Amtrak trains from Michigan to Chicago to stop service for 5 days

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Wow. Not many of these left.

Amtrak trains from Michigan to Chicago to stop service for 5 days

Kara Berg
The Detroit News

Amtrak routes between Chicago and Pontiac and Chicago and Port Huron will be shut down from Sept. 15 to Sept. 19 as crews dismantle two defunct coaling towers along the routes.

The towers, near Michigan City, Ind. and Augusta, Mich., are above the tracks for passenger trains that take riders between Chicago and Port Huron and Chicago and Pontiac, according to Amtrak.

{snip}

Coaling towers were used to load coal as fuel into trains, letting the coal drop from the towers into the tenders of the train so it did not have to stop to refuel. … Trains haven't used coal for power for almost 70 years, [Amtrak senior public relations manager Marc Magliari] said, but the coaling towers remain standing above the Amtrak rails. The structures serve no purpose now that coal isn't used, he said, so they should be removed before they come down in another way.

"It is (as) if an obsolete TV antenna mast was over your home: it should be removed in a controlled fashion with proper protections before it comes down otherwise," Magliari said.

{snip}

[e-mail]

[bucolic_frolic]

1. "the train so it did not have to stop to refuel"

Something tells me this is overstated. Stopped briefly perhaps, or slowed down. But dropping the load onto a moving train?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Not too many reporters have seen steam locomotives stop to take on coal.

In the mid-fifties, along with every other kid in my city, I went to see one taken out with explosives. The coaling tower was only weakened, and it had to be brought down another day.

It’s too bad these two can’t be kept for historical purposes.

And good evening.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Do these coaling towers really pose a threat?

I realize that the coaling towers have probably stood there for a century, but I have to ask: are they really such a threat? Are they now structurally unsound? Do they limit clearances so Amtrak can’t run bi-level rolling stock, or did someone think of a make-work project instead of putting funding into much-needed locomotive repairs?

OT The former Southern Pacific Railroad used to have coaling towers standing along its right of way along the former Sunset Route between El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona decades after they stopped using steam locomotives in regular service.. Many stayed in place until after the SP was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad, when they were torn down in the 1990’s.

I suspect that the UP had a better rationale for tearing down their coaling towers—either making space for track re-alignments or improving clearances for double-stack container cars.