Different GTW Look in Toledo

A pair of Grand Trunk Western locomotives sporting a different type of livery are working in Toledo on July 20, 1982.

Photograph by Robert Farks

Grand Find in Toledo

The wayback machine is set for Toledo, Ohio, Grand Trunk Western Railroad. We’ve landed in the summer of 1977 in front of GTW SD40 No. 5913 working in Lang Yard. The locomotive was built by EMD in January 1970.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Steam Saturday: A Fondness for GTW Steam

During my years of volunteering at the former Baltimore & Ohio West Third Street roundhouse in Cleveland with former Grand Trunk Western No. 4070, I had the opportunity to work on train and engine crews during the operation on the Cuyahoga Valley Line in the 1980s.

Because of this I’ve gained a special fondness for Grand Trunk Western steam locomotives.

Posted here are some of the surviving GTW steam locomotives that I’ve seen and some that operated after being retired by the Grand Trunk.

In the top image is GTW 0-8-0 No. 8380 at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.

It is one of seven survivors that was sold by GTW in 1960 to Northwestern Steel and Wire in Sterling, Illinois, for scrapping.

The company actually used them at the mill because they were in good condition. The final day of use was Dec. 3, 1980. Seven survive today. This image made in Union on Sept. 2, 1985.

GTW 4-6-2 No. 5632 is shown at Durand, Michigan. More noteworthy was the horrible ending for sister 5629 in 1987.

GTW 5629 was owned by Richard Jensen through the 1960s until 1987 when it was scrapped.

The first of the images of the 5632 was made on May 5, 1985. The next image, made on Aug. 14, 2005, shows years of weathering

GTW 2-8-2 No. 4070 is shown at the Cleveland B&O yard on July 17, 1977, and then crossing Portage Path north of Akron returning to Independence on Aug. 6, 1989.

GTW 4-8-4 No. 6323 is shown at the Illinois Railway Museum. It ran fan trips on the Grand Trunk until 1961. This photo was made Sept. 2, 1985.

GTW 4-8-4 No. 6325 was restored by Jerry Jacobson’s Ohio Central steam crew. It currently resides at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek.

It is shown on June 8, 2002 during a photo charter I rode with Marty Surdyk. We see the 6325 at Dennison and near Jewett.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Day in Durand: Part 1

The first photo of a train that I made in Durand, Michigan, last July was one of my favorites of the day. A local is coming around the High Wye from the Holly Subdivision to the Flint Subdivision to head to Flint.

One in a periodic series of images that I made last summer

Back in July we made a trip to Michigan to visit with some of my wife’s relatives in Flint. While she and her cousins went shopping I drove to Durand to spend a day at one of Michigan’s most famous railroad junctions.

Three railroads serve Durand, but there is no guarantee that you’ll see all three on a given visit because two of them are short lines that might have one or two trains a day, if that.

I sort of saw the Great Lakes Central. From the Durand Union Station I saw a GLC locomotive come to the far end of the yard for head room.

But the GLC road job that works in Durand and takes interchange traffic to the Ann Arbor in Howell, Michigan, went north out of Owosso on the morning I was in Durand.

A local railfan told me that meant that by the time that job came through Durand it would be dark. So much for seeing the Great Lakes Central.

The other short line is the Huron & Eastern which shows up pretty reliably on weekdays in the afternoon.

And then there is Canadian National, the primary railroad in Durand. The CN tracks once belonged to the Grand Trunk Western, which actually was a CN property for several decades before the GTW identify began disappearing in favor of the CN brand.

Interestingly, the first train I saw on this day was a local led by a former GTW GP9r still wearing its Grand Trunk colors and markings.

It was leading a local headed for Flint that I was told had originated there last night. The train goes east from Flint, works its way to Detroit via Mt. Clemens and returns to Flint via Durand and the Holly Sub.

I had timed my visit to reach Durand in time to get Amtrak’s westbound Blue Water, which arrived early and had to wait for time to depart.

The local railfan I was chatting with said that typically a westbound intermodal train follows Amtrak into Durand.

There was a westbound not long after Amtrak departed, but it was a manifest freight. The intermodal must have been running ahead of Amtrak and I never saw an intermodal train during my approximately nine hours in Durand.

Because I was in Durand so early, it’s tough to photograph a westbound because of the lighting conditions. I tried to get the westbound CN manifest freight as a side shot with the depot but it didn’t work out that well.

If you’ve spent time in Durand you know the CN traffic is about the same level as that of the CSX New Castle Subdivision through Akron. There are going to be some long gaps between trains.

It would be about two hours before the next train arrived, a Powder River coal train bound for the Huron & Eastern.

It came into view with two BNSF units on the lead. As is standard procedure, the coal train ran east past the westbound home signals and backed up on the Port Huron Connection.

The CN crew tied the train down and cut off the BNSF motive power. The H&E would use its own power to deliver the coal to a utility plant.

The CN crew could either run light to Flint, where they would go off the clock, or they might be directed by the rail traffic controller — CN speak for dispatcher — to make a pickup in Durand.

I’m sure the crew would rather run light to Flint because it would mean less work. But that would not be the case on this day. They had work to do in the yard.

It would be another hour before another train passed the Durand depot, an eastbound CN manifest freight.

Ten minutes later the CN crew that had been picking up cars in the yard appeared on the Port Huron connection and headed for Flint. Another nearly two-hour gap between trains was getting underway.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Former GTW No. 4623 would be the only locomotive I saw on this day in GTW markings. It is coming around the connection from the Holly Sub to the Flint Sub.

Amtrak’s Blue Water leaves town en route to Chicago but its next stop will be in East Lansing. It was the first time I had seen those signals beneath P42DC No. 126 in operation.

After going about two hours without seeing a train the sight of a BNSF locomotive, or any locomotive for that matter, was welcome. A Powder River coal train eases its way into Durand.

Backing up on the Port Huron Wye to deliver loaded coal hoppers to the Huron & Eastern.

In case you were wondering where I made this photograph here is a big clue.

As the coal train crew worked in the Durand Yard an eastbound manifest freight rolled through town on the Flint Subdivision.

Coming out of the Durand Yard with a load of freight cars.

And away to Flint we go.