I'd like to learn from anyone doing Grand Rapids, MI related modeling, what eras had what markings, cars and locos, etc.
Thanks
Well, not exactly, but I did ski on a trail named Grand Rapids earlier today....
I bought two boxcars for the Ann Arbor Railroad some time back, far enough apart that I didn't recall buying duplicates. So, I painted over the road number and applied decals to one of them.
I looked up the Ann Arbor, and discovered they ran a number of carfloats across the lakes. Since I'm currently building a carfloat terminal in the Great Lakes region, this was an interesting bit of railroad history to me. Instead of "why did I buy these?", I discovered I had a pair of very appropriate cars. I'm looking forward to having them arrive at my terminal in Mooseport.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
When I was living in GR in the 1970s and early 1980s, there were basically three railroads: The C&O/Chessie, Penn Central (later Conrail), and the Grand Trunk Western. In 1976, the PC north of GR became the Michigan Northern.
My focus has been on the Pere Marquette/C&O/Chessie side of things. Up until 1947, anything that's now CSX in GR was Pere Marquette. After that, the PM was merged into the C&O. Around 1972, that became the Chessie System.
Motive power on that line was primarily four-axle diesels. Until the late 1960s, it was almost exclusively EMD power (NW2, SW7, GP7, GP9, SW9, GP30, E7, E8), though the GE U25Bs spent a good deal of time in the GR area. F7s were rare in GR on the C&O.
The C&O's Alcos didn't really figure into GR operations, except for a few years around 1970 when the big C630s were based at Wyoming Yard. GE power (U30B, U30C, U23B) started showing up around 1970.
As much as I concentrate on the C&O-predecessor Pere Marquette, I've always been fascinated by the Michigan Northern, which took over the former Pennsylvania/Penn Central trackage from Comstock Park to Mackinaw City in 1976 and ran it until the early 1980s. They had a colorful ragtag fleet of beat-up Alcos and Baldwins until they replaced them with second-hand GP7s around 1980.
I'm currently finishing up room-preparation so I can build a late-1940s switching layout based on the Pere Marquette's "Furniture Spur", that ran along Godfrey Avenue SW between Market Street and Hall Street. The Pennsy ran through that area, too, but I haven't decided whether I want to include that, yet.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
Filmhaupt,
Thanks. This is really helpful. I drove by the yard south of GR on US131 many times but never knew what the yard actually was for. Do you?
Seems like I saw a lot of GT in the late 70s early 80s. But for the life of me I cannot remember anything else. Ill have to search for pictures I guess.
Was there any SOO stuff during those times?
The yard along US-131 beween Wealthy and Burton Streets was the Penn Central, later Conrail, yard. It was made up of parts of the former Pennsylvania and New York Central yards. It wasn't a major yard by any of those railroads' standards. It pretty much handled cars for area businesses. There was much more yard there before the freeway was put through.
There also was a smaller yard around 36th Street, again on the PC/ex-Pennsy that fed the Fisher Body stamping plant.
I'm not aware of anyone who specifically models the Pennsy, New York Central or Penn Central as it existed in the GR area. If there are any, I'd love to hear from them.
The Grand Trunk Western was mainly a north-side-of-town road, running east-west, with its yards at the SE corner of Plainfield Avenue and Leonard Street, and along Ann Street, just east of Alpine. It used to have a large freight house along the east side of the Grand River below Sixth Street. I know only one person who models the GTW through GR.
The Soo run-throughs were mainly from the late 1980s, 1990s and early (I think) 2000s on CSX (ex-Chessie) trackage through town. The modern equivalent of that now runs from Detroit diagonally through SE Michigan down Norfolk Southern and across the old New York Central in Indiana to Chicago.
The Grand Rapids Model Railroad Historical Society models the former PM and C&O through most of West Michigan.