On 2/2/2024 the Charlotte Southern Railway made its final run in Charlotte Mi. Once a busy Michigan Central mainline between Jackson and Grand Rapids deteriorated leading up to the Conrail Merger. While the line always remained profitable Conrail decided to abandon the line due to awful track conditions. In the early 80s the line was tore up only leaving a portion in Grand Rapids due to industry’s and this portion in Charlotte due to the CFE grain elevator on the south side of town. The Grand Truck took over operations of the branch line and handed it down during the CN merger, CN then decided to stop service of the elevator due to lack of car loads and sold the line to the fresh at the time Charlotte Southern Railway. CHS worked the moderately used elevator up until the 2010s when the elevator decided to switch from rail to truck. The CHS had nothing left so they started operations of a dinner train that ran several times a month, they also started perusing rail car storage to make extra cash. In 2016 the CHS got out of the rail car game and focused fully on the Dinner train and stopped maintenance on the track past I69. Covid is what really killed the dinner train as once that hit the train hasn’t ran since 2019. In todays video we chase the sole unit the railroad has, the number three as they run across the hole length of the line to pick up a car stored in the woods. This is most likely the final time the CHS will ever operate, I hope you enjoy this video on the AFLK Productions YouTube channel!





I’d like to add a thank you to Jacob for taking a video on the opposite side of the train at the second M50 shot, without him I wouldn’t have a video of the RPO car dragging the fence under my car so big shout out to him!!


Jacobs YouTube channel!:
https://youtube.com/@RailfanJacob?si=...




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