Railroad News Brief: November, 2003

Bob Cosgrove, adjunct curator at the Detroit Historical Museum, advises that the Museu's Glancy Trains Collection has been cataloged onto the museum's web site. There are approximately 500 toy and scale model trains of all sizes and ages, with a few over 100 years old. Go to the Detroit Historical Museum web site at www.detroithistorical.org and click on "Collections." Then click on "Glancy Trains" and at the bottom of the page, click on "Explore our Glancy Train Collection."

D&M/NYC Cabooses...

Mark Engels has provided the latest report on the fate former Detroit & Mackinac and NYC cabooses: #205 will be going to Standish, MI (it is an ex-PRR N5C caboose). #206 is on display at Lincoln, Michigan (also an ex-PRR N5C). #207 has been on display for a number of years in Grayling, MI. D&M wood caboose #52 is at Greenfield Village in Dearborn. #208 was scrapped in 3/02 due to an accident. #209 and #210 (both with off-set bay windows and purchased from the B&LE) were also scrapped. D&M coach #5 and diner #6 are for sale for a reported $10,000 each. They have roller bearing trucks and are in good condition. They have not been used in regular service since 1950.

200,000 Hits...

Sometime early this morning (11/8), the home page of www.MichiganRailroads.com had its 200,000 visitor

since the site began on February 1, 2001.

Alco RS-1 donated to Museum. Consumers Energy today (10/31) announced it has donated a retired switching locomotive from its Essexville Karn/Weadock Generating Complex to the Saginaw Railway Museum for use as a permanent exhibit at the Museum. The retired American Locomotive Company (Alco) RS-1 locomotive was transported to the Railway Museum in Saginaw today from the site in Bay County's Hampton Township by CSX Railroad. The "old Alco" was used at the Essexville site to move rail cars carrying coal to fuel the power plants from 1968 until it was retired in 2002. "The old Alco locomotive from is historically significant to railroad aficionados because it is one of only five or six left in the United States," said James Trier, Acting President of the Railway Museum. "We're pleased that Consumers Energy was willing to donate it to our group locally, to preserve the history of significant railroad artifacts in the Saginaw-Bay area," said Trier. The Alco RS-1 locomotive was built in 1951 in Schenectady, NY, and delivered new to the Rutland Railroad in Vermont that same year. Rutland sold the Alco RS-1 to Green Mountain Railroad, also in Vermont, in 1964. Then Consumers Power Company purchased the Alco from Green Mountain in 1967 for use at Essexville. From Dave Williamson.

Nuclear reactor arrives at final resting place. A radioactive nuclear reactor that passed through southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio two weeks ago has arrived at its final resting place, a Barnwell, S.C., dump. The rare journey began Oct. 7 at Consumers Energy’s decommissioned Big Rock Point nuclear plant near Charlevoix, Mich., where the reactor had been used for 35 years. The haul took 23 days over highway and rail before being completed Thursday when the reactor was delivered to the South Carolina dump, one of the only ones in the country licensed to accept that type of waste. The device, a whopping 580,000 pounds, was temporarily held up in the Toledo area Oct. 17-18 because of complications in transferring it from the CSX to Norfolk Southern rail lines. It stayed in the CSX rail yard in Walbridge until Norfolk Southern gave authorization for the transfer to its tracks in Fostoria. The utility claimed the delay did not expose residents to excessive radiation. From The Toledo Blade.

Another New Record. MichiganRailroads.com set another monthly hit record in October, 2003 with 435 hits on the home page per day, up about 11% from the previous daily record of 396 per day set in September. The site, which has been active since February, 2001, will exceed 200,000 hits on November 7th or 8th. Our thanks to everyone who participates in the site, including those people who submit photographs and news articles. It is truly a collaborative effort.

More News Briefs from October...