If you look at an old Wabash railroad system map, the Ann Arbor line up to Frankfort MI is shown, with lake ferry lines between Frankfort and Manitowoc, Kewaunee, and Menominee Wisconsin, as well as Manistique Michigan (UP) example
Was this a lucrative operation (in it’s day) or was it an attempt to build a feeder network that never really paid off (since NS had no use for the Ann Arbor in conjunction with the 1964 lease/merger, I have to wonder the latter)
Also, what was the operational name of the land segment in the upper peninsula, between Manistique and Doty?
The line in the Upper Peninsula was the Manistique & Lake Superior; which, if completed as planned, would have connected on Lake Superior with another proposed carferry to Canada.
The line to Kewaunee was actually part of a through routing since it connected with the Green Bay & Western. The other lines existed more to provide a direct connection to Eastern roads with the attendant rate advantages for local traffic as opposed to routing through Chicago.
The carferry lines were an integral part of Ann Arbor’s operations and were profitable into about the mid-1950’s.
Thanks, so if I understand you correctly, these “other lines” were intended primarily to cut out the western roads for shipments originating in wisconsin, where/when the greater share of the movement was to be on eastern RRs?
Correction noted - Ann Arbor carferry ported at Menominee, “Michigan” at the mouth of the Menominee River, seperating Michigan and Wisconsin. It interchanged with the CNW and Milwaukee Road. Switching fees were $ 2.54 per carload with the CNW and $5.35 with the Milwaukee Road based upon manifests of 1960.
Manitowoc (where I live) had two carferry docks, one for Ann Arbor and one for C & O. The Ann Arbor dock was serviced by the Soo Line which went west to Neenah while the C & O dock connected with the C & NW that ran north to Green Bay, south to Milwaukee or west to Appleton. The C & O dock is still being used by the S.S. Badger, a coal burning carferry built around 1950 that only hauls tourists and autos and trucks now between Manitowoc and Ludington.
