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Mark Dombrowski is selling the ADBF.

Selling and having ownership head to Chris Bagwell of GLC fame. Chris was Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Great Lakes Central Railroad (GLC) in years past.

Chris Bagwell spoke at the AARRT&HA annual meeting once. He came across as a good man who knew his railroad business. I wish him well!

I heard that ZFS is buying and Chris will be president.

Is there an update on the official turnover date?

From STB documents, the date has long passed where control could change. Doesn't mean it has changed though.
Those documents show Chris is Vice President/Chief Transportation Officer of Transportation Holdings LLC.
The real owner seems to be private based on searching for Transportation Holdings LLC (Michigan).

AARR wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:05 am

I heard that ZFS is buying and Chris will be president.

Zeeland Farm Services?

Thank you DaveO for the update

Correct, Zeeland Farm Services is who I heard was acquiring ADBF although they probably will use a different company name as DaveO pointed out.

NS3322 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 10, 2021 11:05 am

AARR wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:05 am

I heard that ZFS is buying and Chris will be president.

Zeeland Farm Services?

Lawyer agent is being used to conceal ownership. Not unusual for a privately owned company.

I'm wondering if they will bring back the dinner train or if that is sadly a thing of the past? It hasn't ran since before the start of Covid and the dinner train passenger cars are really starting to look pretty rough. Also, their website no longer is showing the dinner train tab. https://www.abrailroad.com/dinner-train

rail_watcher wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:54 pm

I'm wondering if they will bring back the dinner train or if that is sadly a thing of the past? It hasn't ran since before the start of Covid and the dinner train passenger cars are really starting to look pretty rough. Also, their website no longer is showing the dinner train tab. https://www.abrailroad.com/dinner-train

I was wondering about that as well. Glad I rode one of the regular excursion trains in 2017 and the Ohio Rail excursion in May.

If this is true it will definitely put the final nail in the coffin for the Charlotte Southern.

AARR wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:05 am

I heard that ZFS is buying and Chris will be president.

Is there an update on the official turnover date?

I heard the same thing about ZFS earlier this summer but did not want to post it on here at the time.

I’ve also heard that there is zero interest in running dinner trains anymore by new ownership.

One word for any sort of a passenger operation: INSURANCE.

So that there is no confusion, as AARR had noted, Chris Bagwell is President of the ADBF.
Somewhere along the line, the President of the parent company will be known.
Being ZFS is also a private company, it could be awhile.

Owners of ZFS are said to be Cliff, Arlen, and Robb Meeuwsen, per their website: http://www.zfsinc.com/about/

Doktor No wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:22 am

One word for any sort of a passenger operation: INSURANCE.

Insurance for passenger operations is reasonable and available. However, they need passengers to operate. Covid has made that difficult. The CPMY didn't run a passenger train in over a year.
The Class 1's are a different story on insurance.

Bagwell is indeed in charge over there and I expect a lot of good changes and some that will also probably change things up that may not be liked by the railfan community.

GLC 392 wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:40 pm

...and some that will also probably change things up that may not be liked by the railfan community.

New power?

GLC 392 wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:40 pm

Bagwell is indeed in charge over there and I expect a lot of good changes and some that will also probably change things up that may not be liked by the railfan community.

Any further information or ideas about what might be changing?

rail_watcher wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:25 am

GLC 392 wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:40 pm

Bagwell is indeed in charge over there and I expect a lot of good changes and some that will also probably change things up that may not be liked by the railfan community.

Any further information or ideas about what might be changing?

They are outlawing “Clothing Optional Fridays” as company policy. It’s similar to a policy that GLC has currently.

Doubt if there will be many changes. Most new owners come in bragging about all the new changes and how much better its gonna be, it almost never happens, at least not right away. Considering how some of their traffic is down I don't see them dumping a bunch of money into it.