Came across an interesting post on the Michigan Railfans Facebook page about possibly the last surviving "Cereal Boxcar" for Kellogg's Cereal in Battle Creek, Michigan which has white lettering on the front saying "Cereal loading only" with people claiming in the comments that Kellogg's scrapped an entire fleet of them at the end of their service life. This peaked my interest solely due to the fact that I have never heard of a Cereal boxcar and am curious as to if anyone else has any more information on this fleet of freight cars and whether that PC boxcar might be worth saving.

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 9916633785

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 9916633785

Check out these Railroadfan threads for some more information:

http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic. ... df311f1f4b

http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15421

They are down to getting only a few cars a week. A far, far cry from what this plant once did. The plant switcher was sold, they have a trackmobile on hand for when they need to move covered hoppers.

I think they sold the plant switcher more because they did not want to continue to invest money in maintaining it. It was an NW2 built in 1948 (DRSX 1005). In fact most businesses like Kellogg's are switching from old traditional locomotive switchers to railcar movers like Trackmobiles and Shuttlewagons (which are more fuel efficient and easier to move around).

While inbound car counts to Kellogg's are certainly not what they used to be, they still are a major customer for NS on the west side of the state. They get inbound covered hoppers full of rice, wheat, and sugar. The NS local from Jackson to Battle Creek is often called the "Breakfast Express."

The NW2 is now part of the Great Lakes Locomotive lease fleet. Strong running engine. The engine in it came from a WWII LST.