On the warm afternoon of 03 September 1985, a group of motor cars is southbound on the Southern Michigan Railroad. This location is located south of the River Raisin “high bridge”, as the line enters an s-curve heading towards Raisin Center. The curve is elevated, a reminder of the 1930s when passenger trains passed here at 60 miles per hour.
This was always one of my favorite parts of the SMR line. It was always quiet and secluded, with no homes nor farmers’ fields in the area–just trees. When we first came down here with motor cars in 1983, the line was almost covered with brush and impassable. By this time some of the brush had been cut back, allowing unhindered passage by motor car.
When the leaves turned in October, this would also become the most beautiful part of the line, and the reason that we decided to run our fall color tours down here.
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