Fast forward to the early 2000's.
M&BC acquired the line from Hawks (aka LaRoque) (MP 151.3) to US23 northwest of Alpena (MP 125.2) from LSRC. M&BC has two miles of trackage rights into LSRC's Alpena Yard. With this acquisition they picked up three customers.
• Austin Powders in Hawks receives 16-20 cars annually of blasting powder.
• Cadillac Products on the Rogers City Branch receives one to two cars per week of plastic pellets.
• Dyno Nobel Midwest in Calcite receives 24-30 cars per year of ammonium nitrate
Later, M&BC picked up business from the huge Carmeuse Lime & Stone pit. 450-650 cars a year destined for Lake City Redi Mix aggregate yard south of Grayling.
Big Cut Gravel saw most of its ballast business go away when CN brought GTW into its family and acquired WC. They favored ballast from a pit on their own line in WI. However, BCG had developed new commercial customers and were shipping 800-1,200 cars annually. Many of the cars were going to the Cheboygan docks and being transloaded onto barges for a destination along the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Tissue was still steady shipping a two-car block of loaded bulk tissue paper to P&G in Cincinnati once a week and receiving the same two box cars loaded with scrap paper once a week.
The sweetener transload located at the end of line northwest of Cheboygan continued to grow receiving three to four cars per week.
The Cheboygan Dock Track and Cheboygan Lumber still receive a carload or two of lumber each month.
The CDT end of line (former sweetener transload) was occupied by Kokosing Industrial where many of the carloads from BCG were going for transloading onto barges. Kokosing also received bulk aggregates, commodities, etc. by barge. Most of these went out by truck but occasionally they would ship by rail (less than five cars per year).
In 2006, M&BS acquired the LSRC line from north of Gaylord, MP 233.7, to a point south of Gaylord (Sallings, MP 229.9) and a connection with LSRC's Gaylord Industrial Branch. Initially, this added two customers:
• The old Wickes Lumber yard was being used as a frack sand transload for Halliburton. They receive 60-90 cars a year. However, they discontinued service right after M&BC's acquisition of the line, so a new customer is being searched for.
• Northern Energy in Gaylord receives 45-60 cars a year of lubricants.
To handle the growing traffic a third engine was acquired, RS2u 469 from LSRC. It was sitting in their deadline serviceable but scheduled to be parted out.
Owner: Mackinaw & Bay City
Model: Alco RS2 Built As: DM 469 (RS2)
Serial Number: 74987
Order No: 20024
Frame Number: prime mover # 10019 Built: 11/1946
Notes: Upgraded to 1600 hp in 1956
Other locos with this serial: MBC 469(RS2u) LSRC 469(RS2) DM 469(RS2)
The engine house is in Cheboygan.
The track between Gaylord and Cheboygan remained rated at 25 mph. The track from Alpena to Hawks and the Rogers City Branch is rated at 10 mph. The rest of that line is slowly being upgraded and ranges from 5-10 mph.
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...