The Midland Industrial Railroad came into being in the early 1970s when the Burlington Northern merger made the BN owners of trackage though several neighborhoods in the city of Midland. Since the BN prefers through traffic to local switching, they sold fifteen miles of former CBQ tracks, from Dowling Yard to Isle Yard, to the Midland Industrial Railroad, retaining the right to run their coal trains through to serve the power plant in the Essex neighborhood. The BN also sold several Great Northern locomotives to the Midland Industrial.
While the Midland Industrial is very interested in serving industries, they are less than enthusiastic about owning any; they soon sold the car shop at Fremont Yard to Cranky Car Repair. It is unfortunate that the only rail access to the car shop is down the yard ladder, but the value of not owning the shop outweighs the inconvenience of it's location.
Since the city of Midland is very large, many railroads serve it resulting in the Midland Industrial having four interchanges. Cars going west interchange at Dowling Yard. Cars going north interchange at Holmes Jct. Cars going east interchange at Isle Yard. Cars going south interchange with the CNW at Essex Jct. The CNW then takes them on to Cahill, Badger, and points south. Access to these interchanges makes it convenient for the Midland Industrial's customers to continue to ship by rail.
Since MI tracks run primarily through industrial neighborhoods, there is no passenger service. I suspect, though, that if a private car owner asked to have his car attached to a local train for a run through, the Midland Industrial would charge them a bunch and hook up the car to the next train going out. Isn't it amazing where rail fans will pay to go?