Page 5 of 6
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 12:33 pm
by TrainWatcher
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:57 am
by Robertrains
Very nice pictures James! That day, 10-23-11, was sure one of the best times Railfanning!!!!
(I just can't say it enough!)
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:46 pm
by SW
I just biked past Seamless tube today in South Lyon and noticed all the track that used to be in the gated area west of the building was lifted recently, nothing but ties and plates left. From another thread about Coe Rail a few years ago:
CAT345C wrote:If only Michigan Seamless tube would have committed to some car loads, then we would possibly still have part of the line from CSX to the plant in South Lyon, was back there a few weeks ago digging a foundation for a new transformer station pad and noticed that he entire rail system is still intact on the property, also found out that the old coal dump area is still used for random scrap and rip rap.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:26 pm
by CAT345C
Stopped by Wixom today, CSX was there pulling the remainder of the track out and it looked like they pulled up the switch too. They dragged the rail south a ways towards Pontiac trail. Also crossing lights were gone from Pontiac Trail
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:36 pm
by Racer
CAT345C wrote:Stopped by Wixom today, CSX was there pulling the remainder of the track out and it looked like they pulled up the switch too. They dragged the rail south a ways towards Pontiac trail. Also crossing lights were gone from Pontiac Trail
Not surprised by that, they have plenty of spurs in Lincoln Yard to place MofW and BO cars such as the remainder of the MAL/CSX interchange track on the Southwest corner of the former junction.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:37 pm
by Robertrains
CAT345C wrote:Stopped by Wixom today, CSX was there pulling the remainder of the track out and it looked like they pulled up the switch too. They dragged the rail south a ways towards Pontiac trail. Also crossing lights were gone from Pontiac Trail
Where are they taking the rail? What was the motive power for that train? It was April 17, 2012 that the old COE equipment left the interchange! Man, now there's no more track left which connected to the old COE Rail!!!!
Are there any plans to haul the old crossing lights by rail?
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:03 pm
by CAT345C
Chrisracer8903 wrote:CAT345C wrote:Stopped by Wixom today, CSX was there pulling the remainder of the track out and it looked like they pulled up the switch too. They dragged the rail south a ways towards Pontiac trail. Also crossing lights were gone from Pontiac Trail
Not surprised by that, they have plenty of spurs in Lincoln Yard to place MofW and BO cars such as the remainder of the MAL/CSX interchange track on the Southwest corner of the former junction.
That track was the ramp track all my charts say it never connected to the MAL. The lights were hauled off by A&K in a scrap dumpster. The rail is all 100lb which was unique to GTW so Csx will likely put it in a dumpster and scrap it. Really doubt any of this is moving by rail.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:08 pm
by Robertrains
CAT345C wrote:
That track was the ramp track all my charts say it never connected to the MAL.
I thought you were referring to the old COE/MAL interchange track! Is this a different area you are referring?
I see another post, by SW, from 4-6. Is that it? If the interchange is still in—are there any plans to remove that?
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:54 pm
by 59caddy
I'd like to make a photo tour of the former ROW. If I traverse the tracks, would that be trespassing? Also, what's the current status of the former tracks?
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:34 pm
by Racer
Currently the old ROW is just a leveled dirt path. I would suggest to NOT walk down the path until the bike trail is complete (For legal reasons).
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:50 pm
by GTW6401
That line is already a trail around Sylvan Lake and Keego Harbor.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:53 am
by Racer
GTW6401 wrote:That line is already a trail around Sylvan Lake and Keego Harbor.
I was referring to the CSX interchange to Haggerty Road regarding the dirt path. Also, somewhere East of Old Plank Road to the CSX in Wixom was never built into the bike trail including the former crossing over the Korex plant entrance. Also, there are gates in place just east of Haggerty Road to keep people from cutting through towards Woodpecker Lake - similar set-up to what they did when they ripped-up the CN/GTW Romeo Sub to keep people from cutting between the major roads.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 7:45 am
by 59caddy
Are any of the old industrial spurs still there?
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:47 am
by AARR
59caddy wrote:Are any of the old industrial spurs still there?
Everything is gone
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:28 am
by CAT345C
My first night on the MAL.......
I started working for the outfit in the summer of 2010 and was overjoyed to be "getting paid to be around trains" I was a track worker for the contracting company and spent most of my time running around working on track out of state. One afternoon I was called at my day job and asked if I could come in that evening and respot some hoppers. I arrived at 8 pm that night and got the run down on what was needed to be done and formal safety briefing there was 3 cara to retrieve from interchange and 2 to take down. Since 725 had dead batteries we opted to do things the long way and use the switcher. We ran to interchange and found 8 cars instead of 3. Now that our plan of rolling by was foiled we dragged everything back to walled lake. We ended up jump starting the funit, not fun for anybody that's ever had to jump a locomotive. Once 725 was running and warmed up we began shuffling cars around and eventually ended up with 1512 back on the west end of the new loads. We then made our way to the customer and arrived at about midnight.....it was only a "couple hours" I kept thinking. Upon walking the cut at the customer it was found out the cara were not yet secured so then we spent about an hour looking for somebody in the plant who was able to disconnect the cars and close the hatches..finally at about 130am we started moving cars. The cars order needed to be flipped and the new ones mixed in so they could suck the right mixture out of the cars. About 4 am we got done reordering cars and proceeded to get "by" the two cars that had to go back to Csx. Flat spots and a switch frog stopped us dead with the engine trapped so out came the car stick and two young guys tired and annoyed. We finally got by and shoved the couple miles back to Csx. On the way west I met a picker bush, a large free branch and lost my hat somewhere by neck road. I ended up getting done just in to take a shower and go back to my day job. My first night switching cars I learned that there is no such thing as a "couple hours" or a quick move in railroading. If it there is any possibility to take hours on end well it will. I hope I didn't bore anybody with my story and apologize any grammatical errors this was typed out on an iPhone.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:57 am
by AARR
CAT345C wrote:My first night on the MAL.......
I hope I didn't bore anybody with my story and apologize any grammatical errors this was typed out on an iPhone.
I enjoyed it
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought it would take 8 hours to pick up a few cars at the CSX interchange track and move them a few miles to the customers spur. But when everything goes wrong and you simply can't pick up the car (like using a 5 finger switcher in model railroading
it takes a long time.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 11:24 am
by CAT345C
Another good memory was when the hi rail truck caught on fire while backing from Wixom to walled lake.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:24 pm
by Old Hogger
CAT345C wrote:My first night on the MAL.......
I started working for the outfit in the summer of 2010 and was overjoyed to be "getting paid to be around trains" I was a track worker for the contracting company and spent most of my time running around working on track out of state. One afternoon I was called at my day job and asked if I could come in that evening and respot some hoppers. I arrived at 8 pm that night and got the run down on what was needed to be done and formal safety briefing there was 3 cara to retrieve from interchange and 2 to take down. Since 725 had dead batteries we opted to do things the long way and use the switcher. We ran to interchange and found 8 cars instead of 3. Now that our plan of rolling by was foiled we dragged everything back to walled lake. We ended up jump starting the funit, not fun for anybody that's ever had to jump a locomotive. Once 725 was running and warmed up we began shuffling cars around and eventually ended up with 1512 back on the west end of the new loads. We then made our way to the customer and arrived at about midnight.....it was only a "couple hours" I kept thinking. Upon walking the cut at the customer it was found out the cara were not yet secured so then we spent about an hour looking for somebody in the plant who was able to disconnect the cars and close the hatches..finally at about 130am we started moving cars. The cars order needed to be flipped and the new ones mixed in so they could suck the right mixture out of the cars. About 4 am we got done reordering cars and proceeded to get "by" the two cars that had to go back to Csx. Flat spots and a switch frog stopped us dead with the engine trapped so out came the car stick and two young guys tired and annoyed. We finally got by and shoved the couple miles back to Csx. On the way west I met a picker bush, a large free branch and lost my hat somewhere by neck road. I ended up getting done just in to take a shower and go back to my day job. My first night switching cars I learned that there is no such thing as a "couple hours" or a quick move in railroading. If it there is any possibility to take hours on end well it will. I hope I didn't bore anybody with my story and apologize any grammatical errors this was typed out on an iPhone.
Laughed pretty good Mike, thanks for posting. I hated that car pole, had to use it way too many times.
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:50 pm
by 59caddy
No offense, but the railroad had every reason to go out of business
Re: Working on the MAL
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:11 pm
by AWF
CAT345C wrote:Another good memory was when the hi rail truck caught on fire while backing from Wixom to walled lake.
Now that was a different experience...stupid truck.
-AWF
