A cold winter fog is in the air on the morning of 10 December 1985 at the interchange yard next to Diann Tower, near Dundee, Michigan.
A Grand Trunk Western train is travelling south on the former-DT&I main line, trailed by a Conrail caboose. Cabooses are already rare by this time, but of more interest, however, is the equipment sitting in the siding.
Alco RS-2s #301 and #303, until recently the property of the Ann Arbor Railroad, have been set out on the GTW interchange. Stickers on their short hoods identify their new owner—the Southern Michigan Railroad Society on Clinton, MI.
The two units were purchased by the SMRS for about $10,000, and are en route to the Society’s track at Lenawee Junction, MI. A GTW local will transport them to Riga, MI, and then the Lenawee County Railroad Company will haul them the rest of the way.
Number 303 will be partially restored by the SMRS, but within a few years the units would be sold onward.
The full-height bay window on CR 21143 identifies it as a class N7D car, built for the Erie Railroad as #C324. The caboose survives, on display in Derry, PA.
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