The Charlotte Southerns Final Run! (CHS #3 Last GE 44 Toner Built)

Рет қаралды 64,442

2 ай бұрын

On 2/2/2024 the Charlotte Southern Railway made its final run in Charlotte Mi. Once a busy Michigan Central mainline between Jackson and Grand Rapids deteriorated leading up to the Conrail Merger. While the line always remained profitable Conrail decided to abandon the line due to awful track conditions. In the early 80s the line was tore up only leaving a portion in Grand Rapids due to industry’s and this portion in Charlotte due to the CFE grain elevator on the south side of town. The Grand Truck took over operations of the branch line and handed it down during the CN merger, CN then decided to stop service of the elevator due to lack of car loads and sold the line to the fresh at the time Charlotte Southern Railway. CHS worked the moderately used elevator up until the 2010s when the elevator decided to switch from rail to truck. The CHS had nothing left so they started operations of a dinner train that ran several times a month, they also started perusing rail car storage to make extra cash. In 2016 the CHS got out of the rail car game and focused fully on the Dinner train and stopped maintenance on the track past I69. Covid is what really killed the dinner train as once that hit the train hasn’t ran since 2019. In todays video we chase the sole unit the railroad has, the number three as they run across the hole length of the line to pick up a car stored in the woods. This is most likely the final time the CHS will ever operate, I hope you enjoy this video on the AFLK Productions KZfaq channel!
I’d like to add a thank you to Jacob for taking a video on the opposite side of the train at the second M50 shot, without him I wouldn’t have a video of the RPO car dragging the fence under my car so big shout out to him!!
Jacobs KZfaq channel!:
youtube.com/@RailfanJacob?si=...
#train #trainvideo #trainnerds #trains #trainspotting #trainvideos #railway #railroad #rail #photography #railways #railwaystation #railfan #photo #photographer #photoediting #drone #dronephotography #dronevideo #drones #documentary

Пікірлер: 219

@DelayInBlockProductions

Nice video. Your production quality has really improved over the years. I am impressed. Keep up the great work and well done on documenting the final run. Make sure you back up your footage so you never lose it. This is priceless!

@Trainz20

No! its sad to lose such a cool little shortline! I hope that GE 44 Toner gets preserved at least!

@tomdouma1346

Shortly after this rail line was shut down betweeen M-50 and Eaton Rapids, some buddies and I ran 2 dune buggies, an old Ford Bronco, and two motorcycles down the tracks to Eaton Rapids. I put two car rims on the front of my dune buggy and ran on the rails! The guy with the Bronco lowered his air pressure in his tires and also could run on the rails. The other buggy ran his tires between the rails and wrecked his wheels pretty good. Memorable experience. Probably illegal. Glad we didn’t get caught!

@pianoman4Jesus

Thank you for documenting the final move of that Michigan line.

@FrogandFlangeVideo

What a wonderful documentary ! Thank goodness you took the time to record this historical event as it was unfolding. Nice work, my friend. James.

@seank97

Well done sir, been going past this defunct train for almost 20 years. I was fascinated to see the engine even ran. Sad to see it go but alas it will all live on instead of being scrapped.

@williamstuessy1611

That exhaust on 44 Tonner ( note spelling ) is quite the mosquito killer ! ...... excellent video, Thanks so much. Bill S.

@joshjones3408 21 күн бұрын

There's a hole lot of stuff missing ......and ....

@chuxproductions1090

Great documentary about this bygone era!!! I subscribed from Maine!!!

@hobocatlawrence

Amazing amount of history on display and soon relegated to memories. Thanks for the great videos of #3 and her final movements

@jrand2148

Such a sad fate. Damn Covid

@smbjcm

This is great. Thank you for this. I have passed those tracks at the mill so many times looking at the overgrown ROW.

@miprerunner

Pretty sad but cool that you were able to document it

@Storm10xx

The RPO car and the long island car have been their long before 2013, i use to live in Charlotte and my friend lived over by the M50 crossing. And i do remember seeing both those cars there around 2001, heck i remember they had 2 Long Island cars along with the RPO car there. From what I heard they use to give rides with the Long Island cars back in the day during frontier days

@lxdesign1

Awesome video, sad to see the last run.... going through the same sort of experience here in Canada, but covid was not what killed us, it was bad management by board and CEO.