Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Sub forum for Paper Railroads
User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

In the late 1980's Mid Michigan Railroad (MMRR) abandoned its line west of Elwell due to lack of traffic. The line was acquired by Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI) from a connection with MMRR at Elwell (milepost 42.3) to Edmore (milepost 56.6) and from Deaner Rd. NE (milepost 50.4) to Remus (milepost 66.9) for a total of about 31 miles. In 2007, they acquired the rest of the line Elwell line from milepost 42.3 to a junction with GLC at milepost 38.1 adding another 4.2 miles to their ownership. From the junction with GLC they have trackage rights to MMRR and GLC’s Wright Siding (both about a mile).

A single GP9was acquired at the start up:
Owner: Alma & Mid-Michigan
Model: EMD GP9 Built As: CO 5967 (GP9)
Serial Number: 20876
Order No: 5413
Frame Number: 5413-30 Built: 9/1955
Notes: Purchased from Chessie System
Other locos with this serial: AMI 5967(GP9) CHESSIE 5967(GP9) CO 5967(GP9)
Image

Initially they serviced a small elevator in Vestaburg, Hitachi Magnets in Edmore (two to three cars of clay per week), PCA in Edmore (six to nine cars per week), a small fertilizer dealer south of Edmore (12-15 cars per year), a corn oil customer at Millbrook Rd. (11-15 cars per year) and Leprino Foods cheese plant in Remus (about two to four cars per week). All customers were switched about once a week, except PCA, which was switched three to five times per week.

In 1997 Cargill built a grain elevator on the line south of Edmore. Several sidings were added to accommodate up to 65 car unit trains. Cargill was expected to ship between 900-1,200 cars annually. A GP9 was added to the roster to handle up to 50 car blocks. Anything over that and engines would have to be leased (usually from TSBY) to help.
Owner: Alma & Mid-Michigan
Model: EMD GP9 Built As: CO 6099 (GP9)
Serial Number: 22100
Order No: 5473
Frame Number: 5473-11 Built: 7/1956
Notes: Ex-CO
Other locos with this serial: AMI 6099(GP9) HESR 100(GP9) CO 6099(GP9)
Image

Around 2000 Hitachi reduced production. The impact was a reduction of around 100 cars a year of clay. Hitachi closed permanently in 2005. PCA began sourcing out most of its raw materials from its plant in Manistee which was trucked to Edmore. This reduced PCA's inbound traffic to around two to four cars per week. Shortly after PCA made changes, the small elevator in Vestaburg (now owned by United Agri Products) closed the elevator part of the business and the fertilizer side switched to trucks as did the small elevator south of Edmore. Service was reduced to twice a week and an extra was called whenever Cargill shipped anything over 50 cars.

In 2007 the bean plant in Elwell closed and MMRR abandoned that line west of Alma. A&MI recruited a new occupant for the bean plant so they acquired the line and secured trackage rights on GLC into Alma where they interchange with GLC (who had acquired TSBY) and MMRR. Shortly after, Heritage Bean (who had two other plants but one did not have rail service and the other was in cramped quarters in Ithaca) consolidated its operations to Elwell. Shipping one to two boxcars of bagged edible organic beans per week.

Cargill expanded for the first time in 2007 (the first of several) and was shipping over 1,700 cars a year when business was good. A GP38 was added to the roster to assist pull the 65 car unit grain trains from Cargill.
Owner: Alma & Mid-Michigan
Model: EMD GP38 Built As: CO 3880 (GP38)
Serial Number: 33711
Order No: 7060
Frame Number: 7060-81 Built: 11/1967
Notes: ex-CSX 2080, nee-CO 3880
Other locos with this serial: AMI 2080(GP38) CSX 2080(GP38) CO 3880(GP38)
Image

Business has been relatively steady since 2007 other than Cargill increasing its capacity and shipments.
• Heritage Bean continues to get weekly service shipping one to two boxcars a week of edible beans.
• The corn oil transload was moved to Edmore. It receives a carload about every four-weeks.
• PCA receives at least two and sometimes a third box car each week. All cardboard from Manistee is trucked in. The cardboard they receive by rail comes from a PCA plant down south.
• Cargill has expanded over the years and now ships up to 2,000 cars annually in small blocks to 85 (NS), 90 (CSX) and 110 (CN) units. The three engines can handle the longest unit grain trains at slow speeds. Anything over that and A&MI has to short-term lease from usually GLC.
• Leprino Foods cheese plant in Remus continues to receive one to three cars a week of feedstock. They also ship out one to two cars per week of bulk cheese to a cheese distributor in New York.

Interchange is in Alma with both GLC and MMRR. Short blocks of interchange traffic are usually set-out/picked-up from the connecting tracks between GLC and MMRR. Larger blocks of cars (unit grain) is usually interchanged with GLC at their Wright Rd. siding or MMRR at their Alma Yard.

Service is typically weekly with PCA getting a second switch one to three times per month. Large unit grain for Cargill is handled separately from the other freight operations.

Other prospects are limited at this time but A&MI is always looking.

The overall business is adequate but does not meet the minimum 100 cars per mile per year requirement. Employees perform multiple duties to keep costs down. Grants and subsidies are necessary to maintain the track. The Alma to Edmore section was Rebuilt to handle 286,000 pound cars. The Branch from Edmore to Remus remains at 263,000 pounds. It is an effecient arrangement for now.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

GRHC
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1854
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:32 am

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by GRHC »

Are there any potential new customers/shippers for the small town of Blanchard between Remus and Edmore?
What is the current status of the line between Edmore running through Greenville and Stanton to Lowell?

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

Good questions:
Q. Are there any potential new customers/shippers for the small town of Blanchard between Remus and Edmore?
A. Not at this time. The small olive oil transload was switched from Millbrook to Edmore. Do you know of anyone in the area looking for rail service?
Q. What is the current status of the line between Edmore running through Greenville and Stanton to Lowell?
A. Sadly, the line is abandoned from Foreman St. SE near Lowell to Deaner Rd. NE near Edmore. Maybe someone can do a paper railroad on that segment :wink: .
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

In other news Spud-Pak of Michigan has a distribution warehouse at the end of the Edmore Branch behind Cargill. A&MI is talking to them about shipping potatoes to a plant down south where the PCA cardboard is loaded. This would create loads into Edmore and back out.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

GRHC
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1854
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:32 am

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by GRHC »

AARR wrote:
Sat May 07, 2022 9:50 am
In the late 1980's Mid Michigan Railroad (MMRR) abandoned its line west of Elwell due to lack of traffic. The line was acquired by Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI) from Elwell to Edmore and from Deaner Rd. NE (about 1.5 miles south of Edmore Jct.) to Remus for a total of about 31 miles. A single GP7 (ex-Chessie / nee C&O) was acquired. Interchange is with MMRR at Elwell.
Does the railroad have plans or given any thought about running some type of excursion service during the Wheatland music festival in September?
Maybe the MC & S would be able to assist by providing the needed equipment.

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

Thank you for your suggestion.

A&MI would be happy to talk with anyone who would like to operate excursions.

MC&S schedule, especially on weekends, is very busy and not available.
GR H & C wrote:
Wed May 25, 2022 7:54 pm
Does the railroad have plans or given any thought about running some type of excursion service during the Wheatland music festival in September?
Maybe the MC & S would be able to assist by providing the needed equipment.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

A&MI continues to operate twice a week. It usually takes them two days to complete one round trip to all the customers and interchange in Alma. Several times a month PCA requires a second switch. When Cargill loads anything over 25 cars it is handled as a separate train.

At this time all traffic is interchanged with MMRR in Alma EXCEPT unit grain trains from Cargill for CN (110 cars) or NS (85 cars). CN and NS unit grain trains are picked up and set out on GLC's Wright Siding.

Routine maintenance is handled at A&MI Edmore engine house. Larger repairs are contracted out often to GLC Owosso's shops. All three engines continue to run reliably and are liked by the crew. They are operated in a push-pull set up. Due to their limited schedule, they remain in good shape and will not need any major service for several years.

In 2022 365-490 cars are forecasted for all the customers combined EXCEPT Cargill. Cargill is projected to ship 1,500-2,000 cars.

Track is rated at 5 mph. It is not necessary to run trains faster.

Talks continue to be productive with Spud-Pak to ship potatoes. The plan would be to use the box cars bringing in cardboard stock from down south to PCA and send them to a potato processing plant near the southern PCA plant with the back haul. It would average about two cars a week which is about what arrives each week for PCA. We are discussing where the potatoes will be transloaded and who will pay for it.

A&MI is financially marginal. The employees perform multiple tasks to keep costs down. They continue to look for additional customers to boost their bottom line. They have to run efficiently in order to have money to reinvest in their railroad.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

A&MI has handled several 105 car unit trains of corn for Cargill in Edmore. The corn is destined for Parrish & Heimbecker and are shipped in P&H covered hoppers. They travel CN-GLC (Durand)-A&MI. A&MI uses several GLC units including their SD40-2's and/or SD35's to assist their three old Geeps. If the cars can be returned to CN (Durand) within 24 hours after delivery they receive a special price discount. It takes around 10 hours to load the cars at Cargill leaving around seven hours each way between Durand and Edmore. They often make this tight schedule, but not every time. One of the times they did not make it back in 24 hours is back in August when they derailed several of the loaded P&M cars in GLC's Sans (Owosso) Freight Yard that caused them to be late.

A&MI also handled a 25 car block of soybeans that was loaded at Cargill and delivered to the Zeeland Farm Services soybean plant south of Ithaca.

Discussions with Spud-Pak to ship potato's in box cars (supplied with empties from PCA) is stalled for now. The sides cannot agree on cost distribution for either a spur track to Spud's warehouse (2 blocks from ROW) or transload in Edmore.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

Business and operations remain the same. Nothing new to report.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

Leprino Foods in Remus manufactures cheese. They are located at the end of the 15.4-mile branch from Edmore and are the sole customer on the line. The branch is still rated for 263,000-pound cars, which is recently becoming an issue and will have to be addressed if A&MI wants to keep their business. Leprino receives one to three cars a week of acids and cultures. They also ship out one to two cars per week of large bulk cheese blocks that weigh about a ton each. The cheese blocks travel to WNYP in New York via GLC / AA / NS to a cheese distributor/processor whose primary customer is the fast-food industry. The bulk cheese blocks are treated as priority freight and has met most of its tight scheduling deadlines. Currently, GLC is experiencing disruptions in their usually good service. The A&MI has had to twist arms more than once to get the cheese product to the AA connection timely. Two to four cars a week is not much for many railroads, but to A&MI it can mean the difference between a financial profit and a loss.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

The crew reports to the Edmore engine house on Tuesday and Thursday between 7-8am. They switch PCA, Edmore Transload track (about once a month), Cargill (smaller blocks of under 50 cars) and make the seven-hour round trip to Remus to switch Leprino. The branch to Remus is exempted and rated for five mph. After returning to Edmore, they often call it a day and wait until the following day to make the run to their two interchange partners, GLC and MMRR. They place engines at opposite ends of the train and proceed east switching Heritage Bean as necessary. They enter GLC track at North Alma Jct. Interchange with GLC takes place either at the two-track interchange tracks with GLC/MMRR (.7 miles of trackage rights) or at GLC’s Wright Siding (1.3 miles of trackage rights). Interchange with MMRR takes place at their small yard in Alma (1.8 miles of trackage rights). After completing their interchange work, they go back west to Edmore spotting Heritage, PCA and Cargill (if necessary). The interchange run often takes six hours with three or four of that on GLC or MMRR’s track working the interchange tracks.

Unit grain trains for Cargill always arrive on GLC (who interchanges them with CN, CSX or NS via AA) at North Alma Jct. GLC will bring the 85-110 car empty block with a pair of their engines (usually a couple six-axles). A&MI will couple their three Geeps to them and proceed to Edmore where they break the train in two and push them to the Cargill elevator. A covered hopper can be loaded in about eight minutes, so it usually takes 11-15 hours to load the entire train. When done loading, the crew rebuilds its train and heads to Alma Jct. North where the A&MI will uncouple while GLC will add several more of their engines and depart south. The unit grain train will spend 14.5 to 19 hours on A&MI’s rails. Each of the two tricks has one train crew member assigned and any other employee who’s available. Cargill averages one- or two-unit trains per month as well as occasional carload traffic that A&MI handles on its regular twice per week job.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37900
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Alma & Mid Michigan (A&MI)

Unread post by AARR »

2023 was a good year for A&MI. Heritage Bean shipped 70 box cars of organic edible beans, PCA received 125 carloads of cardboard feed stock, the corn oil transload received 13 tank cars, Cargill shipped 1,850 cars of corn, soybeans and wheat (1,295 were in unit trains of 85-110 cars) and Leprino Foods received 97 cars of food processing additives and shipped out 65 refrigerated boxcars of bulk cheese.

Leprino has indicated that is getting less cost effective shipping in 263,000 lbs cars versus the growing standard of 286,000 lbs cars. A&MI does not have the funds to pay for an upgrade on its own and Leprino will contribute very little citing their willingness to go to trucks for convenience.

The corn oil transload may go away as local ethanol plants are beginning to offer corn oil. The customer is checking into truck service. While a very small customer, they have been with A&MI since starting operations and there is sentimental value there.

Operations remains two days per week with one of the days often taking a second day to complete the round trip. A round trip to Remus usually takes seven hours due to track conditions.

The two GP9’s are approaching 70 years old and have never been rebuilt. They have been overhauled several times, but their reliability is dropping. The GP38 is over 55 years old and like the GP9’s still has most of its original components. Management is evaluating what to do in the future whether to rebuild or buy new. Several times an engine failure during a unit grain train caused the need to use a GLC engine who is having their own reliability issues. With their future undetermined get your pictures while you can.

The bridge and tracks, especially between Alma and Edmore, are in good condition. The branch to Remus is exempted and will need attention if service is to continue in future years.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

Post Reply