GTW 5831, CN M385 and the NS boat line job - Flat Rock and Delray Junction

[David Collins]

https://youtu.be/3CEcrmyaZQc?si=q26ISwkG_ddqls7i

Last night, me, one of my railfanning buddies and two of our non railfan friends had a little night on the town. Once we dropped them off at their respective houses downriver and started heading back toward my place in Bloomfield Hills, we got sidetracked (pun totally intended) and caught three interesting trains.

0:00

Starting at a crossing at the entrance of CN’s Flat Rock yard, where we saw a high headlight coming out of the yard. I had a feeling this was one of the remote control (or RCO) jobs in Flat Rock, which normally has GTW power (either in GTW or CN paint). The gates went down, and low and behold, it was GTW GP38-2 #5831 leading a cut of autoracks. This is my first time seeing the 5831 actually leading something (even a yard job), I’ve always caught it trailing when it heads to Chicago for its annual inspection or whatever. I’m thinking that this unit was in RCO mode as there was no horn or bell used whatsoever for the crossing, but the orange strobes on the roof weren’t on. I don’t know.

After the 5831 shoved back into the yard we started heading north on I-75.

1:28

It was around 12:15, and we were hurdling north on I-75 approaching Delray Junction when we saw a headlight from the freeway. We got off and made it with moments to spare before a VERY late CN M385 showed up. This train was delayed by almost 15 hours because of the giant industrial fire that happened next to the CN Mount Clemens Subdivision, and CN didn’t want to take any chances. Very long train with all sorts of cars lead by two ET44AC’s. and no, we didn’t catch the train already going through the crossing. Probably a CP transfer of some sort.

6:10

We then decided to get some gas at the Marathon (I think? it was really late lol) when we started hearing horns. We originally thought that it may have been DCON doing it’s thing, and started heading back to the crossing. We got there with about 45 seconds to spare. It unfortunately was not Delray Connecting BUT it was a train I’ve been wanting to see for a good bit. NS BD25, the boat line/Zug Island local. I’ve been wanting to see this train for a looooong time, and I finally got it. A former Southern Railway High-Hood GP38-2 technically running backwards for power. Having lived in North Carolina for a period of time and being fascinated with the Southern Railway, I was all giddy over that GP38-2, it still had SOU markings under the numbers on the cab!


That’s all for now, more to come soon!

[AARR]

Nice video and back story

[Man o' War]

M385 was late because there was a crew shortage due to the wait. CN was in fact running trains through the bomb zone by 5:00 am Tuesday morning - after the track department made inspections and made sure there were no live canisters near the gauge. The railroad was chomping at the bit to get moving on the MTC rather than have to reroute Flint/Holly...

Man o' War