TC Man wrote:Did anyone ever figure out why they ran a loco ont he Old Town branch a few weeks ago? Did they deliver an empty to that recycle place on a previous move and go get the load when the poster saw the loco headed down the line? Or they just run it down for the heck of it?
I wonder if they did it to see if the tracks were still in decent enough shape to handle a loco. I wonder if they, unnoticed by the railfan community, ran some track equipment down first to check the status then ran a slow speed locomotive down the line to "test" the line.
What is the "legal" status of this line? Was it ever legally removed from service, or has it just been sitting unused for years?
wagnew0923 wrote:So his hostile take over attempt of the SMRS was to revitalize the line and ship North. Who was he hoping to ship too.
I wouldn't say it was to ship north. I believe their ultimate goal was establishing a connection with NS so they wouldn't have to push loaded cars up the grade on the connector in the city of Adrian.
wagnew0923 wrote:So his hostile take over attempt of the SMRS was to revitalize the line and ship North. Who was he hoping to ship too.
I wouldn't say it was to ship north. I believe their ultimate goal was establishing a connection with NS so they wouldn't have to push loaded cars up the grade on the connector in the city of Adrian.
What, where they going to interlock at Raisin Center? I'm not sure I understand; maybe I'm think of the wrong NS line, because it seems like they could connect right there in Adrian.
wagnew0923 wrote:So his hostile take over attempt of the SMRS was to revitalize the line and ship North. Who was he hoping to ship too.
I wouldn't say it was to ship north. I believe their ultimate goal was establishing a connection with NS so they wouldn't have to push loaded cars up the grade on the connector in the city of Adrian.
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...
There had been talk that ADBF had spoken to Whacker Chemical, which is at Sutton Road and Raisin Center Hwy. They make silica products, and at one time did want to ship. Also the old Tecumseh Products plant next to South Yard in Tecumseh was at one time supposed to become a windwill plant. SMRS needs an interchange as well, but re-configuring the current end of track at Raisin Center would mean a massive amount of re-construction and planning without having to go onto the Pate's Farm on the NW side of the old interlocker, plus re-configuring Raisin Center Hwy. A straight shot across the Wabash would be ideal, but that will not happen except for a one time move NS has previously told SMRS they can have to move the equipment currently near Lenawee Jct.
TrainWatcher wrote:There had been talk that ADBF had spoken to Whacker Chemical, which is at Sutton Road and Raisin Center Hwy. They make silica products, and at one time did want to ship. Also the old Tecumseh Products plant next to South Yard in Tecumseh was at one time supposed to become a windwill plant. SMRS needs an interchange as well, but re-configuring the current end of track at Raisin Center would mean a massive amount of re-construction and planning without having to go onto the Pate's Farm on the NW side of the old interlocker, plus re-configuring Raisin Center Hwy. A straight shot across the Wabash would be ideal, but that will not happen except for a one time move NS has previously told SMRS they can have to move the equipment currently near Lenawee Jct.
I don't know about Whacker Chemicals, but I do recall hearing that the plant next to the tracks in Tecumseh was being looked at for a large bakery operation. That operation was to have brought in either carloads of grain (to mill flour on site- like Jiffy does), or to bring in flour.
wagnew0923 wrote:So his hostile take over attempt of the SMRS was to revitalize the line and ship North. Who was he hoping to ship too.
I wouldn't say it was to ship north. I believe their ultimate goal was establishing a connection with NS so they wouldn't have to push loaded cars up the grade on the connector in the city of Adrian.
What, where they going to interlock at Raisin Center? I'm not sure I understand; maybe I'm think of the wrong NS line, because it seems like they could connect right there in Adrian.
BTW, where is the grade in Adrian?
They do have a connection in Adrain, on the same NS line that going through Raisin Center. The original was immediately west of the NS/A&B diamond, there was (still is) a short switchback connecting the two lines. Capacity was a major issue though, only about three cars could navigate the switchback at a time, and in order to access the switchback from the A&B side, one needed to tie up the diamond. A very time consuming operation when you have 20 incoming cars, and a equal number going out.
When the DT&I line was torn out from Tecumseh, the A&B put in a switch where the DT&I / A&B diamond was at. This gave A&B better access to the NS via the old DT&I. Now cuts of 20-30 cars could be handled with relative ease. But even this was not a perfect solution. The way the DT&I / A&B switched faced requires a backup move to get into the Adrian Yard. Crews must pull incoming cars up the old DT&I, and westbound onto the A&B, then shove east into the yard. This is not an issue with 20 cars or so. However a 100 + car unit grain train doesn't flow as well. First of when NS drops of a big unit train, it must push past the Beecher Street crossing, blocking it. Now NS cuts the train at the crossing, but that takes time and blocks the main East/West road in town for 15-20 minutes. When A&B comes to pic it up, they have to move a whole unit train through the middle of town at 5mph, with the trains often having to pull west well past the M-52 crossing and blocking it until they could push back east. That created quite a fuss with reports of 30+ minute crossing blockages, there were a number of newspaper stories on that.
So while the DT&I connection worked better that the switchback, it still had capacity issues. Enter SMR & Raisin Center. Among other objectives one of the main benefits to the A&B having access to Raisin Center would have been to interchange there. With a switch put in NS could drop of unit trains everyday and not bother anyone but the corn. Gets the interchange out of Adrian and gives a straight shot to ether end of the line.
But as recent history shows, that prospect did not pan out. It seems that the recent activity in trying to get the line to toledo rebuilt is another possible solution to the interchange woes. It would supposedly get A&B into Airline Yard, likely give them the Ottawa Lake traffic, and overall increase the service they can provide. I hope they get the Toledo connection, on paper it is an excellent routing choice, and apart from the whole 17 million or so price tag, it would be fairly straightforward to rebuild.
And for anyone who read all that, here is a video of the switchback interchange.
