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Did anything ever materialize about the Adrian and Blissfield rebuilding a stretch of abandoned railroad grade that would give them a better, more direct route/access point to Toledo or was this just a pipe dream? Its a stretch of old LS&MS/NYC/PC trackage between Ottawa Lake and Riga, southeast of Blissfield.

This project is included in the "wishlist" category of the most recent MDOT rail service plan, or whatever it is called. I don't know anything about ADBF, so I don't know whether they have the financial wherewithal to accomplish this, or even if they did, whether they would want to proceed without assistance from the state. Ohio has its Ohio Rail Development Commission that provides loans and grants to railroads for projects such as this. I'm not sure if the equivalent agency exists in Michigan. I do know that both MDOT and ADBF would like this project to go forward, so as to be able to do away with the cumbersome interchange with NS in Adrian. From an engineering perspective, re-laying track on this right of way would seem a fairly simple project. There is one building sitting on the right of way near Ottawa Lake, but that issue could be resolved. The bridge over the creek just south of the "town" of Ottawa Lake is still in place. NS inherited ownership of the right of way itself from Conrail. Etc. Who knows, this project may go forward some year, or it may not. If it did, I wonder if NS would also sell Toledo-Ottawa Lake to ADBF? Yesterday I drove on the road that is parallel to the abandoned right of way. At the end of the track just north of the elevator and almost to the bumper were parked six grain cars, in the same spot where the former Alco switcher sat for years before it was moved to the TLE&W. As for the right of way itself, it looks the same as it did when the track was pulled 30+ years ago.

ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids and reopening a short line in Lansing to service a scarp yard. They're doing exactly what every railroad company should be doing and that is looking for new opportunities. Not all work out but when they do it makes the effort worth while.

AARR wrote:ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids and reopening a short line in Lansing to service a scarp yard. They're doing exactly what every railroad company should be doing and that is looking for new opportunities. Not all work out but when they do it makes the effort worth while.

Do you think the ADBF could become something on the size of the Marquette, Grand Elk or Great Lakes Central if the business picks up and abandoned right of ways are reactivated? They seem to have everything going for them, and could maybe expand their roster with more vintage locomotives.

AARR wrote:ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids and reopening a short line in Lansing to service a scarp yard. They're doing exactly what every railroad company should be doing and that is looking for new opportunities. Not all work out but when they do it makes the effort worth while.

The rehab of the line through Old Town in Lansing never happened, if that's what you're referring to.

SD80MAC wrote:

AARR wrote:ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids and reopening a short line in Lansing to service a scarp yard. They're doing exactly what every railroad company should be doing and that is looking for new opportunities. Not all work out but when they do it makes the effort worth while.

The rehab of the line through Old Town in Lansing never happened, if that's what you're referring to.

That's the one. The parties could not reach an agreement over the cost of rehabbing it.

First update I've seen regarding this in a while. Sounds like ADBF has already put money in, but...

http://www.lenconnect.com/article/20151 ... /-1/sports

AARR wrote:ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids...

Wait...how did I miss this one?

There was supposed to be a large foundry built that builds giant windmills. Last I heard (a few years ago) they were having trouble with financing. I don't know it's status.

J T wrote:

AARR wrote:ADBF has been involved in other rebuilding ROW rumors including from Rives Jct. to Eaton Rapids...

Wait...how did I miss this one?

For those of us fairly new, here, and not knowing the interlockings in this area, what's the current route to get stuff out of Lenawee County to Toledo? Do trains go up northeast at Riga and then come down the AA?

Adrian to Fort Wayne to Elkhart to Toledo.

railohio wrote:Adrian to Fort Wayne to Elkhart to Toledo.

Good grief! That was my original thought, that it went west, but that seemed so crazy to me that I didn't even seriously consider this (especially not knowing the trackage agreements, etc..). That's hundreds of miles out of the way.

Why exactly was the route that could possibly get rebuilt abandoned in the first place? Seems pretty stupid when you put it on paper.

Clearly you haven't studied railroading in the 1970s.

railohio wrote:Clearly you haven't studied railroading in the 1970s.

I thought the line from Toledo to Riga lasted longer than the 1970's. Conrail still operated to Clinton into the early 1980's IIRC. The line was pulled up after Conrail pulled out I thought. The information I can find indicates that the Conrail abandonment was filed in 1981.

The general logic was that a railroad did not want to allow access to additional outlets when possible. I'm not sure this applied to the HCRC as it was then known. They had the western NS access, plus access to the DT&I (GTW) already. I don't know why the access to Conrail, (Toledo) would have been pulled.

I do question if the relaying of the track really is the best option. I would think obtaining trackage rights over NS to Milan and via the AA to Toledo would be much cheaper than relaying the tracks. Also, they could rehab the generally unused section of track that is the IORY and get trackage rights over the IORY to Diann and then over the AA to Toledo. The only issue with either of these is the move to get onto the AA. Both would seem like much cheaper options than rebuilding the 5 miles of trackage.

I'm not saying I don't want it done, but I just question the finances of it (but if it is government money, does it really matter

I believe the line was marked for abandonment in 1976 and the state of Michigan paid Conrail a subsidy as the designated operator. It was similar to the agreement with the Michigan Northern and Hillsdale County.

chapmaja wrote:
I thought the line from Toledo to Riga lasted longer than the 1970's. Conrail still operated to Clinton into the early 1980's IIRC. The line was pulled up after Conrail pulled out I thought. The information I can find indicates that the Conrail abandonment was filed in 1981.

That's consistent with Meints' Michigan Railroad Lines, which states that the Ottawa Lake-Riga segment was removed in 1983.

The line from Lenawee Jct. to Clinton was embargoed in March 1982. Conrail continued to run from Toledo up to Lenawee Junction until 1983 to interchange with the LCRC. It was sometime after that that the LCRC took over, but I can't remember if there was a period between CR and LCRC operation when the line from Lenawee Jct. to Riga was out of service.

Interesting side-note: when Conrail embargoed the Clinton line, DT&I/GTW almost immediately pulled the diamond at Riga (supposedly by mistake). The "story" was that a CR local to Lenawee Junction even got as far as Riga and found a black signal (don't know if there's any truth in that!). With a week or so the diamond was back in, and stayed in until the end of Conrail operation. LCRC constructed the interchange with the GTW after they took over the line to Riga.

Knowing Debronski I'm sure he has something up his sleeve to make more profit. Possibly he would get more money out of every train going to Toledo for less overhead having to drag everything to Adrian first. With some of the moves he has done done in the past such as the hostile takeover attempt of the SMRS and the lease of the JAIL perhaps he is trying to create a railroad empire by creating a competing North South route through Michigan to compete with the AA.

Then again monkeys may fly out of my ass tonight at dinner.

Did anyone ever figure out why they ran a loco ont he Old Town branch a few weeks ago? Did they deliver an empty to that recycle place on a previous move and go get the load when the poster saw the loco headed down the line? Or they just run it down for the heck of it?