Clinton River Claims another...........

[M.D.Bentley]

......Bridge that is. The Utica Industrial track is surely doomed now that the Clinton river washed out the bridge north of M-59, nothing but track hanging.

[Ribbon Rail]

......Bridge that is. The Utica Industrial track is surely doomed now that the Clinton river washed out the bridge north of M-59, nothing but track hanging.

Could you be more specific as to the location of this branch? Endpoints? Railroad(s) who serve it?

Not all of us are from Michigan, or have lived there in the past 30 years.

[atrainguy60]

It's in Utica.

[ConrailDetr​oit]

It its the unused part of Conrail's Sterling Secondary. The endpoint is MP 24 at M59 now, rails are out for about 4 feet with a stop sign in place. The actual ending is at MP 27? or so at the end of Packard Yard. The last train that I know of was the local from Sterling Yard running up to grab any empty and storage cars in May 2008. In September 2008 the Conrail HiRail inspection ran on the line for probably the last movement on the track. I read they run on each Conrail Division every 3 years so why there wasn't one in 2011 I dont know or I just didnt hear about it. The tracks north of Utica have been sitting unused for going on 4 years now.

[AARR]

Last remaining customer was Ford Sewing plant. I watched it get switched 2x per day pulling 9-12 hicubes each switch through the 1990's and into the early 2000's. Even saw coal deliveries in the early 1990's usually in 6 car blocks (not sure how often they received them). They moved sewing to another plant (since outsourced) and traffic began dwindling. They put a plastics line in there for a few years which added inbound plastic pellets and there were still a few hicubes being shipped out. Rail service stopped about 5ish years ago and the plant shut down about 3ish. They are slowly in the process of razing it now but the project is not going very fast.

[Robert MacDowell]

Who owns the railroad?

[ConrailDetr​oit]

Conrail owns it.

[M.D.Bentley]

UPDATE>>>>>>>>>> Spoke with the track foreman who was in charge of the repairs. Track sub structure was washed away to the middle of the track. It took 6 cars of rip rap material to build it back up. Outside contractor used an excavator to stack them up. The state told them to fix it or abandon it.

[Racer]

UPDATE>>>>>>>>>> Spoke with the track foreman who was in charge of the repairs. Track sub structure was washed away to the middle of the track. It took 6 cars of rip rap material to build it back up. Outside contractor used an excavator to stack them up. The state told them to fix it or abandon it.

Is there any reason why they repaired the wash out if there are no customers in Utica?

[Standard Railfan]

Is there any reason why they repaired the wash out if there are no customers in Utica?

I am sure the railroad MOW dept. had nothing to do one day so they decided to repair the washout...

If you note in the above post, reportedly the State of Mich required the railroad to repair or abandon the line. I am not sure under what authority the State can order that kind of work, but that point is moot.

Obviously, someone in railroad management determined that there is enough potential for new business to spend the money to repair the line, or repair is cheaper than abandonment.

[M.D.Bentley]

YOU have no idea what it was to try to get the rip rap delivered and then try to find a crew to move them. Not being a high priority job it took months to complete. It had to do ( in part ) with the rest of the track falling in to the Clinton river and disrupting recreational use of it. They had to stop working twice to let canoeist by the work site. Remember that it is easier to minimally maintain the track than it would be to try to replace it later ( Think NIMBY's).

[ConrailDetr​oit]

Is there any more work being done there? I hope its not too late to get pictures.

[M.D.Bentley]

Wash out happened in the spring and the work was finished by September. They still patrol the track to check for wash outs.

[ConrailDetr​oit]

Im assuming a local shoved the "rip rap" cars to the bridge site while they worked? Kind of hard to get it truck in to the middle of the woods. And they patrol the track with a hi-rail?

This also might explain why the rails were connected last summer.

[M.D.Bentley]

They had to shove the cars a couple at a time as not get to close to the wash out. Patrolled by hy rail truck.