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What customers did the D&M have in Alpena besides Lafarge? Also curious what customers were on the branch to the quarry in Paxton (seems like there was a paper mill?). The time period I'm curious about would be the 70s up until the LSRC takeover.

There was a shale quarry in Paxton. Closed in the mid 90's. Shale used to be used in cement production. Fly Ash seems to have replaced it. On the branch out to Paxton was a lumber yard and beer distributer.

Fletcher Paper and Abitibi Price were on the branch to what now is Alpena Panel. AP shipped up to 12 cars a week of hard wood at one time. Now they transload a few cars a week from LSRC's roundhouse. FP closed in the mid 90's. Probably received/shipped 7-10 cars a week or so. Branch was removed around 2005 or so.

Besser Co. used to ship by rail. Probably stopped around 1980-1985. Part of the spur is still in place.

There was a propane dealer or two. Neither ship by rail as far as I can tell.

Lafarge received gypsum/lime by rail from the pits around Tawas/National City up until around 2005 or so.

Awesome, thanks. Do you happen to know if Cheboygan had any other customers besides the P&G plant?

In the 1970's yes they did. There was a small elevator on the spur to the paper plant that received an occasional carload of feed and fertilizer. The lumber yard by the river received an occasional carload of lumber. I'm sure there were other customer, all smaller, that also received some service.

GTWwatcher wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:31 pm

Awesome, thanks. Do you happen to know if Cheboygan had any other customers besides the P&G plant?

Fletcher Paper always had a car or three on every 337 out of Flint when I was on it. Abitibi got vegetable oil in tank cars for particle board production and shipped loads out. Of course there were more then a few cars of cement for Boichot in Lansing we set out at Ensle along with the Grand Blanc Just In Time parts for Olds.