A post relating to history
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Clinton Yard—then and now
Since the early 1960s, when the section north to Manchester and Jackson was removed, Clinton, Michigan has served as the terminus of the Jackson (later Clinton) Branch of the New York Central, Penn Central and Conrail. In the 1980s, the […]
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On the Gdańsk Narrow-Gauge Railway (GKD)—Part 1
On my first trip to Poland as a railfan, I was very much in the dark. There was no public internet in 1990, and information about interesting operations was almost impossible to find abroad. On 17 September 1990, while riding […]
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The “Cut-Off” come to life—Michigan motor car adventures in the 1950s
by Jeffrey Dobek photos from the Gary Zeitler collection This article originally appeared in Issue 34 of “The Speeder”, the publication of the Motor Car Collectors of America, in Autumn 1995. Over the last decade, the motor car hobby has grown, […]
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Tecumseh’s last freight train—35 years on
Before March ends, I thought it worth noting that March this year marks 35 years since the last freight train passed through Tecumseh, ending 145 years of continuous freight service on the Clinton Branch between Lenawee Junction and Tecumseh. It […]
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Hillsdale 1908
Hillsdale was the “hub” of the network of New York Central secondary lines in southeastern Michigan. The Toledo-Elkhart “Old Road” ran through Hillsdale, and branch lines headed out in all directions. Here we find a nice vintage shot from Hillsdale, […]
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The Artrain comes to Tecumseh
The Michigan Artrain was founded in 1971, as a project to take art to the many small towns in Michigan where there was a railroad, but not an art museum. Over the next several years it toured the state, but later […]
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Conrail camp car finale
Into the 1970s, camp cars were a railroad tradition. Often converted from old heavyweight passenger cars from the 1920s or 30s, camp cars were used by the railroad maintenance-of-way department for housing track crews (or “gangs”) which moved around the […]
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Photo day—AApparation in the fog
On the foggy morning of 27 July 1986, the Southern Michigan Railroad Society’s ex-Ann Arbor Railroad RS-2 #303 has come to life. Pushing dead sister #301 and Jim Frye’s ex-GTW caboose, the veteran Alco has crept north for the first time […]
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Photo day—Old and new at Air Line Yard
By 1982, Conrail “patch” units were becoming a rare species. Conrail was finally on top of their motive power woes, and new units coming online meant there was time for attention, including a paint job, for older units. Still, at […]
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CR 5457 and the Clinton Branch
Throughout the first half of the 1970s, standard motive power on the Clinton Branch was a black EMD SW-7/8/9 switcher, leading the Clinton Local down and back the 13.5 miles between Clinton and Lenawee Junction, Michigan. With the arrival of Conrail in […]