This one is for all of you guys familiar with the PRR. I live in west Michigan, Stanwood to be exact, (40 min. north of Grand Rapids) and have heard that the old north/south line that ran through the town was at one time owned by the Pennsylvania RR. If this is true, to what extent would have the PRR been present in the area? If I could get in a time machine and go down to the now snowmobile trail (ugh) would I have been able to see Pennsy steam/diesels etc? I know the north/south Ann Arbor RR line was present just east of here in Mt. Pleasant. Thankfully, this line is still around used by a local Michigan RR connecting to the NS. Thanks ----Rob
Rob,
The PRR had a North-South line that ran all the way to the top of Michigan - car ferry to the UP!
Jim
The North-South Line in Michigan was part of the Grand Rapids & Indiana at one time.
There was steam and diesel on the line during the Pennsylvania Railroad years.
Everyday PRR Steam was common, but not the streamlined steam locomotives.
In photos I have seen there were EMD E-Series and F-Series Diesel-Electric Locomotives in Pennsylvaina livery occasionally.
PRR’s EMD GP-7 and GP-9 Diesel Locos would have been more common.
Andrew
I belive both PRR and NYC both went up to Mackinaw in the 50s
Rob, the line that is now the White Pine trail, was, at one time the PRR main line north. It ran north from G.R. The old Pennsy yard was not too far from the CSX mainline now that runs east of the US131 freeway in SW Grand Rapids. I live about 15 miles south of you, Coral, Mi. The old depot in Howard City is still standing.
The Pennsy’s former Grand Rapids & Indiana “Fishing Line” began down in Richmond, Indiana, ran up through Fort Wayne, then continued north into Michigan through Sturgis, Vicksburg, Kalamazoo, Plainwell, Wayland and Grand Rapids, then up through Rockford, Cedar Springs, Howard City, Stanwood, Big Rapids and on to Cadillac, Petoskey and Mackinaw City. Between Cedar Springs and Petoskey,“old” US-131/Northland Drive followed it pretty closely.
There were three major branches off of this route- GR-Muskegon (later used by the Grand Trunk Western, then the Central Michigan RR before the branch was abandoned in the late 1980s), a branch from Missaukee Jct, north of Cadillac, east to Lake City, Falmouth, and a point just west of Houghton Lake (run by the Cadillac & Lake City RR in the 1960s), and a branch from Walton Jct (beween Manton and Fife Lake) to Traverse City, which is still in use by the Great Lakes Central.
The only parts of this line which are still in service are:
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Decatur-Fort Wayne, Indiana - Chicago Ft Wayne & Eastern RR.
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Kendallville, Indiana - Industrial trackage run by the Kendallville Terminal RR.
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Sturgis, MI - Industrial trackage run by the Michigan Southern RR.
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Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids, Mich. - operated by Norfolk Southern, with joint industrial trackage in Kalamazoo also serviced by the Canadian National.
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Muskegon, Mich. - a couple of miles of industrial trackage serviced by the Michigan Shore RR.
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Cadillac-Petoskey and Walton Jct-Traverse City - operated by the Great Lakes Central.
Common steam power on the former GR&I north of Grand Rapids consisted of Mikados (2-8-2s) and Consolidations (2-8-0s) on freight and Ten Wheelers (4-6-0s) and Pacifics (4-6-2s) for passenger trains.
There are lots of photos of F7s being used on through freights in the 1950s and 1960s, with GP7s becoming more typical as the years went on. There was at least one SW1 kept at Cadillac and used on the Lake City branch
I lived Sturgis in the mid-90’s and watched the Michigan Southern haul loads of scrap on the GR&I line in town. The tracks were truncated both north and south of town, but if you knew where to look you could easily see the old right of way.
Since then, I have tracked down a few photos on the 'net showing PRR and PC trains on the GR&I. Two of these were taken by Dennis Schmidt in Sturgis, and can be found using the links below. These are from the Fallen Flags website, where nearly a gazillion of Mr. Schmidt’s photos from Michigan and other upper midwest locations have been posted. These are mostly roster shots and are not filed by location, so you may need to dig for a while to see if there are any from other locations on the GR&I.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/prr/prr4046ads.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc5688ads.jpg
Another source for photos from the southern half of the GR&I is the Ft. Wayne Railfan website (link below)
http://www.fwarailfan.net/contributor.htm
In particular, there are a few shots by Victor Baird of PC trains at Walcottville, IN, where the GR&I crossed the Wabash. One of the most interesting of these is linked below.
http://www.fwarailfan.net/contributor/vb-wolcottville2.jpg
I’m sorry I don’t know anything about the GR&I north of Kalamazoo, but hopefully someone else can fill in some more details. I will be following this discussion to see if anything else comes up.
Tom
Thanks for all of the replies!
The depot still stands in Big Rapids…a DNR staging area now for the White Pine trail. The building is boarded up, but isn’t in bad shape at all. There isn’t much reference on-line about PRR in the area. There are interesting little trestles (still in place for the trail), loading ramps and other rail related features around town by the old line…most are just foundations. It is neat to see places like the old feed store in Stanwood, MI. off of old 131 still up and running It has a loading dock and siding on the track side. Would have been cool to see it in action. ----Rob
As a resident of Grand Rapids everyone above is indeed correct that it was the old GR&I, later bought by the Pennsy. The Pennsy and NYC had a fair sized yard (though nothing near the PM/C&O yard) at Grand Rapids (which today is NS). The line was operated by MIGN, which I think is Michigan Northern, unti it was abandoned.
Another GR&I depot still stands in Vicksburg, and when I lived in the area, it was a combined local history museum and Chamber of Commerce office. This was a dual-railroad depot at the crossing of the GR&I and the Grand Trunk, although the diamonds are long gone. I bet it’s still a great place to watch CN trains roll by, and if things haven’t changed too much, you might also get lucky and see a local train run south on a mile or so of GR&I tracks to switch the paper mill in town.
Tom
Another good online resource for Michigan railroads including the GR&I is www.michiganrailroads.com
In their “History” section is a tab for maps. You can selecte individual county maps which roughly show the current and historical railroads. You can click on most of the towns and see a couple of pictures of stations and trains back in the day…
George V.
I used to railfan the Michigan Northern back in the early 1980’s. What made it interesting were the Baldwins and Alcos used North of Cadillac. They had the only surviving pair of Baldwin Sharks plus a trio of RS-12’s. The Sharks were hardly ever used though. The G.R.&I. used to go thru my hometown,now it is operated by the C.F.&E. Joe
the Pennsy also ran some of its first doodlebug trains north of GR