Macatawa Bay Dock and Terminal Co. (Padnos)
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 9:35 pm
On a recent Friday afternoon I was surprised to catch Macatawa Bay Dock and Terminal Co. GE centercab #4491 at work shifting a loaded gon in the Padnos yard in Holland. It occurred to me that the Padnos facility in Holland has been there for about 100 years and the two centercabs there are reliably the oldest pieces of RR equipment in the city (except the PM caboose over at the depot). Usually, they are pretty much tied down on Friday afternoons. These photos depict them pulling a single car off the scales, spotting it, crossing River Street, then parking 4491 at its usual parking spot alongside the shop building. It seems like their usual practice is to spot loaded cars on the north-most spur in the yard for easy pickup by CSX D702 when they come for them. I've never been there when CSX is interchanging, so I'm not sure where they shove all the empties when they arrive. It looks like they load gons both east and west of Pine on various spur tracks, depending on the metal product.
I like the side mount school bell and the "General Electric / 65 Ton" script lettering on the side. The red flag is a really neat touch and appears to be hand lettered. If you zoom in on the photos, note the add-on LED lamps, the collection of strobes, and of course the truck horns, which was being used generously when I saw them at work. It's neat because scrapyards are usually NO TRESPASSING/no visibility operations, but the Padnos Yard is easily visible from public ROW at both River and Pine Streets and has public grade crossings at both. River is nice because there's a parking lot right there to simply wait in your car. Both crossings have sidewalks, and Pine has a good view both directions, but you have to walk about a block from a parking lot.
What is the history of the MBD&T? Since the Padnos spur goes practically all the way to the dock face of Lake Macatawa, I assume they once went all the way to the seawall? Was it ever a terminal railroad that served other industrial customers? Or has it always been the "in house" railroad for Padnos at this facility?
I like the side mount school bell and the "General Electric / 65 Ton" script lettering on the side. The red flag is a really neat touch and appears to be hand lettered. If you zoom in on the photos, note the add-on LED lamps, the collection of strobes, and of course the truck horns, which was being used generously when I saw them at work. It's neat because scrapyards are usually NO TRESPASSING/no visibility operations, but the Padnos Yard is easily visible from public ROW at both River and Pine Streets and has public grade crossings at both. River is nice because there's a parking lot right there to simply wait in your car. Both crossings have sidewalks, and Pine has a good view both directions, but you have to walk about a block from a parking lot.
What is the history of the MBD&T? Since the Padnos spur goes practically all the way to the dock face of Lake Macatawa, I assume they once went all the way to the seawall? Was it ever a terminal railroad that served other industrial customers? Or has it always been the "in house" railroad for Padnos at this facility?