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Was out and about today at Great Lakes Crossing Mall and noticed a CN high rail truck at the Baldwin Road crossing - guy inside the signal box by the street - and several CN trucks AND track equipment running (large tamper and another track equipment vehicle) at Great Lakes Crossing Drive! All this on a SUNDAY! On the way back home, all the track equipment had moved North and were almost to Baldwin Road with the CN high-rail truck on the tracks this time heading North.

Now, I know the Circus Train is coming sometime next month, and I also noticed where the tracks enter GM property where Silverbell crosses over the CN, the fense / gates that stretch across the tracks - the gates were OPEN so something can enter GM property, so maybe all this was in advance of the Circus Train (because there is just NO recent rail activity lately), but I'm really HOPING all this was because GM might startup rail service again. Its really sad that CN is not serving them - what a big loss in traffic it would seem. Its really too bad.

I'll keep everyone posted.

David Lang

I remain hopeful that Orion will start shipping by rail again but most likely they are prepping for the circus train

No plans to do anything with GM at this point, but its always a topic of discussion. We had a couple washouts & I had to make my case for getting the track fixed in time for the circus train.

Mike H

Can Orion even get switched anymore if the yard has been removed?

I hear the CN Pontiac Job has always been using the line to Orion to runaround their train when switching the scrap yard. I would like to know which job and what time the job has been switching the scrap yard as well as the customers around Pontiac. I am guessing there is a night job that works around Pontiac.

milineamtrak wrote:I would like to know which job and what time the job has been switching the scrap yard as well as the customers around Pontiac. I am guessing there is a night job that works around Pontiac.

Scrap yard and lumber transload (for Church's), plywood place at south end of Johnson Yard, Trailer Train and landscaping place north of the yard. Company materials and RIP in the yard. That's about all I know of.

Yes, it was to fix the washout so the circus train can run out there again. And the scrap place is switched out by yard crew and is switched on a as needed basis.

AARR wrote:

milineamtrak wrote:I would like to know which job and what time the job has been switching the scrap yard as well as the customers around Pontiac. I am guessing there is a night job that works around Pontiac.

Scrap yard and lumber transload (for Church's), plywood place at south end of Johnson Yard, Trailer Train and landscaping place north of the yard. Company materials and RIP in the yard. That's about all I know of.

FTP is the scrap yard north of Collier Road that is in question. While CN is in the process of trying to regain service to GM in Lake Orion, I wonder if they will ever attempt to ship rail out of the Metal Fabrication plant around Columbia Avenue? The tracks are still in place although sections of rails are missing, overgrown right-of-way and concrete dividers across the ROW, and destroyed crossing signals would require track rehab to resume rail service there.

Chrisracer8903 wrote:I wonder if they will ever attempt to ship rail out of the Metal Fabrication plant around Columbia Avenue? The tracks are still in place although sections of rails are missing, overgrown right-of-way and concrete dividers across the ROW, and destroyed crossing signals would require track rehab to resume rail service there.

Highly unlikely. Tracks are out of service and signs have been placed on the rails to not enter the yard. Last active customer in there, IIRC, was a plastics operation.

While CN is in the process of trying to regain service to GM in Lake Orion

How do you know this? Several other sources I have read on this board say that there was an issue with CN not getting payed before GM went bankrupt and they discontinued service because of it. You are the first to say that CN is trying to get the business back. I truly hope this is the case and will definitely provide an update if GM ever resumes service.

David Lang

David Lang wrote:

While CN is in the process of trying to regain service to GM in Lake Orion

Several other sources I have read on this board say that there was an issue with CN not getting payed before GM went bankrupt and they discontinued service because of it.

CN quit a lot of GM's business before the bankruptcy and did not get hurt financially as bad as CSX who had picked up a majority of the business CN gave up on.

Keep in mind CN still hauls a lot of GM business so as long as the communication lines are open there will always be a possibility of them getting it back although we can see from Poletown's plant that GM may not be eager at this time to send more business CN's way just yet.

David Lang wrote:How do you know this? Several other sources I have read on this board say that there was an issue with CN not getting payed before GM went bankrupt and they discontinued service because of it. You are the first to say that CN is trying to get the business back. I truly hope this is the case and will definitely provide an update if GM ever resumes service.

David Lang

I don't. I just assumed CN was trying based on what people were saying on here in the past.

Go look at Colombia ave. may give a clue to whats going on right now and in the future........................that's all i can say

mike nowakowski wrote:Go look at Colombia ave. may give a clue to whats going on right now and in the future........................that's all i can say

Track removal I assume?

Chrisracer8903 wrote:

David Lang wrote:How do you know this?

I don't. I just assumed.

Seems about right.

I was in the GM Pontiac Metal Center recently. There was some construction bring done on the south side of the plant. I was told they were preping to ship parts by rail again. I cannot confirm this, just what I was told. This plant is south of Columbia Ave on the east side of what is left of the rails.

I just returned home and i am glad that this thread was going. A couple weeks back i was wandering in the yard north of columbia. track crews were out south of columbia and it looked like they were pulling up rail. just south of walton the flag was up for out of service and 2 switches were dismantled. Today the switches are back...why replace switches without plans of using them? they are greased and lubed and there are 2 tracks that now appear to be back in service. The flags are no longer up. The crossing at columbia is back in service, the missing section and concrete barriers are gone now, track looks great. the track now goes south of columbia and hooks a hard left, not sure where it goes. During my walk GTW 4906 was bringing one empty lumber car south from where the scrap yard is, 2 fresh lumber cars dropped off at lumber yard this morning. on the way back they had to throw the switch north of walton and behind the supermarket...meaning that they entered the yard on their way north... i wonder what the plan is myself since the buildings are gone there now... but it appears they spent some money repairing that stretch. i thought it was coming out.

What time of day was this?

Expect to see traffic start moving in the near future. Its not going to be earth shattering, but you can expect to see a small group of cars being spotted once, maybe twice per week for now. There are opportunities for more down the road, but this is a start in the right direction.

Mike H

Mike H wrote:Expect to see traffic start moving in the near future. Its not going to be earth shattering, but you can expect to see a small group of cars being spotted once, maybe twice per week for now. There are opportunities for more down the road, but this is a start in the right direction.

Mike H

Where were you when I was trying to get CN to accommodate a road construction company that wanted 3500 car loads per year of limestone shipped to Romeo from Alpena

This makes no sense at all. Pontiac Metal Fab only stamps for Orion Assembly and it would be silly to have rail service just for that. GM and their "just in time delivery" over the years got rid of most of the shipping of parts by rail. The truck plants are really the only ones who get any parts by rail still and that's not much. Besides, there haven't been tracks into Orion Assembly since the late 90's. It would seem the only thing they would ship out of Pontiac Metal Fab is scrap. As for switching Orion Assembly, all of it was done on plant grounds. I used to watch them switch sometimes before I went in for second shift.