Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Local with a Southern Survivor Michigan City, IN

I headed over to NW Indiana today (7/26) to look at some project sites and meet with a client. On the east side of Michigan City, IN, I found a short NS local in the hole for a westbound Amtrak. NS 7148 and 7149 were in charge of five cars including a doozy. A Southern Railway woodchip gon in amazing shape given it was built in 1985.
1. The eastbound local
2. SOU 139634, amazingly clean of graffiti
3.FEC 71237, an empty well car, not so clean...

---

---

---

The last three cars of the train were covered coil cars:
4. NS164110
5. CR 631261
6. CR 631276

Pretty cool that the oldest car of the bunch had the least graffiti!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/16 16:26 by kevink.

---

---

---

unique cars for a short train!

Neat, I wonder what both the well car and the woodchip gon were doing on that route.

Freight cars labeled Southern (not NS) were still being built as late as 1985? I'm not a modeler, and I didn't know that.

And consecutively-numbered GP60's. No telling how much longer you'll be able to see that.

halfmoonharold Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And consecutively-numbered GP60's. No telling how
> much longer you'll be able to see that.

That's because they're part of a group of GP60s specially equipped with Amtrak's Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) to operate on the Amtrak Michigan Line. These units are held in captive service out of Burns Harbor, IN.

Conrail had originally equipped six GP40-2s with ITCS and assigned them to West Botsford yard in  K-zoo. They stuck around for a while after the NS takeover as NS 3065-3070, eventually replaced by these 7140-series GP60s.

Before NS spun off their Kalamazoo operations to the Grand Elk, the ITCS-equipped units were kept at West Botsford. In the early 2000s ITCS had not yet been extended into Indiana (because Michigan DOT funds were used for the installation), so the equipped units only covered the local west out of K-zoo to Niles. Everyday power (often ex-CR GP15-1s) could be used out of Burns Harbor on the job to Michigan City that switches the industrial park north of the old Michigan Central yard. 

These days (as I understand it) the local operates of of Burns Harbor three times a week as far east as needed. I believe besides Michigan City there are still a couple of customers in Dowagiac, MI and a grain facility near MP 200 (west of Buchanan) that use rail service. There had been a Welch's grape juice plant in Lawton, but not sure if it's still in business.

NZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/16 13:58 by NebraskaZephyr.

ctillnc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Freight cars labeled Southern (not NS) were still
> being built as late as 1985? I'm not a modeler,
> and I didn't know that.

Yes they were. Here's a close up of one end with the build date of 9-85.

---