RailRoadFan.com

First, I want to thank my girlfriend for hijacking my phone, seeing the website and asking what paper railroads are (true story, she thought they were model trains made of paper). This is her idea and concept but I added some realism to it.

The Newaygo, White Cloud & Northern (NWC&N) was started from an acquisition of the MQT/G&W line from Grand Rapids to Baldwin by a group of railroad workers who wanted the customers to be put first. The NWC&N quickly gained customers and became an important artery for industries between Grand Rapids, Newaygo, White Cloud, Baldwin and Luther. The NWC&N also established an interchange with the GLC in Cadillac for more direct routing to CSX.

Customers are:

Quality Liquid Feeds (Comstock Park)
Weekes Forest Products (Comstock Park)
Kent City Farm and Garden (Kent City)
Willbur-Ellis (Grant)
Michigan Agricultural Commodities (Newaygo)
Ceres Solutions (White Cloud)
Koppers (Baldwin)
Nartron (Reed City)
Lake County Road Commission (Luther, winter time only)

The NWC&N would be considered as a railfans paradise with the diverse locomotive fleet they are known for:

NWC&N B40-8W #400 (nee BNSF 555, ATSF 555)
NWC&N B40-8W #401 (nee BNSF 557, ATSF 557)
NWC&N GP9 #663 (nee FEC #663)
CORP logistics #4022 (nee BN 2109, on lease to NWC&N from CORP logistics)
NWC&N SD40E #4100 (nee NS 6329, NS 6514)
NWC&N SD40E #4101 (nee NS 6333, NS 6515)

(Updates in later posts)

More to come soon!

The NWC&N is having a motive power shakeup to enhance service and improve efficiency.

The changes are as follows:

The acquisition of two former BNSF SD70MAC’s. These engines were acquired from Wells Fargo leasing after their lease with NS expired. They will be the locomotives in charge of the grain trains out of Newaygo down to Grand Rapids and vice versa.

The sale of two B40-8W’s to Bay City Locomotive.

The acquisition of four GP40-2’s, all of which to be converted to -3 specs (minus a new cab). The first two engines are to be remanufactured in St. Louis at Metro-East industries, and the other two at Bay City Locomotive. The two rebuilt at BCL are a partial trade from the B40-8W deal and will be painted in heritage colors, details to come soon on those.

The sale of GP9 #663 to Bay City Locomotive.

The acquisition of GRSE RS2M #977. This engine is being delivered to the NWC&N via NRE for a GE repower with an inline 6 evolution engine that will make 2,300 horsepower. This engine will be in charge of switching the Newaygo grain elevator and, if needed, will switch industries on the southern part of the railroad in Newaygo and Kent Counties.

CORP GP38-2 #4022’s lease is about to expire. The plan is to extend the lease temporarily until the GP40-3’s settle in, and then it will be returned.

I’ll post operations later.

A crew goes on duty at 8am in Cadillac, who builds their train from the GLC (normally a sizeable train with cars from the Traverse City, Petoskey, Cadillac and Clare markets). The railroad classifies this train as CDGRW, Cadillac-Grand Rapids - Wyoming Yard (CSX). This train is a straight shot from Cadillac to Grand Rapids, minus a pickup in Comstock Park and sometimes Newaygo, more on that later. The power of choice on that train is the pair of SD40E’s.

As CDGRW leaves Cadillac, another crew goes on duty, BLGRHT, the Baldwin - Grand Rapids Hughart yard turn (the interchange yard in GR for Grand Elk/NS traffic), and starts building their train. This train switches the industries enroute on their southbound run to Grand Rapids. This train will now feature a pair or trio of GP40-3 rebuilds now that GP9 #663 is gone and the CORP GP38-2 is being moved elsewhere.

Since BLGRHT normally finishes it’s work before CDGRW gets to Grand Rapids, any CSX bound cars from it’s work enroute are left in the 4,000ft Comstock Park siding for CDGRW to pick up and take to the CSX at Wyoming Yard. The other cars are sent to Hughart for interchange with GDLK and eventually NS.

Since BLGRHT is a turn, it returns later with cars from the Grand Elk railroad in Hughart, and returns to Baldwin. Cars for GLC routed via the Grand Elk are also sent on BLGRHT. It’s normally a straight shot back to Baldwin, unless an industry needs to be switched again.

A new crew goes on duty in Grand Rapids around 4pm, GRWCD, Grand Rapids (Wyoming Yard) - Cadillac. This train is CDGRW’s counterpart, and carries GLC interchange traffic. But there is a twist. Instead of dropping cars in the Comstock Park siding, the GRWCD works Baldwin, and drops off all cars to be switched to NWC&N customers there. the BLGRHT will service the industries the next service day (service is 6 days a week) with the cars dropped from GRWCD and the cars from Hughart. All other GLC traffic stays on the train and is sent to Cadillac.

Baldwin also hosts a short local that switches four customers, BLEL, The Baldwin East Local, Which switches Koppers in Baldwin (2-4 loaded gondolas per switch), A coke transload in Idlewild (4-6 loaded coke hoppers per switch), The Lake County Road Commision in Luther (during the winter, 3-4 loaded covered hoppers with salt) and Nartron in Baldwin (3-4 boxcars per switch). This train will continue to use CORP #4022 for power until the GP40-3’s come on property. This train’s crew normally goes on duty around 5pm, five days a week.

With the addition of the new RS2M coming aoon, a crew goes on duty three times a week (days vary) at 1pm to disassemble and/or put together grain trains at MAC’s facility in Newaygo. The trains come from the CSX in Grand Rapids from down south. NWC&N crews will operate these moves.

Speaking of grain, if a grain train is expected to be handed off to the NWC&N from the CSX, CDGRW will work Newaygo and pickup the two SD70MAC’s to Wyoming yard in order to bring the train to Newaygo. The two SD70’s are kept in Newaygo as they’re dedicated grain power. A crew will later taxi down to Grand Rapids to pick up the train and bring it to Newaygo. If an empty is called out of Newaygo, a crew from Cadillac is called for the train.

Customer info coming next.

It is nice reading David

Bay City Locomotive is pleased to announce that NWC&N 1975 has been successfully rebuilt and painted, expect to see it on a railroad near you soon.

Some new changes:

The NWC&N has taken delivery of it’s four new GP40-3 locomotives (1899, 1975, 6560 and 6561), two of which rebuilt by Bay City Locomotive works and the other two by Metro-East Industries in St Louis, Missouri. The two GP40’s rebuilt by Bay City Locomotive were painted in the colors of the Michigan Northern (#1975) and the Pere Marquette (#1899). All four GP40’s are of CSX descent.

The NWC&N took delivery of RS2M #977 in August of this past year. It is now classified as an RS2M-RP (RP stands for repower since it has the GE inline 6 prime mover, it has started working at MAC and has done an excellent job at the facility. The unit is RCO fitted.

CORP #4022 was returned to the lessor.

SD40E’s 4100 and 4101, and SD70MAC’s 7000 & 7001 are still on property, but the 40E’s are developing issues with their engine blocks and the SD70MAC’s are not performing how they should. As a result, the NWC&N has purchased four former BNSF Dash 9’s from General Electric Capital, two of which will be delivered right away as backup power for the ailing SD40’s and two will be sent to Wabtec for conversion to AC44C6M’s. These units will be rebuilt to NS specs, minus the Trip Optimizer as it’s proven to be problematic. The AC powered rebuilds will take the place of the SD70MAC’s and the unrebuilt Dash 9’s will temporarily take the place of the SD40E’s.

More to come soon.