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Who's the biggest shipper and customer on the MMRR/HESR, i think its MAC in breckenridge just not sure, the neighboring operations in hemlock and wheeler appear to be just as big. too bad the downtown elevator in breckenridge stopped shipping. not sure about the far west end industries in st louis and the lone one near 127 on the outskirts of alma. that fueling terminal isnt as big of a customer as it should be. Would Lake State ever try to get their hands on this line?

The MAC elevator east of Breckenridge is probably the largest customer. They are one of the largest, if not the largest, elevator in MI.

My guess is the Anderson's in Hemlock would be the second largest.

The "fueling terminal" is an asphalt distributer. Last I heard they receive about 250 cars a year. That was a while ago, though, it may be different now.

redside20 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2024 6:26 pm

Who's the biggest shipper and customer on the MMRR/HESR, i think its MAC in breckenridge just not sure, the neighboring operations in hemlock and wheeler appear to be just as big. too bad the downtown elevator in breckenridge stopped shipping. not sure about the far west end industries in st louis and the lone one near 127 on the outskirts of alma. that fueling terminal isnt as big of a customer as it should be. Would Lake State ever try to get their hands on this line?

AARR wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2024 7:26 pm

The MAC elevator east of Breckenridge is probably the largest customer. They are one of the largest, if not the largest, elevator in MI.

My guess is the Anderson's in Hemlock would be the second largest.

The "fueling terminal" is an asphalt distributer. Last I heard they receive about 250 cars a year. That was a while ago, though, it may be different now.

redside20 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2024 6:26 pm

Who's the biggest shipper and customer on the MMRR/HESR, i think its MAC in breckenridge just not sure, the neighboring operations in hemlock and wheeler appear to be just as big. too bad the downtown elevator in breckenridge stopped shipping. not sure about the far west end industries in st louis and the lone one near 127 on the outskirts of alma. that fueling terminal isnt as big of a customer as it should be. Would Lake State ever try to get their hands on this line?

Back in the 70's and 80's when we handled these unit trains, we couldn't just send a crew out of Saginaw. Anything on the Elmdale Sub had to be a Grand Rapids crew. So, we normally had to deadhead an extra crew off the GR board via highway to Saginaw, get power and handle either the empties over or the loads back. We wouldn't normally use the through trains (like GR87/SA88) to do this work. We also had to have the right power on hand (usually 3 units for the loads) since nothing larger than a GP35 was authorized on the Elmdale Sub. When the loads got back into Saginaw, we would normally use larger power (GP40 and above) to handle south to Toledo in order to keep the lighter units on hand. (The Bad Axe Sub was also restricted to nothing larger than GP35). I don't recall for sure, but I believe after the line was cut between Edmore and Greenville, we often used the St Louis road switcher crew to handle the grain trains. It looks like nowadays, by necessity, even 6-axle units can be used on lighter rail trackage. (The weight restrictions on the Elmdale Sub may have been more for bridge restrictions rather than the rail itself).

C&O Dispatcher wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2024 8:11 pm

Back in the 70's and 80's when we handled these unit trains, we couldn't just send a crew out of Saginaw.

Thank you for the great information.

Ribin rail being laid down between Saginaw and Alma, should be a nice peace of track when there done.

The only traffic in St. Louis is inbound lumber for Bear Truss and I assume inbound fertilizer components for whoever runs the fertilizer plant on the shared property with Bear Truss.

When I was on the agent/operator extra board out of Saginaw, I worked the agency at St Louis a few times when the regular agent was on vacation. That would have been 1976, just before I started breaking in on dispatching. The main customer then was the chemical plant. I remember having to drive into the plant to check all of the yard tracks that were there. By then, Hemlock agency was closed, but there was still an agent at Breckenridge and at Alma. Before long only St Louis was open with a control agent and a traveling agent. Alma still had the Total refinery, Lobdell and some other customers.

How much traffic was generated by the refinery? Also, when did the refinery close down. I remember swimming meets at Alma High School at least once if not twice in the early 1990's and driving by the refinery.

I honestly can't recall how much the refinery shipped by rail. From what I could "Google" it appears the refinery closed in 1999. I used to spend summers on my grandmother's farm in Gratiot county and remember when driving into Alma I would always see that flame burning up on a high tower. I stayed with her in the 1960-62 range and went to a one-room school for 5th and 6th grade. I remember we once took a school field trip to the refinery when it was still Leonard. This was long before I knew I would some day work for the railroad! Used to hang out at St Louis and Breckenridge depots as well, never knowing I'd work them one day!

My notes from the early 90’s read 10-30 a day. Probably more on Monday and less the rest of the week.

Natural Gas Liquified (I was told NGL, not butane or propane) was shuttled from Kalkaska to the refinery averaging six cars a week. I was told that trucks handled the weekday NGL and what traveled by rail was used on weekends.

I recall a couple of Oil Dry covered hoppers being set out by TSB on the MMRR interchange in the 90’s.

In my notes I have the total barrels of oil it used per day and how much of each product it made. I’ll post this information later.

chapmaja wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2024 9:14 am

How much traffic was generated by the refinery? Also, when did the refinery close down. I remember swimming meets at Alma High School at least once if not twice in the early 1990's and driving by the refinery.

I remember loads out of Total/Leonard on Q337 out of Flint. High octane gasoline for an AFB in Utah. Walking the train in Michigan City I would walk by those cars and they would PING in the heat of the day. Weird. Also had asphalt loads OUT of Alma for various points. Terry Asphalt.