Just when I thought all the rails were trails here in west Michigan (I’m in Big Rapids, where the only engine on the line is a Ski-Doo) I found some cool action in Ludington about an hour west on Lake Michigan. I came across a small yard which when I crossed over the bridge on Pere Marquette Rd., looked alot like an avatar of a member here…I could be wrong. Anyway, I drove down and found an access road leading to the Mass Transit lot for the city which had a great view of the yard. I watched some switching action…mostly hoppers and a blue GP 35. I was wondering if anybody knows the details on this railroad??? The engine was labeled GMTX on the cab and looked like an old Conrail unit. I am familiar with the Great Lakes Central Railroad, but not this one. Later that day as I headed back east on 10 I was lucky to catch a three unit mixed freight headed south across the road. Just when I thought I missed the power, three GMTX diesels came across pushing the train backwards. The lead was what looked like a 35 or 38 and the other two were heavily weathered 6 axle road units, looked like a GP 38 with the extended walkways/six pack trucks…I’m not sure what as I am new and just beginning to really be able to identify so forgive my “newness”. It is funny, you love trains all your life but never really get into them until you start serious model railroading! I would have posted this on the TRAINS web forum, but I know there are some Michigan guys here. Any good fan spots/times, etc…? Thanks ----Rob
That yard you saw at Ludington was the former Pere Marquette/C&O/Chessie System/CSX yard, now operated by Marquette Rail. For the past couple of years, Marquette Rail has operated all of the former CSX trackage which ran north out of Grand Rapids, which includes lines from GR-Baldwin, Baldwin-Ludington and Walhalla-Manistee. With the exception of a few miles of trackage on either side of Traverse City which is operated by the Great Lakes Central, this is all that is left of the former PM/C&O line north from Grand Rapids to Petoskey, the northern half of which was removed in the early 1980s.
Marquette Rail relies largely on leased motive power and from what I’ve heard, they tend to run down to GR mostly overnight, which can limit photo ops along that stretch of the line. Most motive power maintenance appears to occur in Manistee.
The major sources of traffic on the line are the old Dow plant in Ludington and a couple of salt and chemical plants in Manistee. Manistee also has at least one wood products plant which ships via Marquette Rail.
It has been over 20 years since I lived on that side of the state, so I’m not fully up to speed on Marquette Rail’s operations. You can get more information from the following sites:
Ludington was significant as the Michigan port for the PM/C&O’s fleet of railway car ferries. The SS Badger is the last operating member of the C&O fleet and carries passengers and automobilles across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin during the summer. They stopped carrying railroad cars around 1988 or so.
Ludington was also the south end of shortline Ludington & Northern, which hauled casting sand from near Hamlin Lake down to Ludington
One other piece of information is that the road that goes to Ludington State Park is where CSX or PM loaded sand for their engines. Nothing like huge sand dunes which are very fine sand free for the taking.
A little OT, but I looked at the map of the former PM and I noticed it came up from the southwest through charlevoix and stopped in petosky. I used to vacation in Petosky and noticed there are tracks that continue to follow US-31 north towards pelston. There are actually some abandoned/preserved railcars along the way. I think they pulled some or all of this track maybe 10-15 years ago, but does anyone remember who ran this route?
Amsr,that was the Michigan Northern.It was a ex PRR line from Grand Rapidds to Mackinaw.I used to go there to watch their operations of the car ferry plus they used Alcos,Baldwins,even had the Baldwin sharks.OT but at Ludington was once a sand hauling shortline called the Ludington Northern.Thanks for the news about that part of Michigan. Joe
Yeah… I haven’t been there recently. IMHO that area of michigan is one of the most under-rated vacation spots in the country. I recently moved back to MI, but for a while I lived near Wash DC. Everyone would go to the shore there on the weekends and it just wasn’t the same as being on Lake Michigan. Oh well, to each his own… I’m sure they’d say the opposite. Watching RR ops in the northeast, well, thats no contest. Theres more action than to know what to do with in the old PRR NEC!
The old PRR line was mentioned below. I recall that line years ago (late 1960’s) when I was in Kalamazoo. PRR leased a couple of GP9’s from BAR, and they were based in the small yard at the north end of town. Also, GTW operated on PRR to Muskegon from Grand Rapids to connect with its Lake Michigan ferries.
Believe it or not those BAR geeps were woned by the PRR and leased to the BAR. the Bar needed them for potato season and the PRR needed them at other times.
Yeah there are a couple of Michiganders on here…i grew up in Flint which at one time was bustling with the auto business which meant a lot train activity…well now that i’m an old man and am starting to get serious about this hobby i’ve been doing a lot of research on Grand Trunk which was what went by my house many time daily for years but now the tracks are abandoned…anyway on to my point…i used google map/satellite images and traced some tracks from GM truck and bus and the CN yard and also some tracks and so forth from the old CSX yard north…its really cool to get a good aerial view of track layout and industry and scenery from above for modeling purposes…check it out and maybe you can make some discoveries about the railroad you mentioned
OK guys, I’m going to Assume that, that was Marrqutte Rail. Marrqutte Rail has quite a few GMTX geeps. The person that would know for sure would either be CNW_8835 or 4884Bigboy. 4884bigboy will be back either tonight or tomorrow.
It’s Marquette Rail. They currently operate the former CSX Ludington & Manistee subs from Grand rapids north to Ludington and Manistee. They currently lease 6 GATX (GMTX) GP38-2s and lease 3 ex CP SD40-2s from Great Lakes Locomotive Leasing. They have an ex C&O caboose painted in their colors, but none of the engines are painted yet. The SD40-2s will be painted, GP38-2s are TBA. One of the GP38-2’s (2635) is lettered for Marquette Rail. Check out http://conrail-jon.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=18428 for my pictures of MQT.
I went rail fanning there a while back a while back and it was one of the best experiences of my life. My family was going to stay at a hotel in Ludington and on the way we crossed over the yard throat on Pere Marquette Hyw. It turned out our hotel was only about a 1/2 mile from the yard so I went back the next day to take some pics. I took a few good ones (one of which is in my signature) from the highway bridge. I got sick of sitting on the bridge so I went down to the tracks. A CSX employee had just finished throwing the west wye switch underneath the bridge and he and I struck up a conversation. He then invited me to watch him perform an airbrake test and hook up the FRED. Before I know it I was sitting in the yard office drinking a coke (on the house) while my new friend gathered a bunch of great stuff for me to take home. I ended up with a map of the Ludington yard and Dow Chemical along with a few Chessie System switch lists. He also gave me a few CSX train-handling rulebooks. I was then invited to go for a cab ride on the local to Walhalla. I still can’t believe how friendly and helpful these guys were. They actually went out of their way to show a rail fan a good time. Anyway here are a few pics of the CSX Ludington yard. (I apologize for the huge file sizes, I’m not sure how to downsize them)
The line that ran north from Petoskey to Mackinaw City was originally Grand Rapids and Indiana, became Pennsy, and then Michigan Northern.
I lived in Petoskey for twenty years and owned a photo and hobby shop downtown until 1990. At one time there was also a branch that ran around Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs. You can still see remnants of the branch at Petoskey State Park and behind Wequetonsing (just east of Harbor Springs). I remember trains in Harbor Springs when I was a kid visiting my grandmother.
South of Petoskey along Hwy 131 I remember a special train heading north with a large girder for the then under contruction Mackinaw Bridge. This train consisted, as I remember it, of the steam engine, girder, and caboose.
In Petoskey the park running diagonally across the downtown area used to be the the Pennsy main line and passenger station. The station is just to the north of Bay St. and has been converted to offices. This was a very busy area at one time with commuter trains to Harbor Springs, Waloon Lake, and other nearby resort towns on regular schedules, plus the mainline traffic.
The Perre Marquete station was below the bluff and is now home to the historical society. The two roads had an interchange at Bay View. There is also park land at that spot.
Hope this fills you in on the Petoskey area tracks.
