Lake State RR Flint Update 9/18/20

[AARR]

From the other board a very nice update about LSRC's operations in Flint by Elba Steve. For you railfans looking to catch Y101 It's my understanding it works Flint-Atwood (and in-between) M, W & F and south to Wixom T & Th.

Posted by Elba Steve on 9/18/2020, 11:16 am
Lake State is real....no questions about it...the difference between what CSX was doing previous Lake State takeover of Flint yard/trackage, to now is phenomenal to say the least. Traffic has certainly grown significantly since March 29, 2019 thru Flint. Lake State has managed to rehab McGrew and Coldwater yards, reconnecting several yard tracks at both ends, they've put together a large car storage operation, of which put Grand Blanc yard back in use, as well as south McGrew yard. The newest rehab is the complete rebuilding of the "old main" from South McGrew southward under Stewert Avenue, over Leith Street, and continuing down to just north of Hamilton Ave, a distance of nearly 2 miles. They've removed some additional trackage along the way, which formerly was trackage that Chessie/CSX used to build autorack trains when Buick was still building cars, until the late 90's. Down between Leith street, and Hamilton, there are several yard tracks previously used for the autoracks. I wasn't able to see exactly what LSRC is doing down there, because there is no visible way to see without a drone. I am assuming, however, that the reasoning for the rehab of the "old main" is to reach that yard area, possibly for storage. There is no business/factories down that way, so, obviously no rail service otherwise needed there. As for other operations, Lake State is moving trains. There are main trains like #127 which handles the Flint to Novi and return traffic daily, #126 which handles Saginaw to Flint traffic daily, extra trains are #Y-101 which handles local switching from Flint south to Holly and return and also the CN trackage move to Torry Yard Flint for car exchange most days. #Y-110 works McGrew Yard putting trains together for #126-127 every day. There are extra movement trains such as #Y-112, and #Y-118 that operate from Saginaw to Flint and return, as needed, and then there is a new overnight train from Midland Dow to Flint and return that is #145...this information from the good people on the Lake State Facebook pages. Finally, the coal to both DE in St. Clair, and CP in Essexville are running a good amount of coal right now, and grain trains are still going thru Flint north empty, and south loaded. So, as you can see, this little railroad means business. Good for business, and good for us rail fans.

[GTW6401]

Z145 has been running since LSRC started operations in Saginaw. They just moved the starting point to Flint.