Tower: (Satellite)
Depot: (Satellite)
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| Mark Hinsdale posted
"High & Wide @ Holly..."
... along with an obvious amateur's early attempt at being "artsy." An excess-dimension special, northbound on the C&O, crossing the GTW at Holly MI, June, 1976. Doug Hefty can fill everyone on on what a complete pain in the arse THESE were to operate... Photo by Mark Hinsdale
Doug Hefty Well, depending on how many miles it had to travel, we would get a teletyped notice, sometimes several feet long, with all of the restrictions. We'd put it in the "High/Wide" file until a terminal like Walbridge said they had the car ready to move and wanted our OK. First was to check to see what it said about "must not pass movements exceeding......." and make sure we had nothing running against it or that could pass it in the same direction with another wide load. Sometimes we'd also have to check with the Grand Rapids chief first. Then, we'd glean through the tome and type up a message that pertained just to the movement in Michigan. We'd have copies delivered to the train at origin, to Trainmasters and Term. TM's and yardmasters along the route of travel, and of course a copy to the train dispatcher. Then we just had to protect it however the instructions detailed. Sometimes it required having one train stopped while the other passed, walking speed through a truss bridge, etc. etc.
Chuck McAbee And with the restrictions they have today - they are more of a pain today than they were back then.
Terry L. Hunt When I was Road Foreman on GTW, I was the Schnable car "expert". Every time we had one come on the property I was called to ride it. I recall one trip we were sitting at the end of double track at Valparaiso waiting for east bounds to come up the hill. One of the east bounds called the dispatcher and said that they had a dimensional also and were concerned about meeting us. As it was, all other trains had to contact us before meeting for instructions. The instructions were no more than 10 mph by the car and all window awnings had to pulled in on the side next to the car. The dispatcher went in to panic mode. I simply went back to the Schnable car crew and asked how long it would take to shift the car to allow the train to pass. They told me and I called the dispatcher. He was greatly relieved when I told him of the plan. We moved the car over and walked the east bound dimensional by. Needless to say the dispatcher was greatly relieved.
Doug Hefty At least it was easier with radios. I remember before that, it was all by written messages, or stopping a train at a signal and getting the engineer on the phone.
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| Peter Dudley shared Holly MI, looking northwest from the CSX / Canadian National junction, October 1996. Some have suggested that this is the oldest railroad junction in Michigan. Grand Trunk Junction (aka West Detroit, since 1887) was created in 1855.Carl Venzke posted Holly, Michigan. The PM line to Ludington crossing the Grand Trunk Holly Sub. - Photo by C. H. Geletzke Jr. 10/25/96 |
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| Tim Shanahan updated Holly Michigan |
Charlie Whipp posted two photos with the comment: "oday's Flickr photos...This two shot sequence fits nicely beside yesterday's post of Seaboard 8079 North at Holly (MI) and also covers tower Tuesday. This southbound showed up soon after I arrived in town from the north. I'm betting yesterday's post was in the hole 8 miles south of Holly at Clyde waiting for this southbound empty hopper train with SBD 8904 (EX ACL 1028) to clear him. Since I was a kid, I LOVED (!) EMD's big SD45's, especially when they were working hard and this one, being solo, was really sounding off working through the curves at Holly. As the train was snaking through the village, I walked up a bit to snag the tail end passing by the tower at the junction with the Grand Trunk. Doing the honors was Seaboard Coast Line 0738. More at Holly tomorrow. Both 9-5-1987 on Kodachrome 64."
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| Charlie Whipp posted Today's Flickr photo/An epic caboose hop. Continuing on from my postings at Holly from the other day when I got sidetracked for a few days, here is a shot of one of the coolest caboose hops I remember seeing while I had camera in hand. GTW GP18 4703 along with GP9 4930, GP 38-2 5828-27 showed up running westbound (now Northbound since the direction change) just in time to get the Holly depot in the sun. Trailing the engines was one of the GTW's 1980 International Car Co's wide vision cabooses. It looks like the clouds almost got me here, I'm sure glad that they didn't! I had a good chat with the maintainer that day who was covering the regular maintainers territory while he was on vacation. Part of the old station baggage room is visible in the left hand corner of the frame. Sadly, it was later torn down. The station sits but unfortunately has been surrounded by cyclone fencing. Sorry about the hop-scotching around but I am known to get easily distracted LOL. 9-14-1987 |
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| Charlie Whipp posted If I had the time, I used to like to take a ride on Saturday or Sunday along the nearby GTW Holly Sub or Chessie's Saginaw Sub. In the 70s and 80s, there was plenty of action to be had and both railroads sported interesting signaling and even an occasional depot. On this particular day, I started out at Durand and worked my way down to Holly, stopping at Gaines to catch a Trunk train at the station. I usually liked to hang out around Holly for a few hours before heading back. In those few hours, you could almost be guaranteed to see a few trains, sometimes several. On this particular day, Chessie supplied two coal trains, an empty southbound and this loaded train heading north with Seaboard System power, crossing the GTW's Holly Sub. I liked the way the Chessie curved its way through the Village, passing the old (1885) station on the north side of the building. At the time of this photo, the GTW signal department was using the depot as a base in the area and, if you look carefully, you can pick out the roof line the old tower at the diamond which had been closed up in the early 60s but still housed equipment. Amazingly, this old tower still survives in 2023 after being closed for over 60 years. Power for this northbound load was SBD SD40-2 8079 (EX LN) and SBD U30C 7280 (ex ACL 3024). 9-5-1987 Kodachrome 64. Today's Flickr photo |
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