Passenger Trains > NS now a tenant on Amtrak MI line east of Kalamazoo

This effective with the January cutover of operation of Amtrak's Michigan Line. NS acquired their footprint here courtesy of the Conrail split, and now are tenants of Amtrak, per Mr. Poon's post from January. This means the NS footprint on this ex NYC/PC/CR/NS line consists of the Burns Harbor Indiana local which runs up across the state line into SW lower MI and this train, running east out of Kalamazoo after making a run to the former Botsford yard from Battle Creek.

So Friday afternoon past while scoping out the now boarded up BO Tower I heard NS call the Amtrak MI Line DS (161.505) to get permission east to Hinman Yard in Battle Creek, which he got after a westbound Amtrak cleared the single track at Comstock. 

i headed east to Comstock, saw the meet as I pulled up to the crossing. After, I grabbed a couple quick shots of the departure of the freight, then blasted off ahead of him and out towards Galesburg on the parallel highway, around 3-4 miles, to set up for a video runby at speed. It's always interesting to seeing fast freight on a passenger main. It was my first time observing ops since Amtrak and the State of Mich. MDOT took over ownership and operations.

here is a video clip of the crew blowing out the carbon about MP 138ish.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/17 06:12 by chico.

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Nice, Ray! Good to see you out enjoying that awesome weather back there, too... Fond memories of the MI tour you gave me a couple years back-- tempus fugit, indeed!

This group of still shots shows the NS train highballing after Amtrak passed. A few minutes went by before the DS gave the signal on the new signal bridge. Double track ends eastward at this point.

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And the first group from down at the decommissioned BO Tower. Soon to be leveled. MDOT has taken over. Their signage is on all crossings now as well. 

Thanks for viewing and the comments and Mark great to hear from you it was 60+ perfect fanning weather.  

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Because it is high speed, the upgrades to this line by MDOT include gated crossing protection even at private (driveway) easements over the tracks. This drive leads to an old farmhouse off the state highway. The drive crosses the tracks immediately off the highway. Additionally, all the crossing protection circuits along the various turnoffs from the parallel highway seemed to be triggered by distance and not the speed of the freight train, which was considerably slower than the passenger trains the usually run here.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/17 21:56 by chico.

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Very informative post, Ray. Wish I was back there now, too-- your weather was even better than LA's today!

Living a mile up the road, I usually hear them running at night, but more often in the day now. 

BO's fate has yet to be sealed..

Great video, neat to see that train at speed. Sometimes when I have ridden 355 some high-hood geeps were active in the yard at Battle Creek as we passed by.

real nice vid ... thanks for posting ...

real nice vid ... thanks for posting ...

Nice video and good post. Sad to see BO Tower like that. Glad my friend and I drove and saw it in Fall 2015 when we could still wave at a tower operator.

Jim

Word on another forum was that BO Tower was to be preserved. I believe it is headed for Henry Ford in Dearborn. Hopefully word is true.