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I had a question about two of Brighton's former industries.

First, just west of the CH 43 signal, there is a building that from what I remember used to have a few tracks behind it. Looking at Google Maps, it appears some of those tracks still exist, but the switch from the mainline has been removed. The industries are now AIRman and Export Corporation.

Secondly, just east of Main Street, it appears there used to be a small spur. It can be seen in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3naSPlS ... 3U&index=3 at timestamp 11:53.

Does anyone know what industries used to be there? Does anyone know when those tracks were ripped up?

I'll include Google Maps screenshots for each of the locations I brought up, in respective order.
These locations are on the CSX Plymouth Subdivision, for those curious.

Where AIRman is where Thermofil used to be before they moved to Fowlerville and became Ashai-Kesei. Quite a few years ago when CP trains were running. AFTER X502, or pehaps R502 (have to look in my log book, passed the clear signal at the east end of Brighton, vandals broke the lock on the main line switch there, opened the spur switch and sent the CP train crashing into cars in the siding before they could stop, and pushed said cars into the building. The signal at MP43 still showed a high green. Went down shortly after it happened but emergency people would not let anyone get anywhere close. While I can not recall the exact date without checking my log book, I do remember the lead unit, was Soo Line SD40-2 6610. Crashing into the end car of plastic pellets and the whole front of the locomotive was covered in them. Crew was not hurt, but they hit the floor before crashing. Knew the crew well. Engineer was the Dad of now retired CSX engineer Jerry Moyer, if I remember correctly.

Export also did quite the business with CSX as well. All box car traffic.

The other short switch at Main Street is the former Hyne Lumber Yard spur where they used to get cars of lumber.

As I recall the one by CH43 was Thermofil industries. There was a siding there for their hopper cars. It was in use until the 90's I think. It was removed when a local ne'er do-well broke the lock on the switch and sent an EB almost into US23. Shortly, a year or two later, Thermofil sold the property.

The other siding, I just don't remember. There was a lumberyard on the south side of the tracks where the 3 buildings are now. According to your video it was the still there after"Pink Hotel" was sold and re-made into that brick junk now. It's possible it was related to the lumberyard. I don't know.

That did not take long due to my trusty record keeping. The date of the mishap that sent, which turned out to be train CP 200, which in later years began train 500 crashing into Thermofil in Brighton was July 15, 1987. Consist of the train was Soo Line 6610 leading, CPRail 5504+5500 trailing with Soo Line caboose 138 on the rear.

It was less than two years later, and happened to be in Brighton when it happened, when CP train 202 had a major derailment in downtown Brighton between Hyne Street and Brighton Lake Road which caused cars to derail on both sides of Brighton Lake Road, but most between Brighton Lk Rd and Hyne streets. The date of that one was March 11, 1989. If I recall correctly, amessmann asked about this one not all that long ago.

Using the date Bob provided, I was able to find this news article from the Livingston County Press and Argus. I was not able to get to page 4 for free.

Thank You for posting the article, sparrow24. I have that here along with any other derailment articles and photos from S.E Michigan and beyond in the last 65 years. Never thought about going to my derailment articles when finding the date, only to my log book.

Thanks all for all the information! I remember our discussion about CP 202 and if I remember correctly it's been almost a year since I asked. Luckily it sounds like no one was hurt too badly in either the 202 incident or the Thermofil incident. I was surprised to hear the tracks had been removed so long ago, I vaguely remember seeing buffers there up until maybe 2016. I'll have to look up the article sparrow24 referenced, would probably be an interesting read, not to mention I have friends who live in the neighborhood just south of the accident site, I'll bet they (or their parents) remember that quite vividly! Bob, as for the logs and documentation you talk about, I'd love to see all of that sometime, especially with me being such a fan of your old videos.

Does anyone know when the Hyne Lumber spur was removed?

Edit: I did some quick research and found that our initial discussion about CP 202 was from January 27th 2021, making it exactly one year since I asked.

To add to the article this is the Brighton industry info that once existed. I'm not sure on the date but I believe this is the 1960s?

Bob, do you recall a place just west of Rickett Road that was repairing railcars? They claimed in one of the YouTube channels I follow it used to fix railcars. Troy Clogg bought it and turned it into a landscape supply yard. The 22 minute mark in the video Troy talks about the railcar part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gew9k6vsOY&t=762s