Great Lakes Southern RR

Sub forum for Paper Railroads
atrainguy60
Saginaw Sub Foamer
Posts: 4078
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: None of your business......

Great Lakes Southern RR

Unread post by atrainguy60 »

The GLS is a result of a combined TSBY and AA railroad when the two roads merged in 1998, making the old AA main from North Michigan to Toledo whole again under one railroad. After it was first formed, the railroad began to build up a large supply of customers all throughout their system, making for some long, heavy trains. Business really picked up from 2004 to 2005 with two events. The first, in 2004, was a potash/salt mine opening a couple miles north of Cadillac. The second was the GLS purchasing the Central Michigan Railroad, giving them access the ports along the Saginaw River, and also to Dow Chemical in Midland. This changed trains originating and terminating points from Owosso to the yard in Durand, which was much larger and had more room for the growing traffic along the GLS's system. The next five years saw two ethanol plants being built, 1 in Middleton and 1 in Ithaca, supplying a healthy amount of tank cars to the regular mixed freights, and the GLS mostly building up it's grain business else where, bring unit trains of grain to the Norfolk Southern and CSX in Toledo. Things began to really pick up again in 2010, with the announcement from Toyota that they were going to build a new assembly plant on the east side of Midland. Once it was completed, LSRC/CSX got the majority of business, but GLS got a good 20 to 30 auto racks a day that it tagged onto it's regular freights. Then in 2013, a new potash/salt mine was started at the former Yuma sand place. Altogether, these made for a major boost in GLS traffic. Starting in 2012, they added a second pair of regularly scheduled freights between Durand and Toledo, due to the swelling sizes of the already existing pair, and the new traffic coming from the then in-constuction potash mine in Yuma. Also due to the heavy business from the mines, and the fact a good amount of the potash, and some of the salt, is destined for the docks in Saginaw and Bay City, the GLS received trackage rights to run on the Marquette Rail between Clare and Midland, and began running a "Zilwaukee Shuttle" train a few days a week, originating in Yuma at 11:00am, picking up more cars at the mine east of Cadillac, entering the Marquette at Clare, and then using home rails from Midland to a port in Zilwaukee via Bay City; after dropping off the loads, it picks up the empties and by early evening leaves for Yuma. The train mostly handles potash, with some salt, and now runs Monday thru Friday; there is some talk of extending it to Saturday soon. The GLS also brings in potash to this port from CP via CSX at Toledo occasionally. Currently the GLS is doing great, and is up there with Grand Elk as one of the busiest, most successful shortline/regionals in the state.

Image

All trains run Monday through Friday unless noted otherwise.

1. 101 (Zilwaukee Shuttle) - Yuma to Zilwaukee - Potash and Salt
2. 102 - Cadillac to Durand
3. 103 - Durand to Cadillac
4. 104 - Cadillac to Traverse City - Traverse City and Kalkaska Mon thru Fri/Petoskey Mon, Wed, Fri
5. 105 - Durand to Owosso - To Oakley As Needed
6. 106 - Durand to Toledo
7. 107 - Toledo to Durand
8. 108 - Durand to Toledo
9. 109 - Toledo to Durand
10. 110 - Durand to Bay City
11. 111 - Bay City to Midland
12. 113 - Bay City to Saginaw
13. 114 Middleton Branch switcher - Middleton to Ashley - Mon, Wed, Fri - Switches any Middleton customers, and Agro Culture Liquid Fertilizers in Ashley
14. 116 Saline Branch local - Milan to Saline - Mon, Wed, Fri
15. 420 - Toledo to Middleton NS Grain - As Needed
16. 421 - Middleton to Toledo NS Grain - As Needed
17. 422 - Toledo to Auburn NS Grain - As Needed
18. 423 - Auburn to Toledo NS Grain - As Needed
19. 424 - Toledo to Breckenridge NS Grain - As Needed
20. 425 - Breckenridge to Toledo NS Grain - As Needed
21. 426 - Toledo to Oakley NS Grain - As Needed
22. 427 - Oakley to Toledo NS Grain - As Needed
23. 428 - Toledo to Owosso NS Grain - As Needed
24. 429 - Owosso to Toledo NS Grain - As Needed
25. 430 - Toledo to Rosebush CSX Grain - As Needed
26. 431 - Rosebush to Toledo CSX Grain - As Needed
27. 432 - Toledo to Oakley CSX Grain - As Needed
28. 433 - Oakley to Toledo CSX Grain - As Needed
29. 434 - Toledo to Middleton CSX Grain - As Needed
30. 435 - Middleton to Toledo CSX Grain - As Needed
31. 450 - Toledo to Yuma NS Potash - As Needed
32. 451 - Yuma to Toledo NS Potash - As Needed
33. 452 - Toledo to Zilwaukee CP Potash - As Needed
34. 453 - Zilwaukee to Toledo CP Potash - As Needed
35. 500 - Durand to Essexville Western Coal - As Needed
36. 501 - Essexville to Durand Western Coal - As Needed

GP35 385
GP35 389
GP35 390
GP35 391
GP35 392
GP35 393
GP35 394
GP35 395
GP35 396
GP35 397
GP38 399
GP38-2 400
GP38-2 401
GP38-2 402
GP38-2 403
GP38-2 404
GP38-2 405
GP38AC 410
GP38AC 411
GP38AC 412
GP39-2 420
GP39-2 421
GP39-2 422
GP40-3 425
GP40-2LW 9712
U23B 8902
U23B 8903
U23B 8904
U23B 8905



List of customers coming soon

atrainguy60
Saginaw Sub Foamer
Posts: 4078
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: None of your business......

Re: Great Lakes Southern RR

Unread post by atrainguy60 »

Not all of these are real life places (places that were obviously factories in the past but are vacant lots or abandoned factories). Some are real operating places that looked like possible customers, so I through them in for the heck of it.

1. Toledo Harbor Warehousing (Toledo)
2. Grain Elevator N. Summit Street (Toledo)
3. New Horizon Baking (Toledo)
4. Toledo Assembly Complex (Toledo)
5. Viking Paper (Toledo)
6. Unknown Customer - Sulier Drive (Temperance)
7. Kuehne + Nagel (Temperance)
8. Clean Tech (Dundee)
9. Dundee Castings (Dundee)
10. FCA Dundee Engine Plant (Dundee)
11. Aggregate Industries (Dundee)
12. American Soy Products (Saline)
13. Faurecia Interiors Systems (Saline)
14. Fingerle Lumber (Ann Arbor)
15. Rhetech (Whitemore Lake)
16. Glaser’s Lumber (Vernon)
17. Corunna Mills (Corunna)
18. Unknown Customer (Owosso Michigan Avenue)
19. Unknown Customer (Chestnut Street Owosso)
20. Georgia Pacific Corp. (Owosso)
21. Woodard (Owosso)
22. Cargill (?) (Owosso Oliver Street)
23. Crop Production Services (Henderson)
24. Agro Culture Liquid Fertilizers (Ashley)
25. Unknown Customer (Middleton)
26. Ethanol Refinery (Middleton)
27. Ethanol Refinery (Middleton)
28. Highland Plastics (Shepherd)
29. Lear Corporation (Farwell)
30. Unknown Customer (sawmill?) (McBain)
31. Viking Energy (McBain)
32. Unknown Customer (McBain, corner of Maple and Pine Streets)
33. Potash/Salt Mine (McBain)
34. Borg Warner (Cadillac)
35. Cadillac Casting (Cadillac)
36. Unknown Customer (10th Street Cadillac)
37. Unknown Tank Car Customer (in northern yard in Cadillac)
38. MAC(?) (Cadillac)
39. Spencer Plastics (Cadillac)
40. Potash/Salt Mine (Yuma)
41. Grawn Cherry Growers (Grawn)
42. Lumber Customer (US 31, Grawn)
43. Beacon Recycling (Traverse City)
44. Hillshire (Traverse City)
45. Unknown Customer (just north of Hillshire)
46. Amerhart - Traverse City
47. Mich-Con (Kalkaska)
48. Transload (Kalkaska)
49. Sand Customer (?) (Elmira)
50. AmeriGas Propane (Petoskey)
51. Petoskey Plastics (Petoskey)
52. Iverson’s Lumber Co. (Montrose)
53. Central Warehouse (Saginaw)
54. Unknown Customer (Rust Ave Saginaw)
55. Unknown Customer (Holland Ave Saginaw)
56. Unknown Customer (Holland Ave Saginaw)
57. Michigan Sugar (Carrollton)
58. Sargent Docks & Terminal (Zilwaukee)
59. Lafarge North America (Zilwaukee)
60. Sugar Plant (Bay City)
61. Auburn Fertilizer (Auburn)
62. Quad Graphics (Midland)
63. Fisher Sand and Gravel (Midland)
64. Central Warehouse (Midland)
65. Toyota Midland Assembly (Midland)
66. Dow Chemical (Midland)

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