time until they returned south with one tankcar. Then they switched International Paper. They may have only had one boxcar to setoff, but they picked up 4 of them!: All 50’ standard size boxcars, which run the full length of the unloading track inside the building. Two of these were NS cars, one had EEC reporting marks, and one was still lettered for the Southern, with “Super Cushion Service” lettering on each side. The 1616 then shoved the whole train back around the wye over to the yard, where they assembled their train to take west. Since Sturgis Iron & Metal closed, I think there are only a couple places that still get service – very occasional service – on the old PRR going south from town. It’s too bad.
Rearranging at Sturgis
Shoving carefully around the wye toward Abbot
Having picked up 4 empties from IP (boxcars behind locomotive), 1616 sets off one boxcar in the loading dock
They picked up two additional tankcars and departed to the west, with three tankcars and the four boxcars total. I caught them again at White School Road. I then made my way east back down US-12, stopping in Coldwater, where I found the INER had in fact ran a Coldwater Turn, as the 2230 was tied down near the depot. No sign of the 1601 or cars from the morning train. No matter. It was a great success of a day that was full of awesome first and second-generation EMD road power! And I also got to check out the architecture of quite a few small town post offices. Once again, a tip of my hat to the INER track crew and Indiana Conservation Officer who improved my railfanning day!
1616, heading home at White School Road
Car consist back to White Pigeon. That's all folks!!
