On Good Friday, 17 April 1981, Edward Hodges photographed Conrail’s Clinton Local switching at the Budd Company siding in Clinton, Michigan.
The Local’s “regular” locomotive GP-8 #5457 manoeuvres a Penn Central boxcar on the plant siding, while the rest of the train sits on the main track.
The consist is rather unusual, as covered hoppers were not generally seen on this branch. These, together with the two Lenawee County Railroad boxcars at the end of the train, would suggest that these were LCRC interchange cars picked up or to be set out at Lenawee Junction, and the train crew hauled them all the way up to Clinton. Perhaps this was to save time switching Lenawee Junction twice. (By this point, the “as-needed” train used extra board crews out of Toledo; the long time regular crew had retired the previous year.)
The front tank car carries a “corrosive” placard, and also wasn’t for an industry on the Clinton Branch.
By this time the next year, the Clinton Branch will be embargoed and freight service ended.
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