I visit Durand, Michigan periodically where two CN lines intersect. One line comes north out of Detroit to Durand, which is west of Flint. The other line is east-west from Port Huron west to the Chicago area. The past few visits have been in the early to mid-afternoon time frame, say noon to 3:00 or 3:30. There’s been ver little action with 2 or more hours without any traffic being the norm. Got me wondering about traffic volumes. If anyone is familiar with CN through Michigan, are there times of day when there is more traffic than early afternoon? Given the fact that the east-west line goes from Canada to Chicago, which is obviously a major railroading hub, it seems as though there’d be more traffic. I know in other spots there can flurries of activity during a normal day, and I’d like to hit those flurries!
We used to attend family reunions in Schoolcraft (wrong side of Battle Creek from Durand), and found that during the afternoon it was hit or miss. Being at one end of a stretch of single track along their main line, one might expect to find trains waiting for those in the opposite direction to clear the single-track portion. But I rarely, if ever, was so lucky.
I think that traffic levels on their Chicago Division (Chicago to Port Huron) are probably a little disappointing, even to CN. They spent a lot of money building a new tunnel under the St. Clair River, with promises that traffic levels would increase to the point where they’d have to restore second track everywhere where they’d taken it up, and so on, and so on. Haven’t seen it happen yet.
The leg at Durand that was of most interest to me is one of those that is no longer CN. On several occasions I rode GTW trains into or out of Durand toward Muskegon and Grand Haven. A lot of that track is no longer in existence.
I recall several years ago when they did the tunnel project (Carl do you remember when that was?) the local paper here in NW Indiana stated there would be an increase in train frequency due to the clearance issues being resolved for double stacks. Well, they had two intermodals daily then, and today there are still two, one each way to and from Chicago/Halifax (148/149).
There is substantial traffic moving on the line, usually about 30 trains daily, but considerably less than the anticipated movements. It is probably less at Durand, as there are a couple of coal trains which are destined for Lansing.
CN, like other medium density railroads, can go dead for awhile.
Hello i did twenty four hours in durand memorial day weekend of 2006 i got 35 movements. the morning at durand is the best, you have 2 GLC movements a day, one south and one northbound on weekdays, and one southbound HESR and one northbound, plus CN stuff. and when HESR has the coal contract to essexville mich, you will get those trains too. i only live about 40 miles north of durand, i spend a lot of time there.
Thanks much for the info everyone; sounds as if early afternoons, when I’ve had the chance to get there, is a little soft. I generally do see catch some yard action but not much on the CN east-west-main.
CN’s GTW Line through Schoolcraft, MI is where the double track bottlenecks to single track.
In the morning between 8:00-12:00 it might be possible to see westbound trains slowing down or stopped approaching the switch in Schoolcraft. Then again, with bi-directional signaling installed in the past 5 years, the Eastbound trains can be stopped before Penn.
Most of the CN Trains are slowed or stopped as they pass through Battle Creek. That might explain some of the reason why there are 2 hour slowdowns in Durand. Those 2 hours without trains might also be Maintenance and Inspection windows.