The Future?

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arty flowers
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by arty flowers »

Per a post on facebook, the three grain elevators on the MMRR have stopped shipping and have gone to trucks because the G&W increased the pricing. So i see a GLC and Lake State operation very soon.

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HESR3868
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Re: The Future?

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arty flowers wrote:
Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:27 pm
Per a post on facebook, the three grain elevators on the MMRR have stopped shipping and have gone to trucks because the G&W increased the pricing. So i see a GLC and Lake State operation very soon.
That post is very incorrect. I can confirm that the two elevators hasn't just stopped shipping. The crops were very rough last harvest, so grain trains are down. Infact, they've already run half a dozen grain trains since may all at least 90 cars in length. As long as the crops keep growing well like they are, then you will see grain trains pickup this fall.

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Re: The Future?

Unread post by arty flowers »

Well if thats the case, this could be a great bumper crop year

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Talk
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Re: The Future?

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Last edited by Talk on Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Racer
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Re: The Future?

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Personally, I think the next big event to come in Michigan is CSX’s departure of their operations from Plymouth to Porter that’s rumored for as long as most of us have been alive (30 years), especially with the way they’ve ran Grand Rapids to Plymouth the past few years. They’ve gone from a pair of trains that constantly changed destinations, traffic, and assignments on a near monthly basis, then were killed off completely followed by the exodus of YMs in Wyoming Yard, moving the handling of certain traffic to Holland, and there’s no indication any through-traffic or use of Plymouth-Porter for various Michigan-destined cars (like it was a decade ago). It’s pretty much at this point to the bare bones like they did to Saginaw and Flint before they were spun-off and those places were long rumored to be axed. There’s lately been no indication that CP has interests of this line or they would have gone for it at this point. Another observation to put in is how CSX completely SOLD their Panhandle Route across Florida that is a similar situation as Plymouth-Porter and actually had more overhead trains on it right before the sale to RailUSA, I wouldn’t be surprised if they spun it all to someone like RailUSA and CSX feeds all the traffic to them from the Detroit-Toledo corridor (Plymouth) and the only traffic that comes off from Porter is any cars from NS. An operator can also handle some CSX overhead carloads for Michigan destinations like some shortlines are now doing as they build businesses off former class I mainlines. I’d love to see Plymouth-Porter bounce back to what it was 10-15 years ago, but it doesn’t seem like CSX has interest in it and is falling to wayside of their long-term plans with the network.
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SD80MAC
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by SD80MAC »

They were running through traffic from Chicago to Detroit via Grand Rapids until as recently as May. They are content to operate it as is. Direct connections with 8 shortlines that feed CSX traffic that all they have to do is put on an outbound train and go with is nothing to sneeze at.
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M.D.Bentley
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by M.D.Bentley »

Did you forget about Conrail ? Being a class 3 Terminal & switching railroad offers a lot of expansion possibilities. As the BIG railroad tide recedes , the already established railroad will take on more of what the class 1's no longer care to do.

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MQT1223
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Re: The Future?

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arty flowers wrote:
Fri Apr 17, 2020 2:26 pm
This could be happening in the not so distant future, actually it will happen. And it starts in Kansas City at the Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant where Ford will start stamping in house and it ends at Oakwood Yard in Detroit. How will it end? Well this change will spell the demise of the final two NS roadrailers and maybe a westbound NS freight, 181? perhaps. Also CN is now interchanging its 385 traffic at Oakwood Yard because of the pandemic, the auto shutdown and the fact that going down the Annie costs CN at least $500K a year. After the pandemic ends it might be permanent and on one of the other fb groups, an NS employee said that are operating at least two pullers because they have the capacity at Oakwood. He went on to say that the pullers and 75 cars a day that the CN brings in will end with the startup of the inhouse stamping at Claycomo. If the CN doesn't go back to the Flat Rock-DIANN-Wagon Works routing then the IORY will the only railroad left to use the Flat Rock-DIANN portion who knows how it will affect things for the I&O.
With the recent announcement that CN is looking to divest itself of some lines could some more of the old DT&I fall to G&W?
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LansingRailFan
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by LansingRailFan »

MQT1223 wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:57 pm
arty flowers wrote:
Fri Apr 17, 2020 2:26 pm
This could be happening in the not so distant future, actually it will happen. And it starts in Kansas City at the Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant where Ford will start stamping in house and it ends at Oakwood Yard in Detroit. How will it end? Well this change will spell the demise of the final two NS roadrailers and maybe a westbound NS freight, 181? perhaps. Also CN is now interchanging its 385 traffic at Oakwood Yard because of the pandemic, the auto shutdown and the fact that going down the Annie costs CN at least $500K a year. After the pandemic ends it might be permanent and on one of the other fb groups, an NS employee said that are operating at least two pullers because they have the capacity at Oakwood. He went on to say that the pullers and 75 cars a day that the CN brings in will end with the startup of the inhouse stamping at Claycomo. If the CN doesn't go back to the Flat Rock-DIANN-Wagon Works routing then the IORY will the only railroad left to use the Flat Rock-DIANN portion who knows how it will affect things for the I&O.
With the recent announcement that CN is looking to divest itself of some lines could some more of the old DT&I fall to G&W?
Only lines CN is divesting are in the UP and WI along with some in ONT.

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Standard Railfan
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Re: The Future?

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M.D.Bentley wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:44 pm
Did you forget about Conrail ? Being a class 3 Terminal & switching railroad offers a lot of expansion possibilities. As the BIG railroad tide recedes , the already established railroad will take on more of what the class 1's no longer care to do.
Conrail is a joint operation with NS. Unless CSX and NS decide to rationalize operations jointly, I would not expect to see any expansion of Conrail.

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MQT1223
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Re: The Future?

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LansingRailFan wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:08 pm

Only lines CN is divesting are in the UP and WI along with some in ONT.
I haven't seen anything officially saying what they are divesting themselves of, so I'm still keeping open the possibility of at least one of their lines in the Detroit Area possibly going another direction. My two are the D&TSL and the old DT&I.
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LansingRailFan
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Re: The Future?

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MQT1223 wrote:
Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:08 am
LansingRailFan wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:08 pm

Only lines CN is divesting are in the UP and WI along with some in ONT.
I haven't seen anything officially saying what they are divesting themselves of, so I'm still keeping open the possibility of at least one of their lines in the Detroit Area possibly going another direction. My two are the D&TSL and the old DT&I.
Ok. They made official statements and there’s maps showing what’s for sale and it doesn’t include anything in the lower peninsula. There’s a thread on here that has the information.

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Re: The Future?

Unread post by arty flowers »

MQT1223 wrote:
Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:08 am
LansingRailFan wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:08 pm

Only lines CN is divesting are in the UP and WI along with some in ONT.
I haven't seen anything officially saying what they are divesting themselves of, so I'm still keeping open the possibility of at least one of their lines in the Detroit Area possibly going another direction. My two are the D&TSL and the old DT&I.
We've already discussed this, the CN stopped operating over all 20 miles of Flat Rock-DIANN trackage with their excuse being the pandemic but its believed to be because they were fed up with the fees the AA were charging them to run over their 20 plus miles of track. So to cut out the middle man the Toledo-Flat Rock interchange was moved the NS Melvindale Yard. However whatever traffic CN has for the I&O is still handed over to them at Flat Rock Yard and the IORY isnt going anywhere anytime soon. Why would CN excuse themselves out of the Detroit area when they still have important Toledo-Detroit-Chicago-Canadian connections they can haul themselves on the DTSL...Remember who they hand off to in Toledo...CSX and wheeling.

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Talk
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by Talk »

From what I've heard, The CSX Grand Rapids Sub is highly profitable, Coal trains pay for everything, Everything else is profit, Seems odd but the GR makes a pretty penny, I can not imagine a Porter->Plymouth sale with J.H. Campbell operating as is. Not to mention all the shortline interchanges and Amtrak. But I agree that the Grand Rapids/Plymouth subs would likely get picked up by CP, but not for a while.

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Re: The Future?

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https://flic.kr/p/2kyFxKJ

Each elevator on MMRR has already taken one unit train so far this year. Again, wondering why G&W would sell this line when the grain biz alone continues to grow.

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Re: The Future?

Unread post by PatAzo »

It has more to do with their customers than who can buy what. The potential for new traffic and the stability of what they already have. The MQT for example looks heavily dependent on PCA and the salt/chemical business from Manistee and Ludington. Maybe three or so primary shippers? Their train length is way down from what it was in the past.

GDLK has more opportunity but it takes some hustle to build and hold the business.

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NS3322
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Re: The Future?

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PatAzo wrote:
Fri Feb 05, 2021 8:46 am
It has more to do with their customers than who can buy what. The potential for new traffic and the stability of what they already have. The MQT for example looks heavily dependent on PCA and the salt/chemical business from Manistee and Ludington. Maybe three or so primary shippers? Their train length is way down from what it was in the past.

GDLK has more opportunity but it takes some hustle to build and hold the business.
Did Indian Summer ever start using MQT? In the wiki it's noted that was "in the works." Is that now outdated?
From Google Maps it looks like someone is transloading materials in the yard.

Here are the Ludington customers I am aware of:

Occidental Chemical
Cal-Chlor
Sargent Sand
Indian Summer Co-Op (Maybe?)
Towns Brother Construction (Oil Filters?)

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SD80MAC
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Re: The Future?

Unread post by SD80MAC »

No more sand from Sargent, unfortunately.
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NS3322
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Re: The Future?

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SD80MAC wrote:
Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:54 am
No more sand from Sargent, unfortunately.
So they are only transloading at Berry Junction now?
Did this end at the same time as the GDLK sand transload?

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Re: The Future?

Unread post by PatAzo »

arty flowers wrote:
Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:27 pm
Per a post on facebook, the three grain elevators on the MMRR have stopped shipping and have gone to trucks because the G&W increased the pricing. So i see a GLC and Lake State operation very soon.
I don't know about MMRR. Most of the grain from MAC Newaygo is used with 200 miles and leaves by truck. MAC's president told me there are initiatives to use Michigan agricultural products within the state. Only surplus has been moving by rail and that hasn't been much the last couple years.

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