BLISSFIELD, Mich. — Michigan’s Old Road Dinner Train, based in Blissfield, must find a new home and new host railroad to operate on. This comes after exhausting options for continuous operations on the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad in the wake of increased grain traffic to the short line, reports The Blade of Toledo, Ohio.
“When they start showing up, the 105-car grain trains will take up space on the tracks that could block the dinner train from getting out of the station, and when parked the dinner train could take up space needed to stage the grain cars before or after loading them,” said Adrian & Blissfield President Chris Bagwell in the May 19 article. The railroad is also expecting future shipment in ethanol from a nearby refinery.
“Over the past several months we have been working closely with the Adrian-Blissfield Railroad and our partners to make sure that the resources necessary to operate the train are available and sustainable throughout the year,” says the Old Road Dinner Train website. “In doing so we understand the expansion of the railroad’s current agricultural commodity transport may not allow track access to the dinner train.”
Rep. Brian BeGole, operator of the four-car consist since early 2024, confirms to The Blade that alternative locations are being explored. The Southern Michigan Railroad in Tecumseh; Owosso, home to the Steam Railroading Institute and Great Lakes Central Railroad; and the Charlotte Southern Railroad in Charlotte, Mich., were reported as possible contenders. BeGole hopes to have the dinner train back in service at its new location by fall.
Tecumseh would be closer to Blissfield but I believe the connection to NS is gone and track condition south of Tecumseh is ???????????????