HOTSPOTS DOWNRIVER:
           TRENTON, MICHIGAN

Late one day, at FN tower, I saw train COST (19m) headed North, for Detroit. He had a lousy NS engine, that was very noisy. As you can clearly see on the roof of the engine, two "firecracker" type antennas. One for the lousy NS radio, and the other for EOT uses. NS is the only railroad in North America to use outdated EOT equipment in the VHF band (AAR 67). The rest of the country has long ago switched to much more reliable (and compatable) UHF equipment. NS sux!

Trenton, (MAPS ON BOTTOM OF PAGE!) is a small, freindly, safe community about 10 miles south of Detroit city. Access, is the  Fort street  exit off of I-75, to Harrison , will take you to the 4 main tracks of the Downriver area railroads, West to East, the GTW River Spur (track chart HERE) Conrail Detroit line, #1 and #2 main tracks. (Charts, click HERE) And the GTW Shoreline Sub on the East end (track chart, click HERE). Just North of Harrison, is FN tower (pic HERE, track overview HERE), where the Grand Trunk lines criss cross eachother over the Conrail Main tracks. Channels in use are: GTW 161.220 (River Spur) 160.530 (TD-2, road channel on Shoreline Sub), 160.845 161.430 (GTW Flat Rock Yard, and  160.800 (Conrail and NS Detroit Line). Rail traffic fluctuates, and most traffic is dominated by the Grand Trunk. On Weekdays, local WDTR-03 works in Trenton yard. The loco (usually a conrail unit) is kept near FN tower as well, and all is accesable from Harrison Ave.  South of the tower, is The trenton channel plant   and GTW Edison Yard. Edison yard, on the Shoreline Sub, is not very active, as only locals go there. The Trenton Channel plant, is swiched several times a week, by either NS, or CSX. Most locos of these trains are kept at the Channel plant and is easily accesable by vehicles! The engines are usually right next to a park that is there. (MAP here, Photo HERE, and track outlay (HERE). Conrail, and NS have detectors within ten miles of Trenton, that with a good scanner, can pick them up easily. There is the Wyandotte Detector North 5 miles of Trenton and there are 2 detectors in Rockwood, the Former Rockwood (mp22.3) and Calgon Detector (mp22.1) both are about 6 miles south of Trenton. These detectors will tell you where the trains are on the Conrail/ NS mainlines, but as for the GTW, trains going South toward Flat-rock yard, get permission from the Flat Rock hump master, and Northward trains on the Shoreline, get permission into the Yardlimits at Ecorse Michigan to go North. Also, just watch the signals at FN tower. A green signal is usually a good indicator of a train!! Good places to watch, are just about anywhere! There is plenty of parking along side streets, and nobody seems to mind. Access to  FN tower, is off of Dwight street,  you can feel free to romp around the area, just don't ask to go into the tower, because the operator will not let you, he wil most likely yell at you as well. I know because I have tried. There was only one operator that ever let me up,but he was bumped after the closing of Milwaukee Jct, Feb 25, 2000. Visit Trenton, it is an interesting town!!

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(c) 1999-2000 Joshua Osmialowski. Comments, questions, complaints, contributions,  write to                                 
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