News Briefs - April, 2002

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Derailment in Rougemere Yard...

Anthony Rzucidlo reports that four boxcars were observed on their sides in the CSX Rougemere Yard located in Dearborn's south end.  The derailment occurred near the former CP Rail Intermodal building at Industrial and Riverside.  Crews from CSX and R.J. Corman Derailment Services were working to get the boxcars back on the tracks.  No one was injured according to news reports.

CN Derailment on Flint subdivision...

Dan Meinhard reports a derailment about two miles west of the West Emmet Siding switch on CN's Flint subdivision. (4/17/02)  One gondola was on the tracks missing one of its trucks. Both axles were off the truck, one off to the side

Derailment photo by Dan Meinhard

of the tracks about 200 yards behind the car. The other axle was wedged underneath the gondola in front of the other truck which was still under the car. It appeared that the car was derailed for about a mile before the truck and axles came off the car and rail. There was damage to a rural gravel crossing from the wheel hitting the wood beams between the rails. The CN involved train was # 216 which normally was an auto train from Battle Creek to Toronto Yard.  Amtrak's International was detoured via the Mt. Clemens subdivision.

Lake Superior Railroad Museum fires up Soo GP-30...

he Lake Superior Railroad Museums added another operating locomotive to their fleet today as former Soo Line GP30 700 was fired up for the first time since arriving this past winter after being donated by the CN.  After five try's and finally a whole can of starting fluid the unit fired off with puff of black carbon exhaust that covered everybody and everything close by. The unit is far from able to move on its own power but it is another step in the right direction.  Pictured is the unit shortly after being started. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreRail/files/Misc/dSoo700.jpg.  From Kent Rengo, via OreRail list.

Lake State derailment...

A derailment on Monday night/Tuesday morning tied up the main line in Oscoda for 48 hours. Train 326 south derailed 3 cars, 2 on their sides just north of Oscoda. Train 327 north with engines 181 and 281 was tied down in Tawas until 4/10 when it departed at 1800.  Cause of the derailment is still under investigation.  Engine 976 with former D&M crane is tied down in the Tawas yard.  It is supposed to move to the spur at National City sometime soon.

Kalamazoo Openhouse...

The Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society will be having its FREE open house on Saturday, May 18 from noon until 4:00 pm. Our operating HO scale layout will be on display, and our 1912 Boyne City, Gaylord & Alpena caboose will be open for tours.  As far as we know, it is one of three surviving pieces of equipment from that Michigan shortline. (The others are a Russell snowplow on display at the Mid-Continent museum in Wisconsin and 2-8-0 #18 now hauling tourists on the Arcade & Attica in New York.)  Refreshments will be available and everyone is welcome.  For more details, including a map: http://www.kmrhs.org.  From Mark Tomlonson. 

Durand Railroad Days coming...

Railroad Days, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is again holding Durand Railroad Days, on May 16-18 in Durand.  For information, please visit this web site:  http://home.shianet.org/~durandcc/rrdaysinfo.html.

Forest City Railway Society holding annual Show...

The Forest City Railway Society will hold its  annual Spring Slide and Photo Sale and Swap Day on Saturday 20th April, 2002 at Riverside United Church, 451 Dunedin Drive (off Riverside Drive), London, ON, from 11am to 4pm.   Admission is still only $2.  Dealers are welcome. For further information, please contact:  Ian Platt, 519-438-3330, platti999@yahoo.ca.

Dispatching the Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel...

Ken Borg reports that the Canadian Pacific has taken over dispatching duties for the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, effective April 7th.  From the MichiganRailroads listserv.

Norfolk Southern tests engine auto start/stop...

Norfolk Southern has equipped 10 General Electric C40-9W locomotives with General Electric's Auto Engine Start Stop (AESS) for field trial.  The equipment eliminates the need to manually start the locomotive.  Locomotives 9685 through 9694 have the experimental equipment and are identified with a decal under the road number that reads "Autostart Equipped".  From Conrail Technical Society.

June 9th Steam Trip Sold Out.  June 8th available for photos...

The June 9th, 2002 Photo Special has SOLD OUT. We are considering running another Photo Special later this year, nothing is definite yet.Please do not email us regarding the date, as soon as we have made a decision the date will be posted here.

I want to take a moment to thank all of you that wrote in and supported our decision to let the paying customers get their monies worth, by discouraging photographers without tickets.   In order to make this ride exclusive to our paying customer, on the 9th ONLY, our beautiful Steamer will carry bright orange road cones on the pilot and running boards. A tarp will be draped over the GTW logo on the tender. The tarps and cones will all be removed for photo runbys and then reapplied for the moves between the runbys. All the runbys will be held in locations not very accessible by car. The ones that are accessible by car, are only accessible by private drive. We feel this is the best way to give the passengers on the train the most for their money.

For those of you that think that this is too harsh or unfair, we are offering a trip on June 8th that you can photograph and chase all you want, no road cones, no tarps. You can go to our website for more details.   The photo special on the 9th is for the Railfans that support us by purchasing a reasonably priced ticket.  After all they are the ones that keep the train running, and this is our way of thanking them!  From Jason Johnson, Ohio Central Steam Department.

Items of interest from the Upper Peninsula...

Canadian National's LO-39 stalled at Larch hill on Wednesday.  The Gladstone switcher came up to Moniozwck Warehouse, cut off their train, and ran up the Ore Sub connection, backed into LO-39, and shoved them up the hill.  Larch has a 1.22% grade and LO-39 was running long hood forward with close to maximum number of cars.  The sanders didn't help much and there was some snow coming down.  I walked back to the overpass at Larch but couldn't see him.  With running long hood forward they had to go slow at crossings with no ditch lights on that end.

Today CN's SORE1 ran with 54 limestone loads in the former CNW jennies to Partridge, and afterwards to the Empire Mine.  SORE1 is going back to 45 vans and then half a train of Empire and SORE2 should be a full 108 car Empire train.  SORE1 is  too long for the sidings with 70 vans, but I know that Algoma Steel wanted more ore.  Don't know if that changed now that Lake Superior opened up.  Might be good news for the LS&I.  From Jeremy Reese via OreRail list.

Caught on the CN's Flint Subdivision at Emmet, Michigan in 1999... 

Dan Meinhard recently sent this photo to share with everyone:

Ohio Central plans steam photo charter...

Trip is SOLD OUT.  The Ohio Central Railroad is proud to announce their first photo charter with the newly restored 4-8-4 #6325.  Join us on June 9th, 2002 for a photographer special.  The ex-GTW #6325 will carry its Grand Trunk Western logo for this one day only. No auxiliary tender or tool car will be used and a consist of 7 maroon painted passenger cars will be used.  Many runbys are planned with sun angles and locations taken into consideration.  For more information go to http://www.ohiocentral.com/photospecial.html.  Order your tickets by May 1, 2002 and receive 15% off. Hurry tickets should go fast.  From the Ohio Central Railroad.

Audio File for new Defect Detector at Wyandotte...

The following file is the audio track from the new Conrail defect detector at Wyandotte.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RRMichigan/files/Detectors/NewDEDACtrack2.wav
 

More News Briefs from March...