HESR Power Roundup and Observations- 12 July 2008

[penn central]

the 9712 IIRC was on the St Louis sub switching today

thanks DR thay must have switched power, at the beginning of last week thay had the 8804 out there. thanks.

[Paul W]

Hi penn central, From a friend that works for Star of the West in Richville the newly exspanded Gera plant is to have two loading tracks, but from my veiw off M-83 it only looks like one is in. Every fall Gera and Richville both have hugh piles of corn stored on the ground in them canvas silos last year Gera's was beat up from the winds. I'm not sure if this will mean more loadings or just better routing to Caro's Ethenal plant.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Ok, I'll bite- where DO they keep the power on the St. Louis sub? Evidently not at Paines Jct, Hemlock, Merrill, Breckenridge, Wheeler, St. Louis or Alma, unless it's somewhere in the refinery...coincidently, I spent my afternoon chasing the east end of the MMRR...

FWIW, the 800 job has
5086
2001
8903
2002

The 2014 was on the north end of the Saginaw yard about 6:00 tonight (15 July), and the 5175 and 3868 were still where they were in the photo above. The 5492 had some of its hood doors open, closer to the building in Wenona, and the 4065 was sitting near the fuel? pad.

[RailCanon]

They have an engine house in Alma, right by the TSBY interchange.

[GTW6401]

FWIW, the 800 job has
5086
2001
8903
2002

Thats incorrect, those engines were on the 701 job out of Durand tonight. The 800 job works between Reese and Saginaw Yard, and will also go over to Genesee Yard.

They could be removing the graffiti off 5492, or it might just be in there for some additional maintenance.

[pbmaxno15]

I was visiting the family in the St. Louis/Alma area today. There were several hoppers sitting on the north side of the old refinery site by the new Alma Iron and Metal facility. There was one old flat sitting in St. Louis and at least one empty and one loaded center beam at Bear Truss. I didn't see any covered hoppers at Royster, but I didn't get a great look. There were three covered hoppers at the elevator in Unionville, and three more between the sugar plant and the Coopertive Elevator facility in Sebewaing. There were at least 30 hoppers at Wallace Quarry west of Pigeon. There was one covered hopper at Active Feed in Pigeon. They were loading/unloading boxcars at the seed plant. There were two more hoppers sitting with these boxcars. There was nothing at the elevator and feed mill. There were 20+ boxcars and one covered hopper north of town by the edible bean plan.

[penn central]

Hi penn central, From a friend that works for Star of the West in Richville the newly exspanded Gera plant is to have two loading tracks, but from my veiw off M-83 it only looks like one is in. Every fall Gera and Richville both have hugh piles of corn stored on the ground in them canvas silos last year Gera's was beat up from the winds. I'm not sure if this will mean more loadings or just better routing to Caro's Ethenal plant.

hi paul good evening, okay so there going to have two tracks thay load grain onto rail cars at gera wow, thats neat. i also noticed when i went by the ethanol plant in caro thay added more huge storage silos just recently, i was by there a couple weeks ago. things are looking better.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Whoops. I meant 701...got confused when I heard 800 over the scanner talking to SBS's tower...Maybe 2014 was on the 800 job today?

I was visiting the family in the St. Louis/Alma area today. There were several hoppers sitting on the north side of the old refinery site by the new Alma Iron and Metal facility. There was one old flat sitting in St. Louis and at least one empty and one loaded center beam at Bear Truss.

There were two empty centerbeams, two loaded centerbeams and two covered hoppers (one was a BNSF, one was an ex-Milwaukee Road). There looked to be two different strings of CHs back behind the refinery, but there were also a couple boxcars there too. I saw that old flat too, and made a note to ask if anyone knew anything about it, but forgot to include it in the post above...


There were also two boxcars at the MAC elevator in Wheeler, which was oddly enough, dead this afternoon, especially considering how busy most of the other elevators on the line were today. I also found a brush cutter sitting on the siding in Merrill, lettered BC-503.

Thanks Gregg. Totally forgot about the engine house in Alma. Didn't see the place, but didn't know that's what I was looking for either. There sure were an awful lot of people walking on the tracks in Alma though. I saw several different groups on the GLC tracks as I was passing over crossings near the interchange...

[GTW6401]

Maybe 2014 was on the 800 job today?

The 2014 is on the 740 job 99.9% of the time unless its down for servicing.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Maybe 2014 was on the 800 job today?

The 2014 is on the 740 job 99.9% of the time unless its down for servicing.

Ok. That explains why I never see it anywhere else...Thanks Steve.

[AARR]

I enjoy reading what's happening on the CMGN/HESR. Thanks guys.

[Justin]

FWIW, the 800 job has
5086
2001
8903
2002

Thats incorrect, those engines were on the 701 job out of Durand tonight. The 800 job works between Reese and Saginaw Yard, and will also go over to Genesee Yard.

They could be removing the graffiti off 5492, or it might just be in there for some additional maintenance.

I saw the 5492 in Wenona yard yesterday as me and Patrick scoped it out, hopefully they remove that graffiti as that is just sick to look at.

[Justin]

Maybe 2014 was on the 800 job today?

The 2014 is on the 740 job 99.9% of the time unless its down for servicing.

Ahhh yes the 740 always has the 2014, back in Aprl they had 8804 which was really nice to see. Get tired of seeing the same engine on the same train everyday, at least 702/701 mixes thm up once and awhile. I have made it to where I only catch these trains once ar twice a week where as before I caught them just about eveyday. I got pretty bored with that very fast as you can tell, I haven't taken a video of a single train since about a month ago.

[penn central]

okay here's another picture for us old and new CMGN fans,[img=http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/403/op998ud5.th.jpg] this is a loaded eastern coal train for essexville, but the breakup of conrail ended that for the CMGN, taken febuary 1994, at the bennington road crossing just north of durand. heres another picture for us [img=http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5306/op999fq8.th.jpg] this is the southbound CMGN rocket going along niagara street in saginaw, headed for paines, around the wye at alma, and on to the TSBY for the trip to durand, becuse the cass river bridge was out of service at this time. there was a MMRR conducter pilot on the locomotive, he has sixty empty oil from essixville on the head end, and a long string of mixed freight behind it. how neat. taken late july 1999. at saginaw. power was 8802, 8903, 9712.

[AARR]

Penn Central - I recall CMGN having the eastern coal contract for a while. One of the times I saw it they were using new CR hoppers that were hardly weathered yet. I also recall when CMGN detoured on MMRR between Saginaw and Alma then on TSBY to Durand. I don't recall if they used Owosso Jct. to reach their tracks or if they stayed on TSBY to Sans Jct. on the west side of Owosso.

[penn central]

Penn Central - I recall CMGN having the eastern coal contract for a while. One of the times I saw it they were using new CR hoppers that were hardly weathered yet. I also recall when CMGN detoured on MMRR between Saginaw and Alma then on TSBY to Durand. I don't recall if they used Owosso Jct. to reach their tracks or if they stayed on TSBY to Sans Jct. on the west side of Owosso.

Hi don, i remember a railfan telling me back then, thay went through the sans jct, but i wasn't there to personaly witnesse this. hope this helps. those reroutes happened twice i remember once in september of 1996 for about two weeks, and for a shorter period of time in july 1999 for a few days. and both for the same reason. problems with the cass river bridge.

[GTW6401]

I saw the 5492 in Wenona yard yesterday as me and Patrick scoped it out, hopefully they remove that graffiti as that is just sick to look at.

About 90% of the graffiti has been removed, but they left part of taggers work on there, unless they ran out of green paint.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Yeah, we noticed that yesterday too...but what's left doesn't look too bad, in that it looks like chicken scratch...

[Justin]

Yes the 5492 looks a lot better and hopefully they will get the paint off the side, I saw this unit last night as 703 made a daylight appearence going to Midland. I shot video of this but probably won't get onto youtube until next week after my Fostoria trip.