Rumor, South Shore Freight, confirm?

A witness observed with a picture a Nictd South Shore car being towed with probably a gondola between a locomotive thru Dowogiac, Michigan, the rumor was it was a tour to check out the Detroit/Chicago line for freight service by the SSFreight as CSX (or is it NS) may sell the line to South Shore Freight (or the freight service).

NS owns the line, and yes I have heard it is for sale.. this is interesting though.. however, I dont think there is much on that line in the way of freight, infact I think all it sees is amtrak..

That was Car 106 coming back from repair at Delaware Car Company.

ok, I heard Amtrak owns the line, but NS works what freight is on it. That looks good for a shortlineish line like SSF to handle.

Prolly a bit of surprise seeing the car flying thru and you go , whadda..

I recall following a truck driver on I-94 maybe a year ago and it had a couple of diesel trucks on it heading towards Detroit. (or could be electric trucks for a rail car...)

south shore now handles the freight customers in michigan city.. east of michigan city there is next to nothing in terms of freight customers that I know of. I am not familiar with the line east of niles.

As of last year, CSS freight was not interested in serving customers north of Michigan City on the ex-Michigan Central line because more geeps would need the cab signals used by Amtrak.

Tadman wrote:As of last year, CSS freight was not interested in serving customers north of Michigan City on the ex-Michigan Central line because more geeps would need the cab signals used by Amtrak.

It is a high speed line so yep, cab signals.

Well, should the SS kick it in and the cab signals sometime....

is there anything new on the rumor of amtrak wanting to use the SS corridor to get into chicago and if amtrak did that the upgrades would be on their dime? Obviosuly if amtrak were to make a perminant switch the whole SS line w of mc would be double tracked, trippled in some places?

superbad wrote:is there anything new on the rumor of amtrak wanting to use the SS corridor to get into chicago and if amtrak did that the upgrades would be on their dime? Obviosuly if amtrak were to make a perminant switch the whole SS line w of mc would be double tracked, trippled in some places?

The cost is probably prohibitive at this time.

jb9152 wrote:

superbad wrote:is there anything new on the rumor of amtrak wanting to use the SS corridor to get into chicago and if amtrak did that the upgrades would be on their dime? Obviosuly if amtrak were to make a perminant switch the whole SS line w of mc would be double tracked, trippled in some places?

The cost is probably prohibitive at this time.

doing that would have work in skips and jumps to keep the cost down.
Since they have their own line that already makes it a sort of double track sense, so doesn't sound needed.

I tend to think the original line built was designed with how the traffic was working, double tracking at Gary. What would make sense is extending passing sidings making a sort of pseudo double track.

Portions of the right of way might not let it double track all the way, not without major workings. Out in the cornfield areas, sure.

Under the Bush administration Amtrak wanted to put some Michigan trains on NICTD trackage but nobody was willing to pay for the expansion necessary to fit six more trains/day. It may become a new issue if the current administration is willing to stimulate the NWI economy enough to build a second main the whole way. Last I heard the proposal was dead.

jb9152 wrote:That was Car 106 coming back from repair at Delaware Car Company.

Report from here saying it was 103, not a biggee issue, just getting the data right, you guys prolly send cars up that way for repairs when the time comes.

Why take it up the Detroit line? Does Delaware Car have a branch in Detroit?

dinwitty wrote:

jb9152 wrote:That was Car 106 coming back from repair at Delaware Car Company.

Report from here saying it was 103, not a biggee issue, just getting the data right, you guys prolly send cars up that way for repairs when the time comes.

No, it was car 106. The South Shore actually doesn't send many cars to Delaware Car Company, which is a major repair/overhaul shop. Most work is done in-house.

Tadman wrote:Why take it up the Detroit line? Does Delaware Car have a branch in Detroit?

I'm not sure of the routing, but I know it was via NS from Wilmington, DE to Michigan City.