GDLK Operations

[Dowagiac Train Dude]

RBEX is also the reporting marks for the stone cars used to transport the stone. That would indicate that the "new" engine is also owned by the same company, RBEX, Balkema Excavating.

Thank you for the info, I had never noticed the markings on the stone cars.

[Ben Higdon]

The Georgia Pacific paper mill at the east end of Botsford Yard was Kalamazoo Paper prior to that, and farther back it was the Botsford Paper Co.

[GP30M4216]

Seeing a Michigan-bound Grand Elk train pass by the Elkhart depot camera a little after 08:00 this morning prompted me to think of the following question:

Other than at CP Park and Cowling in Three Rivers, what, if any, Conrail era signals still stand along the Grand Elk line from there south to Elkhart. I know many have been replaced with new Safetrans installations.

Is there still an absolute signal guarding the MSO interchange track (Old Road) where it would enter the Elk mainline at US131 near White Pigeon?

And, at the opposite end of the line:

What Grand Elk job interchanges with the GRE in Grand Rapids? I’ve seen the Z439/ CSX interchange job go from Hughart to Wyoming and back again several times over the past few months and they never head north for Fuller. Is a GRE interchange just a rare move these days? Or is it a different Elk job/shift that heads up that way?

[SD80MAC]

For the GR side of things, I think normal practice is for the 1st shift yard job (GDLK 120, or Z439 on CSX) handle the CSX interchange and for the second shift job (221, Z739 on CSX) to go up to Fuller to work the transload and the GRE interchange. Not sure what 221's schedule has been recently, but in the past they would often head up there after CSX's Y297 was back in Wyoming Yard and sometimes even after Amtrak arrives.

[Andy24]

For the GR side of things, I think normal practice is for the 1st shift yard job (GDLK 120, or Z439 on CSX) handle the CSX interchange and for the second shift job (221, Z739 on CSX) to go up to Fuller to work the transload and the GRE interchange. Not sure what 221's schedule has been recently, but in the past they would often head up there after CSX's Y297 was back in Wyoming Yard and sometimes even after Amtrak arrives.

I’ve seen Z439 head north to Fuller a few times

[1TrackMind]

Couple passenger cars in GR, may head south this weekend.