Turner Yard, Walker, MI

[NSSD70ACe]

Hello all,


A little while ago while on my way to the FIRST Michigan State Championships I came across a sign that said "Turner Yard Transload Site, Grand Elk Railroad". Now, it looks like it's just one track with a bunch of cars and a trackmobile at the end. My question is, what is this yard used for and how many cars does it receive? Also, who actually owns the tracks? (I saw both GDLK and what appeared to be the MQT (G&W paint) last night).

Thanks,

-NS

[AARR]

Is this the sand transload north of GRE? GDLK owns the short section and recently transferred the sand transload from their Grand Rapids Yard to this location. Or am I mistaken .

[Standard Railfan]

The transload off of Turner is owned by Grand Elk.

This transload was built on the site of a former PRR/CR/NS yard. Prior to the west side track consolidation in the 1970s? there were multiple rail lines on the west side of town. The former PRR and Pere Marquette lines ran parallel along what is now Stewart St,

Grand Elk opened the trainload for fracking sand in late 2014 IIRC. Recent traffic for this site is discussed in the GDLK Operations thread elsewhere on this board.

[Saturnalia]

This transload was built on the site of a former PRR/CR/NS yard. Prior to the west side track consolidation in the 1970s? there were multiple rail lines on the west side of town. The former PRR and Pere Marquette lines ran parallel along what is now Stewart St,

Consolidation was in the 1980s, 82 to be specific IIRC. The PM and PRR had long since gone to directional running to eliminate a lot of the operational problems. The PRR crossed the PM at Fulton Street then five miles later crossed back over at Comstock Park.

They took out the GR&I north of Lake Michigan Drive to Fuller [leaving in a now-abandoned area to serve customers around Watson St]. At Fuller Jct, they kept the GR&I bridge over Indian Mill Creek to allow for the current CSX/GRE/GDLK interchange. Then after the diamond, the CR/NS/GDLK went back to their alignment and aforementioned yard, where they then interchanged with the MIGN.

After the GR&I/MIGN was abandoned north of Turner Street, they kept some of the yard for interchange with the GRE. It fell into disuse around the time GDLK took over, with their interchange joining the CSX on the connector tracks south of the diamond.

Now they've rebuilt that yard, right back up to Turner St. Awhile back GDLK was musing about rebuilding farther north along the GR&I towards Comstock Park, to form a direct interchange with MQT on the parallel trackage. However the MQT-CSX contract doesn't allow that without renegotiation, and it could pose some operational conundrums.

[Plannerdad]

Looks like a few new hoppers were brought up there, probably Wednesday or Thursday night.

[Doktor No]

It's SEWARD not Stewart. Stewart is off of Division in Burton Heights.
Sand business has crashed markedly this year. Glad I didn't spend the money on this development.

[Plannerdad]

Actually saw a sand truck unlading north of Ann Street today around 5:30pm!

[Standard Railfan]

It's SEWARD not Stewart. Stewart is off of Division in Burton Heights.
Sand business has crashed markedly this year. Glad I didn't spend the money on this development.

Thanks for the correction. $#$%%^^& auto correct changed Seward to Stewart for me.

[Plannerdad]

The sand cars (5-6) are gone today. Must be doing some frac'ing anyway.

[Raildudes dad]

From my observation, just guessing, it looks like each loading site may have 1 pool of cars cycling, certainly a lot less than in the past. Hughart is stuffed with sand cars. I heard First Union has 5000 looking for a home.

[NSSD70ACe]

From my observation, just guessing, it looks like each loading site may have 1 pool of cars cycling, certainly a lot less than in the past. Hughart is stuffed with sand cars. I heard First Union has 5000 looking for a home.

I saw those cars last Saturday while heading home. It doesn't look like Hugart has much room left from 131

[trnwatcher]

What is odd is that most of the stored cars that where out by old Fisher #2 are gone. There are some left but not near as many as 3-4 months ago. I wonder if they brought some back to Hughart.

[Plannerdad]

there have been more sand hoppers this week. Maybe drilling is picking up again?

[Raildudes dad]

there have been more sand hoppers this week. Maybe drilling is picking up again?

Mart Street is dead again. Maybe that set of cars has been sent to Turner for loading due to the US 131 MDOT project (travel time)?

[Plannerdad]

Maybe, but not a lot easier by Turner! I saw two sand trucks leave the Turner Yard and head south on US-131 earlier this week, not sure what that was about. Seemed like the wrong direction.

[Raildudes dad]

Coming from Muskegon and getting off at Turner is not very congested. The Brinks trucks all head south on 131 to I-196 to M-40 to Hamilton at the end of the day.