Marquette Rail action

[Mike H]

The 4433 is not owned or leased by MQT. It is up there for "storage" but is used from time to time. It gets leased/rented to MAC in Newaygo for grain train loading. There is a special arrangement involving the 4433 and the 4. The SD40-2's are leased by MQT and will probably be purchased by MQT at the end of the lease.

The guy that owns GLLX is not the owner of MQT. His does have ownership through the ESOP as does every other existing and former employee (unless the former employees have opted to sell). The shares are broken up between a few individuals, a few railroad and the ESOP. So while he does have some shares, he is not the owner as you would see it. Oh and JT, after you told me about that a few years ago I asked him if he remembered you and he said he did.

We did not steal Van's from the GRE, Meijer wanted their warehouse space back, the service from the GRE was..........Well, they showed up once in a while. Van's came to us, Kevin and I worked hard to make that deal happen because the alternative was that they would not use rail at all. When we landed Van's we expected that they would do slightly more cars (about 50 more) than they did at the GRE. Not only did they meet our expectation, but because we actually switched Van's on a regular basis and did special moves for them they doubled our expectations in the first year. That is a good example of what good customer service can do.

Mike H

[AARR]

We did not steal Van's from the GRE

Little defensive are we . I was waiting to see if someone would respond to how I worded my post

[Jochs]

I hope 4433 is kept in GTW paint....this paint scheme is quickly becoming extinct..

[J T]

Oh and JT, after you told me about that a few years ago I asked him if he remembered you and he said he did.

He must have a good memory. Then again, remembering a high-speed chase down country roads at 2 in the morning is probably easy to remember.

We did not steal Van's from the GRE, Meijer wanted their warehouse space back...

Mike, what is the business on 3 Mile next to the Meijer headquarters that has the "for lease" (or it might be "for sale") sign that mentions the space has a rail spur? Is that separate from Meijer? I'm sure Tom B. could answer, but I believe he's still on vacation.

[J T]

GLLX is the leasing company and the same guy still owns and maintains the Dunes at Saugatuck. He has one Kick A** truck with a road grader blade under it and 4 sets of Tracks instead of Tires to groom the Trails. It is way COOL!

There it is, hiding in the grass. I should have gotten a better pic of it as Linus was driving by grooming the trails...



A decent "action" shot on a hairpin turn:




I had a good morning of "schooner-fanning" yesterday, but then the clouds moved in and screwed me. Great operation the Starrings have there!

[J T]

By the way, Linus mentioned to me that they recently repainted 3001's trucks from silver to black. Anyone have pics of that yet??

[AveryRdhouse]

The 3001 might be on tomarrows Z151. Come and see.

[J T]

The 3001 might be on tomarrows Z151. Come and see.

Unfortunately I'm going to be in Saugatuck from 10am until 9pm tomorrow night. Hopefully someone in GR gets a pic.