History of the ROW From Niles to Jackson

[Ben Higdon]

Here is a bit more detail where you can see the CN going through Cement City and Addison

I only meant the CN used the LSMS tracks at OD. Do you know the date of this map? It appears traffic on the Air Line and the Fort Wayne branch were likely sharing both tracks for directional running, as the Fort Wayne branch is shown intact between Haires and Jackson, as well as having "trackage rights" over the Air Line

[Clay320]

1925. the original can be found below.

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/R ... mePage.htm

[Super Chief]

Its interesting all the renewed interest in the Airline. I had a guy from Jackson stop by my house in February and he said he was working on a book on this same subject. The newspaper sent him my way. I filled him in on the switches east and south of Three Rivers that bypassed town and what I could remember from the 50s. The east switch was at Lambert Rd.and the south switch was right behind Sams Bar on Lutz Rd. For those tracing the line their is a signal box behind the bar still there where the switch was. Code poles with insulators still run north of there on the Kazoo secondary the Elk runs today. All the info you n this thread is bringing back a lot of memories and is accurate. Conrail did run to Wasepi up north to Prarie Crop in Mendon in the final years. The Jackson turn did run to Centerville and for a time the remnants of the pickle factory was right by the ROW neat the searchlite signals just west of the crossing. The F units on the airline made Trains mag. In a story once. Seems a diesel maintainer in Jackson once left a metal flashlight in a relay box and everytime the train went around a left hand curve the 3rd unit would cut out. The other Fs were ok and the crew finnally figured it out after stopping on the big curve east of TR.They opened the box and there was a burned up metal flashlight that had been rolling against the relay everytime they went around a lefthand curve never a right. On to Elkhart. I look forward to his book.

[Ben Higdon]

Its interesting all the renewed interest in the Airline. I had a guy from Jackson stop by my house in February and he said he was working on a book on this same subject. The newspaper sent him my way. I filled him in on the switches east and south of Three Rivers that bypassed town and what I could remember from the 50s. The east switch was at Lambert Rd.and the south switch was right behind Sams Bar on Lutz Rd. For those tracing the line their is a signal box behind the bar still there where the switch was. Code poles with insulators still run north of there on the Kazoo secondary the Elk runs today. All the info you n this thread is bringing back a lot of memories and is accurate. Conrail did run to Wasepi up north to Prarie Crop in Mendon in the final years. The Jackson turn did run to Centerville and for a time the remnants of the pickle factory was right by the ROW neat the searchlite signals just west of the crossing. The F units on the airline made Trains mag. In a story once. Seems a diesel maintainer in Jackson once left a metal flashlight in a relay box and everytime the train went around a left hand curve the 3rd unit would cut out. The other Fs were ok and the crew finnally figured it out after stopping on the big curve east of TR.They opened the box and there was a burned up metal flashlight that had been rolling against the relay everytime they went around a lefthand curve never a right. On to Elkhart. I look forward to his book.

Thanks for confirming the service to Mendon via Wasepi. I imagine serving Mendon via Wasepi began after the Grand Trunk bought the trackage in Vicksburg (October 1978). Earlier Conrail freight schedules note subsidized service to Mendon from Kalamazoo.

The west switch for the new Air Line connection at Three Rivers was called Three Rivers Junction, later changed to CP River. Freights were allowed 60mph on the timetable into the mid 90s on the stretch between Three Rivers and Elkhart.

Anyone happen to know if the switch at the east end of the new connection lasted until the end? Curious if the original alignment from downtown Three Rivers out to that switch was abandoned earlier.

[Super Chief]

The Nies line had a station west of Three Rivers called Corey. It was where the ROW butts up to M-60 at the Cass/St. Joe county line. Sam Irwin and Sam Outman had a hack service that met the trains and took passengers to the lodges on the lakes west of TR. The line crossed the GTW in Cassopolis at the depot and remnants of the ROW can still be seen west of there to Niles.

[SousaKerry]

In Jackson there is still a large overpass over the old ROW. The tracks to industries south of there curve to parallel S. Cooper St.(previously called Airline Drive) I wonder how many residents of Jackson have no idea why this overpass is still there and being used. I would imagine that someday when it comes time to replace the bridge section they will just take it out. The one good thing the overpass does do is give you a good view of the remaining tracks and of the large scrap yard(OMNI Source.)

[Super Chief]

If you go south on Railroad Street in Mendon the old GR&I bridge still spans the St. JOE river there. The Mendon depot is now gone and yes when the GTW bought the GR&I the tracks went south of Vicksburg and ended at the last crossing in town to service Simpson Lee Paper. The bridge south of Vicksburg is still there too.Back to the Airline the freight house in TR was east of South main St.and the 4th. Street diamond. Just east of the freight house a switch went off to the northeast for the switch engine to park and a team track ended at the dam on the St. Joe river. TR and Albion were the only two cities to have their own switch engine from NYC days thru Conrail.

[Super Chief]

The east switch at TR was removed when the Airline was taken out. The tracks were not removed until the 4th street diamond and the wye were removed that connected to those tracks. The freight house was just east of South main St. and the diamond. Just east of the freight house there was a switch that went to a small yard and engine lead as well as a team track that ended at the dam on the St. Joe river. The yard had 3 tracks that went over 8th and 9th streets, then 2 tracks that went as far as 12th street then 1 track east of 12th street to the switch at Lambert Rd. The west yard that the Elk operates today is pretty much S it was. But west of the diamond there was a switch westward to the old Sheffield Car Co. plant that Fairbanks and Morse purchased when they made speeders for the railroads. After F&M then Essex Wire bought the property than Decatur Elevator. After rail shipments ceased that switch and the one for the north yard track were removed. So the west yard actually had 4 tracks west of 4 th street parallel to each other as well as F&M s switch. The yard then went to one track at Broadway street to cross the bridge to go west to Niles. Since the north yard track was removed the number two track that the Elk stores their cars on for IP paper is actually the old main to Niles. The north track was the passing siding and later Conrail stored their camp cars on it. Tracks 3&4 were car storage tracks for cars for Eddy Paper and Continental Can Co.

[GAP]

I've spotted a building in Centreville called the "Hair Depot." The unusual name caught my eye, then I noticed that the building has a "railroady" look to it. Could this have been the Centreville depot moved to its new location? The building is now downtown but the former tracks were a few blocks north.

[Super Chief]

Don't know about the hair depot, but the original wooden grandstand for the St. Joesph County Fair was shipped from the Columbian Exposition on Chicago's lakefront to Centerville via rail and off-loaded at the depot and re-erected at the fairgrounds.

[C&O6084]

Original? So it's been replaced? Hope not.

[Super Chief]

The original grandstand burnt down one hot July night as I was there with our FD and evefy other dept. In the county. With a ferocious wind and the wood as old as it was we were chasing hot brands into Branch county on that night. I just thought been on the FD 31 years this month. A nyway that fire was the hottest one I can remember. Cause was electrical and we all wanted to save it because of the history but to no avail. By the time we got there from Three Rivers it was a goner. New one is all structural steel. The train must have been a few cars long with all that lumber on them from Chicago. They were big beams and a lot of them. They were off-loaded north of town at the team track by the depot and brought into town by wagons. The guy that invented the velocoped for Sheffield Car lived in Wasepi and without the railroads permission rode to Three Rivers every day to work on one. He and George Sheffield patented the design and Fairbanks bought them out and made them as well as the motorized speeders in TR. I have found two only one at the childrens museum in Marquette Mi. that belonged to the LS&I and one inside station mall in SOO Canada that belonged to the Algoma Central, both have their brass builders plates Sheffield Car Co. THREE RIVERS MICHIGAN attached to them.

[GP30M4216]

The passing siding at CP Park and CP Cowling was put in by Conrail to facilitate routing through trains north to Kalamazoo, as that traffic would no longer being routed via the Air Line.

You're right, Ben. I think the way I heard it "NYC would sometimes hold trains north of Three Rivers to keep the Air Line junction free" turned into me just ASSuming that was when the CP-Park/Cowling siding was constructed. Reading this and thinking more about other actual facts I already know, wasn't the current Wye at BO probably put in around the same time as the controlled siding to facilitate such moves when the Air Line was being discontinued as a thru route?

The diamond at Wasepi was removed in the early 70s.

I said late 70s but I think I just made a mental chronological mistake in my middle of the night typing. I knew it was during the PC era that the PRR route was no longer used as a through route and indeed it was before Conrail where much of the GR&I south of Kzoo was removed. Thanks for the correction and additional facts on these topics!

Super Chief mentioned the old Mendon depot - I remember as a young kid in the early 90s driving on M-60 and looking to the depot to the north - overgrown and falling in but still there, surrounded by line poles. Then one time it was a half torched shell, and that was that. Maybe one forlorn line pole remains, if anything at the site. The GR&I bridge over the St. Joe is a cool spot to visit if you've never been - both the railroad bridge and the road bridge are historic and closed to traffic. There's a little park and boat ramp at the end of the street and you can walk out on either bridge. It's fun to think back to 60 years ago when Tuscan passenger cars and classic Chevys would have been crossing each one, respectively.

A recent "where am i?" on the MichiganRailroads.com forum was the grain silo at Homer along the old Air Line ROW. Mentioned in the thread were one or two wrecks on the Air Line in the 1960s where a couple dozen cars stacked up and left the rails, in the Tekonsha/Homer area. I have photos of a couple stock car bodies which were too badly damaged in the wreck and were acquired by a local farmer to use on his property. I'll hunt around for my photos of these two. Several other people in the past have mentioned a Northern Pacific reefer which was also given a post-railroad life on a property along the north side of M-60 in the area, but I was never able to find it. Any ideas? Photos? I think I have a definite location on the stock car location which I will share when I find it.

[GP30M4216]

Here are my photos of the two stock cars I mentioned, which I just realized I took just about 10 years ago in early MAY, 2005. According to Google Maps, they are still in the NE corner of M-60 and 12 Mile Road just east of Burlington. I posted my photos, now I'm waiting for someone to post one of this mystery NP reefer!

[Firemedic Mike]

I believe the stock cars may be gone. I found them on Google Maps, but my last trip through the area on my way to work at Butler's racetrack revealed an empty field where the cars had been. Either I missed them, or they were removed.

[w neal]

If one googlemaps the air line, one can find a "branching" of the line east of Homer. Was this a realignment of some kind?

[Super Chief]

It could be the old LS&MS ROW from Litchfield north to Eaton Rapids? Crossed the Airline at Homer and the Michigan line at Albion. There was an interurban that came from Kalamazoo east went over the Michigan line at Galesburg on to BC then in a southeasterly direction to Homer. Could be the ROW of either but would need more specifics.

[GP30M4216]

W Neal, I was going to ask about the same thing. The location is between Homer and Concord. The grades divide just west of 28 Mile Road with one taking a southerly course and the other more northerly for a couple miles. The two grades join back together west of Homer Road where M-60 heads away from the ROW. From the air, the northern route includes a shallow reverse curve, while the southern includes a fairly sharp curve swinging north toward Concord. As I recall the topography is gently rolling hills. Obviously, one was a realignment from the other, I'm just not sure why, and which one is "newer" vs. "older."

I'm sure someone here knows the answer!

[Michael]

Here is a USGS topo map of the area you guys are talking about. The northern route was the original route and later realigned to the southern route.

[DelayInBlock]

I once heard that the GTW wanted to purchase the Air Line before Conrail ripped it up. They wanted to run trains over their Jackson Branch to the yard in JXN, then turn them down the Air Line. I guess they wanted a second main to Chicago for re-routes, etc., but nothing ever came of it. Honestly, from several of the NYC old heads that I know, they said it was all just rumor talk "back in the day." Shortly after the MAL was ripped up in 1982, the GTW followed suit and did the same with their Jackson Branch. Most of the bridges are left on the GTW's Jackson Branch.

The Falling Waters Trail, of which I've ridden many times, is a great way to experience the former glory of the MAL. Doug Leffler (who won't share high quality scans above 17KB of his photos...and the others from Cecil Hommerding, which are part of his oh-so "holier than thou collection"...with anyone online) has some great shots of PC/NYC trains outside of Jackson on the MAL. I did some before/after comparison photos from the same spots and it's crazy how different everything looks today. Crazy to think it was double tracked from OD to Haires Junction. My former lady friend lived in the neighborhood located right next to where Haires was located and the right-of-way from both lines are still clearly visible.

The LS&MS's Fort Wayne & Jackson Railroad connected with the MAL there. Interestingly enough, the Indiana Northeastern operates over part of the former FW&J from Steubenville, Indiana to Hillsdale. I've video taped their beautiful and classy Geep 30's on that line frequently. Oh, if only that line still connected to Jackson.



At Spring Arbor (Lime Lake), which is part of the trail, the MAL had a booming marl business going. Several of the docks for the mining boats still remain. I guess they would send a rail-barge with several tracks on the main deck over to where a loading crane was, load the cars, then a tug would send them back to the docks, where they were picked up by a local freight. It's only possible to see the docks during the fall time, when all the weeds and foliage are dead. There's some cool Google Earth shots, where one can clearly see the docks to the northwest of the lake.