I was camping in LaSalle, MI and the campground butts up to the Norfolk Southern line. There are 3 sets of tracks, and I couldn’t believe how many trains went by. It seemed like there was a train going by every half an hour, sometimes sooner. It looked like most of the cars were open hoppers, I’m assuming they were hauling coal to the nuclear power plant. It was really neat to see all of the different locomotives. I saw some CN, BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern locomotives. If you enjoy camping and trains, well Harbor Town RV Resort is an awesome place to stay.
Say what? Maybe you want to give that one a second thought!
Great to see someone new. Don’t stop letting us know what is good about trains. There is one thing. people will find your mistakes and let you know about them. You will do better as time passes.
Welcome to have you with us.
That would be the ex Wabash main and it can be quite busy at times. It also has some traffic lulls, too. You must have been lucky to see the former. The coal trains you saw were most likely heading to a Detroit Edison coal-fired power plant and came off of the ex-NYC waterlevel route at Butler, IN.
The railroads in LaSalle, MI are from west to east, Norfolk Southern 2 tracks and Canadian National. The NS tracks are of Conrail, Penn Central, New York Central, Michigan Central and Lakeshore and Michigan Southeren heritage. The Canadian National tracks are ex Grand Trunk Western and originally Detroit and Toledo Shoreline.
The coal trains were heading to any of the following power plants: Consumers Energy at Whiting, MI, Detroit Edison Monroe, Detroit Edison Ternton Channel Plant and Detroit Edsion River Rouge Plant. CSX runs a Detroit Edison Trenton train over CN from Lang Yard in Toledo, OH to Gibraltar Rd in Gibraltar where they use a connection to Conrail Shared Assets. Both NS and CN serve the Detroit Edison Monroe Plant as well as the Detroit Edison Rouge PLant.
The NS tracks are intersesting in the fact that at one time, they were two different railroads. The Michigan Central and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. These became part of the Michigan Central then the New York Central then Penn Central finally Conrail and now Norfolk Southern. These lines paralled each other from Detroit to Toledo. In some places they are close together as in LaSalle and othe places they are about a mile apart. From LaSalle north, the tracks are current of traffic i.e. Northbound and Southbound. The east track is northbound and the west track is southbound. There is a small strech of CTC or 261 as Conrail called it, betwen LASalle and a control point called CP Dunbar. This allows the NS trains to enter the Detroit Edison Monroe power plant through a connection with Canadian National at Plum Creek. The tracks south of La Salle are CTC or 261 with the section from CP Alexis to LaSalle receiving CTC in the last couple of years.
Some of the coal trains that CN delivers to Monroe are from the CSX. CSX will deliver them to Lang and then CN crews will take them to the plant. These trains will be either of western or eastern coal. The NS will also handle trains with eastern or western coal.