Eastern Railroad Discussion > Northern Lower Michigan Info needed....

This summer we'll be driving from Upper Michigan to Detroit for the National Train Show, and I'd like some info on the Lake States Railway operations please! I did check the Yahoo group lists for any Michigan Railfanning groups, and while it did show two of them, neither one has had any new posts for over 2 months! We plan on 2 or 3 days in the Alpena/Gaylord area.

Any ideas on good places to shoot and chase would be much appreciated. We are interested in the Alcos on the Lake States RR, plus any other short lines in the area.

Thanks!

Ted

On Saturday August 4th there will be a northbound Private car train from Owosso to Petoskey. The southbound train will take place on Tuesday August 7th.

Please see the information below taken from the AAPRCO Private Car web site.

Roger



Saturday, August 4 – A total private car movement train. We will depart Owosso at approximately 8:00 am this day. We will stop briefly in Shepard, MI. Staying for about an hour. We will then travel on to Cadillac for relaxing stop for lunch in town. Before we get to Boyne Falls, we will make a stop at the Fife Lake swimming hole – our consist makes a tight swing around the public swimming area at Fife Lake and we’ll stop for an hour or so (weather permitting) to soak up some rays and enjoy the beach! In the meantime, we’ll do the research on additional points of interest at the lake stop for those interested in shopping or a quick bite to eat. Once everyone is back on the train, we will then head to Boyne Falls for the city’s annual Polish Festival. This was really one of the highlights of last years trip, as our consist literally pulls right through the busy festival. It was quite a sight for the unsuspecting festival goers! After spending some time at the festival, we will once again depart and arrive in Petoskey late that night, around 11:30 pm.


Tuesday August 7– We will depart Petoskey this day around 8:00 am. We will travel to Kalkaska for a one-hour stay and then Make a quick stop in Cadillac before traveling on to Mount Pleasant for a three hour stop. We will then travel to Owosso for Another overnight stay. Our cars will be transferred back to the Amtrak Blue Water for our return trip to Chicago.

Here's my understanding of the LSRC operation. Corrections/addenda welcomed:
Grayling: Turn to Pinconning MWF. Turn to Gaylord TuTh.
Alpena: Daytime switch job weekdays. 6 p.m. weekdays, road train departs for Bay City, swaps with crew from Pinconning near Tawas.
Bay City: Daytime switch job weekdays, positions northbound road train for Alpena at Pinconning. Evening crew picks up road train and takes north to swap, returns to Bay City.
As far as I know, nothing regularly runs on the weekends, but occasionally one of the road jobs will dog somewhere and require relief on a Saturday.
The track on the line to Alpena is in poor shape and there's lots of 10 mph running. The line toward Grayling is better, good for 25 (at least) most of the way.
Things may have changed because of LSRC affiliate Saginaw Bay Southern's takeover last year of CSX's operations north of Flint.
And note that SBS has added a bunch of second or third-hand EMDs in various paint schemes to beef up the roster. Some of this stuff may show up on LSRC.

Best place to look is one of the boards from the follwoing website

www.michigan-rialroads.com

The only problem is they are now password protected websites, so posting is more difficult. It isn't hard to get a password though. They should have a link to the moderators e-mail on the board. They also have one in covering the UP as well.

I've been asking the same questions with the same idea in mind. Until Patch's comments I haven't heard much. There have been a number of Lake State photos posted on RailPictures.net recently. By inference they give some insight into what happens on the ex-CSX lines. Do a search for Lake State on RailPictures and see what you think.

KG

chapmaja Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Best place to look is one of the boards from the
> follwoing website
>
> www.michigan-rialroads.com

you'll probably have better luck with http://www.michiganrailroads.com :)
(spelled right, and without the - )

also try http://www.railroadfan.com

Thanks everyone for the info! I've requested a password from the MichiganRailroad.com webmaster. It does look like a good source of info. I've also been doing some searching, and am getting a better idea of what is running and when.

The last time I was in northern lower Michigan was about 25 years ago, so I'm sure things have changed since then....and back in 1967 I got a nice set of PRR power near Boyne Falls (F units).

Ted