Napoleon, Defiance and Western: The Definitive Thread

[JoJames]

I know nothing is certain in life but death and taxes, but Campbell's is the second largest facility Campbell's has (behind Paris TX). An advantage that the ND&W has is that they aren''t overly reliant on one dominant customer. Besides Campbell's, there's also Systech/LaFarge, Manville & Oldcastle - just to name a few.

Without Campbell Soup in Napoleon there would be no line to Napoleon the line would have ended east of Defiance, Campbell Soup is the largest single customer and is steady too...

The railroad would still go to Napoleon without Campbell's if it would ever come to that. Every city realizes how important it is to have rail service to attract new business.

[Bulby]

Every Good city realizes how important it is to have rail service to attract new business.

Fixed that for you.

[MagnumForce]

Correct me if I am wrong but when the line was ripped out east of Liberty the DT&I was still the railroad in town that served Campbell's.

[MSchwiebert]

I found this on line, it seems to jibe with what I remember as to the timing. I made more than a few trips to Northeast Henry Co. as a teenager and do remember it as "freshly abandoned" (stacked ties etc.). As to how that timed in with the GT retrenching off of the the "old line" if they weren't gone by then it was really close.

http://www.abandonedrails.com/Liberty_Center_to_Maumee

[Toppysager]

Correct me if I am wrong but when the line was ripped out east of Liberty the DT&I was still the railroad in town that served Campbell's.

I know Grand Trunk had a spur off the now I&O line at one time, but I don't know if that was after the tracks were ripped out East of Liberty Center.

[JoJames]

Service east of Liberty Center was gone long before rail and ties were removed.

[AARR]

Correct me if I am wrong but when the line was ripped out east of Liberty the DT&I was still the railroad in town that served Campbell's.

I know Grand Trunk had a spur off the now I&O line at one time, but I don't know if that was after the tracks were ripped out East of Liberty Center.

Seems like GTW removed their Napolean Branch (Campbell Soup spur) in the mid 1980's.

[Toppysager]

Correct me if I am wrong but when the line was ripped out east of Liberty the DT&I was still the railroad in town that served Campbell's.

I know Grand Trunk had a spur off the now I&O line at one time, but I don't know if that was after the tracks were ripped out East of Liberty Center.

Seems like GTW removed their Napolean Branch (Campbell Soup spur) in the mid 1980's.

Why did GT remove it if Campbells was still operating? Or am I missing something

[ohiopower]

Campbell's couldn't reliably get cars from GTW, so they invested in a trucking facility in the mid-80s and stopped using rail. You used to be able to see a huge line of boxcars for Campbells if you took one of the county roads into Napoleon. GTW then ripped out that last section of the "old" DT&I (new being the Malinta Cutoff).

[Y@]

I really wish people would stop misspelling "Napoleon." It's in the freaking thread title. Come on.

The "Napoleon Branch" was the original DT&I mainline. The present day I&O is the Malinta Cutoff.

[Y@]

The DT&I served Campbells well. Then the Grand Trunk came in a screwed everything up. They gave Campbells bad service and were arrogant while they did it. Campbells pulled the plug and went to trucks, the Napoleon Branch died, and now here we are.

[AARR]

The DT&I served Campbells well. Then the Grand Trunk came in a screwed everything up. They gave Campbells bad service and were arrogant while they did it. Campbells pulled the plug and went to trucks, the Napoleon Branch died, and now here we are.

DT&I had a large group of yellow 40' plug door box cars they used in Campbell's service. A few of those made their way to the AA while DT&I had control of AA.

Later, DT&I acquired a large block of 50' double plug door box cars painted light blue. I recall many of these cars being stored on the TSBY in the late 1980's after GTW lost the Campbell's business.

[midland sub]

We all can agree GT killed off the Campbell's business fairly quickly, but let me throw this out there. How much of current canned food products are still moved in boxcars? If GT would have done the opposite and actually kept the business would it still be viable and moving today? I don't want the foamer paper railroad answer but a realistic answer based on current logistics of the retail box store chain distribution world?

[AARR]

We all can agree GT killed off the Campbell's business fairly quickly, but let me throw this out there. How much of current canned food products are still moved in boxcars? If GT would have done the opposite and actually kept the business would it still be viable and moving today? I don't want the foamer paper railroad answer but a realistic answer based on current logistics of the retail box store chain distribution world?

Probably not. Very little canned food business moves by box cars anymore.

[bluestreak81]

I would think they still need raw materials to come into the facility, such as grain, etc. The Stouffers plant in Solon, Ohio gets a grain shipment by rail several times per month.

[MSchwiebert]

Inbound "raw materials" shipped in via rail during the 1970's included coal for the power/steam plant, tinplate for the can plant, glass containers for the products that used them, paper for printing the labels, flour and vegetables for starters.
Today, the coal is gone as the boilers are gas fired, tinplate, jars & paper are shipped in via truck (the container making operations - still on site, have been subbed out by Campbell's as well. Flour is by truck (during rail days all flour arrived via box cars/reefers bagged - not sure if they upgraded to handle bulk flour when they went to truck or not). Vegetables are a mix, locally grown when in season, some by rail (ND&W to the cold storage places across the river) and some by truck.
The shift away from rail was a combination of things, poor service by GTW, a shift in purchasing practices by end customers and the age of the equipment assigned to Campbell's were all key factors.

[MagnumForce]

Most of the ND&W's traffic is stuff bound for Campbell's on the order of 10 is cars a day. So I would say it is fairly viable. There were a couple elevators along the line as well, was that worth a 15 mile branch? GTW decided it wasn't.

[AARR]

Most of the ND&W's traffic is stuff bound for Campbell's on the order of 10 is cars a day. So I would say it is fairly viable. There were a couple elevators along the line as well, was that worth a 15 mile branch? GTW decided it wasn't.

GTW's Napoleon Branch (Malinta to Napoleon) was around 8 miles long IIRC. GTW kept an engine in Napoleon and serviced the Campbell's plant 2x per day (Scott Trostel's Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad). Perhaps due to the frequent switching and lack of long-distance avenue's as you pointed out they decided it wasn't profitable.

[jrgerber]

Any new developments, track work or customers?

[MagnumForce]

Bunch of new ties stacked to put in this spring