Tower Automotive

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mach69
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Tower Automotive

Unread post by mach69 »

I've seen two Tower Automotive buildings where there's tracks going into their buildings but their turnouts have been pulled out. There's one in Plymouth and another one in Clinton Township where I've seen this. Did they quit rail, or did the railroads revoke their rail service for whatever reason? Also, what did they receive and what was the last year they were rail served?

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SD80MAC
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by SD80MAC »

The one in Plymouth used to ship auto frames on flat cars. Switch was pulled in 2017 IIRC.
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Man o' War
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by Man o' War »

Rail service to Tower in Clinton Township was short lived. Not sure of what they shipped from that location, but lots of 86' high cubes went in and out and gons loaded with scrap left as well. Service ended in the 1990's after only a few years of the plant being opened. Four switches within a few hundred feet were removed at roughly the same time in that area - Tower Automotive, Consumers Lumber, Petitpren Beer Distributors and Vic Wertz Beer Distributors (later a Reynolds Aluminum recycling facility that utilized GTW for a spell). All four concerns switched to trucks as the favored mode of transportation...

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AARR
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by AARR »

Good info as usual Man o' War.

I recall a few gondola's of scrap being shipped from Tower. I didn't know they shipped any box cars.

Consumers Lumber of course closed but the current drywall customer has a spur very close to their old ROW.

Petitpren of course went to trucks but Vic Wertz was acquired by Powers in Sylvan Lake who in the late 1990's moved to Orion Twp (across from GM Orion Assembly). They were a steady receiver of rail service (usually around 250 cars a year) until they discontinued rail in the early 2000's. It's unfortunate they couldn't get the service they wanted from rail because they would have doubled rail shipments if they could. A major issue for them was their dock could unload 3 cars but to get a better rail rate they had to order at least 4 cars but CN would charge them a hefty sum to switch the 4th car offsetting any savings.

Reynolds moved to a location on NS in Romulus and was a steady shipper until a few years ago. I haven't seen any box cars there in a while.
Man o' War wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 5:45 pm
Rail service to Tower in Clinton Township was short lived. Not sure of what they shipped from that location, but lots of 86' high cubes went in and out and gons loaded with scrap left as well. Service ended in the 1990's after only a few years of the plant being opened. Four switches within a few hundred feet were removed at roughly the same time in that area - Tower Automotive, Consumers Lumber, Petitpren Beer Distributors and Vic Wertz Beer Distributors (later a Reynolds Aluminum recycling facility that utilized GTW for a spell). All four concerns switched to trucks as the favored mode of transportation...

Man o' War
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AARR
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by AARR »

For years CSX shuttled frames from the Tower plant in Plymouth to the Chrysler Assembly plant in Warren. It was a short unit train of usually around 10 cars that would run about three days a week. A single CSX GP (usually 38-2) would run from Tower on the Detroit Sub to CR Livernois Yard then head north past North Yard to Mound Road Yard in Warren. They shipped additional frames out east too (seems like Delaware).

When Tower switched their production to the Jeep plant in Toledo it went to truck. Now I see a lot of trucks carrying maybe 10-20 frames each rather than flat cars that carry 80-100 frames each.
SD80MAC wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 3:21 pm
The one in Plymouth used to ship auto frames on flat cars. Switch was pulled in 2017 IIRC.
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...

Man o' War
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by Man o' War »

Regarding Tower, I don't know if they were shipping in those 86' boxes, or receiving parts. Consumers deep-sixed their rail business many years before they finally folded. Always wondered what happened to Reynolds - didn't know they went to Romulus. As I recall, most of the boxcars in and out were Southern Rwy cars that went to the DT&I in Flat Rock and headed south to interchange with Southern (NS) - in Cincinnati? Yes, B&D Drywall is the last customer left in that particular area, receiving 1-2 cars a week during the building season. You would never guess today, but far and away the big commodities arriving in Mount Clemens via the GTW in the 40's,50's and 60's were beer and coal - followed by aggregates from Oxford. It's a different world - not to be confused with more interesting.

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AARR
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by AARR »

You bring back great memories Man o' War.

They also had a pool of DT&I 50', outside braced, single sliding door, box car red, with a panel on the side for the DT&I compass.

I also recall a few GTW 50' single sliding door boxcars (both blue and box car red) and at least one 50' double door box car original assigned to automotive service.
Man o' War wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 7:51 pm
As I recall, most of the boxcars in and out were Southern Rwy cars that went to the DT&I in Flat Rock and headed south to interchange with Southern (NS) - in Cincinnati?
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...

Man o' War
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by Man o' War »

I don't want to drag this too far away from mach69's original Tower post, but just a little tid-bit about the Petitpren switch a few feet to the south. In May 1991, that switch was scheduled to be removed in the near term and the timing proved to be problematic for GTW. Early one morning, the railroad had just experienced a rather large derailment on the Flint sub at Capac and plans were underway to reroute all traffic via the Mount Clemens and Holly subs. Hearing this news on the scanner, I scrambled out the back door with the video camera to catch some of the action in MTC. They got one massive eastbound (MTC and Holly were E/W in those days) through with 3 GTW 5900's and a caboose, and then let the local south out of Richmond to clear up in Mount Clemens - but he never made it. They split the Petitpren switch at 40mph and derailed most of the train including the caboose which ended up at a 45 degree angle in the ditch. Several cars were completely rolled over in a somewhat inaccessible area. Heard it on the scanner and got to the scene before anyone else arrived. Nobody hurt badly, but the conductor was walking to the nearest crossing (Oberliesen Drive) and he was quite shaken up. I asked if there was anything I could do, but he said they were good and thanked me. I asked rather boldly if I could go down and take some pictures and he nodded in the affirmative - but to do it quickly before the GTW police got there! Well, both Flint and Mount Clemens subs were closed for about 30 hours, with wreck crews and MoW workers putting in overtime cleaning up messes all over the place. Bottom line, not too much later the Petitpren switch would have been permanently removed making that day a bit less hectic. One day, I'll post the footage - it's all on VHS tapes...

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LansingRailFan
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by LansingRailFan »

The biggest reasons for the decline in rail at shipments of beer has been:
1. Miller Brewing, Anheuser-Busch and Coors all stopped shipping by rail in the early 2000s.
- the push of born on dating and beginning of the SKU explosion at retail as well as continued consolidation pushed this.
2. The increase in the late 90s and early 2000s of the import beer volume led to more shipping containers via truck than anything else. Corona/Modelo and Dos Equis/Tecate bring product to American warehouses via rail and Molson used Silverfoam in Jackson as their eastern American warehouse as well but other than that it was all via shipping container.

Some wineries like Mogen-David and Gallo ceased shipping by rail around the same time. Gallo ships via rail to Chicago and New York and maybe Miami and Dallas as well before it’s split up and sent to distributors via truck.

I worked for Dan Henry in Lansing and we had a spur on the NS/JAIL until we remodeled the building in 2008-9. It was a shared spur between us, the old Coors distributor next door (Superior Beverage) and the office paper warehouse on the south side.

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NS3322
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by NS3322 »

Does Tower in Elkton still use rail?

Also, Tower was purchased by Autokiniton in 2019. Are they still operating as Tower Automotive?
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Thanks LansingRailFan for detailing the reasoning behind the decline in beer shipments by rail. Very interesting!

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AARR
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by AARR »

Last I heard they are still shipping metal scrap by rail, maybe 3-4 carloads a week. They haven't shipped box cars since around 2006.
NS3322 wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 10:03 am
Does Tower in Elkton still use rail?
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...

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Standard Railfan
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by Standard Railfan »

LansingRailFan wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 8:36 am
The biggest reasons for the decline in rail at shipments of beer has been:
1. Miller Brewing, Anheuser-Busch and Coors all stopped shipping by rail in the early 2000s.
- the push of born on dating and beginning of the SKU explosion at retail as well as continued consolidation pushed this.
2. The increase in the late 90s and early 2000s of the import beer volume led to more shipping containers via truck than anything else. Corona/Modelo and Dos Equis/Tecate bring product to American warehouses via rail and Molson used Silverfoam in Jackson as their eastern American warehouse as well but other than that it was all via shipping container.

Some wineries like Mogen-David and Gallo ceased shipping by rail around the same time. Gallo ships via rail to Chicago and New York and maybe Miami and Dallas as well before it’s split up and sent to distributors via truck.

I worked for Dan Henry in Lansing and we had a spur on the NS/JAIL until we remodeled the building in 2008-9. It was a shared spur between us, the old Coors distributor next door (Superior Beverage) and the office paper warehouse on the south side.
I would also include the proliferation of craft beer as a contributor. A significant part of the beer market is now held by small brewers that do not have the scale to need rail shipments.

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KVERBERK
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by KVERBERK »

Interesting discussion. I was Just wondering today in fact where the frames from tower in Plymouth went when they were shipping by rail. Seems like frames going to Toledo would make sense to ship by rail as well.
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pbmaxno15
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Re: Tower Automotive

Unread post by pbmaxno15 »

AARR is correct. Tower in Elkton still ships scrap in MWCX hoppers. There are usually 6-10 cars on the siding on the north side of M-142, across from the plant. I believe they can fit two cars inside the building for loading.

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