Michigan Rail Business news

Anything pertaining to railfanning in Michigan.
1TrackMind
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by 1TrackMind »

Doktor No wrote:
SD80MAC wrote:Carbon Green Bio Energy in Woodbury is going to be receiving corn in 25 car blocks from Wisconsin via WSOR-BRC-CSX. Sounds like this should become a fairly regular occurrence, look for the first block sometime this week on Q326.
Sooo Carbon Green sits in the midst of Michigan corn country and buys from Wisconsin AND ships it here by rail. I'd love to see the economics in that move....then again it must be worth it or they wouldn't do it eh? Perhaps it's some sort of Wisconsin Super Corn?
Corn is scarce in Michigan right now with few crops being planted this spring. Dairy owners and even grain elevators are going farm to farm and offering to buy farmers crops right out of the field, just to guarantee they will have some product to sell. Most likely Wisconsin was the cheapest place to buy the corn for the time being.

chapmaja
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by chapmaja »

1TrackMind wrote:
Doktor No wrote:
SD80MAC wrote:Carbon Green Bio Energy in Woodbury is going to be receiving corn in 25 car blocks from Wisconsin via WSOR-BRC-CSX. Sounds like this should become a fairly regular occurrence, look for the first block sometime this week on Q326.
Sooo Carbon Green sits in the midst of Michigan corn country and buys from Wisconsin AND ships it here by rail. I'd love to see the economics in that move....then again it must be worth it or they wouldn't do it eh? Perhaps it's some sort of Wisconsin Super Corn?
Corn is scarce in Michigan right now with few crops being planted this spring. Dairy owners and even grain elevators are going farm to farm and offering to buy farmers crops right out of the field, just to guarantee they will have some product to sell. Most likely Wisconsin was the cheapest place to buy the corn for the time being.

I think that is a big part of it. Remember how wet the spring was in Michigan. That substantially delayed the planting of the corn crop this year in Michigan. Part of this move very well could be because the corn in Michigan isn't ready. By the time it is harvested, something I haven't seen yet, dried and processed it may be way later than the ethanol plant can wait for supplies.

Also remember that the elevators often have contracts to provide X amount of product by Y date. With that late product planting they are likely very worried about meeting those dates.

Super Chief
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by Super Chief »

Well traveling to Minneapolis once a month, I can tell you first hand Wisconsin and Minnesota are just as wet as here. They got more storms and gave em to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan . Around Madison most of the fields are lakes.

chapmaja
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by chapmaja »

Super Chief wrote:Well traveling to Minneapolis once a month, I can tell you first hand Wisconsin and Minnesota are just as wet as here. They got more storms and gave em to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan . Around Madison most of the fields are lakes.

It's not as much about now, how about the springtime when the crop was planted? That, more than now is where the issue is. How was it in the spring? IIRC the weather patterns in the planting time had the rain coming from the SW through Illinois and Indiana up through Michigan. That would have allowed Wisconsin planters to get dryer times in the planting season.


The rain and fields now could have a serious impact on the crops not yet harvested though in their fields.

arty flowers
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by arty flowers »

So this is coming to Livonia. They want to build a brand new building but where would be the perfect place in Livonia.

https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/plast ... s-michigan

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DaveO
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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arty flowers wrote:So this is coming to Livonia. They want to build a brand new building but where would be the perfect place in Livonia.

https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/plast ... s-michigan
30933 Industrial Road
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/economic- ... bs-livonia

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Jetlink
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by Jetlink »

1TrackMind wrote:
Doktor No wrote:
SD80MAC wrote:Carbon Green Bio Energy in Woodbury is going to be receiving corn in 25 car blocks from Wisconsin via WSOR-BRC-CSX. Sounds like this should become a fairly regular occurrence, look for the first block sometime this week on Q326.
Sooo Carbon Green sits in the midst of Michigan corn country and buys from Wisconsin AND ships it here by rail. I'd love to see the economics in that move....then again it must be worth it or they wouldn't do it eh? Perhaps it's some sort of Wisconsin Super Corn?
Corn is scarce in Michigan right now with few crops being planted this spring. Dairy owners and even grain elevators are going farm to farm and offering to buy farmers crops right out of the field, just to guarantee they will have some product to sell. Most likely Wisconsin was the cheapest place to buy the corn for the time being.
Confirmed. Carbon Green recently executed a purchase contract for 4 million bushels of corn to be delivered by rail from Central Wisconsin. You all can do the math and speculate how many rail cars that is in 25 car blocks. Hint: A bushel of USDA #2 yellow corn weighs 56 lbs per bushel and is weighted at 15% moisture per grading specs.

The Plant now grinds approximately 60,000 bushels of corn a day and has scheduled shutdowns for maintenance only on 4 days each year. Unless something unexpected occurs. You can do the math on that too.

The study when the plant was conceived considered the local corn market within 50 road miles could supply the plant with inbound corn except in the case of a local crop failure. Hence the rail spurs to the plant to source corn from outside markets by rail if needed. The wet spring prevented at least 25% of the corn crop from being planted (more if you talk to some people, less if you talk to others). Of the corn that was planted most was planted late and was planted to lower yielding hybrids tolerant of a shorter growing season, and will still be of questionable quality due to the shorter growing season it was exposed to. IE the plants didn't get enough heat to fully mature and the test weight (density of the kernels) will be low and the moisture content of the kernels will be high. This doesn't lend well to long term storing in grain bins. Some live stock producers are purchasing corn standing in the field for feed directly from producers who may otherwise supply the plant, and hence that corn is not available to the market.

Some of the original investors in the plant were from corn interests in Wisconsin and Minnesota. So you can draw your own conclusions about that and the origin of the inbound corn purchase as well. I know the local experts at the coffee shops are :) .
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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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Approximately 1,000 carloads :D
Jetlink wrote:Confirmed. Carbon Green recently executed a purchase contract for 4 million bushels of corn to be delivered by rail from Central Wisconsin. You all can do the math and speculate how many rail cars that is in 25 car blocks. Hint: A bushel of USDA #2 yellow corn weighs 56 lbs per bushel and is weighted at 15% moisture per grading specs.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

Anyone know what’s going on at the Michigan Natural Storage location (formerly Ryder) at the end of the Ottawa Beach spur in Holland m? They haven’t had any cars in many weeks and there have been dumpsters staged around the building. Renovations? Something more? Hopefully not the end of the line for the end of the line. There’s a freighter-size yacht up in blocks at the boat builder next door tho.

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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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I used some of the GIS mapping I have access to at work to find new aerial imaging of the Ceres Solutions new facility and spur on the north side of White Cloud on MQT. It looks like they extended the existing siding to the west of the main into the spur into the plant. Do they have a trackmobile or does MQT shuffle their cars for them?
Ceres Solutions at White Cloud
Ceres Solutions at White Cloud

arty flowers
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by arty flowers »

The Flat Rock Plant has more than nine lives....It lives

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/05/for ... ntal-dead/

David Lang
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by David Lang »

Looking at my maps app on my phone (not google maps because google doesn't show it yet), but there is a nice new rail spur coming off the Contrail Line between 17 and 18 Mile Roads in Sterling Heights. The spur branches out to 5 tracks with some kind of large red objects on flatcars?? Very odd, I can't figure out what the objects are even when zooming in. Great to see this line being used more now North of 17 Mile. Whatever the company is, is where the old Golf Course used to be.

David Lang

arty flowers
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by arty flowers »

That is most likely Mitchell Plastics, a brand new plastics automotive supplier that uses rail.

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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This is the frame plant (can't remember the name). They make auto frames and ship out on flat cars. They've been shipping for about a year or two. The red objects you see are the "caps" that are tied off to secure the frames underneath.
David Lang wrote:Looking at my maps app on my phone (not google maps because google doesn't show it yet), but there is a nice new rail spur coming off the Contrail Line between 17 and 18 Mile Roads in Sterling Heights. The spur branches out to 5 tracks with some kind of large red objects on flatcars?? Very odd, I can't figure out what the objects are even when zooming in. Great to see this line being used more now North of 17 Mile. Whatever the company is, is where the old Golf Course used to be.

David Lang
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

1TrackMind
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by 1TrackMind »

David Lang wrote:Looking at my maps app on my phone (not google maps because google doesn't show it yet), but there is a nice new rail spur coming off the Contrail Line between 17 and 18 Mile Roads in Sterling Heights. The spur branches out to 5 tracks with some kind of large red objects on flatcars?? Very odd, I can't figure out what the objects are even when zooming in. Great to see this line being used more now North of 17 Mile. Whatever the company is, is where the old Golf Course used to be.

David Lang
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David Lang
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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Thanks Don Simon regarding your answer about the frame plant. Looks like I'm a bit late to the party if they have been shipping for a year or two.

David Lang

arty flowers
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by arty flowers »

An addition is planned at the Pregis plastic factory as they will be installing a new line...More good news for the grand elk for sure.

https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/pregi ... e-michigan

penn central
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by penn central »

In Saginaw on the Lake States at the new Rifkin Scrap Iron and Metal location I noticed tonight two loaded gondolas of scrap good news. I have to go threw my pics but the last time they shipped anything i think was the spring of 2015, Once i find the pics i took right after the old Rifkin Spur was abandoned ill know for sure.
Last edited by penn central on Wed Dec 18, 2019 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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AARR
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

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Quality Roasting is close to opening its soybean plant in Gilford. Inbound soybeans will be from MI farms. Outbound product primarily services animal feed industry. Remains to be seen how much, if any, is shipped by rail.
https://www.michiganbusiness.org/press- ... -michigan/
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

arty flowers
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Re: Michigan Rail Business news

Unread post by arty flowers »

Ford investing more money into its Wayne and Dearborn Plants.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ ... 675193001/

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