News Briefs - September, 2002
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The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey curcus train will be leaving Grand Rapids on Monday enroute to Lake Orion for a presentation at the Palace of Auburn Hills. After that engagement, it will be off to Boston. Ken Borg reports on the train's schedule: It will depart Grand Rapids on the NS at 0130 and arrive at Kalamazoo around 0300. The train will be switched as Kalamazoo to get certain cars in the correct order. It will depart Kalamazoo on the NS Michigan Line at 0430, and be delivered to the CN at Battle Creek at 0530. It will leave Battle Creek via CN at 0700 and arrive at Lake Orion at 1400. On Monday, October 7th, the circus train is scheduled to depart Lake Orion at 0330 on the CN which will take it to Toledo, Ohio for interchange with the CSX around 0900. It is scheduled to depart Toledo around 0915, going around the wye at Fostoria on to the former B&O to Willard around 1300. The animals will probably be watered at Williard. It will then proceed on to Boston. Ken notes that the train may run ahead of schedule, but usually runs late.
Ann Arbor Train Show changes...
Jim Flury reports that the 2003 AAMRC annual show will be held at Saline High School, as opposed to Ypsilanti as in past years, and it will take place over a two day period, February 15 and 16, instead of the usual one. Your $5.00 admission fee is good for both days.
NS Maintenace of Way train now in East Dearborn.
The NS MOW train, complete with bunk cars has been relocated on tracks in the area of East Dearborn. It is parked on the Conrail Shared Assets Area track near the intersection of Charles and Prospect. From Anthony Rzucidlo
The Pere Marquette Historical Society is proud to announce the upcoming publication of its first hardcover book, "Pere Marquette Passenger Car Pictorial". This book, the first ever to comprehensively cover the entire PM passenger car fleet, will contain over 350 photos, over 120 equipment drawings, rosters and lettering diagrams. This includes wooden equipment inherited from predecessor roads, wooden and steel cars built for the PM, the PM's own streamlined cars, and the streamlined cars the C&O purchased for use on the ex-PM lines in Michigan following the merger. Details, including a pre-publication discount offer, can be found on the Pere Marquette Historical Society's web site at http://www.pmhistsoc.org. From Fritz Milhaupt.
VIA/CBC train on display in Windsor...
The special VIA/CBC train will be at the Windsor VIA station on Friday, September 20th. It includes a skyline dome car, Park car, plus a set of the new British cars. It will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Parking will be very tight - look nearby for places.
CN stops removing Empire to Algoma pellets...
Ryan Willobee of Trout Lake reports on the OreList that Algoma Steel and Cleveland Cliffs are in some dispute which has caused the all-rail iron pellet move to stop on short notice. Algoma will continue to receive pellets via the LS&I and subsequent boat move. Apparently this all happened on very short notice with CN train crews being given 24-hour notices to bid for new jobs. There is speculation that the all-rail move may be on hold until winter.
1225 steamed up for
funeral... The 1225 was under steam and on the north side of
Henderson Road crossing along with 40 Club members for the funeral
procession of Joe Sigafoose. Joe (62) was a long time AA and TSB
train crew member. Also active member of 1225. TSB 392 (the lead
unit on Joe's last run) framed the south side of the crossing. Both
sounded final tributes to Joe. From the Shortline board.