Bluewater Michigan Chapter NRHS and the Steam Railroading Institute will operate the Timberliner excursions from the Bay City (MI) area to Grayling & return each day, October 6 & 7. I’ve just posted the details on the Events Calendar, so check there in about three days.
This will be a substantial train: 17 passenger cars plus the tool car and auxiliary tender. Northern Michigan has hills, and this ex-Michigan Central route has grades up to 1%, so riders will enjoy some stack talk.
If you want to ride behind big steam, don’t procrastinate - order your tickets now.
Hi all, this is going to be such fun, Grayling is a really nice town, one of our favorite places to go, in fact we liked it so much we got married there at the Chaple in the pines at the state park up there, and the depot/museum where we stop is very nice, well worth the time to make a walk through, the only down side is they are doing road work on the main street and we were told it would not be done by the time this happens so some of the shops might be hard to get to, but who cares we are going for a train ride, WOO HOO!!!.
Oh and P.S. i have heard that the 1225 was the model for the engine in the movie Polar Express, is this true and if so does any one know how it came to be, thanks.
yes it was…it is my understanding that one of the producers had seen pictures of the 1225 running and thought that would be perfect because of the number
Hmm… I have to wager a prediction. Looking into my crystal ball… it sounds like the 765 will run a series of “Polar Express” events/excursions. Like I said, this is only a prediction. It sure sounds like something’s brewing in Fort Wayne. I can’t wait to hear what it is.
Does anybody know the route of the “Timberliner” excursion train this weekend? I was in the same excursion in 2005 and this year I’m planning to chase the train on its way from Kaukawlin to Grayling. Thanks in advance,
Hey there Klausb62 DeLORME maps puts out a series called the Atlas & Gazetteer, so get the Michigan one, i.e. the Michigan Atlas & Gazetteer, which you can find at most book stores and outdoor places like Gander mountain and such, they are super detailed and really good, they have a lot of details and they do show the rail lines and it looks to me like the train will be running on what is listed as the Lake State route, at least that is the one shown going from Kawkawlin to Standish on page 60 , hope this helps you.
the 1225 homepage does say Lake States line from Kawkawlin to Grayling (former MC line)…the Blue Water Chapter website talks this line up as "…many grades of 1% or more " and the train will be “…a heavy load of 17 cars”
So it has come and gone, the weather was hot, the a/c in our car (#13 ) did not work most of the time on the way back to Kawkawlin, the photo run by spot was less then ideal, we had some real bratty kids next to us, and we where over 2 hours late getting back, we where hot and covered with soot and tired, MAN WAS THAT A SWEET RIDE, HOLY SMOKE!!!, that was to cool, the folks working the trip where super nice, watching them work on the engine in Grayling was very cool, what a ride!!!, any one else want to share their experiances on the trip?.
As a spotter and not a rider, I was pretty amazed to see how poor some of the track was coming out of Kawkawlin (lots of rocking, did anyone in your party get seasick, tattooguy?), although it got much better further north. On the plus side, the slowish speeds made for easy catchup…so runbys from the spotters POV were plentiful. Impressively long consist. The only annoying thing was that whenever you’d try to pace the train, Michigan’s Finest (3 of 'em, who would leapfrog to protect the road crossings) would immediately force you to speed up, instead of just letting you film for a minute and then giving someone else a turn. All in all, it was a great time!
Well MILW205it looked to me like the whole states worth of state police where on hand, plus we had 2-3 on the train it self, although my wife and i could not figure out what good that did as far as the crossings go as a. they were on the train and b. they seemed to ride toward the back, so unless they were going to jump off with ticket book in hand… oh well at least it kept us train geeks in line, and i hope you where not one of the many we saw pulled over for what i can only assume was racing to the next photo spot. And as for the trackage yes it was a bit on the rocky side as far as ride goes, we talked about it and figured when we did it again we would get on and off in standish, there were times on that stretch that i think we could have walked faster, that 30 mile section between standish and kawkawlin was the longest 5 hours…, as far as i know no one got seasick, at least not around us, and from a riders point it was a really great time!
best laid plans…sounds like a great weekend of steam chasing…i missed it due to last minute car issues…friday night checkover discovered a leaky transmission cooler line…not a quick fix on an aerostar…[banghead]…so after much personal hype i missed the run…WAHHH WAHHH WAHHH…the last trip back in July had a simular issues with the MSP… the Sarge from onboard was really friendly (as was the 1225 crew) and the one Trooper spotting all the crossings we seemed to be at liked following us once he figured we were getting to each before him…ad his camera was giving him probs too [:D]…bu enuff about summertime…can i see some of the fine fall colors of this recent trip…puhlease!!! [^]
