CSX New Customer in Marysville

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AARR
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CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by AARR »

Apparently there will be a new sand transload place in Marysville. Anyone have any info on this?

http://members4.boardhost.com/OtherMich ... 76629.html
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AARR
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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So in a satellite picture it shows an engine on the spur (directly in front of the silo's) to the old elevator, now operated as Bulk Guys. I can't see if there are any cars because the loading shed covers the spur at that point. There was some track work done to the long-unused spur a few years ago and someone working on the spur said they would be shipping sand. Anyone know if Bulk Guys ship anything by rail?
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GreatLakesRailfan
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

To the best of my knowledge, nothing's been shipped yet, but my knowledge is based purely on personal observation and I don't get into that neighborhood very often. It's on the other side of town and in an industrial neighborhood that makes driving by to see if they're shipping harder than it sounds.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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What's the name of the branch line through Marysville, out of curiosity? I doubt it is its own subdivision, but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it meets with CN's Flint Subdivision near where it meets with its Mt. Clemens Subdvision, so maybe it is its own line. I don't know.

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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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Us railfans call it CSX's PH&D Branch although I'm sure CSX calls it something else (St. Clair Branch maybe?) :)
MiddleMI wrote:What's the name of the branch line through Marysville, out of curiosity? I doubt it is its own subdivision, but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it meets with CN's Flint Subdivision near where it meets with its Mt. Clemens Subdvision, so maybe it is its own line. I don't know.
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x2humbucker
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by x2humbucker »

I drive through that industrial area on my way north to Port Huron and for as long as I can remember, there has been MOW equipment on the track north of the road. It looks like it hasn't moved in years.

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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

To the best of my knowledge, the entire line is considered to be yard limits. In 1987, CSX used "PH&D Industrial Track" to describe the line.

Once upon a time, the PH&D had a few tracks alongside the C&O/GTW in the Port Huron yard. The north end of the line is where the interchange took place. To my knowledge, the end of the PH&D's trackage ended just to the east of Tappan, although there may have been a tail track of some sort along the Mt. Clemens Sub just south of Tappan, at some point in time. Now the tracks all end east of the Michigan Road overpass.
AARR wrote:Us railfans call it CSX's PH&D Branch although I'm sure CSX calls it something else (St. Clair Branch maybe?) :)
MiddleMI wrote:What's the name of the branch line through Marysville, out of curiosity? I doubt it is its own subdivision, but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it meets with CN's Flint Subdivision near where it meets with its Mt. Clemens Subdvision, so maybe it is its own line. I don't know.
~ Charles W.

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AARR
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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Bump

Has anyone seen any rail cars delivered to Bulk Guys?
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

AARR wrote:Bump

Has anyone seen any rail cars delivered to Bulk Guys?
No. Last time I was over in that part of town (couple weeks ago), the mow machine was halfway between Wills Street and the elevator (it used to sit just west of Wills Street). The track is still connected, as far as I can tell, but I doubt Bulk Guys have ever received anything on site.

That new yard CSX built several years ago has a transload operation of some sort on the Davis Road end. It's down the road and around the corner from the elevator. But I think Bulk Guys are mostly a local operation. There are plenty of sand pits nearby that material can be sources from. Before Port Huron Building Materials closed, the Bulk Guys trucks were around the cement plant there on a regular basis. I suspect that they took a hit when the company shut down. The cement plant was in the vicinity of the east end of the PH&D's South Park spur, but was recently torn down. You'd never know it was even there now.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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Thank you for the update GLR. Nice to see you on this board, it's been a while.

Occasionally I've seen shorty covered hoppers in the CSX trains between Flint and Port Huron. I wondered is those were going to Bulk Guys (sand, salt, etc.) but apparently those cars go somewhere else or are spacers.
GreatLakesRailfan wrote:No. Last time I was over in that part of town (couple weeks ago), the mow machine was halfway between Wills Street and the elevator (it used to sit just west of Wills Street). The track is still connected, as far as I can tell, but I doubt Bulk Guys have ever received anything on site.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

AARR wrote:Thank you for the update GLR. Nice to see you on this board, it's been a while.

Occasionally I've seen shorty covered hoppers in the CSX trains between Flint and Port Huron. I wondered is those were going to Bulk Guys (sand, salt, etc.) but apparently those cars go somewhere else or are spacers.
GreatLakesRailfan wrote:No. Last time I was over in that part of town (couple weeks ago), the mow machine was halfway between Wills Street and the elevator (it used to sit just west of Wills Street). The track is still connected, as far as I can tell, but I doubt Bulk Guys have ever received anything on site.
I'm still here, I just haven't had anything to say lately... Some of those covered hoppers are buffers. We had a conversation on Facebook about those cars a couple weeks ago. As far as I can tell, they're just going back and forth between here and Flint, along with a certain NYC/Conrail boxcar and a couple other cars that show up on a regular basis. The covered hoppers are not going to the Bulk Guys elevator, and I'm pretty sure they're not being transloaded (er, unloaded) at the yard.

I am pretty sure that Bulk Guys only haul sand and bulk cement, but that's based solely on personal observation, not on actual research like checking out their website or anything easy like that.

The 3 bay covered hoppers could be loads for the ethanol plant, but just about all of their grain comes in by truck.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no salt moving by covered hopper. Cargill is bringing all of their salt up in brine form, and it gets bagged or boxed for shipping in trucks or boxcars. I don't know if they're currently shipping by boxcar or not, but they have in the recent past.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by chapmaja »

GreatLakesRailfan wrote:
AARR wrote:Thank you for the update GLR. Nice to see you on this board, it's been a while.

Occasionally I've seen shorty covered hoppers in the CSX trains between Flint and Port Huron. I wondered is those were going to Bulk Guys (sand, salt, etc.) but apparently those cars go somewhere else or are spacers.
GreatLakesRailfan wrote:No. Last time I was over in that part of town (couple weeks ago), the mow machine was halfway between Wills Street and the elevator (it used to sit just west of Wills Street). The track is still connected, as far as I can tell, but I doubt Bulk Guys have ever received anything on site.
I'm still here, I just haven't had anything to say lately... Some of those covered hoppers are buffers. We had a conversation on Facebook about those cars a couple weeks ago. As far as I can tell, they're just going back and forth between here and Flint, along with a certain NYC/Conrail boxcar and a couple other cars that show up on a regular basis. The covered hoppers are not going to the Bulk Guys elevator, and I'm pretty sure they're not being transloaded (er, unloaded) at the yard.

I am pretty sure that Bulk Guys only haul sand and bulk cement, but that's based solely on personal observation, not on actual research like checking out their website or anything easy like that.

The 3 bay covered hoppers could be loads for the ethanol plant, but just about all of their grain comes in by truck.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no salt moving by covered hopper. Cargill is bringing all of their salt up in brine form, and it gets bagged or boxed for shipping in trucks or boxcars. I don't know if they're currently shipping by boxcar or not, but they have in the recent past.

Could the covered hoppers be empty going to Port Huron and coming back loaded with DDG? That is a byproduct of the ethanol process and would be something that could be seen outbound in rail cars to feed mills as it can be used in the production of cattle and poultry feed.

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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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The covered hoppers I'm referring too are shorty 2-bay types. They are used for salt, sand, cement, etc.

DDG is shipped in large 3 or 4-bay types.
chapmaja wrote:Could the covered hoppers be empty going to Port Huron and coming back loaded with DDG? That is a byproduct of the ethanol process and would be something that could be seen outbound in rail cars to feed mills as it can be used in the production of cattle and poultry feed.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

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Does the ethanol plant ship anything by rail? The few times I've seen it there's no rail cars there. Also, the handful of trains I've seen between Flint and Port Huron didn't have any grain covered hoppers in their consists (mostly large tank cars).
GreatLakesRailfan wrote:The 3 bay covered hoppers could be loads for the ethanol plant, but just about all of their grain comes in by truck.
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Re: CSX New Customer in Marysville

Unread post by GreatLakesRailfan »

I don't think they ship by rail. I think they have the ability to receive grain by rail, for the odd time that regional supply by truck can't fill demand, but they source grain from quite a distance away- one day this week I followed a pair of semis from Vassar onto the freeway, which had come from the ethanol plant.

I also don't believe that they're hauling DDGs out of the plant by rail. Considering the incoming grain is coming in almost exclusively by truck, I doubt they'd have enough volume to ship out by rail. A 2014 Times Herald article that I found on Google says that some of the farms who sell grain to the plant are also buying the DDGs for livestock feed.

I haven't checked the TLU board yet, but I think one of the last CSX trains rolled out of PH this afternoon. There were 4 of the 2 bay covered hoppers and a 3 bay covered hopper behind the power (2 road locomotives and a mother/slug 4 axle pair) and in front of a string of tank cars that stretched about as far as I could see from the Davis Road crossing. The yard was completely empty, except for a 4 axle geep (2799) and the wide vision caboose they keep in the yard. There wasn't much left in the yard at alongside the CN yard either, which is kind of strange, even by CSX standards.

Those big tankcars are LPG. There are at least 2 storage facilities for it on the line, one of them is in the same complex as the ethanol plant. Which is why it's strange to see ALL of the LPG cars disappear.
AARR wrote:Does the ethanol plant ship anything by rail? The few times I've seen it there's no rail cars there. Also, the handful of trains I've seen between Flint and Port Huron didn't have any grain covered hoppers in their consists (mostly large tank cars).
GreatLakesRailfan wrote:The 3 bay covered hoppers could be loads for the ethanol plant, but just about all of their grain comes in by truck.
~ Charles W.

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