Howdy howdy. Yes, GP9 907, lettered for Michigan Southern is the main power, they also have former D&M RS2 #977 for backup.
They run weekdays, based in White Pigeon. They interchange cars with Grand Elk RR just east of the US-131 crossing in the SW corner of town. MSO has an engine house along Sol Morris Drive west of Elkhart Street. They have two other Alcos in storage at the Elkhart Street crossing, S2 #66 and RS2 #466. When I was through there a couple weeks back, they were storing lots of cars around White Pigeon.
Their day involves running to Sturgis and back on the Old Road. They seem to get to Sturgis in the late morning/lunchtime and switch around Sturgis in the afternoon, then return to White Pigeon in the 3-5PM neighborhood. There are several industries in Sturgis (International Paper is just NW of the diamond, and Abbott is north of the diamond in town.) There are two transfer tracks at Sturgis around the diamond, the diamond was once the NYC old road crossing the PRR GR&I line, today, it is all MSO operated. There are several industries on the old PRR south of town, too, but they see infrequent service (The large scrap yard is in Chapter 11 right now and not getting much, if any, service.). The line ends just a couple hundred feet short of the Indiana state line.
If you can find the MSO, they're easy to chase. US-12 parallels the line the whole distance between the two towns, and MSO only travels 10-15mph over the road. At some point, they switch White Pigeon paper, just south from the crossing on Elkhart St. in White Pigeon. Google Maps has a good aerial of this area and might be helpful to look at.
We rarely have people report on the MSO here, so if you do see things while out and about, please let us know, there will be people who are interested!
MSO westbound near US-12 in the late afternoon in 2007. You can search for "MSO" in the photo search and you'll get some photos myself and others have taken.
