The Pennsylvania Railroad In Michigan

[AlcomanRSD]

 Does anyone out there know of any book that shows photos and some details about one or both Pennsylvania RR lines running into Michigan:  the one running north from Ft. Wayne, IN (GR&I) and the other running north from Toledo, OH?

[joseph2]

I am another GR&I fan ,it used to go thru my hometown.Don't know of any books but I have seen magazine articles about it in Trains and Railroad. It was one of the few Eastern railroads to receive a federal land grant. 30 years ago I railfanned it to watch the carferry at Mackinaw.    Joe

[AlcomanRSD]

 What was your hometown?  I used to live within sight of the line on the southeast side of Kalamazoo.  There were so many interesting facets of both PRR lines into Michigan, but outside the occasional rare photo, I have never seen much written up on the two lines.  However, "The Timetable Collector", issue #108, was devoted to the GR&I.  Back in the GR&I days, there were 15 commuter trains each way between Harbor Springs and Petoskey to serve the summer resort traffic, as listed in the August 1898 Time Card.  The GR&I became part of the PRR's Northwestern Region in March 1920.  I miss those PRR road freights and switchers going about their business. 

[joseph2]

Please excuse my delayed response.I have been trying to find a link to some GR&I photos on the Fort Wayne forum.Photos show a passenger train thru Fort Wayne in the 1920's.Have you tried typing "grand rapids & indiana" into Google ? I saw some info on the lines history there. Be sure to include the quotation marks.Back in the 1950's I lived a block from the Decatur Indiana yard and remember seeing a summer excursion train called The Hay Fever Special going thru town. The line to Decatur is owned by CSX but leased to a regional called Chicago,Fort wayne and Eastern.The railroad'smain customer is the Bunge grain processing plant which has four locomotives.I work at Bunge,somedays I am an engineer or brakeman in their yard which used to be the old GR&I yard.Some of the rails date back to 1895 ! If I find any good links or photos I will post them.  Merry Christmas Joe

[MJChittick]

joseph2

The line to Decatur is owned by CSX but leased to a regional called Chicago,Fort wayne and Eastern.

My records indicate the branch from Fort Wayne down to Decatur is owned by the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern with Norfolk Southern having trackage rights. 

In fact the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern ended up owning the old Pennsy main from Hobart, IN all the way to Crestline, OH with Norfolk Southern having trackage rights all the way.

[AlcomanRSD]

 Yes, there's quite a bit of stuff on the GR&I, even a Wikipedia entry, besides entries in the historical section of www.michiganrailroads.com.  While I enjoy learning about the GR&I, I am most interested in the later Pennsylvania era of the lines after 1920, and especially the 1940s up to 1968 and PC.  It seems that it is often harder to find photos and info on motive power, operations, and so on for the PRR time.  I too remember seeing the Northern Arrow ("Hayfever Special") shoot through one day back in the early 1960s.  What kind of motive power do you have at Bunge?  That would be interesting, working the PRR yards and dreaming about all that history.  By the way, there's a wild photo of a PRR 2-10-2 followed by an F-7 pulling a freight in Grand Rapids, MI in July 1950 in the Michigan Rails 2009 calendar from the Michgian Railroad Club.

[ValleyX]

 Actually, it's leased by Rail America for twenty years, CSX still owns the track and I don't believe NS has trackage rights on the former GR&I portion to Decatur, only the main line between Hobart and Crestline. 

NS recently began utilizing those trackage rights west of Fort Wayne by running intermodal train 25A via that route.  After the Heartland Corridor opens, NS plans to utilize the trackage rights east to Bucyrus, OH, for intermodal traffic, avoiding Bellevue.

[ValleyX]

 Actually, it's leased by Rail America for twenty years and operated under the guise of Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Eastern.   CSX still owns the track and I don't believe NS has trackage rights on the former GR&I portion to Decatur, only the main line between Hobart and Crestline. 

NS recently began utilizing those trackage rights west of Fort Wayne by running intermodal train 25A via that route.  After the Heartland Corridor opens, NS plans to utilize the trackage rights east to Bucyrus, OH, for intermodal traffic, avoiding Bellevue.