Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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GP30M4216
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Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Indiana Northeast Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County
Don Reid
The Daily Reporter

Indiana Northeast Railroad dropped bundles of railroad ties along the 10.1-mile right-of-way between Quincy and Coldwater. The railroad also brought in 5,000 tons of new stone for ballast under the rails.

The city of Coldwater is one of the owners of the Rail Users Association, which purchased the Quincy-Coldwater section of the rail services from the federal government in 2002.

When those ties and ballast are installed over the next few month “It'll look like a railroad again,” according to Andrew Hershman who does marketing and sales for the railroad.

He is also a part-time locomotive engineer.

“I was an engineer three weeks ago on a train and I don't operate that much through Branch County. When I do, I'm reminded of just how much this project is needed," he said.

Work to repair the bridge east of Coldwater over the Sauk River has begun.

“With the addition to the ties and the surfacing work, that will improve the condition on the track," Hershman said. "It will bump us to the next class that will allow us to do 20 mph on that stretch of road.” The limit is now 10 mph.

The big advantage comes with heavier freight. The national lines use rail cars with a 286,000 pounds per car load limit. Because of the poor condition of the local line, businesses here face a car load limit of 268,000 pounds.

The lower limit resulted in Panel Processing moving work to its other plants.

“Panel processing was hoping that they could get some heavier boxcars in here," Hershman said. "With the heavier loadings, you get better economies of scale with your freight rates.”

The heavy loads will help “especially over at Ceres Solutions. With their inbound fertilizers, some of the potash and the dry fertilizers, it will be a little bit cheaper if we can handle the heavier cars,” Hershman said of the farm co-op.

Darling International rendering plant could not fully load outbound rail cars. Other users include Voltek, Star West Milling and Sungrow of Quincy.

Rail traffic was down in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. Hershman said the numbers might have been "slightly depressed" yet "we saw about 800 cars out of Coldwater last year.”

He believes sales will rise.

“A person now looks at the railroad and they're kind of discouraged, and rightfully so. With the improvement in the track structure and in its appearance, it would be an easier sell," he said. "We're open for business, the red carpets out. We can handle your freight.”

It’s all about price. Andersons were trucking corn oil from its Albion biofuel processing plat to Coldwater to load into rail cars for shipment to Louisiana. Canadian National Railroad gave a better price so now the corn oil is trucked to Lansing to connect to that rail line.

Hershman said in the current market with shortages of trucks and higher fuel prices rail shippers can save 25% to 40% on rail freight.

“The further the distance, the more competitive rail is," he said. "Generally speaking, a rail car is about the equivalent of four trucks.” Cost goes up if trucking is needed at either end of the haul.

Indiana Northeast Railroad is a 105 mile short line railroad. It owns from Quincy to its national connection at Montpellier, Ohio.

The railroad will pick up a quarter of the $1.2 million "corridor improvement" costs. Coldwater will use $312,500 of its Capital Improvement fund to pay a quarter of the cost. A grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation pays the $625,000 remainder.

Source: https://www.thedailyreporter.com/story/ ... 389378001/

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AARR
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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It is interesting that Anderson's, with spur on NS in Albion, would truck corn-oil to Coldwater and ship by IN, whose only connection is with NS in Montpelier. I wonder what the back-story to that is :? .
GP30M4216 wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:56 am
It’s all about price. Andersons were trucking corn oil from its Albion biofuel processing plat to Coldwater to load into rail cars for shipment to Louisiana. Canadian National Railroad gave a better price so now the corn oil is trucked to Lansing to connect to that rail line.
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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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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AARR wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:24 am
It is interesting that Anderson's, with spur on NS in Albion, would truck corn-oil to Coldwater and ship by IN, whose only connection is with NS in Montpelier. I wonder what the back-story to that is :? .
GP30M4216 wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:56 am
It’s all about price. Andersons were trucking corn oil from its Albion biofuel processing plat to Coldwater to load into rail cars for shipment to Louisiana. Canadian National Railroad gave a better price so now the corn oil is trucked to Lansing to connect to that rail line.
This is a big transload for ADBF now.

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Yesterday the MOW equipment was all on the siding west of Clay St. That's just west of the old depot. There was a gaggle of guys in hardhats and yellow safety vests looking like they were getting ready to get to work. I'll try to get down that way tomorrow or Friday and see where they're working.
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Jim_c wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 8:39 pm
Yesterday the MOW equipment was all on the siding west of Clay St. That's just west of the old depot. There was a gaggle of guys in hardhats and yellow safety vests looking like they were getting ready to get to work. I'll try to get down that way tomorrow or Friday and see where they're working.
Thanks Jim! An under-reported area of the state so your efforts certainly are appreciated!

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AARR
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by AARR »

Same here. Thank you for posting IN updates.
LansingRailFan wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:10 pm
Jim_c wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 8:39 pm
Thanks Jim! An under-reported area of the state so your efforts certainly are appreciated!
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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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by Steve B »

Good info and nice to see the media covering it. An odd error stating that the Branch-St. Joseph Rail User's Association bought it from the federal government in 2002. They bought it from Conrail in 1989 as far as I can tell, and apparently Conrail hadn't operated from Coldwater to Sturgis since 1984.

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Today they were replacing ties in Quincy. Working both sides of main St. I didn't get a good look, but it seemed they might be totally replacing the passing/run-around track,

IIRC the last run from Sturgis to Coldwater would have been in the late 90s or early 2000s. The MSO used to make that run. Then the scoundrels removed the track.
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Jim_c wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:17 pm
IIRC the last run from Sturgis to Coldwater would have been in the late 90s or early 2000s. The MSO used to make that run. Then the scoundrels removed the track.
It is my understanding that the line from Coldwater to Sturgis was abandoned due to the lack of customers and having NS basically on both ends.

The last run was a ferry move of the Little River Railroad equipment from White Pigeon to Coldwater in May 2005. I found a post on Trainorders saying that after Pioneer purchased the MSO from Gordy Morris they would no longer let LRR run on the line to Sturgis. I guess from 2000 to 2005 the Little River was basically mothballed. The 2004 season consisted of #1 (recently restored) running on the 1/4 mile of track the sand and gravel place owns in White Pigeon (see photo below). In 2005 they packed up and moved to Coldwater.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/65108/

Very hard to find detailed history/photos of this time period of the MSO and IN (1990s to early 2000s).
Last edited by NS3322 on Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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AARR
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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I’m foggy on the specifics but the association that owned Quincy to a location west of Coldwater wanted IN to service them instead of MSO. A lawsuit followed with IN winning so MSO cut back to its present location east of Sturgis.
NS3322 wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:26 pm
Jim_c wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:17 pm
IIRC the last run from Sturgis to Coldwater would have been in the late 90s or early 2000s. The MSO used to make that run. Then the scoundrels removed the track.
It is my understanding that the line from Coldwater to Sturgis was abandoned due to the lack of customers and having NS basically on both ends.

The last run was a ferry move of the Little River Railroad equipment from White Pigeon to Coldwater in May 2005. I found a post on Trainorders saying that after Pioneer purchased the MSO from Gordy Morris they would no longer let LRR run on the line to Sturgis. I guess from 2000 to 2005 the Little River was basically mothballed. The 2004 season consisted of #1 (recently restored) running on the 1/4 mile of track the sand and gravel place owns in White Pigeon (see photo below). In 2005 they packed up and moved to Coldwater.
Image

Very hard to find detailed history/photos of this time period of the MSO and IN (1990s to early 2000s).
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...

GP30M4216
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

MSO WB east of Bronson in April 2000, one of my rarest photos.

Image

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by MQT1223 »

Not to get too off topic here, but what did the NYC run on the old road steam wise? How well was the line built?
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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MQT1223 wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:06 pm
Not to get too off topic here, but what did the NYC run on the old road steam wise? How well was the line built?
I do not know what locomotives the NYC ran on this line.

I reviewed the Conrail track chart for “Old Road” through Quincy and Coldwater. The records indicate the line had 105 pound rail laid in the 1920s.

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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Pictures of locos in Hillsdale and conversations with former employees from the 50s' showed that there were Consolidation's, Mikes', and Mohawks' for freight on the main line and Pacifics' and Hudsons' for passenger service. Pretty sure that NYC's smaller locos were used on the Ft. Wayne and Jackson, Ypsi, and Lansing (Litchfield) branches

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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AARR wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:49 pm
I’m foggy on the specifics but the association that owned Quincy to a location west of Coldwater wanted IN to service them instead of MSO. A lawsuit followed with IN winning so MSO cut back to its present location east of Sturgis.
NS3322 wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:26 pm
Jim_c wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:17 pm
IIRC the last run from Sturgis to Coldwater would have been in the late 90s or early 2000s. The MSO used to make that run. Then the scoundrels removed the track.
It is my understanding that the line from Coldwater to Sturgis was abandoned due to the lack of customers and having NS basically on both ends.

The last run was a ferry move of the Little River Railroad equipment from White Pigeon to Coldwater in May 2005. I found a post on Trainorders saying that after Pioneer purchased the MSO from Gordy Morris they would no longer let LRR run on the line to Sturgis. I guess from 2000 to 2005 the Little River was basically mothballed. The 2004 season consisted of #1 (recently restored) running on the 1/4 mile of track the sand and gravel place owns in White Pigeon (see photo below). In 2005 they packed up and moved to Coldwater.
Image

Very hard to find detailed history/photos of this time period of the MSO and IN (1990s to early 2000s).
Just looked up the court case from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, where MSO appealed a district court loss to (and lost again).

Basically, there were two agreements in place for the line from Sturgis to Coldwater (then to Quincy in the 1997 agreement).

The 1991 agreement between the Michigan Southern Railroad (Gordy Morris' line) and the Rail Users Association (RUA), granted the railroad the option to purchase the line. The line was later sold to Pioneer Railcorp and their management (I use that term loosely). The purchase agreement for the MSO included stipulations carrying over the 1991 agreement with the RUA. A subsequent agreement was later reached in which the MSO was granted access to the line as far as Quincy. A couple years later MSO attempted to purchase the line from the RUA. The RUA then balked, claiming the MSO had violated several terms of the 1997 agreement, including getting STB authorization for operations of the line from Coldwater to Quincy and maintaining the track to Class 1 standards. The MSO then attempted to sue the RUA claiming the 1991 agreement, not the 1997 agreement was in effect. The district court then ruled that this was not a legal matter under federal law, but was in fact a state law contract issue. The appeals court sided with the RUA and upheld the original ruling of the district court.

One interesting thing that the court ruling states basically that the MSO's defense to the situation is that their own inactions (getting STB approval to operate Quincy to Coldwater) are don't matter.

Basically I think the MSO got caught trying to do an end run around this and tried cherry picking the agreement that best suited them, and the court saw right through it.

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by Jim_c »

Tie replacement project has progressed to the east side of Coldwater.
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

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What contractor is doing the work?

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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by Jim_c »

I will look more carefully next time I see them.
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by Jim_c »

The contractor is Ameritrack. They are now working in the industrial area on the southwest side of Coldwater.
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Re: Indiana Northeastern Railroad to improve tracks in Branch County

Unread post by Raildudes dad »

Jim_c wrote:
Wed Jun 15, 2022 7:20 pm
The contractor is Ameritrack. They are now working in the industrial area on the southwest side of Coldwater.
Thanks :D :D

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