Farewell Electro Motive GP30

July 27, 2018 marked the end of service for the EMD GP30 fleet on the MCIS. Over 43 years of service this fleet was the last survivors of Michigan Interstates rocky start.

M-BADE-30 at Upper Huron with MCIS3080 and MCIS3085 picked up in consist for new owners via NS at Detroit

The Beginning
Back in 1975 things for American railroads were down right rough. One of Penn Centrals subsidiaries known as the St. Clair Western was spun off in the midst of bankruptcy procedings. As part of the spinoff the new shortline inherited an eclectic mix of Alco and EMD diesels. One specific fleet was six EMD GP30s with "Eastern" heritage. This fleet would soldier on as some of the more modern units until the mid 80s used in every service imaginable. 

1980s
1985 saw the acquisiton of Grand Trunk Westerns "Mackinac Northern" subsidiary which created what we know as the Michigan Interstate Railroad. During the acquisition, EMD GP38 and GP9s were added to the fleet but the GP30s found plenty of good work hauling rock and locals around the MCIS. 

1990s
The winds of change were beginning to blow as the MCIS began to acquire Dash 2 power in the form of EMD SD40-2, EMD GP40-2, and GP38-2s. The six motor fleet however was knocked down to only five units after MCIS 3084 was wrecked beyond repair after a grade crossing collision with farm machinery. The five units soldiered on earning their keep hauling rock and locals. 

2010s
Following a mechanical failure MCIS 3083 was sidelined and scraped at MAC Rail Mount Pleasant. This now left four engines in the EMD GP30 fleet. During this same time the only other surviving motors with 567 prime movers were the EMD SD35s. It was decided to convert two motors using Electro Motives ECO program. Around this time the GP30s were put on reserve LUGO status (Laid Up Good Order) and could be brought from storage if necessary. As time wore on it appeared that only two motors MCIS 3080 and 3085 would survive. The other two, 3081 and 3082 were kept as parts sources to keep the last two healthy. While a potential slug conversion had been discussed the arrival of EMD SD70ACe caused a fleet cascade that ultimately never called these motors out of storage. A year ago MCIS 3080 did come out of storage to handle shop switching at MAC Rail. 

Early July of 2018 MCIS began looking for rail carriers interested in acquisition. July 27th a deal was inked with Delmarva Central to acquire MCIS 3080 / MCIS 3085 in operating status and parts stock from MCIS 3081 / MCIS 3082. 

Just for the railfans the motors were brought out to Upper Huron to get a final photo as a pair with their new reporting marks before pickup. 

Like that an it has come to an end. Thank you EMD GP30 for fourty three years of faithful service to Michigan Interstate. 


GM 

2018 Railcar Analysis "Big Data"

Everywhere you turn in the rail industry you hear about big data and how carriers and car owners use it to manage their fleets. Obviously from a model railroad perspective we dont have this same exact data, however we do have other ways to pull "big data" in regards to our own layout rosters. 

UNDERSTANDING THE LANDSCAPE

Case in point comparing the August 2017 roster to the March 2018 data is well astonishing and tells a story in itself that we will discuss in just a minute. Being a modern contemporary model railroad I do my best to recreate what I observe trackside or read about. Some of the practices have to do with railroads actually decreasing fleets or going to more versatile cars that can be a one stop shop like the venerable 60' Plate F boxcar. Nowadays it seems this one car type has become the 50' Plate C, 50' Plate F, 60' Plate F, and even the RBL... So the more of a renaissance fleet the better to flex for customer demands. As fleets age out railroads may go towards more towards consolidating fleet types as scene with the boxcar, completing going away from a fleet, leasing a fleet, or customer moving to privately owned and managed equipment. This applies to beyond railroads and can be inferred with airlines and many other types of managed fleets. Its important to have a cost effective fleet that services the customer properly, otherwise it does no one any good because real railroading is a for profit business. 


MARCH 2018 REVIEW

We are going to look at the changes made to the St. Clair Sub roster over the past seven months first at a high level then going to jump in the car owner / type level to see exactly what transpired. 

Immediate take away from the high level totals - total roster grew by 35 cars in three of four categories. How can this be if MCIS sold and acquired covered hoppers assets in this time frame, what else could be driving the large growth. Lets now look into the owner / car type information to tell us more. 

Boxcars 

 - Foreign cars down account age outs and other carriers moving towards TTX cars

 - Private ownership up account TTX picking up the share of age outs with 60' Plate F's

 - MCIS does plan to begin replacing aging 50'  Plate C cars with second hand owned 50' and 60' Plate F cars. 

- Early 2019 will see the end of the MCIS All door boxcar fleet in revenue service. 

Open Top Hoppers

 - Foreign ownership up due to coke orders originating in CWE pool cars  

 - Private ownership up significantly due to securing DTE coal contract (DETX hoppers)

Covered Hoppers

- Foreign ownership up a few cars due to new service lanes with CN and CSXT

- Home road is no change as retirement of the 4600 fleet was a wash with new 5188s 

- Private ownership up significantly due to Graystone Cement establishing a terminal at Bay City adding their own fleet of WSOX and NRLX marked 3281 cubic cars.

Flatcars

- Large increase due to wind unit train operations and further Essar steel business 

Tankcars

- Increase due to growing LPG and Dow Chemical business

TAKEAWAYS

The state of the railroad post described going after new business and leverage grow with more unit train operations. With the coal and wind cars we are growing this business which ironically is a balanced energy plan, and the new 5188s in grain service will support cycling more unit trains to export Michigan crops to market. Boxcars and how they are operated will continue evolve as the fleet gets older. Lastly we will continue to see a heavy reliance on private owned cars to fill the bill on specialized loadings like steel, cement, and chemicals. From a modelers perspective between what manufacturers are offering now and the aftermarket products from decal vendors there is no better time to capture the continued evolution of modern railroading. 

There you have it - 2018 analysis in a nutshell. Have a great rest of March. 

GM

** This post is completely fictional and does not relate to any real railroad or customer **

March Update

Well I cant say this for alot of other places in the country, but here in Texas spring is in full bloom. Alot of folks just wrapped up spring break vacation or will taking it here the next few weeks leading into Easter so lets take a look at happenings around the "Clair". 

M-BACN-12 rolling through East Wye Switch Upper Huron (EWS UPPE)

CASS RIVER SCENE
My February post touched on the ground work that was going into creating the Cass River scene on my upper level. Over the past few week I have been making terrific progress with not only scenery but the actual through truss bridge that spans the river. Lets look closer at the work completed and whats up next to finish the scene. 

- Dirt
The previous post showed the contour work and base layer of latex paint to kill the blue / pink foam tone. Next comes a layer of true Michigan dirt that I bake and sift to get the right consistency. Having family in Michigan the odd request comes around once a year.... "Yea so can you send me a box of dirt".... They always deliver. I first put down full strength white glue with a paint brush and then using a spoon add the dirt. Giving it 10 to 15 minutes I then come back with a vacuum to remove the excess leaving a nice dirt layer. 

 Getting ready to bake the dirt in a aluminum pan - 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Dirt layer in place, needing to come back with the vacuum

- Greenage
After adding the dirt comes a mixture of foams, flocks, and rocks to give the area life. I use some photo for reference but remembering things in nature, just attempt to go with what looks right. Following the tried and true method, wet with isopropyl alcohol and then soak in scenic cement. I have tried a homemade blend of cement, I love Woodland Scenics preblended stuff the best. Can get it a Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon for around $6. 

On the river and banks will be a sand mixture mixed with small river rock to blend in.  

Layering the scenery really does bring this area to life

- Next Steps

With primary scenery in place and secured I will now be completing the riverbed scene with rocks and sand. Once dry and cured the process to pour Magic Water will take place and finish getting the river complete. I expect to do this at the end of March, so I will be sure to show step by step how that process works and the great results it produces. Prior to pouring the water, the bridge and ballast work will be completed. Wrapping up this area will be alot of Scenic Express Super Trees.... alot..... 


UPPER HURON SCENE
Since I have all of the materials out it only makes sense to keep with the momentum and scenic another adjacent scene to the Cass River which is the Upper Huron scene. 

About the scene: Upper Huron is not a fictional tower on the railroad but also a neat operation element as well. Upper Huron or UH as its know is the location of a operation wye that allows trains to traverse from either direction on the St. Clair Sub onto the Port Belle Sub. The Port Belle Sub is represented by staging however this line hosts the switch to enter the Michigan Sugar plant and sees a daily local turn during the session and occasionally a unit rock train from a quarry. The actual scene depicted hosts a grade crossing leading into town modeled by a Sceniking backdrop, the sugar beet plant, and a modern water tower in the middle of the wye. Anyone familiar with Michigan knows about all of the unique water towers, UH will be no different. 

 Out of flat blue foam, comes terrain shape via pink foam and sculptamold

 View east looking at the sugar beet plant, and east wye switch. You can see where the scenery currently stops. 

Water tower right in the middle of the wye will have character of its own. AEI reader site as well in Upper Huron. 

Still alot of work to do in this area but wow just getting some terrain shape, paint, and dirt down really helps make the area more appealing. 

RAILCAR FLEET ADDITION - GUNDERSON 5188

Earlier this month Michigan Interstate received the first of a larger covered hopper being added to the agriculture fleet. The 5188 cubic hopper is slightly larger than our most modern being the Trinity 5161 cubic and the two will be mixed in together to provide our customers newer high capacity cars to get their grains to market. In preparation for this add the fleet did cascade seeing the venerable ACF 4600 cubic cars retire and find new life on the Delmarva Central out east. 

Fleet Plan (Effective March 2018)

4600 cubic - retired from fleet

4650 cubic - owned by Mich. Ag. Commodities for single or quad-block  

4700 cubic - sugar beet pulp, sugar beet pellet, agricultural single

4750 cubic - agricultural single, agricultural quad-block

5161 cubic - agricultural single, quad-block, and unit

5188 cubic - agricultural unit 

A quad block on their way to their first loading at M.A.C.

Of course in the process of purchasing the cars, MCIS decided to go with the Scaletrains Operator version since lets be honest the details are good enough and I am rough on the equipment. In short order I had the variety pack of FRA 224 reflectors from Smoke Box Graphics and our mechanical forces proceeded to get them compliant.... Not sure how they got from Sahagun, Mexico to Michigan without reflectors.... 

Great job by Scaletrains and Smokebox Graphics for great new innovative products, they hit these right on the mark! 

Looking pretty sharp - MCIS 5827

CASS RIVER BRIDGE 

Following Tom Patterson's step by step from MRH I used gouache paints to weather my through truss bridge. I dont want to take anything away from the article so recommend if you are interested in doing this, take a look at the November 2011 issue and go from there. All of the paints can be purchased at a craft store and one thing I did discuss with Tom is using distilled water over Microsol is just as good and even better. I ended up doing the first overall wash with Microsol, but the random sponge work was done using water. Enjoy the photos.

Base wash of burnt umber-onyx black gouache paint applied

After a few days - proceeded with the random burnt umber and burnt sienna wash

Bridge complete and dry - wow the washes really made it pop

Closeup of the girder and rivet plates - Michigan elements have taken its toll

Simple technique - amazing results.

OREGON JOINT LINE - MARCH DOUBLEHEADER

Wrapping up this post, we are going to have to get slightly smaller... like n scale small and head on over to Dean Ferris' Oregon Joint Line. Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a double header operations session. For the morning session I was the dispatcher and had a good time pushing around fifteen trains across the railroad in preparation for the afternoon shift. Following a lunch break by the pool I crossed over and went into management as the Assistant Superintendent. This role is to help the layout owner (Superintendent) with getting operators orientated and running. Lets be honest from the management side the railroads operating on the OJL are not making any money with idle trains. If you can tell there was some management adversity built into this session all to have a little fun. Right off the bat I was handed a wire describing the need to run a rotary plow extra account snowfall at Snowline! 

I blew up the photo real big so you can see, there is definitely some friction between the unions and management. Believe the operator may have added more letters to my last name then I thought were there. None the less the railroad cannot operate effectively if the summit grade of the line at Snowline is blocked. Myself and engineer M. Thidemann didn't know what we would find until we got up on the summit and "Oh $#!% thats alot of quicker picker upper snow". After a few runs at it we cleared the siding and ran down to Kinzua to turn the extra on the wye and go back at it from the other direction. Upon returning to the summit at Snowline we found the mainline now blocked due to shifted drifts and snow with almost a paper like consistency.

 Making a run at the drift in the siding at Snowline.. Took us three runs to clear

In the end it was about keeping them moving like we see here with a meet at Fossil. 

Having a morning and afternoon session where everyone from both sessions could get together and have lunch was a great idea. So many times having a session limits you to a certain amount of folks not allowing any networking outside of the session, but in this case folks were able to talk shop, eat, and either wrap up or start their operating day on the OJL. Great job to Dean for planning this and having me help with both sessions. 

That in a nutshell is my March update, still have another two weeks left of the month and plan to keep making good progress on the Cass River and Upper Huron scenes so stayed tuned and safe travels to all out on spring break. 

GM 

Mid September Update (Railcar Fleet - Part 1)

Just like that summer is a few days away from being a memory. This time of year I know alot of you begin ramping up work on your model railroads. Around here work on the physical layout infrastructure was non-existent, however there are plenty of other items to address on a operating layout to keep it in good working order. This month I am going to take a different approach then my normal all things update and instead focus on the railcar fleet. Follow along as we look at part 1 of Fleet Management, Fleet Statistics, and Fleet Projects.

FLEET MANAGEMENT 
Operating a roster 226 cars take work.... literally. I don't know how the guys with 800+ cars do it. The past few months have seen quite a few cars added to the roster with a few leaving, it is important to maintain a good record of that change. Cars that were added needed inspections and a waybill holder with car information. Similarly cars that went to new homes whether trade or sold needed to be removed and their waybill card discarded.

Identification stickers printed using excel database of cars added. Each car notes reporting marks, car number, car type, and pool (if applicable). The stickers are affixed to the plastic card shown. These cards then hold the blocking waybill for each car while in operation. 

FLEET STATISTICS 
Not to bore anyone with numbers, but using all of the data from the master database i collected for the active fleet, I was able to look at different charts to tell a story about the mix on the layout. Lets take a look at a few graphs.

First and foremost our data is based on 226 active cars as of September 1st, 2017. We can see the mix of Home Road, Foreign Road, and Private car is roughly split in thirds. Of note the private fleet is the largest which makes sense with growing private owned cars on the rail network in 2017. 

The car type analysis should not be a surprise to anyone since the main commodities hauled are agricultural products (covered hoppers), aggregate/sugar beets (open hoppers), and paper/forest products (boxcars). The "Other" category includes centerbeams, airslides, and reefer type cars that are more "boutique" in the work they perform. 

Going forward what type of trends can we expect to see... 

• Increase in private ownership cars. Very much a modern era trend. 
• Decrease in foreign and home road boxcars as older Per Diem era cars age out.

FLEET PROJECTS 
We all that storage spot where good projects go to be put on hold.... Yep I have one of those as well. One Saturday at the end of August I took fifteen minutes to walk through each car and what was needed to restore it to service. All of these cars operationally could operate with metal wheels and good couplers, however their "story" needed to be changed before they were to operate. 

1. Foreign Road Freelance Boxcars:
First project was patching three 50' high cube boxcars for freelance model railroads of good friends that will roam the Michigan Interstate. 

• NEKR (Northeast Kingdom - Mike McNamara)
• NNE (Northern New England - Mike Thidemann)
• WN (Washington Northern - Kevin Klettke)

Patching was done using brown or green sharpie paint pens. Easy to use and fast drying highly recommend. Reporting marks were done using Microscale Railroad Gothic / Compressed Gothic sets of different sizes. Reflective decals are by Microscale, and the grafitti decals are a mixture of Microscale and Blair Line. 

2. Utility Pole Bulkhead Flats
These two MDC kits had been painted by Fred Fogelsinger about two years ago. I had just discovered them one evening going through boxes of train stuff in the garage. Using the CN bulkhead decal set from Highball Graphics I was able to put together all the data required with MCTR reporting marks. The last thing left to add are the PC&F log bunks from Details West and utility pole load from JWD. 

3. 20,000 Gallon Tank Cars
At a train show a few years ago I picked up each of these Athearn R-T-R 20,000 gallon tank cars in the BNSF scheme for $10 each. No box and a little use.... works for me. Well not needing them in diesel fuel service I proceeded to change up the cars to fit geographical needs. Using a modellers license I used the Highball Graphics CGTX 23,000 gallon tank car set. Instead of using black paint or decal solution to remove the print, I instead used a hobby knife with a flat blade and pulled across the logo and marks giving appearance like it had been "sanded off" by the shop shown in photo below. 

4. Plastic Hoppers
The same train show where i found the tankcars also produced two Walthers plastic pellet cars. However the reporting marks on the cars were duplicate to what was already on the layout. In the interim this was not an issue since I would only keep one car on the layout at a time. But needing more pellet cars provided an opportunity to update the reporting marks. I selected Highball Graphics CCBX (Union Carbide) decal set. While I did follow some reference photos of cars close to the ones represented by the decals, some modelers license was used. Graffiti decals are from Microscale and Blair Line. Seeing plenty of examples from the prototype photos, I decided to give drybrushing a try for weathering. Using Andrea Color acrylic paints of various brown and gray, I was able to give the cars some needed character.  

As you can see quite a few fun projects adding nine more cars to the fleet in part 1. The graphs help paint an overall picture that not only provides a story of your operations, but can also help establish discipline when it comes to selling or acquiring equipment. If you have 90 boxcars for one industry but you are short 10 covered hoppers for three industries, then maybe your focus should not be on that $10 Athearn R-T-R FMC boxcar at the next train show but instead a Athearn R-T-R Pullman Standard 4750 covered hopper. 

Towards the end of September we will reflect and bid farewell to the Alco RS27, Alco C424, EMD GP15, and EMD CF7 fleets. Not wanting to leave out whats on the workbench right now, we will wrap up Part 2 of Fleet Management, Statistics, and Projects.

Thanks for stopping by.

GM 

MCIS Diesel Roster Evolution 1975-2015

In previous posts we have talked about the Michigan Interstate diesel roster that is both modeled and not modeled. What I wanted to share in more detail today is the evolution that has taken place in the past 40 years to get us where we are today with the fleet being 70 active motors strong.

Before we look at the diagram which shows the evolution we first must understand where the MCIS originated from.

Early Years
Prior to 1975 the Michigan Interstate existed in the form of two subsidiaries and this is where our journey begins.

St. Clair & Western (Michigan Central - New York Central - Penn Central)
The 1970s were rough times for railroads and in this version of history the Penn Central decided to divest the SCW trying to streamline less profitable operations. We will dig further in another post about the various subsidiaries and how they came about but what we need to know for this post is when the line was bought by the Lakes Interstate Transportation Group the sale included motive power. During this era of PC just prior to the formation of Conrail, power was an eclectic bunch of 1st gen. EMD, GE, and Alco. So at the beginning of the Michigan Interstate Railway (MCTR) were Alco C424s, RS27s, EMD GP7s, GP30s, and SD35s for a total of 31 units that came with the property sale. Additionally Michigan Interstate's parent company purchased Alco RS3s, RS11s, and EMD SW1200s used to supplement start up for a grand total of 42 units.

The railroad with these 42 units did not make any further acquisitions for the next 10 years as current traffic levels on the line did not warrant additional motive power. However the railroads leadership knew that long term success was going to be in more modern power to leverage fuel efficiency and locomotive utilization.

Electro Motive Growth
1985 saw an opportunity present itself to the Michigan Interstate Railway and Lakes Interstate Transportation Group in the form of additional trackage extending its reach in the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan.

Mackinaw Northern Railroad (Grand Trunk Corporation) 
Continuing the story of Class 1 railroads retrenching to their core products, the Grand Trunk Corporation spun off their Mackinaw Northern Division in 1985 which reached to the Mackinaw Straits and beyond. The price was right and in short order the now Michigan Interstate Railroad Inc. has doubled in size with serious need for more motive power. Part of the Grand Trunk sale also included motive power in the tune of EMD GP9s and GP38s. 1985 was the year that the tables turned on the dominant locomotive manufacturer. For the first 10 years Alco had held the #1 spot, but after the MCNR purchase EMD took the lead and did not look back.

The 1985 MCNR acquisition brought in 14 EMDs along with MCIS acquiring second hand 6 GP38-2s and 2 additional SD35s. A wreck this same year knocked the GP7 fleet down to a total of 3.

Spreadsheet in 5 year increments showing evolution of fleet. The numbers in each square are individual unit counts for that model. 

Dash 2 Era
Prior to 1990 the RS3, RS11, and GP7 fleets were traded off to make way for newer dash 2 equipped power that the railroad had originally sampled in 1985 with the GP38-2. The 1990s saw an explosion of dash 2 motors in the form of EMD GP38-2s, GP40-2s, and SD40-2s. The railroad had struck a deal with EMD to upgrade their original Grand Trunk GP38s through trading in the GP7s and Alco RS fleet. To supplement online traffic growth MCIS picked up three second hand Santa Fe CF7s to utilize on light branch lines replacing the aging Alco RS fleet. These CF7s were eventually sold off in the early 2000s to the Natchez Trace & Orient for use in the southeast U.S. Coming to the end of 1999 the fleet had changed completely with a strong stable of dash 2 motors and the sun had set for the retirement of the entire Alco fleet.

New Millennium
While eleven Alcos had made it into 2000 on the roster, it was not long before their replacements arrived on property and found their tanks drained and stacks capped in storage at the Mt. Pleasant shops awaiting sale. Any railfan could tell that by 2005 it was easy to see EMD and the venerable 645 turbo / non-turbo prime movers were the dominant player in the diesel house and here to stay. But even then there were 567s still holding their own with the original GP30 and SD35s handling local and branch line switching. These brutes were a testament to EMDs solid early design and the fit that they had with this regional. Behind the 645 dominance and 567 survival were two EMD GP60s the railroad had picked up from BNSF. Their 710s had a unique and new sound to them and would find a great niche prompting the railroad to pickup two more in 2010 from the UP. Looking to find a like replacement to the SW1200 for tighter switching areas, MCIS picked up one EMD MP15DC in 2000 on lease from GMTX ultimately returning the leasor and acquiring three of its own in 2005. The roster by 2005 had declined to 60 motors from the peak of 64 in 1995 and this was mostly due to replacing more with less in terms of early generation EMD and Alco with second generation dash 2 power.

Twenty Tens
The year 2010 saw the fleet still at 60 motors which was flat from 2005 but if you look at the diagram detail the CF7 and SW1200 were struck from the roster and the gradual phase out of the GP30 / SD35 had begun with GP40-2, GP40X, and SD40-2 incremental growth. Even SD45-2s which had labored for a long time got a new lease on life after departing Class 1s to find mainline roles on this regional. More stringent environmental laws prompted the railroad's mechanical team to find ways for a better carbon footprint and in the 2015 roster we can see the fruits of this labor.

Continued Modernization
2012 saw big modernization changes starting with an order for four EMD SD70ACe locomotives producing 4,300 hp a piece. These are by far the largest engines on roster and have really helped improve locomotives per train as two can do the work of three SD40-2s or even four GP38-2s. Additionally the EMD 567 prime mover was no longer present on the active roster as the four remaining GP30s were stored in 2013 at Mt. Pleasant awaiting conversion to road slugs which will pair up with EMD GP40-3s. A new entrant to the roster made its debut in 2012 as well from National Railway Equipment in the form of four 3GS21B gensets producing 2,100 hp a piece. These ultra low emission engines are primarily taking over yard switching roles at Grand Rapids and Bay City but occasionally can be found sandwiched between two EMD 645 prime movers on a out and back local turn. Seeing opportunity with stored serviceable SD35s the railroad is currently converting one into a 3GS21C genset through a NRE kit built in-house at Mt. Pleasant. Two other SD35s went to VMS in Virginia back in 2013 and were converted into EMD SD22ECOs which utilize at eight cylinder EMD 710 prime mover. The last SD35 was sold off to VMS which was refurbing and selling to another operator. Future plans could include refurbing the SD45-2 fleet into SD32ECOs or de-rating into SD40-3s but in a SD45-2 carbody. The fleet has leveled out at 70 active units at time of press with no orders or acquisitions in the immediate future. But in our continued effort to have a positive environmental footprint all locomotives are being or have been retrofitted with AESS Smart Start to reduce idling and wasted fuel consumption. When "railfanning" my youtube channel or blog posts, be on the lookout for the small square black logo that denotes these retrofits (Check out Wordless Wednesday #14). Additionally locomotives are receiving GPS domes, RV style air conditioners (Whoever said Michigan wasn't humid....) and updated side sill reflective striping to meet the FRA mandate.

I hope you enjoyed my synopsis of the diesel roster evolution. Normally I had more photos than words in my posts, but my goal was to paint a clear picture of where the fleet was and is going in the future.

Any questions or further detail on a particular model please post in comments.

GM

MCIS Locomotive Roster

In between my early, mid, and late month posts I wanted to give everyone a little variety and talk about the MCIS locomotive roster.

As of October 2014 the entire roster (modeled and non-modeled) totals 75 units.

The fleet is categorized into three pools: Road Service, General Service, Yard Service

Lets now look deeper into each of the three pools:

Road Service: 3000+ HP
EMD GP40-2 (3000 HP - EMD 645)
#4001-4008 - Modeled 4005, 4008
Note: Lineage of units from many North American roads

EMD GP40X (3500 HP - EMD 645F)
#4031-4035 - Modeled 4035
Lineage of units from many North American roads

EMD GP60 (3800 HP - EMD 16-710)
#6051-6054 - Modeled 6051
Note: Former Santa Fe, EMD Demo

EMD SD40-2 / 40-2M (3000 HP - EMD 16-645)
#4050-4062 - Modeled 4050, 4052, 4056, 4059
Note: Lineage of units from many North American roads

EMD SD45-2 (3600 HP - EMD 645)
#4570-4571 - Modeled 4570, 4571
Note: Former Santa Fe units

EMD SD70ACe (4300 HP - EMD 16-710)
#7050-7053 - Modeled 7050, 7051
Note: Original owners from EMD

General Service: 2000-2500 HP
EMD GP30 (2250 HP - EMD 567)
#3081, 3081, 3083, 3085 - Modeled 3080, 3085
Note: Units stored at MCIS Mount Pleasant Shop for conversion to slug.

EMD GP38-2 (2000 HP - EMD 645 non-turbo)
#3810-3812, 3814-3835 - Modeled 3810, 3816, 3823, 3828, 3829, 3833
Note: 3813 - Wrecked 10/08, lineage of units from many North American roads

EMD SD22ECO (2150 HP - EMD 12-710)
#2290-2291 - Modeled 2290, 2291
Note: Converted by Virginia Midland Shops from EMD SD35 

Yard Service: 1500 HP and 2100 HP Gensets
EMD MP15DC (1500 HP - EMD 12-645)  
#151-153 - Modeled 153
Note: Original owners from EMD

NRE 3GS21B (2100 HP - Cummins Diesel)
#2101-2104 - Modeled 2101
Note: These units replaced aging EMD GP15-1s which were sold off. 

NRE 3GS21C (2100 HP - Cummins Diesel)
#2110 - Modeled 2110
Note: NRE kit being built at MCIS Mount Pleasant shop on frame / trucks of EMD SD35

As my model railroad stays in the modern era the locomotive fleet is constantly being upgraded and changing to the demands of the system. The next few years will see some changes to the roster:

• EMD GP30s rebuilding into slugs to be mated with EMD GP38-3s
• EMD SD45-2s rebuilding into EMD SD32ECOs
• Possible further acquisition of high horsepower locomotives SD70M-2 or ACe???

All information is fictional and is not endorsed by actual locomotive manufacturer.

Thank you to Fred Fogelsinger and Shannon Crabtree for the great job painting, detailing, decaling, and weathering my Michigan Interstate diesel fleet.

GM

Cement Hopper Fleet Attrition

One disadvantage of modeling current era 2013-2014 is equipment eventually reaches its retirement age or as traffic bases or trends change so does the equipment mix of the railroad. 

2960/70 Cu. - 2 Bay Cement Hopper Fleet

This fleet is comprised of second hand cars built in the late 70s and 80s acquired for a new cement plant, but after being in cement service for some time were beginning to show their age. Based on industry attrition of railroad owned cement cars to private or lease fleets it was decided by management to retire the fleet through sale and scraping by the end of 2014. Roughly 60% or 30 cars went to the scraper while 40% or 20 of the cars were in good condition for sale to other roads. A few captive 2000 cubic hoppers rounded out the entire fleet at 55 cars.

MCIS Cement Hopper Fleet

Size: 50 (2960/70 cubic)

           5 (2000 cubic) 

Customer: LDM Materials (fictional)

While I model 2013-14, Shannon Crabtree and his Virginia Midland represent the 90s. If you follow his posts you saw the addition of a sand facility on the Virginia Central line and needed more sand cars. The two railroads worked together and in short order 6 of the good condition hoppers and parts were on their way to Virginia. Upon arrival they will time warp to the 90s but still have a unique history from the previous railroad owner - the fun of proto-freelancing.

Cars lined up at Bay Yard awaiting pickup by the Q-PHGR-27 for interchange to the CSX at Wyoming Yard in Grand Rapids.

This segment of cars 7 total came out of storage on the Port Belle Branch last week and were mechanically inspected and in the case of the 2000 cubic cars given waivers for one time interchange movement. The one car on the flat is a parts source car to help keep the fleet rolling on its new home.

Any idea who the previous owner of this car was......?

With the cement fleet no longer on the MCIS roster, LDM Materials has struck a deal to lease 3281 cubic hoppers from Trinity Industries. (Coming soon from American Limited Models).

Hope everyone enjoyed a little MCIS history and prototypical fleet planning. Have a safe Halloween!

GM

The L.U. (Laid Up) Line

At one point all locomotives come to the end of their life cycle and end up on the L.U. (Laid Up) Line. It's a matter of what L.U. status the motor gets.

LUGO - laid up good order

LUBO - laid up bad order

LUMO - laid up for modification 

LUPE - laid up pending 

LUFS - laid up for sale

The MCIS had a fleet of 6 (2 modeled) GP30s over the years acquired from various sources and they served their time well in the first generation MCIS paint scheme (1975-1990). As of May 1st the fleet was down to 4 units on the roster. With arrival of EMD SD70ACe's last year, their time became limited in service. On May 16th the engines were pulled from service and are now stored at Mt. Pleasant in LUMO status. Rumor has it they could be rebuilt with 710 V8 prime movers and become GP22-ECOs or part of GP40-2 slug-mate set.

38 Special

Inspired to talk more about the fleet, I thought it would be fitting to start with my largest model (by numbers).

EMD GP38-2

   Mackinaw Bridge Transfer Co. (MCBT)

   3801 - 3809 (9 units)

   Modeled: none

   Assigned to "Upper" sister road

   (More on this carrier in another post)

   Michigan Interstate Railroad Co. (MCIS)

   3810 - 3835 (26 units)

   Modeled: 3810, 16, 23, 28, 29, 33

My model railroad of the MCIS began with 3 Athearn blue box engines 10, 16, and 23. These represented many first milestones for me in the hobby back over a decade ago.

  - Proto-freelance focus

  - DCC conversion (Atlas at the time)

  - Custom Rail Graphics decals

  - Custom paint scheme

Since these firsts I have seen my locomotive fleet grow to over 20+, converted to Digitrax, and changed from Floquil to Scalecoat for the paint scheme. These engines first had the clip on decoder but I soon realized that a complete A-Line power kit, better lighting, and hard wired decoder were necessary. Keeping with my modern era the engines received yellow reflective decals and will soon be equipped with RV style A/C's. With SD70ACe, 45-2, 40-2 and GP40-2 models holding down the road pool, the 38-2s find themselves in the general pool assisting wherever power is needed on the railroad. During 90 day inspections of the higher horsepower engines it's not uncommon to see a trio or quartet leading a manifest or through freight. (Last post had a prime example of a trio subbing in).

MCIS 3828 was another Athearn blue box I discovered a year ago and had fully rebuilt but with a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder. 

MCIS 3829 and 3833 are Proto 2000 engines. Currently 3829 is enroute to Fogelsinger paint shop to trade in its former Santa Fe warbonnet scheme for MCIS colors.

Side profile at Bay Yard showing 5 of 6 modeled units.