Flat Rock Yard

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chapmaja
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Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by chapmaja »

IIRC Flat Rock used to be a hump yard at one time and was then converted to Flat switching.

Looking at the Flat Rock Yard on Google Maps I see what appears to be 4 distinct sets of tracks. Starting on the south end of the property,

South end) I see the 7 track wide south yard that curves close to Vreeland Rd and is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the yard.

Middle South - I see a clustrer of 4 tracks adjacent to a cluster of 3 tracks. The 4 tracks run the length of the yard and connect to the various yard leads at both ends. This is the track to the north of the turntable complex. The 3 track cluster starts at the same area as the eastern end of the three track cluster, but connects to the main yard section in the middle of the yard.

Main Yard - The next section I see is what I think was the old hump yard tracks. Two tracks fan out into a large cluster of tracks in the middle of the yard. This is located next to the old hump tower on the east end of the yard. These tracks recombined near the western end and seems to connect more easily to the northern set of tracks.

Northern End) I see what appears to be about 13 tracks on the side of the yard. These tracks run the entire length of the yard.

My question is what was the use of each cluster of tracks when Flat Rock was still a hump yard? Was the southern most set even present or was this built to serve the auto plant south of the yard?

My guess would be the Middle South tracks would have been the arrival yard. This would seem the easiest track cluster to pull cars from to run over the hump.

The hump tracks are pretty obvious. The northern set of tracks would appewr to be the departure yard. This would appear the easiest tracks to pull cars from the hump tracks and put into trains on the departure tracks.

Also, was there ever any consideration to putting a grade separation at either end of the yard? I know Hall road was severed after at one time crossing the east end of the yard. I am a bit surprised Vreeland was never part of a separation project.

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Atkinson_Railroad
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by Atkinson_Railroad »

Attached are screen shots of Flat Rock Yard from the 1942, 1952, and 1967 U.S. Geological Survey.
They can provide a "visual" to the yard changes over the years.

For those who enjoy maps, they can provide additional insight as to how the yard grew,
shrank, and grew again when compared to viewing Google Maps today.

It's an opinion I know. But these older maps just look better, and provided so much more info
to the observer than what one sees on Google now.
(Granted, we have the luxury of flipping to aerial view ; )

John
Attachments
1942 Flat Rock Yard
1942 Flat Rock Yard
1952 Flat Rock Yard
1952 Flat Rock Yard
1967 Flat Rock Yard
1967 Flat Rock Yard

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Atkinson_Railroad
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by Atkinson_Railroad »

The expanded view of the 1967 map shows the trackage that used to be in place south
of Vreeland Road.
Attachments
1967 Flat Rock Yard (Expanded View)
1967 Flat Rock Yard (Expanded View)

chapmaja
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by chapmaja »

The maps bring up two questions.

When did the hump actually close and who closed it? I am guessing it was late GT or early CN (name of control, I know GT was a unit of CN). I have found a video of a GT unit in the 6200's pushing cars over the hump. That would have been a repainted DT&I unit IIRC.

The tracks south of the yard were not present in 1952, but we present in 1967. The casting plant, which later became an assembly plant was not built until the late 1960's and didn't open until 1971. Were these tracks built as additional yard tracks or tracks to get around the yard, or we they built because Ford was going to build the plant?

MiddleMI
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by MiddleMI »

I'd imagine given the turntable and the expanded yard it was to keep thru-traffic out of the yard, especially as you say since it was already in place well before any Ford operations in the area. The hump question is going to have to be solved with some other evidence as the maps (ironically topography maps) don't show it.

Chip
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by Chip »

The spurs seen in the 1967 map south of Vreeland Rd. are mostly gone now. There's I think only 3 left (hard to tell passing by from the road) and I'm pretty sure they just pulled some out. There's a pile of ties sitting over there that wasn't there a few weeks ago. They have been used very rarely for a long time now anyway.

Also the double track exiting the south end of the yard now condenses to a single track just north of Arsenal Rd, but there is still track embedded in the road there and on Huron River Dr.

Btw for the record, the Assembly Plant started as a Mazda plant and turned into a Ford plant after the joint venture ended in 2010 and Ford bought it from Mazda outright.

chapmaja
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by chapmaja »

Found my answer.

1996 was when the retarders at Flat Rock were in need of renewal. Given that throughput of the yard was down the cost of retarder renewal was excessive and the hump was removed as were two of the classification tracks.

In 2002, the yard was down to under 600 cars per day, which is well less than what would be economical to run a hump yard. I wonder how many cars CN runs through this yard today? I know IORY isn't contributing anywhere close to what they did back in 2002, so my guess is the cars per day number is likely well less than the 600 it was in 2002.

chapmaja
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Re: Flat Rock Yard

Unread post by chapmaja »

Chip wrote:The spurs seen in the 1967 map south of Vreeland Rd. are mostly gone now. There's I think only 3 left (hard to tell passing by from the road) and I'm pretty sure they just pulled some out. There's a pile of ties sitting over there that wasn't there a few weeks ago. They have been used very rarely for a long time now anyway.

Also the double track exiting the south end of the yard now condenses to a single track just north of Arsenal Rd, but there is still track embedded in the road there and on Huron River Dr.

Btw for the record, the Assembly Plant started as a Mazda plant and turned into a Ford plant after the joint venture ended in 2010 and Ford bought it from Mazda outright.

Before being the Mazda plant it was actually a Ford Casting plant. The casting plant was closed in 1981 IIRC and sat idle until Mazda retooled it and it became the Mazda Assembly plant, then the joint venture, then Ford's plant when Mazda pulled out.

When it was a casting plant where did they get the sand needed for the castings from? Was this a major source of interchange between the AA and DT&I at Diann?

I know most of the sand from Yuma was going to Cleveland for the plant there, but I suspect some went to Flat Rock as well, can anyone confirm.

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