On my way home from Mackinac City I decided to go home by way of the old Detroit & Mackinac. Unfortunately, I have confirmation of the tearing up of the line back to Alpena. I stopped there last Friday (the 13th) and found that the Roger's city Branch was entirely gone, and the tracks from Hawks had been pulled back to Polaski. <br>The track that was left was in HORRIBLE shape folks. The guys removing it told me that the DM had mistakingly replaced ties that had arsenic in them just before Lake States bought the line, and that this was costing the Lakes States a fortune to take car of. Only about 1/ 10 of the ties could be even used for resale purposes (the ones that didn't have arsenic obviously). The crux of this is that it is actually costing Lake States money to remove the line (oh irony of ironies: I am NOT a Lake States fan) Its a shame, but I think the environmental costs outway the rail preservation costs on that one! <br>



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