AMTK 2/12 and 2/13/09

[ns8401]

2/12:
AMTK 351 Depart Ann Arbor West at 823am ON TIME!
AMTK 353 (Hit a Guy East of Willow Run) DEPART ANN ARBOR WEST AT 407PM 3 HOURS AND 11 LATE
AMTK 350 DEPART ANN ARBOR EAST AT 239PM 30 LATE
AMTK 352 Depart Ann Arbor East at 612pm 25 Late
AMTK 355 DEPART ANN ARBOR WEST AT 845PM 1 HOUR AND 54 LATE
AMTK 354 Depart Ann Arbor East at 1155pm 25 Late
2/13:
AMTK 351 Depart Ann Arbor West at 827am 4 Late
AMTK 353 Depart Ann Arbor West at 103pm 7 Late
AMTK 350 DEPART ANN ARBOR EAST AT 250PM 41 LATE
AMTK 352 Depart Ann Arbor East at 605pm 18 Late
AMTK 355 Depart Ann Arbor West at 700pm 9 Late
AMTK 354 Depart Ann Arbor East at 1140pm 10 Late

[ASR]

I went on a train excursion today. I took 350 to Detroit, went downtown for a couple of hours and took 355 back. Although 350 was late into AA, there weren't any problems afterwards. On the way back, we stopped in Wayne so 352 could pass. It was dark out, but I think a NS train was parked on the track we were on. After 352 passed, we backed up past the Wayne Junction diamond and switched onto the other main. Despite that, only 9 minutes late out of AA isn't bad.

[leo28150]

ASR, this meet with 350 and 355 is typical whereas if the two trains meet here or at CP-Ypsi, one train will pull in on Main 1 and wait for the other to pass by and then back out and continue on; this is account of the rusty rail rule in effect on # 1. If the trains are on time or close to it, the meet will take place on the double track between CP-Mort and CP-Townline (where there is not rusty rule in effect account of no grade crossings); the bad thing about the meet here is that there are only 2 crosswalks for the platform at the Dearborn station and they are narrow and a pain in the butt trying to spot the train there. As for last night, I was on 352 and I don't remember seening a NS train on the same track as your train at Wayne; the only thing there equipment wise was a pair of engines getting fueled at the yard office, 3 or 4 tracks of tri-levels in the yard and the south pass full of tri-levels also. Don't know if you noticed yard at Willow Run, it has 4 tracks of tri-levels stored along with Nate's empty steel train stored on the north pass; I've also noticed that there is no equipment for Triple Crown there at all and I mean everything, right down to the cigarette butts!!!!!

[GP30M4216]

Lee: I wasn't aware that it was now MY coil train but I'll take it! The Nathan honorary steel coil train at North Pass, Willow Run. Kinda has a ring to it!

Does this rusty rail thing have to do with activating crossing protection circuitry? Kind of makes the whole idea of having passing tracks a moot point, does it not? I heard 352 blow through when I was driving through Wayne last night. I also saw 350 upon arrival at the Dearborn station, with 124 and 44 and 3 Superliners in between, about 35 minutes late. Too bad they didn't put in wider crosswalks/a center platform in Dearborn between the tracks as they have in Jackson & Kalamazoo.

As for Willow Run, I don't think I've seen any triple crown equipment there since Christmas. Really a bummer, too. Lots of autoracks currently in storage. They still run some kind of local or transfer job out of there to Wayne and back, I think. I've seen a Geep in the yard with mixed freight pickups for 38J going westward.

[ns8401]

Does Triple Crown haul a lot of autoparts/auto related items? I'm wondering if the significant slowdown in auto traffic in general has something to do with the lack of 260/263's.

[JANGAJONGA]

WAIT. so there is a difference between wayne and willow run? i though they were the same yard. we went to willow run last weekend and there were 4 large cuts of auto racks and the coil train sitting there. saw a triple crown trailer there two. odd that there is a yard office with such a small yard.

[TrainWatcher]

Nah, Willow Run is a seperate Yard Jack. Anyway, I was around the yard last Friday, and as amazed to see ALL the TC Equipment GONE!! I think the Wayne-Willow Run switcher was working because there was No power in the Yard.

[ASR]

JANGAJONGA, Wayne Yard is in the city of Wayne by the Ford plant. Willow Run is in Ypsilanti (Township) about ten miles west of Wayne Yard.