Hamilton Run & Industry Trip Report south and west MI

Give us a run down of what you saw, post pictures if you'd like...any info is welcome.
GP30M4216
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Hamilton Run & Industry Trip Report south and west MI

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

On Thursday, Oct. 29 I was able to take a round trip for work to south central Michigan. It was convenient to take routes along the train tracks :D Mostly M-40, 131, and US12. This involves more stationary cars at industries than lots of action, but some might find it interesting:

I found CSX D702 switching at the Hamilton CHS, something I've never caught before. Their two units, 6394 and 2742 brought 3 grain hoppers south and picked up four to bring back to Holland. About 5 other cars were spotted around the site beyond the three D702 brought. It was fun to see them cross the Rabbit River Trestle.
CSXT 6394 D702 at Hamilton Trestle 10-29-2020.jpg
I didn't have a chance to check out the paper plant in Otsego or anything in Kalamazoo, so next stop was the Schoolcraft vicinity. Nothing to see at the CN diamond, and I couldn't see anything on J Rettenmaier's spur, but there were two covered hoppers at Van Beek Nutrition. Co-Alliance and the place just north of Michigan Avenue both had empty spurs, but I saw cars on them earlier in the summer on a different trip.

It was nice to see a southbound GDLK train just north of CP-Park, waiting on a C&S crew who was doing some work at the Heimbach crossing. GDLK WAMX 4206 and the yellow and gray SD45 led a mixed freight of about 40-50 cars. Is this the interchange job to Elkhart or just the normal length of the Kalamazoo-Bristol local?

Next up was Constantine, which was a work stop. I was bummed that the southbound GDLK job passed by during this time, around 11:45. I had never really explored the old depot site (they have both a 'Depot St.' and a 'Station St." here) and the long spur into OX Engineering, the fall colors are beautiful in this town. Not to far down the pike was a detour into White Pigeon. It was tough to count the interchange cars on the MSO interchange, but probably 6-8, including covered hoppers, the gray boxcars for Atlantic, and one Railbox high cube. One high sided gon was in the lumber spur right at 131, are these for woodchips? There were also a couple open top high side hoppers on the lead to that spur track. MSO seems to like to use business spurs to rearrange cars and get things in order for their switching.

Nothing was seen at the Kalamazoo Street crossing in WP, but two covered hoppers were spotted at the grain elevator in town. White Pigeon Paper's spur is now empty as the plant is basically shut down. MSO is using this spur lead to store or rearrange cars, too. PREX 1616 was tied down west of the Elkhart Street crossing. Several more high sided hopper cars, included one loaded with what looked like coke, were spotted on the old North wye track near the engine house. Several more covered hoppers were spotted further west near the log yard, at the new Elkhart Plastics plant. Great to see this new customer getting MSO service!
Elkhart Plastics in White Pigeon.jpg
Sturgis was another work stop, but I had some time to cruise around, too. The doors were rolled down at Atlantic Packaging, so no idea how many cars they have, but it looks like they are completing a major expansion of their Sturgis site. Frank Miller and Sons had three covered hoppers on their spurs at the south end of the GR&I. 2 covered hoppers were spotted at Iceberg Molding. I couldn't see in to the spurs at Abbot Labs. No other cars were spotted around Sturgis.

The return trip allowed me to double check all the car counts. :lol:

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AARR
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Re: Hamilton Run & Industry Trip Report south and west MI

Unread post by AARR »

Great report GP30M. Thanks for posting your observations.
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