The Muskegon switch run is busy working a cut of cars that came in last night on 471. Amazing how fast the time can fly with clean track and clean engine wheels (and how frustrating dirty track/wheels can be!)
Close up view with the Muskegon engine house in the background. Power set on track W11 is 3 GP40s that brought in 471 the night before. One of these engines, the 6629, will be used on the MR&N local, marking perhaps the first time the DMIL has used a GP40 in Muskegon for switching. Last nights 470 (shown below) departed Muskegon with all other local power.
Close up view of the 8123 switching cars in the yard. W11 engine/ready track is to the left, and an old IC passenger car long since converted to MOW is on the right, reflecting the DMILs ICG roots. Yard track is airbrushed Atlas code 83 in desperate need of ballast.
On the upper deck mainline, DMIL 4434 leads a heavy train 470 towards Durand. The 127 mile trip will take about 132 laps to complete (note "pantograph" on the 4434 that activates the automated lap counter). In about 6 miles 470 will arrive at Fuller yard to set out 1 and pick up 17, a heavier cut than what is usually picked up in GR, but necessary as the DMIL sorts through her first week of operations. In the foreground, a pair of Conrail GP38s lead an Essexville-bound coal train towards the interchange at Fuller. DMIL receives Essexville coal off CR at Fuller yard, then adds its own locomotives to the tail end of the train for the pull to Durand. The GP38s will return light to Hughert after the train has cleared.
Hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of the DMIL, and perhaps there will be some more action recorded in the near future.
Ed
Detroit and Milwaukee: the most prototypical model railroad on the continent
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