Lansing NS "South Yard"

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J T
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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MiddleMI wrote: This next pic is one I found of a CSX train in 1993 using the west main outside Claras:

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CSX - Lansing, MI by d.w.davidson, on Flickr
Speaking of Clara's, here is the first roster shot I ever took, and it happened to be right next to Clara's, looking south. Sorry for the crappy image quality, it's a cell phone pic of a very old instant camera photo.

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And the reason I was at Clara's in the first place...

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Dan Cluley
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

Unread post by Dan Cluley »

Very cool shot JT. :)

I don't have any pictures, but did see one of the Chessie Steam specials in '77. We were coming home from Frandor and ran out of gas on the Trowbridge exit under 127. While my Dad walked down to the gas station, the train came by westbound.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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I don't have any photo notes regarding the 614. Does anyone know what that train was and why it was going through Michigan back in 1981?
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Dan Cluley
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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Short answer: In 1980-81 They ran a bunch of excursions as the Chessie Safety Express in conjunction with the Operation Lifesaver people.

Details here - http://www.themetrains.com/chessie-safe ... s-main.htm

Looks like there was a Detroit-Grand Ledge round trip on May 31
Then a one way ferry trip from Detroit-Grand Rapids on June 6 & a Grand Rapids-Plymouth round trip on June 13.

Interesting to see the 1642. In the late '80s the GP-15s in Lansing were all 1660s-1680s.

I had forgotten that yellow crane that was the sign for the business in the old NYC freighthouse.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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Excellent shot of the C&O covered wagon, a classic pic!

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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I passed by South Yard yesterday without planning to be by there, so it was a quick glimpse when I realized where I was headed. Long train of black tank cars sitting in the yard, but they looked like they were on the main line. Hadn't seen anything in the yard for some time so it kind of surprised me, though, I'm not exactly by that way everyday.

There aren't any local customers that would use tank cars for anything, right? Must be short-term storage for one of the Class I's.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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I believe you are correct that the tank cars are for storage however I believe JAIL has a few tank car customers including chemical, deicer and at least at one time a substantial transloading operation. All of these are in Mason.
MiddleMI wrote:There aren't any local customers that would use tank cars for anything, right? Must be short-term storage for one of the Class I's.
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Dan Cluley
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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They have been storing quite a few tanks at Saginaw yard.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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I remember an older railfan Stan who passed away a few years ago. He was talking perhaps writing a book with Jerry Pinkepank a kinda of Trackside Lansing. Certainly the NYC?MC is an interesting story who one once was the busiest rail line in Lansing and is now the least active and declined with the loss of industrial customers.

Curious about where the Motor Wheel plant was? I remember the HQ being close to the Lansing postal processing off the Jolly Rd/127 exit. Also when did REO close and where was the plant located?

And of course if anyone wants to post some pictures of that era that would be great?

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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jrgerber wrote:I remember an older railfan Stan who passed away a few years ago. He was talking perhaps writing a book with Jerry Pinkepank a kinda of Trackside Lansing. Certainly the NYC?MC is an interesting story who one once was the busiest rail line in Lansing and is now the least active and declined with the loss of industrial customers.

Curious about where the Motor Wheel plant was? I remember the HQ being close to the Lansing postal processing off the Jolly Rd/127 exit. Also when did REO close and where was the plant located?

And of course if anyone wants to post some pictures of that era that would be great?
You talking Motor Wheels historic production factory up on Saginaw off Larch? It's loft apartments now.

Image
Motor Wheel Lofs by Brandon Bartoszek, on Flickr

As for REO, it was fully demolished by 1980. Today, an industrial park has been developed on parts of the old factory site. Rail still services the Quality Dairy warehouse built on the site, what? Over 15 years ago, now? My, how time flies.

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MP73point4
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

Unread post by MP73point4 »

The Prudden Wheel building was part of Motor Wheel. There were/are several other buildings to it that are to the left (north) of the building in your photo. It was quite a large complex at one time.
The Reo plant was on Washington Ave. immediately south of the Grand Trunk main. It went east to Cedar St. and south to Baker St. The Quality Dairy plant that is still rail served is on the corner of Washington and Mt. Hope, a few blocks SW. It is not new construction but rather very old. There is nothing rail served in the new industrial park on the old REO site.
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jrgerber
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

Unread post by jrgerber »

So was the Motor Wheel plant shown in the picture served by the PM and NYC?

And was REO served by NYC and GT?

and by the way thanks MiddleMI and MP73point4 and all of you who have contributed to this thread. I moved to Lansing in 1981 and wasn't a railfan at that time, I do recall an estimate of GM workers in Lansing at that time, my memory isn't too good but I believe it was between 10,000-12,000. I remember reading about Motor Wheel being bought out going out of business? 1982?

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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MP73point4 wrote:The Prudden Wheel building was part of Motor Wheel. There were/are several other buildings to it that are to the left (north) of the building in your photo. It was quite a large complex at one time.
The Reo plant was on Washington Ave. immediately south of the Grand Trunk main. It went east to Cedar St. and south to Baker St. The Quality Dairy plant that is still rail served is on the corner of Washington and Mt. Hope, a few blocks SW. It is not new construction but rather very old. There is nothing rail served in the new industrial park on the old REO site.
Thanks for the correction on QD; I was under the impression that the warehouse on the old REO site was what was served, but I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, the other buildings in the Motor Wheels complex to the north are long since demolished. North (left in that photo) is parking for the office tenants in the building. In fact, some of the now empty land in the north (other side of May Street) is going to be developed into additional apartments. I believe the plan is to bring in shipping containers along the rail line, and they will be used to build the new apartment complex: Metro Flats, a complex of 200-units. In fact, the future plan is that if this dream of the developer takes off beyond the building, he'll literally ship the container housing units around the country via rail. Construction on the Motor Wheels complex starts either later this year or early next year.

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BTW, directly to the west of the existing factory lofts another developer built an apartment complex, Prudden Place. I took some pictures of them back when they were being constructed.

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Prudden Place Pan by NewCityOne, on Flickr

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Prudden Place Lofts - Building I by NewCityOne, on Flickr

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Prudden Place and Factory by NewCityOne, on Flickr

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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The Prudden Wheel plant was switched just by the MC. The Motor Wheel plant in the NW corner of the junction of the MC and PM at North Lansing was switched on the east side by the MC and the south side by the PM. This plant is also still there and used by a variety of business.
The Quality Dairy building in the old Reo area is the bakery while the part in the old Duo Therm plant makes plastic milk jugs and receives plastic pellets in covered hoppers using about one carload a week. They can unload two cars at a time so are usually switched every other week.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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REO:

The Reo complex which was torn down about 1980, took up the area south of the GTW tracks, north of Baker st between Washington ave & Cedar st.
The GTW served it on the north side, and the NYC served it using the LS&MS line which actually ran through the middle of the complex.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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I always laugh when we go by those lofts at 4 am with the horn screaming off the side of the building. More than once I've watched a person jump out of their bed! :lol: :mrgreen:
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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

Unread post by jrgerber »

Thanks again for the replies to my questions.

Where was the North Lansing Motor Wheel factory (streets)?

Regarding the old Lakeshore and Southern Michigan route I know it went through Diamondale ie bridge there used to go through Holt and then South Lansing, is there a map of the route it took?

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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jrgerber wrote:Thanks again for the replies to my questions.

Where was the North Lansing Motor Wheel factory (streets)?

Regarding the old Lakeshore and Southern Michigan route I know it went through Diamondale ie bridge there used to go through Holt and then South Lansing, is there a map of the route it took?
The North Lansing Motor Wheels factory was immediately north of East Grand River east of Larch. Demmer uses it, these days. Here's a map where left is pointing north:

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As for the other question

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Thanks Michiganrailroads.com for the maps.

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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Thanks very helpful!

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Re: Lansing NS "South Yard"

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jrgerber wrote: Where was the North Lansing Motor Wheel factory (streets)?
Some of that old Motor Wheel factory can be seen in the background of this shot. I was standing at the Grand River Ave crossing for this shot, looking north. This was the location of the split ("To Owosso") seen in the graphic in the post above.

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And another view of the old Motor Wheel building along Saginaw:

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Last edited by J T on Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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