Jackson-Lansing Railroad

[Hogger1225]

That was a GP-10

Ooops, thanks Hogger, oh yeah, did you work for CR in Lansing before NS?

The reason I said It's a GP-10 was I was in the cab of it several times, while it sat on the interchange on the CSX to be pulled over to NS's Saginaw Yard and while it was at Saginaw Yard, and a couple of other places that they stored it. The Blue Card had it listed as a GP-10. I was on the job that pulled it over to Saginaw yard. Yes, I worked there before NS. Started out on PC, then Conrail, then NS. An interesting note, the DHMX lettering on the side reflects the initials of the owner of the unit and the demolition company, MCM.

[GrandTrunkFan]

Isnt there a MCM truck with that locomotive painted on the side?

[GTWFRED]

Isnt there a MCM truck with that locomotive painted on the side?

Yes, I saw at least one (& I think they had a second one) when they were hauling away what was left of the GM plants on Saginaw. The demolition foremans trailer was filled with pics of the loco on the wall, also.

[wawatam]

I received a pleasant and unexpected surprise today. I drove up to RSDC around 1:00. To my surprise the crew was swithing cars using 1760. Shortly after I got there, I heard 1758 blowing its horn to the north of RSDC as it headed for Lansing. 1760 did some more work at RSDC then headed south to Mason with a tank car for Americhem. I had some free time so I drove up to Lansing. I got up to the Saginaw St. yard just in time to see 1758 roll in. They sorted eighteen cars that included 3 flat cars loaded with steel plate for ALRO STEEL , 8 gondola cars for Padnos scrap yard, 6 coil cars, and a covered hopper car for QD .On my way home I stopped by RSDC again. The crew was still working there but it was getting too dark to see anything. Since JAIL took over the line it’s been very rare to see one crew work during the day. It was a real treat to see two crews working the line at the same time during the day. Too bad it was such a cloudy, cold day. Otherwise it would have been a photographer s dream.

[AARR]

I received a pleasant and unexpected surprise today. I drove up to RSDC around 1:00. To my surprise the crew was swithing cars using 1760. Shortly after I got there, I heard 1758 blowing its horn to the north of RSDC as it headed for Lansing. 1760 did some more work at RSDC then headed south to Mason with a tank car for Americhem. I had some free time so I drove up to Lansing. I got up to the Saginaw St. yard just in time to see 1758 roll in. They sorted eighteen cars that included 3 flat cars loaded with steel plate for ALRO STEEL , 8 gondola cars for Padnos scrap yard, 6 coil cars, and a covered hopper car for QD .On my way home I stopped by RSDC again. The crew was still working there but it was getting too dark to see anything. Since JAIL took over the line it’s been very rare to see one crew work during the day. It was a real treat to see two crews working the line at the same time during the day. Too bad it was such a cloudy, cold day. Otherwise it would have been a photographer s dream.

It's like a real life model railroad with engines going everywhich way to service the csutomers. Does it still look like RSDC is the major shipper on the line?

[wawatam]

RSDC is by far the biggest shipper on the line. I would guess that during a good week the recieve 35 to 60 coil cars. Michigan Packaging Company is second. They recieve up to 20 to 25 boxcars in a good week.

[GP30M4216]

Are these primarily 50' standard boxcars, lots of CSX, KCS, NS, and TTX? I remember seeing regular cuts of them in Kalamazoo on 38J/39J, but I thought they went to some place in Jackson.

[wawatam]

Are these primarily 50' standard boxcars, lots of CSX, KCS, NS, and TTX? I remember seeing regular cuts of them in Kalamazoo on 38J/39J, but I thought they went to some place in Jackson.

Yes they are although sometimes there are some 60' high cube cars. Most of the cars really show their age.

[AARR]

RSDC is by far the biggest shipper on the line. I would guess that during a good week the recieve 35 to 60 coil cars. Michigan Packaging Company is second. They recieve up to 20 to 25 boxcars in a good week.

Glad to hear it! I significantly underestimated the number of cars MPC receives and over estimated what RSDC

[wawatam]

Tonight just after 10:00 the crew headed south from Mason with 34 cars. 12 gondalas loaded with scrap,11 boxcars from MPC,8 coil cars from RSDC, 1 tank car, 1 hopper, and 1 flat. Although they are unpredictable they seem to be working a Monday,Wednesday, Friday night shift usually going south thru Mason between 10:00 and midnight and returning between 4:00 am and 5:30 am.

[Dan Cluley]

I saw them southbound at MA in Lansing about 7:45pm on Tuesday. Both engines, a couple of boxcars, and a string of loaded scrap gons.

[CSX_CO]

We had 25 or so storage tanks come over from Grand Elk Tuesday for JAIL via CN Toledo. (Stupid routing because 327 sets off for them westbound from Detroit..oh yeah 334 CANNOT SET OUT AT ENSLE NOT PART OF PLAN...put them on 326 then? welll nevermind) Anyway, where is JAIL storeing all these tanks and are they undercutting GDLK prices to get this storage business? I would ASSUME so but ya never know.
And a bunch of coevered hoppers came over for WR Grace in south Carolina in that batch too. Going back into service. Nice to see!

CSX is probably going to get more revenue for moving them from GR to Toledo, then the would moving them from GR to Lansing. Why wouldn't they 'force' the customer into taking the longer routing and making more money for themselves? That may even be the routing the customer chose. Whys it that big of a deal? CSX makes money moving them, and the further they move them, the more money they make.

You'd be surprised how many customers don't bill their cars correctly. Case in point: We have two Heritage Environmental Services sites in Indianapolis. One that is on the INRD at Senate Ave (only transload those dirt containers there) and one on the CSX that gets all manner of stuff. A customer bills a car, sees "Heritage Indianapolis", and sends the waybill. Problem is, they chose the one on the INRD, not the one on CSX. CSX routes the car to the INRD, and Heritage says "This is an error delivery, we aren't supposed to get this car here." Dig into the billing, sure enough, the car ended up where the billing said it should, they (the customer) just picked the wrong spot. A similar situation exists with Omnisource. They have a scrap yard on the INRD and a couple on the CSX. Customer bills the car to "Omnisource Indianapolis" without looking at which railroad they picked. This is how cars get bounced back and forth, INRD gives it back to CSX, CSX sees that its an INRD car, and sends it back. It isn't until Omni wonders where this car is going that they get the billing corrected, or someone on the railroad takes the initiative to say "You need to correct this billing." On the CSX, that's not very often, as the railroad is making money everytime that car moves. INRD will eventually take the time to call and correct the billing, but only because their small enough to notice cars bouncing back and forth.

The one time I tried to take the initiative and put cars on a correct train for where they needed to be, turned into a big fiasco. Someone had billed some loaded scrap cars to "NUCOR - 00Q147 Crawfordsville IN." They should have been billed as "NUCOR - 00Q151 NUCOR, IN" Well...they blew in as CRA cars, which go on J726, as they should with a 00Q147 billing. I saw the billing, and how they were supposed to go to NUCOR, and put them on the J727 train which works NUCOR. It took almost 2 hrs to get a work order for the J727 because the computer didn't know what to do with these cars. I called CSC and said "I know these show as CRA, but J727 is the one that works Nucor. I know its out of block, but these cars are billed wrong." The next time I won't bother. If a customer can't bill the cars correctly, its too big of a hassle on my end to try and correct it for them. I have bigger things to worry about. J726 left yesterday with 2 scrap cars for NUCOR, billed to Crawfordsville. Crew said "Since when does Crawfordsville get loaded scrap cars?" I said "Since the customers can't bill their cars correctly, its a NUCOR car, but shown as going to Crawfordsville."

Practice Safe CSX

[Buster Manning]

I saw a couple tracks of tanks being stored in Hollow yard on Sun morn.

[Clay320]

That MCM Geep in Lansing was an ex CNW GP7. Built as Rock Island 1284, sold to CNW, renumbered 4197, had it's nose chopped.

I saw this engine, or a engine just like it in Montpelier OH Saturday. Wasn't close enough to see the number. Could it be the same engine?

[GP30M4216]

Interesting. Could be. Its been stored since sometime in early 2009 down at Ashley, IN on Klinks Trucking Spur. Montpelier would be the interchange point if it were leaving the INER. Although I've heard that the INER was interested at one time in acquiring this locomotive for their own use, the asking price from the owner was too high. I guess it's in really good shape though.

Anyone else see the 4197 anywhere else besides the end-of-spur at Ashley?

[sd70accsxt700]

It was reported here some where it was going to be moving, that was the loco you saw.

[Dan Cluley]

The 1760 has been sitting on the siding at North st in Mason for the last few of days, and now there are a couple of heavy duty cranes in the empty lot next to the tracks there. I'm wondering if they are doing some repairs to the locomotive?

[wawatam]

They replaced the rear traction motor on the front truck. The cranes were used to lift the engine off the trucks so the truck could be moved out from under the frame to be worked on.

[canpac08]

That MCM Geep in Lansing was an ex CNW GP7. Built as Rock Island 1284, sold to CNW, renumbered 4197, had it's nose chopped.

I saw this engine, or a engine just like it in Montpelier OH Saturday. Wasn't close enough to see the number. Could it be the same engine?

That engine had been in Montpelier oh for a better part of the month of December. Not sure where she went off to though

[sharpie77]

The MCM GP7u left Ft. Wayne Dec. 23rd headed toward St. Louis lashed up with 4 NS units. I will have pictures later.