C&O TOFC

[Sppengelly]

Apparently, the C&O operated piggy backs (TOFC trains) in mid-Michigan. I have seen a few pictures of these operations, mainly in Midland: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 24&nseq=31

Can someone please explain the extent of this service such as dates, routes the trains traveled over, what cities, what commodities, and where the railcars were interchanged.

Thank you in advance!

-Sean

[Saturnalia]

There is a stub track in Ensel Yard in Lansing known as the "Pig Track", and I think the old stub tracks off Maggies Lead in Wyoming were used for it too.

[C&O6084]

C&O had a small fleet of 85ft piggyback flats. In the late 60's they ran high-priority TOFC on the end of its name trains. I saw some pics of TOFC on the George Washington in '68 just a few months ago. The flats were sold before the advent of Chessie to a "Strates Holdings", which is a fair-sized, Florida-based TOFC-system traveling circus. I saw their storage/offseason yard about 5 years ago, and the cars, though relettered, were still C&O blue.

Before the freight car scrappers turned the area into a sea of mud, I spent some time checking out the "boxcar wall" at the nearby junkyard as well as the old Pig Yard. Two tracks with a very narrow platform. Towards the switch off Maggie's Lead, the track is very low in teh sand-- pretty close to buried. Platform had a ramp at the West end, and remnants of a substantial overhead lighting & outdoor 120V outlet system. Until I saw thye ramp, I ahd thought that the place was for cleaning out boxcars, what with the lighting & outlets. It's all pretty battered nowadays, and I hope the exposed wiring is turned OFF at the breaker! At the East end, a very wide dirt ramp with timber bracing butts against the two tracks, and hinged wheel plates to connect with flat cars are still present. There are also a few trees growing out of this platform/ramp.

[Sppengelly]

Thank you very much! Since the pictures I have seen were in Midland of TOFC, did the trains operate from Saginaw to Ludington and use the railcar ferries?

Also, who were to main customers of the Chessie/C&O TOFC Michigan trains?

Thanks again!

[Tim]

The trailers in Lansing were originally loaded behind the freight house south of Shiawassee St. This track hadn’t been used for a while and the city or state wanted flashers installed so the ramp was moved out behind the Ensel Yard office. Both places loaded Circus style. Track is still there at Ensel but not sure about the ramp. This was the mid 60s and didn't last very long.

[GLLX3002]

Tim,

I think the ramp is gone and now that track is used as a rip track. I can also remember scarp being loaded there in the 1990s.

Edit: I'm talking about track 22 at the west end. Not the team track or the rip track if you look at the yard diagram.

[KC]

Heres a view of C&O on the connecting track with the Ann Arbor at Clare with TOFC traffic, March 1975.

Didn't the C&O use AA tracks to Mt. Pleasant in later years or did they just abandon service and give it to AA?
Would this be a interchange train with AA or C&O Mt. Pleasant turn??





Heres a second photo I labeled as March 1973, so not sure if these are 73 or 75.
This shot is marked as Farwell MI.



Photos courtesy of Paul Baumgartner.
Kelly

[AARR]

Heres a view of C&O on the connecting track with the Ann Arbor at Clare with TOFC traffic, March 1975.

Didn't the C&O use AA tracks to Mt. Pleasant in later years or did they just abandon service and give it to AA?
Would this be a interchange train with AA or C&O Mt. Pleasant turn??

You are correct, KC. C&O / Chessie used AA tracks from Clare to Mt. Pleasant for a while. I don't know the years they had this arrangement nor do I recall when they sold their Mt. Pleasant track to TSBY. The sale of the Mt Pleasant track is in one of our old newsletters from way back in the 1980's.

[Standard Railfan]

The Ann Arbor built a ramp behind the Mt. Pleasant station c. 1970 for unloading TOFC. IIRC the AA agent told me that the ramp was only used for a short time as it was less expensive to have the trailers unloaded in Midland and truck the trailers back to MP. The commodity in question was beer.

It seems very likely that beer from Pabst in Milwaukee (no rail service) was loaded on railcars and hauled across the Lake on the C&O car ferries and then delivered to the local TOFC track.

P.S. Great Photos KC.

[berkmeister]

I've read here so far that C&O TOFC was tacked on the back of "name" passenger trains and mixed in on general freights. Were there any "pure" TOFC-only trains in either direction on C&O's mainlines in Michigan? Trainworx in N-Scale has annouced C&O 85' piggyback flatcars in six roadnumbers and 15 different numbers of 40' truck trailers lettered for C&O and B&O to be released later in 2013. I've already ordered the entire series; i'm gonna build me a C&O late sixties/early seventies TOFC train and i might model certain lines in Michigan or Indiana's Chicago Division. Please inform me! Berkmeister

[bctrainfan]

I've read here so far that C&O TOFC was tacked on the back of "name" passenger trains and mixed in on general freights. Were there any "pure" TOFC-only trains in either direction on C&O's mainlines in Michigan? Trainworx in N-Scale has annouced C&O 85' piggyback flatcars in six roadnumbers and 15 different numbers of 40' truck trailers lettered for C&O and B&O to be released later in 2013. I've already ordered the entire series; i'm gonna build me a C&O late sixties/early seventies TOFC train and i might model certain lines in Michigan or Indiana's Chicago Division. Please inform me! Berkmeister

When did they start using those Piggy-packer cranes for loading trailers, 70's I think? Would this just have been used at larger terminals, with ramp/circus style loading at the smaller ones? FWIW, Wheels of Time makes a neat looking piggy-packer in N scale, and supposed to have it in HO soon.