Switchers, high hood, Conrail: Carbon Works & Downriver 4/13-14/2023

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This might not have all the variety of a ConrailDetroit trip report, but I did catch a few interesting things on a tour around Downriver yards and mainlines back on April 13 and 14.

First up, CN 8860 and 8960 are on the point of a southbound empty rack train at milepost 41 on the Shoreline, Oak Street Wyandotte, 15:45. This was autorack train Q116.

Cruising north along Jefferson, I bailed off Jefferson to get a photo of the BASF EMD switcher power parked at the north end of the Wyandotte plant. I had hoped to catch the Conrail job that brings cars to and from BASF, but my timing wasn't good. 8922 is a former CR/NYC SW9 switcher wearing its original NYC road number. I believe 8959 is also an SW9 but got a new cab at some point.

Continuing the yellow switcher theme, USS 72, bell chiming, leads the way through the maze of tracks at the Ecorse finishing mills near Quality Drive at what remains open of the USS Great Lakes Works. I'm not sure exactly what parts of the mill are still open here - but I think slabs are delivered by rail from Gary for finishing. The "J" gon to the left is a nice touch.

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I zigzagged my way toward the Detroit River Tunnel. I'd love to get a shot of a train hauling out of the active bore from Canada. My timing was almost perfect....about 3 minutes too late. A westbound mixed freight heading right into the late day sun was already at 15th Street, while an eastbound mixed freight was waiting behind the MCS before heading to Ontario. I tried to get a shot of the westbound near Bay City Junction, but elected to get further ahead of them for what would hopefully be a better shot. I ended up just south of Delray at the Forman Wye....waiting and waiting.

Finally, an hour and a half after crossing into America, CP train 231 behind AC44s 8043 and 8601 had cleared West Detroit and Delray and was coming through the Carbon neighborhood, heading for Oakwood Yard and eventually Bensenville.

The next day, the CPKC merger would become official.

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Next stop as the light was heading toward the golden hour was the west end of Oakwood Yard. Everyone loves the Thunderbowl lot which is great, but when I was really young I remember watching NS high hoods switch with my dad from the carpool lot in the SE corner of Outer Drive and Allen Road, on the north side of the tracks. I angled into the lot and was lucky to catch the last vestige of this memory, as Oakwood-based SD40-2 1628 was switching cars right in front of this parking lot. A great throwback to the late 80s/early 90s was the classic Conrail 60' X63A boxcar right behind the high hood. Built in December 1977, boxcar 223085 may actually be wearing its original coat of oxide red paint, complete with intact Conrail lettering and small logo.

Youngsters may not know that Conrail rolling stock generally included the road number and reporting marks of the equipment near the upper right corner on each side. Where CR 223085 is painted here, earlier equipment would have its requisite road number with predecessor marks such as PRR, NYC, RDG, and others. A vanishing detail!

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The next morning, I caught Amtrak 353 at the Dearborn Intermodal Station, making its on time pick up for Chicago. The lighting isn’t great for photos on this earlier timetable, so I just grabbed a few artistic camera phone grabs. Only later did I realize this was one of the inaugural runs of Business Class Venture cars in revenue service (although serving coach class passengers instead of actually business class). An Amfleet 1 Cafe/business class car served the big bucks customers and brings up the markers on this train, and this trip report.