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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard You might check with the plants management, the yard just might belong to GM. Lots of plant and industries own and maintain their own yards and inter plant rails, along with having their own switch crews. Makes it easier on the plant, cheaper in the long run. Then again, the railroad may have a deal with the plant, and use the yard for storage and pick up. Makes more sense to have the racks on hand, on location, than having to drag them out there, set them up, then return later to pick up the loads. This way, when the plant needs 10 racks to load up, they dont have to wait for the railroad to bring them out there, all they have to do is have their switch crew reach over and grab what they need, shove them in the plant, then spot them for pick up by the local. No special switch move charges, either. We have somewhat the same set up with the plastic plants down here. We built what we refer to as the Marshalling yard, somewhat centrally located near several plastic plants, Dow, Solvay, Phillips and Fina. They rent track space from us, use it for SIT, and we store empties there too, in case we need extras to fill out the odd car order. Every body wins. We dont choke our switching yards holding covered hoppers and tanks, they get to store their lease cars, and if they need 50 extra hoppers, we dont have to scramble around, trying to find them, they are already out there, next door to the plants. Ed [/quote] Hard to say with any certainty, ....I went out for a more indepth look today, and my guess is "marraige of conveniance". Clearly the new GM plant put a pocket of demand where previously was only farmers fields, but at the same time what used to be a lonely single track between Ft Wayne and Roanoke, now has two lengthy by-pass sidings, making for conveniant turn over of "meets", then most of the plant related sidings (sizable in their own right) are separated off via spurs. if forced to guess, my bet would be the railroad took advantage of the opportunity when nearby farmers became motivated to 'sell', and made the most of it. Whatever the case, "someone" spent a portly wadd out there, which is kinda funny in context with two years ago, the line was constant action 18 hours per day, but now sits substantially dormant excepting 3 flurries of activity spaced throughout the day.
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