Old RR pics posted

[sd70accsxt700]

While im not Ian, it looks like he is facing west just off the road at the amtrak station. There used to be the interchange track there, and looks like he is just off the road, on the north side.

[amtrakjackson]

Yep, darned close. The switch for the interchange track was about a carlength east of the front door of the station. Have some more shots I'll post from there (daylight) when I get a chance.

ian

While im not Ian, it looks like he is facing west just off the road at the amtrak station. There used to be the interchange track there, and looks like he is just off the road, on the north side.

[CERY]

So I have another question, what power was running on the Lansing Secondary in the summer of '78?

[amtrakjackson]

1978... 5600 and 5700 "CR'd" GP7s were as common as dirt on the yard jobs until the GP15-1s came on the scene. The road train often had the "MCRR" dual-control 7800 GP38s,as well as GP38-2s, and I remember one winter night in late 1978 seeing it with a pair of six-axle 6500-series U boats; one black and one blue.

There was an untouched PC transfer caboose up in Lansing, too.

So I have another question, what power was running on the Lansing Secondary in the summer of '78?

[CERY]

Were these mostly the black units or did the EL patched units make it up to Lansing?

[amtrakjackson]

Mostly black units- not only did they make up 80% of the predecessor fleet, but the 'assigned' power didn't get cycled to Juniata (and Collinwood, briefly) for painting. Much like how the ITCS-equipped GP40-2s have stayed away from NS black until now.

I did see a KZLA8 in early afternoon on 5-18-83 at CP North Lansing with a 2787 (a blue U23B) and 3682 (a GP35 in EL patch paint).

Very last unit I saw in EL paint-outs (RUNNING) was in 10-84 on a TV train. That said, there were engines stored on the system with PC, EL, and RDG paint(outs) up until the mid-90s, when they were traded on SD60Is and C40-8Ws.

In my slide collection I have a shot of new 5600 series SD60Is alongside of the 3650, in RDG colors, (albeit dead) at Conway in 1995.

[CERY]

Thanks for the info, you are helping some serious modeling projects progress even faster.

[amtrakjackson]

Hi everyone,

I dug out some more old pics from way back when- these lean more toward GTW 'roster' type shots. They start on page 10 in the album. a few of my old rr pics from the 70s and 80s

The real pics come when I get the slides scanned!!

[conrailmike]

Nice pics! Wish I could've been a lot older at that time (I was only 6 in 1981) and been able to see all that GTW power. I remember seeing quite a bit in Pontiac yard when my dad and I would go down there but I'm sure it was nothing like Battle Creek back then.

Keep 'em coming!

[CERY]

Where and how did this work?


and when did these arrive at Ensel?

[RailCanon]

Where and how did this work?


and when did these arrive at Ensel?

I don't know about the second shot, but the first one is at Turner Street on the east side of Ensel. I'm not exactly sure how that set-up worked, but I do know that the diamond and signal were there until the early 1990s.

[amtrakjackson]

The diamond was actually at the north end of Spikes St (alley). There was a C&O spur that crossed Grand River Avenue and the CR to serve a lumber place. I remember bulkhead and centerbeam flats spotted at the lumberyard.

Those Chessie passenger cars were there in the mid 80s and then, poof, gone!

[CERY]

So the diamond was the old LSMS line south? It's still there but comes off the NS part of the trackage now. Is this correct?

[amtrakjackson]

The track I was standing on was the C&O spur; it crossed the CR Belt Line, paralleled Spikes, crossed Grand River at a crossbucks-only crossing, and went to that old lumberyard. Something tells me it used to continue along the north side of the river, east, waaaay back, lol. In this pic, looking south at the end of Spikes, you can see where the diamond is now a switch off the NS. The track used to turn at a sharper angle and butt up against the building, parallel Spikes, then cross Grand River Avenue. Those apartments were built smack-dab on top of the old right of way. Windows Live Maps

The LS&MS was just as it is now, some distance east of here at Turner St.

[amtrakjackson]

I turned 16 in summer 1981, so I'd make the occasional road trip down to BC. As long as I checked in at the shop and used my head (i.e., safety), I could go both outside and in the shops 'til the cows came home, at least on Sundays when I'd stop down.

I REALLY regret not taking trips down to Jackson to see more early Conrail- it took a trip to Vickers in 1982 to change that.

Nice pics! Wish I could've been a lot older at that time (I was only 6 in 1981) and been able to see all that GTW power. I remember seeing quite a bit in Pontiac yard when my dad and I would go down there but I'm sure it was nothing like Battle Creek back then.

Keep 'em coming!

[conrailmike]

I turned 16 in summer 1981, so I'd make the occasional road trip down to BC. As long as I checked in at the shop and used my head (i.e., safety), I could go both outside and in the shops 'til the cows came home, at least on Sundays when I'd stop down.

Those were the days when you didn't have to worry about the lawyers and such....

[CAT345C]

Thats not 1225 with that boxcar and caboose is it?

[CERY]

Thats not 1225 with that boxcar and caboose is it?

Yes sir it most definitely is.

[CERY]

Checked my notes at that train with CR 6696 was 942, at 10:11am 8/11/83.

Yep... they ran up the Toledo Branch as Conrail UPW-###, changed crews at Stanley Tower, and headed around the TT for Michigan. (Occasionally they'd run up the Stanley Secondary to 286-289-Alexis.)

That's an ex-EL SDP45 in the lead that day... those were mixed in with the SD40-2 fleet. The power would often stray on the C&O.

Ok I was going back through this thread and 942 wouldn't have been a West Olive coal train... 942 was the west bound Canadian Pacific through train. So why did it have CR power? All other pictures of the train I have seen have Chessie power on them.

[JDavis21835]

Thank you for bringing back memories of my childhood. Living in Saginaws south end, I sat on the second floor at my families apartment, watching those chessie engines work.