Michigan-Kansas-Texas
I took A LOT of logo and detail shots on this summer's trip considering my trip to the LTEX dead zone, some neat cars on the GLC in Cadillac and this find that I never would have known about without seeing a post on the Abandoned Rails Facebook group. Only a couple months ago some rando posted a photo of MKT covered hoppers in Boon. Michigan. Welp, as far as I'm concerned Michigan is McKay territory so I messaged him to see what he knew and apparently these cars have been sitting here for years. At the time I didn't really see a trip through Michigan in the future so I found the cars on Google maps and marked em to the to-do list.
As it got closer to trip time more things came into focus and I decided to double back via Michigan & the Mac to go find these cars, a restored Ann Arbor RS1. the SS Badger and a set of oddball power on a siding somewhere. I accomplished the first 3 but falling in love with the Great Lakes Central kinda pre-empted my proposed Michigan tour de shortlines. On GLC morning #2 I awoke in the parking lot of the Anytime Fitness in Cadillac (great location btw) , got a lift in and after finding the power tied down at the shop I committed to going not far down the road to Boon.
I knew there were quite a few there but man there was another cut of cars further up the siding and ALL of them were in MKT green! Erie and I walked both cuts on the west (mainline) side only as trees were growing alongside the cars on the east side. There were a couple near-cherries in the bunch but most had been tagged up pretty good but I love dead paint schemes regardless and it's another thing checked off the to-do list.
ps after this I went to the 13th Street Market & Restaurant in Cadillac for breakfast. Place was GREAT! They essentially reverse engineered a Cracker Barrel.
Michigan-Kansas-Texas
I took A LOT of logo and detail shots on this summer's trip considering my trip to the LTEX dead zone, some neat cars on the GLC in Cadillac and this find that I never would have known about without seeing a post on the Abandoned Rails Facebook group. Only a couple months ago some rando posted a photo of MKT covered hoppers in Boon. Michigan. Welp, as far as I'm concerned Michigan is McKay territory so I messaged him to see what he knew and apparently these cars have been sitting here for years. At the time I didn't really see a trip through Michigan in the future so I found the cars on Google maps and marked em to the to-do list.
As it got closer to trip time more things came into focus and I decided to double back via Michigan & the Mac to go find these cars, a restored Ann Arbor RS1. the SS Badger and a set of oddball power on a siding somewhere. I accomplished the first 3 but falling in love with the Great Lakes Central kinda pre-empted my proposed Michigan tour de shortlines. On GLC morning #2 I awoke in the parking lot of the Anytime Fitness in Cadillac (great location btw) , got a lift in and after finding the power tied down at the shop I committed to going not far down the road to Boon.
I knew there were quite a few there but man there was another cut of cars further up the siding and ALL of them were in MKT green! Erie and I walked both cuts on the west (mainline) side only as trees were growing alongside the cars on the east side. There were a couple near-cherries in the bunch but most had been tagged up pretty good but I love dead paint schemes regardless and it's another thing checked off the to-do list.
ps after this I went to the 13th Street Market & Restaurant in Cadillac for breakfast. Place was GREAT! They essentially reverse engineered a Cracker Barrel.