RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.

 

Todd's Railfan Guides to
MICHIGAN


The Depot in Durand
 

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Michigan is a great railfanning state!  Detroit is not the only interesting place in Michigan to railfan, altho it is the largest and has the most going on.   Don't overlook the other great towns, places, and things Michigan has to offer!

For all of the maps of the Southern Michigan Guide in one PDF doc, click here, it's around 900K.

In Detroit, you have Delrey Tower and the Ford Transportation Museum in Dearborn for starters.  Detroit is lucky and has many rail yards, altho a number of them are not very accessible for good photos.   All of the biggies" have at least one yard in the area: CSX, NS, CN.  Since the split, NS took over the River Rouge Conrail yard, and CN operates out of the former Grand Trunk yard on the NW side of town.  CSX has a yard by the Ford plant, and has an operation on the west side in Plymouth....

And speaking of Plymouth Diamond, it always seems to be a favorite with railfans, but you are warned against going into the diamond area, as CSX will call the local gendarmes for your pleasure!  There used to be a couple of good sites for railfanning Plymouth Diamond, but the links I can currently find are bad.

Not too far south from downtown Detroit, on the way to Toledo, is a spot where ALL of the major railines were within a quarter mile (or so) of each other, and I can easily picture this back in the steam era when freights were everywhere - people probably got really PO'ed waiting for trains back in 45 (supposedly the peak year for rail traffic) - it's still a neat place for pictures! 

Windsor is just "on the other side" and is a so-so place for railfanning according to two railfans I met in Owosso

Outside of the Detroit area, you have Saginaw, Flint, Bay City, Grand Rapids, and Lansing to name a few.....  Each town has it's attractions, and none should be overlooked if you are in the area of any of them.

To the south and across the state line from Detroit is Toledo and Walbridge, and if you've never been to Walbridge before, you have to stop there just to check out all of the tracks running all over the place, not to mention a diamond with the NS to the north. 

One of my personal favorites is the depot in Durand, but almost all of the towns I have maps for, have a depot and they are all great.

West on the main map, you have places like Michigan City, South Bend, Gary, and Elkhart, all good spots with things like the National NYC RR Museum in Elkhart and the home to NICTD and the South Shore in Michigan City.

If you are into things like Live Diesel and Steam, there are three "railroads" of note:

About 12 miles north of Grand Rapids is the White Creek RR, where Russ Eldrid has put down over 6 miles of 1/8 scale track down (7 1/2" gauge)..... It's the second largest in the U.S. after Train Mountain in Oregon, and unlike TM, you don't have to go out behind another train to enjoy the countryside.  He doesn't do Sunday's tho, so plan accordingly. 

In Traverse City is the Traverse Steam engine, which is still operating even tho the PETA types had the Traverse City zoo closed several years ago...  Traverse City is probably the cherry capital of the U.S.A., and they have their cherry festival in early July.  The area around TC is also becoming well known for their wine vineyards!  There are many excellent restaurants between TC, Suttons Bay, Leeland, etc, and then for desert, you can head on over to Moomer's ice cream parlor, which was rated by one of the talk shows as the best place in the U.S. for ice cream... there's always a line during the summer! (it's at 7263 N. Long Lake Rd for you GPS freaks))   The train runs on nice days on weekends!

Last but not least, is the Junction Valley Railroad over in Bridgeport (a few hours north on Detroit on I75), the largest quarter scale railroad in the world.  This railroad is great, and I fell in love with it the first time I visited it about 6 years ago, altho it has been in operation something like 25+ years.  All of their equipment is custom made, and the larger engines have 4 cylinder diesels in them!  Although not operational, they also have an extensive signal system.  Junction Valley can also boost the only "trestle-diamond" in the world.

A couple of words of caution about my maps for Michigan and the northern parts of Indiana and Ohio.... I haven't traveled for business since 2002, so some of the info contained on them may not be up to date.  For those areas where maps.live.com (now bing.com/maps) has a birds eye view, I have updated the info where I can, but for the smaller cities, that luxury doesn't exist.  ALSO, I do not have info on the trains or their frequency thru these places.  Internet info on this is scarce, with one exception being Battle Creek and Lansing. 

During the 2009 Train Festival weekend, I was able to visit Delray, Lansing, part of Saginaw, Bay City, Fostoria, some of Toledo, Berea, Junction Valley, and Walbridge in addition to Owosso and Durand.  Any changes I noticed will be added to my maps as time permits.  For a review of my summer 2009 Michigan trip, click here.

Additional links to pages I've found will be listed below, associated with my maps if applicable.  Copy those web pages if you want the info, as pages come and go faster than slicked lightening :-) 

One of the best railfan sites I've seen anywhere is at: http://www.michiganrailroads.com/ ..... they have a lot of good info and maps... the website is easy to navigate, and the website has a good look and feel to it.

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RAILROAD and TRANSPORTATION MUSEUMS

Duran Union Station     http://www.durandstation.org/
     P.O. Box 106,  200 Railroad Street,  Durand, MI  48429     (989)288-3561

Northern Michigan RR Museum
     107 E Railroad St, Saint Johns, MI 48879-1525     (517) 668-7246

Southern Michigan RR Society     http://www.southernmichiganrailroad.org/
     320 South Division St,  Clinton MI 49236

The Saginaw Railway Museum     http://www.trainweb.org/svhrs/
     900 Maple St., PO Box 20454, Saginaw MI   48602     (989)-790-7994

The Huckleberry Railroad    http://www.geneseecountyparks.org/huckleberry_railroad.htm
     6140 Bray Rd, Flint MI  48505     Memorial thru Labor Day Weekends

The Henry Ford Museum     http://www.hfmgv.org/
     Dearborn MI

The National NYC RR Museum     http://www.nycrrmuseum.org/      http://www.elkhartindiana.org/egov/docs/1167358166300.htm
     Elkhart IN

The Indiana Transportation Museum     http://www.itm.org/    http://www.american-rails.com/indiana-transportation-museum.html
     Noblesville IN

Mad River & NKP Railway Museum     http://www.artcom.com/Museums/nv/mr/44811-13.htm     http://nkprr.railfan.net/history.html
     Bellevue. OH
     Please Note:  DO NOT go to the website madrivermuseum.org.... YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
     This is not the official site, it is run by a bunch of German Hackers... 

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RAILROAD DEPOTS TURNED RESTAURANTS

Ann Arbor MI
     the Gandy Dancer Restaurant   http://www.muer.com/

Battle Creek MI
     Clara's Restaurant     http://www.claras.com/railroad/thedepot.html 

Lansing MI
     Clara's Restaurant 

Mackinaw
     Historic Depot Restaurant     http://www.mackinawcrossings.com/shopping.html

Plymouth MI
     Station 885     http://www.station885.com/

Traverse City
     The dinner train is gone.... :-(

Ya'll... If you have anything to add or change, please let me know, this stuff is only good if current: toddgp30@verizon.net

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Additional Michigan Railfan Links:

     http://www.trnwatcher.net/  Covering the Grand Rapids area and more, railroad freqs, etc
     http://www.trainwatchers.com/railfanning.ssi     Where to Railfan in Michigan
     http://www.trainwatchers.com/links.html     Links for Michigan Railfans by DLW
     http://user.mc.net/~louisvw/depot/  Michigan Passenger Stations by Louis Van Winkle
     http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Timeline/1990s/TimeLine1990sBackUp.htm MI's Internet History Museum (by the decade)
     http://www.geocities.com/soo6009/     Michigan Railfanning by Brian Plant (I think) with pics from him and Mike Spencer
     http://www.frograil.com/railroad/mi.htm     A Frograil railfan guide for Michigan, contributions by many
     http://www.railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1033     Blog listing the frequencies shown below by Mackinac Mac
     http://www.dhke.com/CRJ/index.html     Chicago Area Rail Junctions by Bill Gustason
     http://gtw.railfan.net/subdivisions.html     the Grand Trunk Western RR by Daniel Ward
     http://www.trainweb.org/vermande/a/aa.html   A few Ann Arbor pix from Tim Vermande
     http://www.railroadmichigan.com/links.html     Michigan Railroad and Railfan Websites
     http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/scanlaws/      Mobile Scanner & Radar Detector Laws In The U.S. by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH

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Todd's Guides and Maps

Albion:  Railfan Guide      SIGS
Alma to Owosso Chase Maps:  Northern Half     PDF Map   //  Southern Half     PDF Map
Ann Arbor:   Railfan Guide      PDF Map     SIGS
     http://www.muer.com/     the Gandy Dancer Restaurant (they also own the Grand Concourse in downtown Pittsburgh in the ex P&LE station)
Battle Creek:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map    SIGS
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek_(Amtrak_station)     Wikipedia's entry for the Battle Creek Amtrak Station
     https://www.msu.edu/~kindschy/     Battle Creek Railfan Guide by Brad Kindschy
     http://www.claras.com/railroad/thedepot.html     Clara's Restaurants in Battle Creek and Lansing
Bay City:  Railfan Guide     PDF Map
Bridgeport and the Junction Valley RR:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map
Detroit:
     Delrey Tower and Rougemere Yard guide     PDF Map  SIGS
     GTW/CN Yard guide      PDF Map
Plymouth Diamond:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map
Durand:   Railfan Guide      PDF Map  SIGS
     http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Gym/5065/     Train watching with Wayne, hasn't been updated for a number of years!!!
Durand to Owosso:  area map      PDF Map
Flatrock/Woodhaven:  CN Yard Area map      PDF Map
Flint:  Flint MI map      PDF Map
Grand Rapids:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map
Jackson:  Railfan Guide      SIGS
Kalamazoo:  Map      PDF Map
Lansing:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map  SIGS
     http://www.trainweb.org/lansingrailfan/    the Lansing railfan by William S. Davis
     http://www.claras.com/railroad/thedepot.html     Clara's Restaurants in Battle Creek and Lansing
Owosso:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map
Saginaw:  Railfan Guide      PDF Map  SIGS
Traverse City: Railfan Guide       PDF Map
White Creek RR:  Live Steam Railfan Guide      PDF Version
Rail Line map of Southern Michigan (1.5meg JPEG)      PDF Map

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And to make it easier to locate the nearby towns in Indiana and Ohio, here's what I have so far:

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RADIO FREQUENCIES

              

           

            

           

   

I found these on a blog, contributed by someone with the screen name Mackinac Mac, if anyone knows who he is, thank him for me, cause it took a long time to type this stuff into the blog

Since I was in Michigan last, they seemed to have changed the law concerning having a scanner with you in a car, effective 2006... But getting a ham radio license can still be a fun thing, and they are a lot more helpful than CB when you get into a strange town and are looking for help (as long as you have a repeater guide with you).  This is from the same blog.

 

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Last revised 12/26/2011