Apparently, the Pere Marquette trains used the tracks of CASO (MichiganCentral/Canada Southern) somewhat north of Lake Erie, and connecting from there across the Niagara River to Buffalo. I wasn't aware of that until recently, when a friend gave me a brass model of a Pere Marquette 2-8-4. It's a decent runner, but too long for either of my two manually operated turntables.
Wayne
Unfortunately, I am not aware of a similar service with web imbedded maps for Canadian Geographic Surveys. The data is definitely available - just not in as good as a package. If you were to google your district or rural municipality followed by "topographic map" that would be a good place to start. If you have a local historical society they may also be able to point you in the right direction, or could offer scans from their collection
Would anyone know if there is a Canadian equivalent to these maps and photographs? I was trying to find something about my Alberta hometown's former trackplan, but have yet to make any progress.
The all inclusive source for all topo maps is:
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/40.01/-100.06
I found that a web site called historicaerials.com can be a great source for protoype track plans. The site not only has aerial photographs from surprisingly early eras but also has topography maps from even earlier. My HO scale layout models the Santa Ana & Newport Railroad which was built in the late 1890's in Southern California. The prototype track plan was somewhat "Y" shaped with the base of the "Y" on the Balboa Peninsula, the top left of the "Y" almost to Westminster, and the top right of the "Y" in Santa Ana. As I developed my model track plan, I realized that there must have been a wye in the saddle of the "Y" so that trains could travel all three possible routes as well as turn around. Unfortunately, what little information i could find at the time did not show this area. As such a wye would be absolutely necessary for the operations I planned, I went ahead and included the wye where I thought it should be. A few years later, I discovered the historicaerials.com site where I found a topo map of the area from 1899. Sure enough, and right where I figured it would be, was a wye.
Recently, I used historicaerials.com to study the Ventura County Railroad's tracks around Oxnard and Port Hueneme in California. Although the current tracks terminate on the north side of the harbor and also terminate just east side of the harbor, earlier maps show that the tracks used to be continuous between these two locations forming a complete prototype loop of track around Oxnard. This continuous loop forms a perfect basis for the N scale 4'X8' layout my friend and I are building.
I'm sure historicaerials.com could help you with your track plan search, too.
Sorry I couldn't make the link.
Hornblower
https://www.american-rails.com/pm.html
Takes you to the same spot
Some interesting discussion and photos on this site:
https://www.michiganrailroads.com/stations-locations/126-newaygo-county-62/1592-white-cloud-mi
Rich
Alton Junction
I can't get this one to work, either
Maybe try this route:
https://tinyurl.com/2c9j34tk
Pere_Marquette_101 by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Tried to make the link clickable. Failed!
Mike
I actually just found a really great site to get down to track level, https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ in case anyone wants to check it out
Thanks for the info guys!
Found a VERY detailed web site about various fallen flags. Below is such information to incldue a 1937 map from here (stupid link feature not working correctly, pls paste):
https://www.american-rails.com/pm.html#gallery[pageGallery]/1/
to the Forum. Your posts will be delayed in moderation for a while.
The P-M Historical Society has a very large scale map. I did not click on the Resources option. https://www.pmhistsoc.org/maxpmmap.shtml
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
There used to be very good maps of the Pere Marquette rail lines at https://gllx3001facts.com/pere_marquette/index.php but it appears like the site is no longer active. Im modeling the grand rapids subdivision north to Baldwin Michigan, does anyone have any resources that could help?