Eastern Railroad Discussion > Lake State Port Huron Acquisition Update

The day after I posted my article about the last CN train on the Paper Spur in Port Huron, MI (https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,4573012) I discovered that CN had not ended its operations for one reason or another. Both yesterday and today, June 13 and 14, saw the operation of CN L524 over the line yet again. In addition, CN has been doing track repairs on the line at the Water Street crossing, just west of the Black River Bridge, all week. I spoke with the engineer on the Wednesday job and he informed me that the changeover was scheduled for the 11th, but it didn't happen and he doesn't know when it will be.

There was an issue between Lake State and the Grand Trunk Western branch of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers that the Brotherhood was requesting a stay against LSRC's acquisition of operation over the line. The primary issue noted against the acquisition was that LSRC employees were not union and, based on the wordings of the proceedings, seemed to indicate that the LSRC employees were unqualified in their job compared to union workers. There were other arguments such as the Brotherhood accusing LSRC of falsely providing information on both finances and the exact length of the line they would be operating over. However, the STD denied the request for a stay effective June 7 and stated that LSRC could still operate.

In addition, there were two things on Wednesday that peaked my interest. The first was that an LSRC Trainee was along for the ride helping the CN crew with the operation of L524. The second was that an LSRC hi-railer followed the train all the way down the line to Dunn paper. If these two events, in addition to the presence of an LSRC locomotive in the Port Huron Yard, aren't indications that LSRC is taking over operations of the line, I don't know what are.

Good to see an aggressive, progressive shortline taking over trackage a too big Class 1 with poor customer service. Online industries should be much happier now and CN would still get the cars at interchange?

I live in Sarnia, across the river from the Port Huron. As much as I look forward to being able to watch Lake State switch the Dunn plant, I'm going to miss seeing the GT GP 38's that are still in the Burdakin blue.


Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 06:55 by Jimmies.