Railfan trip to PA, OH, IN and MI, 8-9 to 8-20-2021 - 8

Hi, On Monday, August 16 we planned to photograph the Indiana Northeastern RR so we drove up to Hillsdale, MI, where the company's headquarters are located, hoping to learn something about their operations that day. People were very friendly and we quickly learned the only trains operating were a work train in the Steubenville, IN area and a train already out of South Milford, IN headed for the NS interchange in Montpelier, OH. We stopped in Ashley, IN and learned from someone at a local business that the train had gone by about 20 minutes earlier so we moved east.

Just west of Edon, OH we spotted the train sitting so we drove on into Edon to see if there were any good photo locations. The local elevator was being switched blocking the route through town (above and below).

Thus, the road train had to wait. Once the siding switch was cleared the road freight was able to get around the switcher. We were pleasantly surprised to find one of the railroad's two remaining GP30s leading.

Just west of Montpelier, at County Road 8.5, the train stopped, the crew climbed down and went to lunch (above and below).

After lunch the crew brought the train into the NS yard in Montpelier. It took the crew a long time to drop their train and pick up their cars. We went back toward Edon but the train never showed up.

We did stop at Steubenville, IN where we photographed the switcher from Edon passing the work train, 

at Ashley, IN where their SWD40 was sitting (above and below) and

at Hudson, where the company shops were located.

 

We spent the night in Adrian, MI as we planned to photograph the Adrian & Blissfield the next day.

Thanks for looking.

Railfan trip to PA, OH, IN and MI, 8-9 to 8-20-2021 - 6

Hi, Finally a sunny day, Saturday August 14.

This day was to be dedicated to the Grand Elk RR; a Watco subsidiary operating on former PRR track from Grand Rapids, MI to Elkhart, IN. The railroad supposedly ran a road freight south daily so we headed north in an attempt to intercept it.

As we approached Three Rivers, MI we heard switching on the radio and assumed the road freight was nearby. Driving through town we spotted some moving cars and went to investigate. What we found was a tie train (above and seven below) dropping ties at grade crossings along the route.

The train would pull up at a grade crossing spotting the car specified by the track people on the crossing. Two front end loaders fitted with fork lifts would then unload the ties; one from each side  (above and below). When the operation was complete the train and front end loaders would move to another crossing.

Our final photos of the tie train were at Greenmark Equipment north of  Three Rivers.

With the train becoming axis lit we headed for Kalamazoo, MI, the railroad's headquarters, to see if we could get any information on other train movements. The yard was deserted but there were a few units sitting around (above and below). We also stopped at the Amtrak station but nothing was due for hours so we returned to Elkhart.

Because the light had yet to strongly come around to the platform side of trains in Elkhart we followed the suggestion of a railfan we met the day before and continued west following NS. Thus this photo at Mishawaka, IN of a westbound stack train.

Back at Elkhart two westbound showed up (above and below). In the photo below the New York Central unit in the background is an E8 in the collection of the New York Central National Museum.

Thanks for looking.

 

Summerail trip - 6

Hi, Thursday, August 16, was not productive. The day dawned with bright sunshine in Midland, MI; where we had spent the night. Bill Kalkman had done some research on Google Maps satellite view and located both the Lake State Yard and the Huron & Eastern Yard. We immediately headed for the Lake State yard. However, every road that the map showed would take us to the yard passed through the fence surrounding the Dow Chemical Company complex here. When we attempted to drive to the Huron & Eastern yard we again encountered fences and guard posts.

We concluded that both yards were within the plant complex and that we could not get to them. So we decided to move on to Durand, MI.

When we arrived at Durand we had an opportunity to look around the museum in the station even though it was not officially open; as one of the members was there. They have an ACES board there from which we learned a westbound was approaching. As the weather had gone cloudy we elected to shoot it across the tracks from the station.

Later we saw at a distance and heard a train switching in the Huron & Eastern yard north of the CN main line. However, we were unable to get close and we were at the wrong end of the yard when it left town. After lunch we headed for Royal Oak, MI where we would spend Friday morning at the Woodward Dream Cruise.

Friday afternoon we drove to Berea, OH where we had a very nice dinner at the Depot Restaurant on the terrace overlooking the tracks here. The next morning we returned to Berea for photography (for an earlier post on Berea see -
http://capitollimited.blogspot.com/search/label/Ohio?updated-max=2017-08-16T21:23:00-04:00&max-results=20&start=3&by-date=false).

Note that all of the trackage here was originally New York Central, then Penn Central, then Conrail. The Conrail split resulted in NS getting one route through the area (it is now part of their Chicago Line) and CSX getting the other (it is now part of their route from New Jersey and New England to the midwest).

The action began almost as soon as we got to Berea. First was an eastbound manifest passing a westbound tank train (above and below).

All of the elevated photos were taken from the bridge in the photo above. The train is westbound.

This train also is westbound.

An eastbound stack train passed the tower (above and below). The tower is out of service.

Back on the ground I caught an SD80MAC westbound with a tank train.

After I returned to the bridge two more eastbound stack trains passed the tower (above and below).

This train was moving so slowly that

I was able to change locations for a second shot.

A young railfan gave an easbound CSX stacker the high sign.

Thanks for looking.

Summerail Trip - 5

Hi, On Wednesday, August 15 we achieved my second main objective for this trip, quality photo opportunities for the Lake State Railway.

We started our day back at the yard in Saginaw. As we approached the yard we spotted this train coming off the Saginaw River bridge just to the west of the yard so we headed to an open spot and then

to the pedestrian bridge east of there.

Based on information we had received on Tuesday from Kevin Burkholder we headed to Wenona Yard hoping to intercept the train coming from Alpena. We were successful. After a Huron & Eastern crew that had been working here departed the Alpena train pulled to the south end of the yard (above and below).

Here it waited for a passenger extra carrying railroad executives to a golf outing in Gaylord, MI.

Once the passenger train cleared the Alpena train continued its journey (above and two below).

We caught up to the train on the northeast side of Bay City.

After the Alpena train pulled into a small yard in northeastern Bay City the Bay City Turn arrived (above and two below). We could not see what was going on but it seemed like both trains did some switching.

After the Bay City Turn left the Alpena train backed out of the yard, went around a wye and pulled across the Saginaw River.

In this photo the train has crossed the Saginaw River with the bridge is out of sight to the left. The train actually needed to go in the opposite direction but that wasn't possible coming off the bridge.

 So the crew pulled about a mile west to a siding and ran around their train (above and below).

While they switched after their run around we waited in Essexville for a shot and then beat the train to the south side of Bay City (above).

Just south of Bay City the railroad crosses Chebovganing Creek.

This tractor is used to move hoppers around a siding adjacent to the Lake State yard in Saginaw.

After a while the Alpena train arrived in Saginaw, shown with one of the railroads Saginaw River bridges in the background and

pulled through the yard.

After lunch we drove up to Gaylord so we could chase the passenger train south toward Saginaw.

This former Pennsy observation car was on the rear.

The chase was easy as Old Highway 27 South closely parallels the railroad. We shot the train at Arbutus Beach,

along Otsego Lake,

at Waters, and

north of Frederic (above and below).

Thanks for looking.