Michigan Railroad Whatifs

[chapmaja]

I am in one of those moods today so I've decided to look at potential whatifs that could make things interesting in Michigan Railroading.
These do no included relaying long removed lines, but mergers and consolidations of companies.
The first one that always seems to come to mind is a merger/purchase of the AA and the GLC brining that line back under one owner. I don't think operations would change significantly if that were to happen just because of the way the railroads currently are operated. The only possible exception would be if the AA/GLC were to run a through train between Owosso/Toledo and back that would do switching along the way. That would just get rid of the interchange in Osmer.
Beyond that I have often wondered about RailAmerica purchasing the AA and the GLC from Owosso-Ann Arbor. This would give RailAmerica a direct connection with NS in Toledo as a secondary outlet for traffic from the thumb area. This could or could not include purchasing the GLC north of Owosso as well.
I also would like to see NS sell off the line from Wayne to Kalamazoo to Amtrak and have a shortline, like the AA operate that line. From an operations standpoint the line from Willow Run to AA would be passenger use only. Freight traffic could be moved up the AA and then onto the NS line at Ann Arbor (would require reinstallation of the interchange track switches).
My ideal railroad would be this.

The AA, GLC and HESR all merger to form one railroad. The AA also gins control of the line from Ann Arbor west to Kalamazoo from NS and the Lansing branch.


This would increase traffic on the southern end of the line, plus could make Durand and even more interesting railroad yard due to increased traffic. All operations, except the engine shop could be moved from Owosso to Durand and the SRI could take over the majority of the property in Owosso to increase their facility. The AA/GLC/HESR would still maintain the engine shops for use however.


From a competition standpoint the SBS/LSRC would need to be run as a seperate railroad and could require accees to CN in Durand as they currently only have access to CSX in Flint. They could also be given run through rights over the line from Durand south to Toledo to interchange with NS in Toledo.

[Mick]

"What if"....
What if the Mackinac bridge would have been built to carry rail traffic as well as vehicles? It may not even be physically possible, but...What if?
---Perhaps the DSS&A have been a much more lucrative and powerful component of the 'new' SOO.
---The line from Mackinaw City south may could have been a well maintained, high density line.
---The whole tradition of going "Up North" for the weekend or a vacation might look a lot different than it does now.
---Many nearly deserted towns as well as some that are only memories today may have thrived.
---All-rail ore directly from the Marquette Range to Detroit and Cleveland?
---Small U.P. towns east of Marquette could also have been stronger economically.
---Maybe Mackinaw City could have become a 'transfer point' for rail passengers to board some scaled-down form of great lakes cruise ships.
---And, casinos...Think of all that casino-bound passenger traffic we might be seeing now.

...What if?


Mick

[chapmaja]

Here is a simple what if regarding rails not getting pulled. What if the line from Baldwin to Clare had been left in place along with the line from Reed City to Cadillac.

Either that line of the line from Baldwin to TC.

I personally would prefer the line from Baldwin to Clare and then north for two reasons. First, I know of at least one potential customer along that like that could have been a decent railroad customer if they got service. Second,it would have opened up traffic to the TC area from a different direction which might keep railroad traffic going in TC.

[bnsfben]

If the ideas stated above did come true... Durand would be a much busier place . But the only thing is, if RailAmerica takes over AA, GLC, and HESR, dont you think the north-south line would get a lot of trains at Durand? I dont know if CN will like that. Lets say that RailAmerica would run two trains a day in each direction (total of 4). That would mean, on top of the probably five trains that hit the slow side of the diamonds, there would be four. So possibly 9 or 10 trains on the north south line. Suddenly the new OWLS diamond becomes the wrong move for CN. With so much traffic north-south, the diamond could quickly become more wore down. Plus, I think if that happened dont you think the Durand yard would become too small? With CN interchanging with RailAmerica, CN interchanging with itself, I think there would be too many cars to handle. Even though that is going on now, I just think the CN interchange with RailAmerica would get much larger!

Well just my two cents... I sure hope that happens!

[chapmaja]

I'm not sure the traffic increase would be as signigicant as you might think from a train number point of view. A bigger issue might be the number of cars going to Toledo over this line. You would possibly see an increase in the number of carloads going through Toledo.

Durand also has several tracks that are not in use but are still in place that could be upgraded if needed.

Certainly some work would have to be done and CN would have to be invovled because of the Yard and the diamond.

If something like this were to happen and it created increased carloads going to Toledo it brings up an interesting issue. Where would the railroad operate from in Toledo. This could be a situation that either Ferry Yard in AA or Temperance Yard in Toledo could be reactivated for local service work on the railroad.

Another possibility would be getting the eastern coal traffic to the plant by Bay City. Right now the drawback for NS loaded mines serving the plant would be the number of railroads. A coal train would have to go from the mine to AA on NS. From AA to Osmer on the GLC. From Durand to the plant on the HESR. If it was all one company then it would be NS to Toledo and merged company to the plant, which could compete with the current CSX-SBS routing.


I doubt it would ever happen, but you never know.

[Buster Manning]

What if PC had decided to rebuild the MC line going north up to Bay City; you probably would have seen Conrail hanging on to it for the coal and chemical traffic with it being given to NS after the takeover.

[chapmaja]

What if PC had decided to rebuild the MC line going north up to Bay City; you probably would have seen Conrail hanging on to it for the coal and chemical traffic with it being given to NS after the takeover.

PC/Conrail is their own set of whatifs.

Two that I can think of right now are whatif

PC/Conrail had left the Michigan Air Line in place. Would that have become the prefered routing for freight across the state from Chicago? Would the line from Jackson-Wayne see more than a train or two per day?

What if Conrails' formation hadn't lead to the spinoff of several local lines. Would we see companies like the TSBY, INER or ADBF in place right now.

Heck, speaking of railroad whatifs. What if Conrail had never been formed? Would we have as many miles in place as we still do. Would the GLC exist, or the ADBF?