[ Post a Response | RRHX - Michigan Railroad History ]
Posted by Ben
on 11/4/2009, 11:15 am
68.40.84.52
A little behind the scenes peek at MI railroading:
This is the first page of a seven page document dated 12/21/95 that was rec'd at BO Tower by fax. One of the pages is a letter from CSX at Jacksonville to CR at Philadelphia, dated 12/20: "A request for special train service for account CSXT for the following car which is now located at Grand Rapids MI". The car was LNAL 60953. "The request for special train is from Grand Rapids to Battle Creek GTW. This car to be interchanged on arrival at Battle Creek to GTW RR. Request is made acct CSXT/GTW closed interchange at Lansing and track is not in condition for handling shipment."
The lading was "DIE CAST MACH", originating at Prince Machine in Holland, destination Owens Brockway glass container in Charlotte. Ht 16'5", width 12'10". It was rec'd from CSX in Grand Rapids on the 21st, WDGR01 brought the load down to Kalamazoo with the 3385 (GP40 or 40-2). Max speed was 35mph, the train consisted of two loads, LNAL 60953 and CR 274937, 273 tons, train length 224 ft. The CR boxcar was a load of autoparts from Grand Rapids headed to the GM plant in Kalamazoo. The move from Kalamazoo to Battle Creek was handled by yard crew YDKZ32 (the Fisher Body job), as symbol DWEL1X on the main line to Battle Creek (for some reason Conrail always used the DWELX symbol for extra moves on the main line, regardless of where they were going). Based on the "1" in the DWEL symbol, it was delivered to GTW the same day (21st). Pretty good speed on the shipment, by RR standards!
I believe the connection between CR and GTW at Cedar St in Lansing was gone long ago, what about the connection at New Hollow Yd? It would be nice if there were more shipments like this to encourage the railroads to maintain more connections to each other. Hope you enjoyed!
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