Here's a Mark Hinsdale photo from the late 70's of a West Olive coal train beginning its assault on the hill at Beck Road leaving Plymouth. (Mark doesn't mind the sharing of his photos as long as credit is given). Can't you just hear the thunder created by all that horsepower! From Saginaw, we dispatched these trains from Toledo to Plymouth. They were handled by crews out of Grand Rapids. At one point in the late 70's, there was a separate pool to handle the trains just to Plymouth, and then the GR crew took over from there. (Because of so much congestion, one crew could not make the entire run in 12 hours!) Later, they went back to just the GR crew in one shot. Most of the time, we would bring the train up the main at Plymouth, and then pushers would go south through the pass and tack on the rear to shove the train all the way to South Lyon.