Glad to hear things are moving along on the Grand Rapids sub. I noticed the signal replacement a couple of years ago near Porter and wondered about that. From my point of view, the track looks pretty good out our way, of course I do not have to travel on it.
Currently they run a 334/335 pair from Chicago thru GR. Last winter they sent an intermodal pair to Detroit, but with North Baltimore in place seems to be ancient history.
How frequently does the coal trains run (daily? every other day?)? I know that is hard to peg, but just an approximation would be good.
Just returned from a day in Chicago. Not much better in a car...tho the food is great.
Ed
I vacationed in New Buffalo this year, and the Condo I rented was pretty close to this line. In the six days I was there, I took three hour walks near the tracks daily and I only saw one coal train. It was quite notable, as they parked it in the siding at New Buffalo for approximately 30 hours--which I found kind of weird. I did not see a single freight train or a local on the CSX line the entire time I was there outside of the coal train. But, maybe I was at the lake or pool too much. Nonetheless, I certainly spent a lot of time near the line and there was a dearth of freight action. I did manage to see several Amtrak trains on the line. I figured all of the new signals--which were notable--were part of stimulus money for Amtrak.
Strangely, I saw more freight trains on the NS line (which I thought was virtually all Amtrak). It was notable how fast NS ran its freight trains through town.
New Buffalo is a funny place. Very small town, and it has two, separate, Amtrak lines that go through it.
There is a fairly impressive yard on the CSX line you guys are talking about. Do they use it for anything anymore?
Gabe
Was the big coaling tower still there?Did you eat at Casey's?
NS runs a local nearly daily out of Burns Harbor on the line. Usually EB in the AM and returns later.
MP173 Was the big coaling tower still there?Did you eat at Casey's? NS runs a local nearly daily out of Burns Harbor on the line. Usually EB in the AM and returns later. Ed
Yes, and yes. Both were interesting--the coal tower still had the Chesee Logo affixed to it.
The NS local was pretty consistent--9:30 p.m. south bound every night. One of the hotels has a 5th story roof where you can see the lake and the rail line pretty well. The local was consistently a bunch of steel coil cars with a few tankers mixed in. One of them was 39 cars though--which surprised me. I would also be willing to bet that it was doing at least 55mph each time it went through town and I would not be surprised by 65mph. She was moving.
I didnt realize NS ran at night thru there, a couple of years ago that local would head east thru Porter around 9am. Perhaps they changed times.
How big is the CSX yard? I found an old CSX track chart for that line online last night and it showed about 15 tracks. There was a museum there at one time, was it still there?Ed
The yard struck me as fairly large. It was hard to access, so I could not tell exactly. But, it had to be at least 15 tracks. There were some double box cars parked at one end of it, and some tank cars parked on the opposite end.
The museum was still there--but not much of a museum. I should not knock it, as someone obviously put a lot of work into it. But, it struck me as tired, so to speak.
P.S. The NS night local was the return trip--the starting trip might have been in the morning.
Coal trains could be two a day then not any for a couple of days. Flow is rather inconsistent.
D700, the local from GRP only goes to Livingston/Bridgeman, the location of a big sand operation. It goes to the siding at Sawyer, the first one north of NB, to service a steel customer a few times a month.
New Buffalo used to be a major player in classifing Chicago traffic. Most of that traffic has either dried up to the changes in automotive or by routing the western traffic to Salem, Ill or St. Louis for interchange, It goes to Toledo, then Indy on westward. More revenue for CSX cause they hold the car for a longer distance. New Buff used to send a train of Lincolns every nite to the NKP interchange at Belfast on their Indy/MC line. Both lines gone for the most part. 60 or 70 racks of Continentals and a couple of parts cars came from the Ford Wixom plant every day. All gone. Worked the job many times in the 70's.
Dan in Rockford
CSX had an interesting line running from New Buffalo to Lacrosse, In. Back in the 70's I knew the B&O operator at Wellsboro adn would spend time with him. There was a local which came down from New Buffalo, but do not recall the destination for the train. I have a photo on my office wall of the conductor picking up orders at Wellsboro.
That line of course was more known as the swing point for the C&O out of Cincinnati to reach the B&O for the final sprint to Chicago (also handled the Amtrak's Cardinal). If I recall, C&O/B&O operated 3 or 4 trains daily each way on that line, plus the Amtrak and local and it was a nice little operation. Today, CSX runs a pair of Cincy - Chicago trains - Q500/Q501, running those up the old B&O to Deshler then west on the mainline.
I ran across a website the other night that listed the C&O freights running on the Grand Rapids sub. My how that business has dropped off. There were 3 or 4 each way plus the SOO/CP trains. That was a pretty busy stretch of single track.
What I realize while typing this, is how many "boxcar" freight trains have disappeared over the years on certain lines. C&O used to run 3-4 each way between Chicago and Cincy and Michigan...now down to only 1 each way in both directions. Not too hard to figure out...we dont make much stuff in USA anymore.
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