Railfanning the Grand Elk Railroad between Kalamazoo and Elkhart Part 1/2

At the beginning of the summer me and a friend from Michigan decided to spend 2 days shooting trains on the Grand Elk Kalamazoo Branch between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Elkhart, Indiana. The Grand Elk is a Class 3 shortline owned by Watco Companies that operates mostly in Western Michigan but also serves customers in Elkhart and Bristol Indiana, and interchanges with NS in Elkhart. On this part of their line they run a road train from their yard in Kalamazoo to NS in Elkhart and back. They also run a local turn from Kalamazoo to Bristol and back making the line somewhat busy for a shortline with great mainline running and classic NYC target light and PC signals between Three Rivers, Michigan and Elkhart. Enjoy!
Train 1: GDLK 302 with WAMX 4189 (SD40-2)
and WAMX 4209 (SD40-2).
Train 2: GDLK 503/501 with WAMX 4009
(GP40-2LW)and GMTX 2204 (GP38-2).
Thanks for watching! A CPWindsorsub Production. Copyright 2019.

[@redd7963]

They took over the old chessie yard in grand Rapids mi

[@UPDetector]

Nice catches

[@darrelgibbs4898]

as of 2020 you need to go back there it A new year now

[@lloydgrisham8821]

Very well done. I enjoyed so much I watched it twice! Thanks

[@jakenevius1203]

I got to ride in the ws locomotive

[@cbalducc]

Does this railroad have CTC?

[@CPWindsorsub]

Yeah from Three Rivers to Elkhart the line is CTC. Plus the diamond with the Michigan Line in Kalamazoo is CTC controlled by Amtrak.

[@CPWindsorsub]

And the diamond with CN at Schoolcraft is controlled by CN

[@cbalducc]

@@CPWindsorsub What about the sidings north of Three Rivers with the triple signal heads? That isn’t CTC?

[@CPWindsorsub]

@@cbalducc The siding just north of Three Rivers is the Begin/End CTC for that stretch. I think that area is technically still Three Rivers even though it's not right in town.

[@cbalducc]

@@CPWindsorsub The line from Elkhart to Jackson was upgraded by the New York Central in the 1950s. I think the idea was to divert freights off of the former Michigan Central west of Jackson. Conrail abandoned the line between Three Rivers and Jackson in the early 1980s.