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Todd_F wrote:Great catch TC Man! Can't wait to see your photos.

Here are some more:

Nice pictures TCman. I was also on the scene but a bit late. The restaurant owner at the train depot told me they had come thru and were headed East. He said wait an hour and they will be back. So I got some take out at KFC and sat and waited for the return. To my surprise they came back from the West, obviously they had been to Beacon first and shot right thru the train station without having to work any switches and on to Amerhart.
So I came home to edit and post the video I shot today, but Youtube has removed the built in video editor. Crap! I have 4 short video clips with a funny ending I have to splice together. When I figure how to do this I'll put it up in here.
Anyone one have a suggestion for a third party editor?

Pixl wrote:Nice pictures TCman. I was also on the scene but a bit late. The restaurant owner at the train depot told me they had come thru and were headed East. He said wait an hour and they will be back. So I got some take out at KFC and sat and waited for the return. To my surprise they came back from the West, obviously they had been to Beacon first and shot right thru the train station without having to work any switches and on to Amerhart.
So I came home to edit and post the video I shot today, but Youtube has removed the built in video editor. Crap! I have 4 short video clips with a funny ending I have to splice together. When I figure how to do this I'll put it up in here.
Anyone one have a suggestion for a third party editor?

Shotcut. It can be a bit glitchy at times, though.

LOVE the pics TC Man!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, is the Grawn Branch the one that goes to the southwest from the depot in TC? And the Williamsburg Branch the one that goes northeast from the depot? Unfortunately I haven't had the luxury to document anything north of Cadillac, yet. That's all on my agenda for 2018.

I like the pictures too. Thanks!

Todd F, you are correct about the direction of the branches.

Todd_F wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong, is the Grawn Branch the one that goes to the southwest from the depot in TC? And the Williamsburg Branch the one that goes northeast from the depot? Unfortunately I haven't had the luxury to document anything north of Cadillac, yet. That's all on my agenda for 2018.

AARR wrote:I like the pictures too. Thanks!

Todd F, you are correct about the direction of the branches.

Todd_F wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong, is the Grawn Branch the one that goes to the southwest from the depot in TC? And the Williamsburg Branch the one that goes northeast from the depot? Unfortunately I haven't had the luxury to document anything north of Cadillac, yet. That's all on my agenda for 2018.

Thank you very much! Good to know. At the risk of being annoying... does the line from Cadillac to Petoskey have a name? How about he line that goes to TC? I just wondered if GLC has official names for them, or if everything is just called what they were under their predecessor railroads?

Todd_F wrote:

AARR wrote:I like the pictures too. Thanks!

Todd F, you are correct about the direction of the branches.

Todd_F wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong, is the Grawn Branch the one that goes to the southwest from the depot in TC? And the Williamsburg Branch the one that goes northeast from the depot? Unfortunately I haven't had the luxury to document anything north of Cadillac, yet. That's all on my agenda for 2018.

Thank you very much! Good to know. At the risk of being annoying... does the line from Cadillac to Petoskey have a name? How about he line that goes to TC? I just wondered if GLC has official names for them, or if everything is just called what they were under their predecessor railroads?

Last I knew the line to Petoskey was called the "Northern District" and the TC/Williamsburg/Grawn lines were called the "Traverse City District"- note that those were from TSBY days, not sure if GLC does something different.

It was nice to see a respectable size train up here (though this year there have been several 3-5 car trains for Amerhart. Seeing something on the Grawn branch more than a few times this summer is nice. When they left TC, the crossing signals on South Airport (the main into TC, not the Grawn branch) stuck on for hours- with ALL of the lights heads lit up solid. And bells ringing. No flashing, just all lit up solid. Grand Traverse 911 posted on their Facebook:

"

Railroad Crossing Malfunction
YES! We still have trains that come through the area. The Crossing at South Airport Rd and Park Dr (near Art Van), is malfunctioning, and should a train come through, there will be a human being in a marked railroad vehicle with large flags *attempting* to stop traffic. Should you see this brave human, please stop, and allow the train to pass. Thank You.

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Comments

Ron Hodgins Give him two school crossing guards, they will get traffic stopped

4 · 18 hrs

Mac MacIntyre Or ignore the brave human and make the news.

13 hrs

AmberJustin Schaffer I saw this human today... He didn't look like today was his favorite day. And they even hadn't made it to S. Airport yet."

Leaving Cadillac for Clare at 0940.

Great Lakes Central north through Mount Pleasant at 1126

GLC 396 leading
GLC 392

7 hoppers
1 plastics hopper
2 feed hoppers
3 plastics hoppers
5 LPG tanks
6 pole loads
9 wood chip hoppers
7 cement hoppers

40 total

What did the do to the board man yard in TC yesterday?

Todd_F wrote:From my personal documentation, the Cadillac train usually only goes as far south as Clare, where it meets the Owosso Turn, and they swap trains. However, I've filmed that swap taking place in Rosebush when the Owosso Job is running late due to lots of work in Owosso or brief stops in Alma/Shepherd/Mt Pleasant/Rosebush, etc.

ROUGHLY, it takes the Owosso Turn about 40 minutes to get from Mt Pleasant to Clare, another hour for both trains to work Clare, and about 2 hours for the Cadillac Turn to get from Clare to Cadillac. There are lots of other variable to take into consideration but that's a pretty accurate but broad guideline. Sometimes, the Cadillac Turn will have all of the Clare work done upon the arrival of the Owosso Turn, and it will depart back to Cadillac as soon as the crews trade trains (as fast as 20 minutes after the Owosso Turn arrives).

An interesting aside; Clare is fun to shoot because you can often capture two sets of power working in the same photo/video frame.

I hope that helps.

PS. It's my hope to document everything north of Cadillac next spring/summer. Maybe we will cross paths.

I'm not current on "normal" GLC operations but want to head up that way sometime. From what you wrote above I take it a turn out of Cadillac and a turn out of Owosso originate in the morning and meet mid-day/early afternoon in Clare, swap and return to their origin points? What days of the week does that typically happen and how reliable is that? What are the typical start times out of Owosso and Cadillac? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Regards,
Michael

TC railman wrote:What did the do to the board man yard in TC yesterday?

No clue- they were working on the main track about 100 yards north of 17th Street.

MDH wrote:

Todd_F wrote:From my personal documentation, the Cadillac train usually only goes as far south as Clare, where it meets the Owosso Turn, and they swap trains. However, I've filmed that swap taking place in Rosebush when the Owosso Job is running late due to lots of work in Owosso or brief stops in Alma/Shepherd/Mt Pleasant/Rosebush, etc.

ROUGHLY, it takes the Owosso Turn about 40 minutes to get from Mt Pleasant to Clare, another hour for both trains to work Clare, and about 2 hours for the Cadillac Turn to get from Clare to Cadillac. There are lots of other variable to take into consideration but that's a pretty accurate but broad guideline. Sometimes, the Cadillac Turn will have all of the Clare work done upon the arrival of the Owosso Turn, and it will depart back to Cadillac as soon as the crews trade trains (as fast as 20 minutes after the Owosso Turn arrives).

An interesting aside; Clare is fun to shoot because you can often capture two sets of power working in the same photo/video frame.

I hope that helps.

PS. It's my hope to document everything north of Cadillac next spring/summer. Maybe we will cross paths.

I'm not current on "normal" GLC operations but want to head up that way sometime. From what you wrote above I take it a turn out of Cadillac and a turn out of Owosso originate in the morning and meet mid-day/early afternoon in Clare, swap and return to their origin points? What days of the week does that typically happen and how reliable is that? What are the typical start times out of Owosso and Cadillac? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Regards,
Michael

Hi Michael. Yes, you are correct about the trains running to Clare and then returning to their origin points.

While I'm no GLC expert, I've shot that portion of line enough in the past six months that I have their routines down about as close as anyone can probably get them.

Here goes;
-Both, the Cadillac crew and Owosso crew, start at 8am Mon through Fri.
-Both trains work their respective town yards before departing.
-The Cadillac Turn almost always works McBain after departing south
-The Owosso Turn can make stops at Ashley, Ithaca, Alma, Shepherd, or Rosebush
-Both trains meet in Clare around noon.
-These trains tend to go to Clare three times a week - sometimes Mon, Wed, Fri - but recently Mon, Tues, Thurs. Monday seems like your safest bet.
-Trains are easy to catch about every 10-20 miles, if you catch them before they leave their origin towns
-They go elsewhere on the other two days - and can be just as fun, if not MORE to chase.
-USE YOUR SCANNER - AAR 31

If you want to see some scenes of these two trains, check out some of my GLC videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0lYfF ... 3Gg/videos

Pixl wrote: The restaurant owner at the train depot told me they had come thru and were headed East. He said wait an hour and they will be back. So I got some take out at KFC and sat and waited for the return.

Wait, so you got info from the restaurant owner, guessing The Filling Station Microbrewery, and went and got KFC instead? Y u no eat/drink at the brewery and await the train?

Great Lakes Central south through Mount Pleasant 1440

GLC 392 leading
GLC 396

1 plastics hopper
1 empty pole flat
1 feed hopper
3 empty center beam flat cars
16 plastics hoppers
10 tie gondolas
2 hoppers
2 tanks
5 LPG tanks

41 total

~Z~ wrote:

Pixl wrote: The restaurant owner at the train depot told me they had come thru and were headed East. He said wait an hour and they will be back. So I got some take out at KFC and sat and waited for the return.

Wait, so you got info from the restaurant owner, guessing The Filling Station Microbrewery, and went and got KFC instead? Y u no eat/drink at the brewery and await the train?

I was wondering the same thing! Trackside outdoor seating 10ft from the tracks, great micro brews, lunch, and you have the place on the west end as well. HMMMMM.... LOL.

They pulled 3 empties from Amerhart yesterday.

Can you get any closer legally with perfect trackside seating/eating?

~Z~ wrote:

Pixl wrote: The restaurant owner at the train depot told me they had come thru and were headed East. He said wait an hour and they will be back. So I got some take out at KFC and sat and waited for the return.

Wait, so you got info from the restaurant owner, guessing The Filling Station Microbrewery, and went and got KFC instead? Y u no eat/drink at the brewery and await the train?

I recommend the Spartan with any beverage.

Returned to Cadillac before 1620. Caught them wrapping up in Selma Yard.

TC Man wrote:
I was wondering the same thing! Trackside outdoor seating 10ft from the tracks, great micro brews, lunch, and you have the place on the west end as well. HMMMMM.... LOL.

Can you get any closer legally with perfect trackside seating/eating?

Somehow I knew I was going to catch hell as I was typing that. However he only has craft beers and salads. I needed more calories than that to keep this fat boy happy. He did tell me they have almost no kitchen area to do any more, but said they are taking over the now closed soup and sandwich facility a bit west of your picture and plans to offer more choices. Could be a good hang out for rail fans.

The Filling Station has the best Flatbreads I've ever had!