SWANTON — Norfolk Southern Corp. presented plans Monday night to Swanton Village Council for a seven-track “staging yard” along its main line through the village for parking, inspecting, and occasionally repairing trains.

Railroad representatives said the facility would primarily be used for coal trains, but could not rule out trains hauling other commodities using it.

The yard would mostly be in Swanton Township, but its west end would connect to an existing siding track along the main line beneath the Hallett Avenue bridge. The site plan includes buying a quarter-acre sliver of village-owned land between the existing tracks and Broadway Street for its west-end connection and closing a railroad crossing on Scott Road in the township.

Audience members at the council meeting were not allowed to speak, but the proposal will be the subject of a public informational meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Swanton Community Center, Mayor Ann Roth said.

The railroad’s presenters said the yard would be used primarily for holding loaded coal trains until Norfolk Southern’s customer wants them for unloading, and for inspecting empty trains before they head back to Wyoming mines for reloading.

“It’s essentially somewhat of a parking lot,” Robert Jones, a Norfolk Southern group manager, told council.

The yard would have four double-ended tracks, each long enough to hold a 130-car coal train plus its locomotives, and three stub-ended tracks for switching out cars needing field repairs or to hold railcars waiting to be added to other trains.

Mr. Jones said the facility would employ about 12 people and would include a building near Scott Road where train crews would report for work and car inspectors and repair workers would be based.

Council members questioned Mr. Jones and other railroad officials at the meeting about such issues as noise, dust, and light pollution, as well as security and safety.

Councilman Dianne Westhoven said she was especially worried about the impact on nearby homes, whose values she expected to decline.

Councilman Tamara Haselman asked the railroad representatives what benefits the project would offer to the village before suggesting that Norfolk Southern’s agreeing to annexing the site to Swanton — which would make its payroll subject to the village income tax — could make it more palatable.

“Those are conversations we could have,” responded Bryant Thomas, the railroad’s regional manager of government relations.

And councilman Mike Rochelle proposed that the railroad work with Swanton to establish no-horn “quiet zones” at two crossings in the village.

The railroad representatives provided no information about the project’s proposed cost or intended construction schedule.

Linda Kubiak, who lives on Brindley Road near where the yard’s west end would be, said after the presentation she expects a big turnout at the meeting next week.

“You’re gonna have engines running, coal flying everywhere. It’s gonna be bad,” said Ms. Kubiak, who predicted significant damage to Swanton’s property values and schools.

“I really struggle finding any benefit for our community,” said Dick Perkins, a local real-estate broker also present at the council meeting.

The Swanton site was chosen, Mr. Jones said, because Norfolk Southern needs a location near Toledo that is big enough to handle the 130-car coal trains for which it is designed.

Except for the village’s land, the railroad has options on all of the property it would need to build the yard.

In 2001, Norfolk Southern built two similar staging tracks along vacant right-of-way in Toledo that it then used to stage coal trains headed for Detroit Edison power plants in Monroe and the Detroit area. Two years ago, however, it lost most of its Detroit Edison traffic to competitors CSX and Canadian National, and the staging tracks in Toledo have since become used primarily for staging trains of automobile carrier cars.

Neither Mr. Jones nor David Pidgeon, a railroad spokesman interviewed before the meeting, would disclose who would receive the coal trains Norfolk Southern expects to stage at the Swanton facility.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published August 23, 2016, 4:00 a.m.