Grand Elk Railroad

The Grand Elk Railroad (reporting mark GDLK) is a Class III railroad which operates in the states of Indiana and Michigan. It is one of 40+ short-line railroads owned by Watco.

Grand Elk Railroad

Grand Elk (WAMX)#4124 is headed to Grand Rapids.
Overview
Headquarters	Kalamazoo, Michigan
Reporting mark	GDLK
Locale	Indiana and Michigan
Dates of operation	2009–present
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The company leases a 123 miles (198 km) line from the Norfolk Southern running south from Grand Rapids, Michigan, through Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Elkhart, Indiana. The line they lease was a former Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad mainline from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo. From Kalamazoo to Elkhart, IN they use a former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern branch. Watco projects 22,000 carloads per year from 55 customers. Operations began on March 8, 2009.^[1]

The railroad connects with three larger railroads, the Norfolk Southern (Elkhart and Kalamazoo), CSX (Grand Rapids) and Canadian National (Kalamazoo, Michigan via CN Kilgore Yard) as well as three short line railroads, the Marquette Rail (Grand Rapids), Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad (Grand Rapids), and Michigan Southern Railroad (White Pigeon, Michigan).^[2][3][4][5]

Watco expanded to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 2021 when Canadian National divested many former Wisconsin Central Ltd. lines.^[6] This includes a line from Trout Lake to Munising and an out of service line to a former mine in White Pine, both formerly operated by the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway. Watco's UP operations are based out of Newberry where they built a new engine house in 2022.^[7]