When I first heard that 4449 was coming east, I knew I
had to go to Michigan.
It's been a long time since we have had any decent
steam "on the east coast", although I'm not sure that Michigan really
classifies as the east coast... but all things are relative, and it beats
driving to Portland. In addition to 4449, NKP 765 and PM 1225 were
scheduled to run, but due to a leak, 1225 was not able to "make it".... It
was however, on display. 4449 ran trips on Thursday and Friday, while
765 did the honors on Saturday and Sunday. Trips ran from the festival
in Owosso up to Alma and back, which is roughly 35mi one way.
In addition to the Train Festival, I went up to Traverse
City to visit my aunt who has a summer place there. They have a nice
little cottage on one of the lakes, and it's the kind of place you never want to
leave (at least in the summer). My uncle passed away the other year, and
one of these days, I will add a page for him... for now, if you search for Allan
Melvin, you'll find out who he is if the name doesn't ring a bell.
I fixed up my truck so that I could take advantage of it's
height for taking pictures, and stuck a platform on top of the luggage rack.
I also mounted my dwarf CPL on the back, and then hooked it up to the lights on
the truck... I had to dig around under the hood to find the turn signal wires.
There's also a camera mounted on the platform to watch the blind spot, and one
on the bumper for backing up. There's also solar cells on top to help keep
the battery charged up and to run some cooling fans in addition to several
radios inside.
On the way up on the Sunday before the festival, I
happened to call the museum in Durand and found out that 4449 was scheduled
to come in in a few hours. If I hadn't promised my aunt I would be
there Sunday night, I would have stopped over for pictures, as I'm sure
there were a lot less railfans around.
I did however, have a little bit of time to stop by the
Junction Valley Railroad in Bridgeport, about an hour north of Detroit on
I75. Ever since I first stopped there about 10 years ago, I have been
a big fan of the railroad. It's supposed to be the largest quarter
sized railroad in the world, and although I can't substantiate that claim,
it is still most certainly well worth the trip. They normally run only
one train, but over the same weekend as the Train Festival, they had their
Railfest, had everything running, and gave tours of the roundhouse and
shops. Truly impressive even if the engines aren't true to scale.
Since my website is dedicated to railroad signals, I must say that I am also
impressed with the effort they have gone to put in signals, even if most
of them don't operate. One reason they don't may be due to the fact
that every spring the whole railroad gets under water with the winter melt,
almost to the top of the main trestle. While there on Sunday, I found
out about their open house, and said I have to come back... You'll find pix
below.....
Traverse City doesn't have much to take pictures of
these days, now that the Dinner Train is gone. They do however, have a
nice depot, and the Traverse Steam train, which is leftover from the zoo
that the PETA types had shut down. There is one other less well known
feature of Traverse City that you may be familiar with if you are into Live
Steam or machining (among other hobbies and interests), Village Press.
They are publishers of 11 magazines and over 30 specialty publications, and
do all of their production in house, even the printing! They got their
start in the early 70's with the production of Live
Steam magazine. While there, I had the pleasure of a lunch with
Ms. Clover McKinley, editor of the Live Steam magazine (scuze me, it's now
Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading.....
can't get used to that!). She is a most fascinating person, and if you
ever get the chance to talk to her, take it! (L to R): the Traverse
City depot, Ms. McKinley and myself at the Train Festival in front of their
booth, the Traverse Steam Train (sorry, it wasn't in operation when I was
there), across from the depot is a set of commercial buildings that have
been named after four railroads of the 60's (C&O, B&O, PM, and the PRR), and
a couple of sunsets from my aunt's house.
I didn't manage to leave Traverse City until Friday
morning, so I missed the 4449 run on Thursday, and didn't catch up with it
until it was turning around on the wye in Alma. On the way to Alma, I
decided to stop off in Cadillac, and a small town by the name of Clare, both
of which have depots still standing. (L to R): three pix of the depot
in Clare, the shay on display in Cadillac from the Cadillac-Soo Lumber Co,
three shots of the depot in Cadillac, and the freight shed a few hundred
feet down the tracks from the Cadillac depot.
Below are a few pictures of m4449 in Alma, and I left
my people filter at home, darn it. The fellow with the 5 chime on his
roof followed 4449 all the way from Portland... and yes, it's hooked to a
compressor in his trunk. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang around for too
long, for I had to speed down to DTW to pick up my best friend John. I
am always amazed with the trucks in Michigan, as most states don't allow
such heavy vehicles on the road.
After leaving the airport, we headed over to Delray
Tower for a couple of hours. While it may not be the best spot to
railfan, it certainly is active. Here's a
few pix from Delray, and then around the River Rouge Ford plant.
Delray Tower
A NB CN freight, and the bridge it just
crossed coming from the ex Conrail River Rouge yard.
A couple of CSX freights that just came
from Rougemere yard.
A CSX freight with UP power.
You can often find a CP freight waiting at
the tower along Dearborn, which is also used by the railroad cops as an
office.
The tower op still has to come out and
manually throw one of the switches.
CN and Grand Trunk engines waiting for
assignment at the small CN yard adjacent to the Ford plant off Schaeffer.
The tower is gone.
We stayed on the west side of Detroit for the night,
and then headed to Owosso early next morning. We got to the Festival
around 8:30, and they weren't letting you in till 9, and even then, the back
gate off the TSBY yard didn't have tickets, so this fellow named Roger made
sure we got our wristbands since we had to trek thru the festival to the
opposite end for them. There was this other dude, Dave, who gave us a
raft of stuff about being in there before they opened, and he got the name
of "donut Dave" by the woman at the gate, which I don't think he appreciated
a whole lot when we called him that.
A few pictures from the trainfest before
765 left.
A couple of shots of 765 outside Owosso.
Pix from around the former TSBY yard...
had to take advantage of this privilege, otherwise your trespassing!
We departed the Trainfest around noon and went
over to Durand for a while.
The Durand Depot, and the diamond.
Some of the other stuff on the other side
of the tracks from where the depot is.
The model railroad inside the depot.
We went back over to the Trainfest till they kicked us
out around 6;30. From there, we decided to head over to Lansing for
the night.
The ex Michigan Central depot is now
Clara's Restaurant. You should try to eat here if you're in Lansing,
we did, it was great! The color light signal adjacent to the depot,
and more looking south from the depot.
The ex Grand Trunk depot, waiting for
something to happen... and a shot looking east down the tracks from there.
A few shots from the CN yard, signals at
the north end, office and track car on the south end.
An approach signal, south of Clara's.
While trying to find our way back to
Clara's, we came across this pretty old crossing signal.
The next morning, we hit the Amtrak station, missing
their train by 10 minutes, but caught a GT geep coming by, then got pix of
the Trowbridge Diamond.
After Lansing, we headed back to Durand to hopefully
catch some more GT action, and also so I could finish taking pix of the
signals. We never made it back to the Trainfest. But that's OK,
as we have plenty of pictures of sister 759 when it ran trips in the
Baltimore area back in the early 70's (and who can forget the trip 759 made
out to Promontory in 1969 when it was painted up in American RR colors).....
A few more pix at the depot.
This GT geep pulled the railfans away from
the depot till it headed south with a train.
1
2
3
4 Signals around the depot: 1) NB
searchlight in approach of the diamond on the single track, 2) a NB CN
freight just passed 2 searchlight signals on a cantilever bridge as seen
from Oak St, 3) Signals for SB freights, just off Main St, 4) Dwarf
searchlight protecting the diamond, the depot is on the left where the fence
is, as viewed from Main St.
Wish we could have gotten closer for
better shots of the geep stuck way up in the yard.... the coaling tower,
also stuck up in the yard, and the yard is now gated and locked.... a couple
of lighter items sitting outside the local muffler shop.....
So, from Durand, we went to Bridgeport to visit the
Junction Valley RR, who was having their own railfest (of sorts), with all
of their engines in operation, and tours of the roundhouse and shops.
The bridge as seen from Washington... the searchlight signal is what follows
the semaphore above.
Back at the yard, from the pedestrian
overpass, signals looking south, looking into the engine facility, and a
Lake State freight.
Since Bay City wasn't too far away, we decided to run
up there real quick like. The only problem with that, was getting back
down i75 in the traffic heading back downstate... yuk. We stopped at
the old Michigan Central yard, now Huron & Eastern, then rolled by the Lake
State yard where the last time I was there it was filled with nothing but
Alco stuff - the track north of the yard is abandoned, and only one Alco was
sitting around.
At the H&E yard.
From Bay City, we whizzed on down to Ann Arbor, got pix
of the stations, and then had dinner at the Gandy Dancer restaurant, which
used to be the Michigan Central depot in the old days.
The Amtrak station.
The restaurant.
After dinner, we ran on down to a hotel near Walbridge.
The next morning on the way home, we hit Walbridge, the Toledo Station, the
Ann Arbor RR and it's tower, Fostoria, and Berea before heading home and
having dinner in downtown Pittsburgh in yet another railroad restaurant, the
Grand Concourse. First, a few teasers from Walbridge....
A little CSX action, being Monday
morning, there wasn't much.
A new CSX facility on Walbridge Rd,
and the two towers.
Some of the signals in the area, and
there are a lot!
A WB NS freight, a little north of the CSX yards, near the CSX/NS diamond.
Good location for pix of the signal bridge with ex NYC searchlights.
Onto the Toledo Station.... Beautiful place, especially
inside, which is still in the art deco style. There's even an old sign
up that says B&O on it.
After a short drive thru Toledo, we went up to the
north side to visit the Ann Arbor RR, and found them to be hospitable after
telling them we wouldn't climb on stuff or cross the tracks...
Ann Arbor equipment.
The remains of a semaphore signal behind the AA tower, the AA tower, and the
only freight we caught while there (which wasn't very long).
This Wheeling & Lake Erie freight had a
DRGW engine on the one end.... Cool catch!
From here, we headed down to Fostoria. For those
of you that have never been there before, it's a most interesting place with
three double track diamonds, and if you're into signals, it's a bonanza!
Pictures from around the three diamonds.
They don't seem to be in a hurray to cover
these old flags over.
