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I was talking to a CSX employee yesterday, and he told me that there was once a Grand Rapids to Indianapolis train but couldn’t remember the symbol, does anyone here happen to have any information on this train?

thinking there was a GR to Indy train at one time for Conrail....no idea about CSX having one

There was for a brief while, in the early 2000s. Q338 and Q337. Grand Rapids-Avon and Avon-Grand Rapids. GR sub to Chicago, then went down the Monon IIRC.

SD80MAC wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:09 pm

There was for a brief while, in the early 2000s. Q328 and Q329, no relation to the 328/329 in more recent times. Grand Rapids-Avon and Avon-Grand Rapids. GR sub to Chicago, then went down the Monon IIRC.

Thank you

it was an attempt to keep the gerber Baby food as a customer after switch from glass to plastic containers. the shelf life was shortened, and the weight dropped making trucks better alternative for shipping to Atlanta where they had a warehouse. it didn't work so it goes by truck.

rob

Welllll, working at Wyoming yard at the time and switching them out....right after the Conrail split they ran Q337 to GRR as usual then ran it back to Plymouth and southward to Toledo and IIRC Indy. 336 came in the same way, Indy, Plymouth GRR Plymouth and Flint. Then some genius in management figured out the miles added and crews and it stopped running after awhile. Q324/Q325 (Also IIRC) was a train out of Barr for the east that they sent to GRR to switch out and with that 337/336 and the other jobs the yard was overwhelmed. Lottsa OT was earned. I think they even put on another job on first and third shift. The odd yard in the mornings had a switcher at each end and the even did too. And another job was put on just to move engines to and from the house and have the power on all the outbounds and airtest the trains for quicker departure.
Ahhh the good old days of mayhem and chaos. And gee, we still had the CP business too!!!!!!!!!!

In 2004 CSX ran Q337 & Q338 to and from Indianapolis. I believe the routing was GR-Toledo-Marion-Indy. Q337 ran to Indy and Q338 came from Indy.

This was during a hectic time for CSX in Michigan following the closing of Stanley Yard in Toledo on April 1st. During this time there was at least one Q318 (Willard-Detroit) that was rerouted to GR as they had the capacity to switch out the train. It was not uncommon in the weeks following the closure for there to be second & third sections of some trains using the S & X prefixes. These were needed to juggle cars to whatever yards in Michigan had the capacity to switch them. I believe Saginaw also handled some of the overload.

Throw in a full complement of CP trains and the local railfans had no shortage of trains to watch. Also, no shortage of stress for the dispatchers.

Gary Betz
Ionia MI