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Michigan Shore has a new customer in Muskegon loading some sort of ash into gondolas. I have heard this will generate a good amount of car loads per year, but I guess that remains to be seen. If so, that is a big boost for the MS! MS also has new business from Viking Forest Products who is getting centerbeam flats of lumber in Fremont. The first 2 cars were unloaded last week.

SD80MAC wrote:Michigan Shore has a new customer in Muskegon loading some sort of ash into gondolas. I have heard this will generate anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 car loads per year, but I guess that remains to be seen.

That would be a lot of ash. Does anyone know the source?

The only possible sources I can think of would be the BC Cobb plant or CWC. I don’t believe that CWC would a significant volume. Certainly not 4,000 carloads.

Standard Railfan wrote:

SD80MAC wrote:Michigan Shore has a new customer in Muskegon loading some sort of ash into gondolas. I have heard this will generate anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 car loads per year, but I guess that remains to be seen.

That would be a lot of ash. Does anyone know the source?

The only possible sources I can think of would be the BC Cobb plant or CWC. I don’t believe that CWC would a significant volume. Certainly not 4,000 carloads.

If it's Cobb It will be very temporary. The plant is gone and the site will be be converted to a deep-water marine terminal. Maybe good news for MS? Maybe a little intermodal business from what the articles say..

Standard Railfan wrote:

SD80MAC wrote:Michigan Shore has a new customer in Muskegon loading some sort of ash into gondolas. I have heard this will generate anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 car loads per year, but I guess that remains to be seen.

That would be a lot of ash. Does anyone know the source?

The only possible sources I can think of would be the BC Cobb plant or CWC. I don’t believe that CWC would a significant volume. Certainly not 4,000 carloads.

4000 carloads would be almost 11 cars per calendar day. That's a ash-ton of ash!

According to this report, Consumers plans to remove the ash from the ponds located south and west of the Causeway/M120. These were the ponds in-service until the date of closure, while the prior ponds, located on the other side of the highway, have already been permanently capped with soil and will remain untouched. They estimate about 400,000 cubic yards of material will need to be removed. So I'm not sure if this is the MS business or not.

https://www.consumersenergy.com/-/media ... 1E8DED0E8A

And a map of said ponds:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2588428 ... a=!3m1!1e3

IIRC a cubic yard of compacted fly ash weighs about 1 ton. If Cobb is shipping 400,000 CY, the that would be about 4000 - 6000 car loads depending on car type and shipping constraints.

Apparently, CSX is making a business of moving Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR).

https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/library/f ... -brochure/

Back in the 70's the Cobb fly ash was part of the "mix" in asphalt production. Many a truck load was hauled to the asphalt plants. The fly ash was added for the P200 "dust" component. Good stuff, had a cementicious (spelled wrong) property as well.
Well a certain asphalt producer convinced MDOT to use the silt in the gravel for the P200 component. Made the cost go down since they didn't need to wash the stone. This is one of the reasons for the decline in the asphalt pavement in MI.
Then our legislators made it illegal to use fly ash in Mi period. So CE landfilled it all on their own property.

Raildudes dad wrote:Back in the 70's the Cobb fly ash was part of the "mix" in asphalt production. Many a truck load was hauled to the asphalt plants. The fly ash was added for the P200 "dust" component. Good stuff, had a cementicious (spelled wrong) property as well.
Well a certain asphalt producer convinced MDOT to use the silt in the gravel for the P200 component. Made the cost go down since they didn't need to wash the stone. This is one of the reasons for the decline in the asphalt pavement in MI.
Then our legislators made it illegal to use fly ash in Mi period. So CE landfilled it all on their own property.

Didn't the last months of the Snyder Administration change the laws regarding the use of fly-ash? Public Act 640 of 2018, signed into law with immediate effect changed the laws regarding the use of fly ash and similar compounds regarding the storage and beneficial use of the compounds.

I remember getting a few pressure unloader hoppers of fly ash for Boichot Cement in Lansing. Way back in the 90's when I was doing the 336/337 thingy. They came out of a power plant down on the Illinois, Indiana border south of Terre Haute IIRC.

So did all the coal for Cobb come in by boat? Google Maps shows nothing that looks like it would have rail access.

Tim wrote:So did all the coal for Cobb come in by boat? Google Maps shows nothing that looks like it would have rail access.

Yes. At one time it was looked at bringing in coal by rail but I guess it was determined that the swing bridge in Grand Haven wouldn't be able to handle the weight and pounding of coal trains without substantial upgrading. More than CSX wanted to do, apparently.

They did seriously look at rebuilding the line from White Cloud thru Fremont to accommodate coal trains for Cobb. North from GR then west at White Cloud.
Late 70's was the time period. More then just sandhouse talk. Nothing ever came of it beyond the drawing board though.

Company buys former power plant property in Muskegon. Also in Luna Pier too


https://www.woodtv.com/news/muskegon-co ... fg-5XEt0NQ

LSRC has gained a new customer on the former Buick City property. They're loading autoracks per multiple Facebook sources.

AARR wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:18 pm

redside20 wrote:Two other businesses are expanding..One in Holly, and one in Fenton..Rail service to both of these establishments is questionable.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.s ... uncil.html

CN goes through Fenton but does not have any rail customers I know of and Holly has both CN and CSX and the only customer is the rail car repair place on CSX north of town

to be precise that's LSRC

Owned by CSX. Leased to and operated by LSRC. CSX did retain undisclosed rights to operate Plymouth-Flint.
They are using that to interchange trains at Novi and Wixom.