LSRC customers

[OaklandCountyCustoms]

I guess this question would fit both here and in model railroading, but i'll just ask here. I have never seen the LSRC run in person and am wondering what types of customers they serve? I know they do grain, but other then that, i'm not familiar with them at all. I'm contemplating changing my layout design to be LSRC and need to know what industries they serve (or used to serve)... i'm ok with a little freelancing. thanks everyone.

Chris

[JDavis21835]

Im not sure on their customers north of Saginaw. In Saginaw I have seen them switching at Rifkin Scrap Yard. They also switch a siding on the Southwest side of Saginaw. I think the cars their come from the Breckenridge area. Thats all I really know of. There may be some future changes in this. I know the city of Saginaw Wants to move Rifkins Yard from its current location on Niagara, to a location on Washington. This almost directly across from LSRCs yard.

There may also be some future traffic, all be it short term. The old GM Malleable Iron foundry on the South end is up for bid for demolition. This would mean a lot of Gondolas, and maybe some flats moving industrial items out. They already hauled a transformer out, unfortunately I did not get any decent pictures. This may or may not happen due to GMs current cash flow issues. There is also some rumor that Saginaw Metal Casting Operations, aka GREYIRON, will be going also.

Crossing the Titabawasee River



Coming through Old Town Saginaw, 50+ covered hoppers, and 10 tank cars.

[sd70accsxt700]

They would have all we used to have, at CSX, plus what ever new business picked up.

Lests see.

Bay City, Omni Source - Scrap gons both old rotary dump cars and regular gons. Used to be 4 a day, not sure now.
Consumers Energy, Coal mostly unit trains, but ocasionally you could see a BO car delivered on its own.
(?) The cement plant heading towads Consumers. Used to be about 10 or so a day.
Saginaw Bay Fertiiiser Almost always switched by CM, but ocasionaly we would deliver a car, but
very infrequent.
On top of that, you had the origonal LSRC interchange. (more later)
Peavy elevator, 15 cars at a time max, but inbetween smaller cuts of 4 or so cars.
Down in the hole you had the trash bag place (?), that was good for a plastic pellet, car about once a
month.
Closer to Saginaw, you had Grey Iron, casting sand, one big hopper a day, and usually 4 cars of coke
a day switched twice, as it only holds two cars.
And finally the other fertiliser place just down the road, usually about 6 or so car at a time, anywhere
from once a day to three times a week or so, on days they did not get 6 cars they usualy got one or two.

Midland, Dow, Plastic pellet cars, short tanks of Latex, and other chemicals in tanks, also transflow for Matlack,
plastic pellets all told about 20 to 30 a day.
Dow Corning, silica sand, in specal built covered hoppers, and other various chemicals total about 10 a day.
Freeland Bean & Grain, could only hold 3 covered hoppers, but usualy got three once a week, to every other
day durring harvest.
Delta Truss, loaded centerbeams of lumber, about twice a week or so.
Peavy's big elevator on the river, hold 30 cars, usualy switched every day, sometimes twice a day.
Rifkins, usualy 6 or so a day, when things were good, then it went down to almost nothing, and now I see
SBS gets a but load out of there.
Mid Michigan interchange, unit grain trains, cars of loaded lumber centerbeams, scrap gons.
Stearing Gear, and the other plant. Casting sand usualy one car every other day or so.

Saginaw, Interchange with CM, boxes, tanks, covered hoppers, scrap gons, just about anything.
Interchange with HESR, same as above, unit trains of grain, lots of boxes of baged beeans and stuff.
Delphi, gons of coiled wire, bar stock.
Delphi, at one point we got boxcars of transmissions, but that has been at least 5 years or so.

Bridgeport, Dixie Cut Stone, hoppers, and covered hoppers of the white decorative stone, and lava stone.

Thats it for all we had that SBS took over, the old LSRC, had stone, lumber in boxcars, centerbeams of lumber, scrap gons, ect just about anything.

[JDavis21835]

Caught 1179 Switching the fertilizer place by Grey Iron, and returning to the yard from Rifkin

[OaklandCountyCustoms]

Awesome information... very helpful. thank you guys

Chris

[AARR]

OaklandCountyCustoms, I have a list of LSRC active accounts north of Bay City. It's put together from observation and input from other rail fans so the probability of inaccuracies is there. But it'll give you some idea what they do. I may not be able to post it until this weekend so feel free to send me a reminder if no one else responds by then.

[AARR]

This list is from personal observation and feedback from other railfans. It does not come from anyone involved with LSRC. So there's a likelyhood of inaccuracy. I'm always open to corrections.

Bay City – Straits Wood Treating: inbound (wood poles) from Grayling about 3 cars per week
Bay City – S.C. Johnson’s: inbound (plastic/resin) about 5 cars per week
Kawkawlin – Specification Stone: inbound (aggregate) 30-60 cars a week during construction
Standish: Standish Milling: inbound (sunflower seed) occasional service
Horrigans – Weyerhaeuser: outbound (oriented strand board) 5-10 cars per week
Horrigans – Georgia-Pacific Resin: I think this is largest shipper on MacKinaw Sub but I have no handle on car numbers
• inbound (formaldehyde)
• inbound (phenol)
• inbound (urea)
• outbound (formaldehyde, industrial resins, and vwood adhesives)
Grayling – AJD Forest Products: outbound (wood poles) about 3 cars per week
Grayling – Camp Grayling: in and outbound (military vehicles)
Gaylord - Hager: inbound (lumber) around 1 car per week
Gaylord - A&L: outbound (scrap metal) about 5 cars per week
Gaylord – Magnum Solvents: inbound (solvents) around 50 cars per year
Gaylord – Northwest Energy: inbound (oil) around 20 cars per year
Gaylord – Halliburton: inbound (drilling sand) around 3 cars per month
Gaylord – Superior Well Services: inbound (drilling sand) around 3 cars per month
Turner – Turner Bean and Grain: inbound (dry fertilizer) less than 5 per year
White Rock - National Gypsum: outbound (gypsum) as recently as 5 years ago shipped 20-30 cars per dat, 5-6 days a week to Port Gypsum on Alabaster Branch and to several cement plants. Now only ships 10-15 cars a week to Lafarge in Alpena.
Kunze – AJD Forest Products: outbound (wood poles)
Oscoda – E. A. Wood: inbound (cement)
Alpena – Specification Stone Products: outbound (aggregate) 30-60 per week to vKawkawlin and double that to Flint during construction season.
Alpena – Lafarge:
• 3-4 inbound (fly ash) 10-20 car blocks per week
• outbound (cement) daily shipments to Saginaw and not daily but several times a week to other locations (perhaps Wixom, Lansing)

[GTW6401]

In Bay City, Quality Bag hasn’t received cars since the SBS acquisition and I believe they aren’t even in operation anymore. The Z126 will duck into it to let northbound coal trains pass, but that is very infrequent.

Saginaw Bay Fertilizer is now served by the SBS more often lately, usually in BNSF hoppers.

Crop Production Services is the small elevator on 6th street in Saginaw that runs off the line to Bay City.

[penn central]

Hello GTW6401, I was at quality bag recently, The shipping clerk told me that the bags and other products they used to make are contracted out to a place in tennessee and trucked to bay city and they distribute from there, Oil prices almost killed them, Plastic is a byproduct of oil, They are down to 2 employees now from a high of almost 200 in the 1980s. I talked to him about rail and it doesn't look good. He doesn't see rail being used for a long time. What a shame.

Thanks Don for that information that's nice to know about those shippers and receiver's.

[JDavis21835]

Well, after I what I saw today at Rifkin scrap, LSRC can expect a decline in movements from them for a while. I happened to notice a large amount of smoke by the genesse yard block, so i swung that way. Sure enough, Rifkins scrap shredder was one fire. Not sure how bad it is, but I would imagine they will be down for some time.