RailRoadFan.com

Anybody know anything about Saturday's Amtrak in Kalamazoo with engines on both ends and half dozen private cars in between including a Milwaukee Road? Pulled east of the station, sat, and went back west, I am assuming back to Chicago? Probably 1-1:30ish, only saw it from a distance obscured by tree...

The reasoning for me assuming it was returning from Coldwater was the mix of cars. The typical newer tanks for Darling, the boxes for Panel Processing, a couple hoppers with Santa Fe markings that are usually perlite. The mix did not imply storage cars. INE went back west (to Coldwater) the next day...

Doesn't really matter, but Omni-Source (ex-Midstar, ex-Jackson Iron & Metal) is south another quarter mile. That is actually a short stub of the Fort Wayne & Jackson that will hold about 4-5 cars and they stick em there before taking them to Omni. Said stub is a favorite for MOW. Storage is also pop...

Very rare visitor in Jonesville today.
I haven't ever seen a six axle in town.
We do see the steam trains from Little River a few times a year, but this is the other extreme.
Behind Martinrea returning from Coldwater on the INE.

Not likely. Forest River dumped their home divisions off to Clayton two years ago (Sterling and Hart). Ironically, both Forest River and Clayton are Berkshire Hathaway companies. Palomino has had dramatic sales increases over the last few years and is at capacity. Besides truck campers, Palomino has...

Throw in the rapidly crashing price of oil and in only two months everything got spun on its head. Marathon announced a 20% capex decrease for 2015. That means many fewer wells drilled, thus fewer wells producing, and basically the "projected" increase in rail shipped oil over the next five years be...

For what it is worth, I haven't got around to mention but, INE has unloaded at least a dozen centerbeams of mats in Coldwater across from Union Pallet. I am assuming that these are for the Consumers gas line rebuild that is running through Branch county. Ironically, they lie, if you look at the atta...

Spent the day canvassing in Reading today. Tons of railroad construction going on. New crossing gates with arms on Reading Rd. Same goes for Card Rd to the north. The current main plus east and west siding were being ballasted and tamped. New switches on the ground along with a lot of new rail. Not ...

So, here is a long discussed piece falling into the pie. Who thinks as we speak, EHH is trying to figure how to buy CP's own route to Chicago? NS has worked well enough with trackage rights, but that isn't EHH style as shown at CN. Can't buy the Wabash or waterlevel, so only CSX GR is available.

This has been going on for some time, so it must have been posted here so if I missed it sorry. In Ludington, the sand operation south of the state park (sargent?) has been trucking sand to the old HW plant south of town by Dow Chem where the windmills were unloaded. Here the trucks back into the bi...

That is what I would have thought, but talking to one of the guys at Omnisource in Jonesville, (which was heavily renovated and now flies the SDI flag) he says they send scrap all over, wherever the price is the best, including MAC in Jackson. Butler must get special treatment, though. Daily Alma Ir...

While not having any knowledge of the Coldwater facility, Omnisource has a good number of trucks running constantly down 12 from Coldwater to Jonesville, of which the latter sees regular rail shipments. They will probably just truck to Jonesville. As an aside, no traffic to Star of the West in Quinc...

With E Hunter Harrison at CP now and his history of buying and owning the railroads he runs on, how much longer will CP tolerate not owning their way into Chicago from the east? There are not a lot of options besides buying the Pere Marquette in Michigan or the Wabash and then maybe the RA line Fort...

Out in Washington or British Columbia there is a railroad (Kettle Falls maybe, heck I don't remember), in which the last 40 or 50 miles of railroad has not been used in many years, but there is a shipper out there that may someday ship again. So, they filled between the rails with crushed stone and ...

I forget the name right now without driving over there and looking at the sign, but there is a Canadian company opening on the south side of Garfield, west of Darling a (When it is all said and done) a 40 acre under roof hydroponic greenhouse that will churn out tomatoes 24/7/365 and supply much of ...

Dying? Hillsdale took its last hit when DCA shut. But that was the last rail-served customer in Hillsdale since what? the 80's? The 70's? With the INE being operated very well we have seen Omnisource come online, (coal comes and goes), and the big boy in town is Martinrea. If INE could get some of t...

For those of you who love shortline railroading, the Indiana Northeastern is sitting across Beck Rd in the old Jonesville Industrial area unloading presses for Martinrea. No cranes on site yet, so they will likely be blocking the mainline for a while. We have lost a lot of trackage that would be nic...

A new loco, the purple DOTX 2000 is running around the INE in Hillsdale. Hope this is due to increasing traffic, especially what seems to be heavier tank traffic to Coldwater. Sure miss the coal trains, wish they would return.

I googled and Alma is on the Padnos Iron and Metal website as their Central Michigan Facility. I guess all I can verify then is that daily Alma Iron and Metal trucks (atleast two different trucks) go into and out of Omnisource in Jonesville. Maybe Padnos has the Martinrea contract and dumps at Omnis...

I have seen several Alma Iron and Metal trucks at Omnisource in Jonesville going into and out of the scrapyard. Maybe Alma is a subsidiary or affiliate? If it is not taken to Butler by rail or truck, the guys at Omnisource/Mid-Star/Jackson Iron&Metal/Jonesville Iron&Metal/ Risk Iron&Metal (I guess I...