Great News for the Chicago Fort Wayne & Eastern

[Notch 8]

Is there any truth that the GM Truck Assembly Plant is dumping NS in favor of using CF&E for distribution of the assembled trucks produced at the Roanoke Assembly Plant Trucks will be loaded at Piqua Yard and forwarded to Chicago for interchange ? Tracks to be added at Piqua ? Well if there is truth in this it should be a good thing for the CF&E and would be steady traffic.. stacks and auto-racks on the CF&E who would have thought ?

DSCN0823 by Mike Snow, on Flickr

[Howard]

There is some major earthmoving going on on the site of the former IH TSPC on Moeller Rd between Meyer and Adams Center Roads rumored to be for this purpose. If so, it appears there will be a major parade of pickups down I-469 and Adams Center Rd. to get them here.

[Notch 8]

There is some major earthmoving going on on the site of the former IH TSPC on Moeller Rd between Meyer and Adams Center Roads rumored to be for this purpose. If so, it appears there will be a major parade of pickups down I-469 and Adams Center Rd. to get them here.

Moeller RD.jpg

A win for the G&W and makes a person wonder how messed up NS/PSR really is !
Railworks is dropping 12 switches and 4 yard tracks and associated ramps at the new site. GM is spending a bunch to get away from NS it appears.

[Howard]

It would be interesting to read the internal paperwork justifying this project and get a feel for how badly NS has messed things up.

[rrnut282]

Thanks PSR.
Who needs customers to keep to stock price up?

[RDJ]

It appears that GM is spending a lot of money.
Makes one wonder what NS did to piss them off or what offer was made by CF&E.
Will track rights be effected?
Doesn't NS dispatch for the Chicago line they could cause CF&E problems in moving trains.

[Bob Durnell]

I have read everything I could find on this (which isn't much) and I am still unclear on just what percentage of the outbound vehicles the CF&E will move and to what destinations. I have also learned nothing about how this will effect Norfolk Southern operations at the plant. In doing research somebody also suggested that NS was also losing the SDI Columbia City business they had, but I have found nothing to back that up either. I DID visit the Moeller Road site today and things are taking shape very quickly, although you can't really see the area closest to the main line. The stub tracks have been put down and are ready for ballast. It looks like they are going to use the floor of the building that used to be on that site as part of the parking lot.

[Bob Durnell]

Doesn't NS dispatch for the Chicago line they could cause CF&E problems in moving trains.

Now that the dispatching is done in Atlanta, it's unlikely any of them even know about this situation. Among the things I am unclear about is whether this new business will actually result in any more trains or if the auto racks will simply by tacked onto the regular turns. I know at one time the CF&E felt they often got stabbed at Mike, but with the way things are at NS right now, there are a lot fewer trains to tie up the interlocking. I don't see Warsaw being an issue, and I don't even know if NS is still actually using any of the trackage in the Hobart area. If any of this traffic goes east, I don't know that end well enough to comment.

[rrnut282]

Do we really know if NS pissed off GM or is this just the end of the existing contract and CF&E won the bid?

-Or- is this all for show to strong-arm NS to drop prices to win the next bid go-around?

[Bob Durnell]

People that work for NS are saying that yes indeed, NS DID piss off GM. Take that for what it is worth, and your guess is as good as mine how long that anger might last. Scraphauler ( a man who is well connected in the industry) over on the Indiana Railroads Bull Session forum has some interesting theories involving CP that might help explain some of the nuts and bolts of this.

[Notch 8]

Had an interesting meeting today and the person turned out to be a former manager with Jack Cooper Transport- the very company that handles the transportation and or storage of all the trucks that roll off the Roanoke Assembly Line, The issue between GM and NS has been going on for years ! Way before PSR.. NS has been consistently unable to supply empty racks... new trucks keep coming at about 1 truck per minute at the present rate this can be sped up to produce about 70 trucks per hour.
IF trucks can't be transported then they get stored at a rate of $3 a day plus the cost of putting into and retrieving from storage. trucks have been stored at Casad, Baer Field Speedway, and Kitty Hawk to name a few.. So now the question will be can the CF&E keep GM supplied with empty autoracks ? How many yards does the CF&E access where they could get racks and do these racks stay in the same pool ?

Now we can see racks & stacks on the CF&E !

[Hotbox]

I have to wonder how this added complexity might factor into any future decisions by GM to stay in Ft Wayne, or not?

[Notch 8]

As for losing SDI traffic while not impossible I'll say that it's not probable. the difference between the 2 customers is completely different, SDI requested/required having multiple railroads at Columbia City and Butler Indiana.

GM's problem was a lack of empty autoracks so they could load, What is said to be SDI's issue's ?

[Bob Durnell]

The SDI thing was just something someone threw out there on another forum and that post was actually several months old, but I know that even if true, these things don't happen overnight. Yes, I am aware that SDI wanted two railroads to have access, but that doesn't mean they couldn't just use one of them. As for why, I would assume poor service. I will say that from what I have seen, NS has always seemed to move more traffic out of there than CF&E, but I always assumed that might have to do with NS just going more places. As for the GM situation, some of the comments from NS employees would seem to indicate that the problem may be deeper than JUST the rack supply issue and that things have gotten decidedly worse since PSR was instituted. I know NS was instrumental in securing the location of the GM plant, but I was always surprised that GM didn't insist on either a site with access to two railroads, or insist on rights for Conrail to serve the plant too.

[Notch 8]

As for the GM situation, some of the comments from NS employees would seem to indicate that the problem may be deeper than JUST the rack supply issue and that things have gotten decidedly worse since PSR was instituted.

There were other things brought into the conversation.. Back charges.. I believe NS has been hit with all sorts of back charges associated with the additional cost occurred of not being able to ship trucks.. NS would send people up from Atlanta and or Roanoke meetings and discussions took place promises made and NS service still failed to meet the customers needs. IS the CF&E going to have in securing the needed capacity ? How many roads do connect with in Chicago ? Anyone that knows anything about NS will say they suck to deal with.. What happened to Old Fashion Railroading ?