Former MMRR Boxcar

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TomArrGP49
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Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by TomArrGP49 »

Here's a former Mid-Michigan Boxcar in South Dakota. As far as I can tell this may be the only one with the large MMRR lettering. While it has had a few different owners, multiple reporting marks are bleeding through. The current owner is Performance Seed (PSMX). Performance Seed has a good size fleet of similar boxcars, they use them for shipping packaged bird seed.

Question is when they were on the MMRR what were they used for?
Thanks
Tom
IMG_4308.jpg

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AARR
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by AARR »

TomArrGP49 wrote:
Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:42 pm
Question is when they were on the MMRR what were they used for?
Thanks
Tom
IMG_4308.jpg
MMRR had a pool of box cars in appliance service in Greenville. Seems like they had a variety of older box cars including some ex-GTW 8 door 86' hi cubes.
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Raildudes dad
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by Raildudes dad »

The car in the photo is the only one that got the "fancy" MMRR logo. It was painted up for a display for Transportation Week sometime in the late 80's early 90'. The display was set up on the siding at the former SuperFoods (IGA) warehouse on Patterson Ave on CSX. I don't remember all the details anymore but I went there and looked at the various pieces of equipment on display. If anyone has a copy(s) of the West MI RR Historical Society newsletters from that era, the details would be documented there. I was the reporter for current events for the Editor John Milhaupt.

As for the cars, Electrolux had a pool of cars that operated from the plant in Greenville to the Elston-Richards warehouse on Patterson, north side of the tracks. It was the ultimate short haul. Elston-Richards was one of 2 distribution warehouses. The pool also served the 2nd one which I believe was in Columbus OH. Electolux had something like 3000 employees in Greenville making refrigerators. They were switched at the beginning of 1st shift and again early 2nd shift. The refrigerators literally came of the line, were boxed and forked into semi trailers at the truck docks or into one of 6 or 7 boxcars inside the building. All gone. It wasn't because the plant wasn't making money. Electolux said it wasn't making enough money.

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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by ns8401 »

Raildudes dad wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:55 pm
The car in the photo is the only one that got the "fancy" MMRR logo. It was painted up for a display for Transportation Week sometime in the late 80's early 90'. The display was set up on the siding at the former SuperFoods (IGA) warehouse on Patterson Ave on CSX. I don't remember all the details anymore but I went there and looked at the various pieces of equipment on display. If anyone has a copy(s) of the West MI RR Historical Society newsletters from that era, the details would be documented there. I was the reporter for current events for the Editor John Milhaupt.

As for the cars, Electrolux had a pool of cars that operated from the plant in Greenville to the Elston-Richards warehouse on Patterson, north side of the tracks. It was the ultimate short haul. Elston-Richards was one of 2 distribution warehouses. The pool also served the 2nd one which I believe was in Columbus OH. Electolux had something like 3000 employees in Greenville making refrigerators. They were switched at the beginning of 1st shift and again early 2nd shift. The refrigerators literally came of the line, were boxed and forked into semi trailers at the truck docks or into one of 6 or 7 boxcars inside the building. All gone. It wasn't because the plant wasn't making money. Electolux said it wasn't making enough money.
Couple of questions… do we know what the heritage of those boxcars is? Presumably some major railroad owned them originally..

When did the plant close and get torn down and was there rail service right till the end?
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AARR
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by AARR »

ns8401 wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:25 pm
Couple of questions… do we know what the heritage of those boxcars is? Presumably some major railroad owned them originally..

When did the plant close and get torn down and was there rail service right till the end?
Most of the box car heritages can probably be figured out. I recall some GTW 8-door 86' hi-cube box cars in the pool.

Electrolux shipped until the end which was around 2007. As RD'sD said they were shipping many of the appliances to a warehouse in Kalamazoo so the Greenville building would be vacated when production ended.

At least part of the building remains and is being used by a company that recycles plastic IIRC.
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

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AARR wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:39 pm
Most of the box car heritages can probably be figured out. I recall some GTW 8-door 86' hi-cube box cars in the pool.
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TomArrGP49
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by TomArrGP49 »

Thanks guys for the replies. Interesting how they went from hauling appliances to hauling bird seed. Performance Seed has about a dozen of these boxcars. I can make out YKR and BAEX reporting marks under the paint also. I snapped a couple more photos a little hard to see. Faded stencil for "When empty return to Mid-Michigan Greenville Michigan" and the RailTex decal.
Enjoy
Tom
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geeb557
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Re: Former MMRR Boxcar

Unread post by geeb557 »

There is an HO model of a former GTW 86'er re-stenciled MMRR on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/114890466157

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