You can't go home again.

[CShaveRR]

I guess I'm to the point, age-wise, where I have vague flashbacks. 

This past Sunday we came down from the cottage to attend church in Marne with Pat's mom, brother Eric and his wife Therese, after which we were joined for dinner by nephew Eric and niece-in-law Nicole grand-nephew Eric, and Therese's dad...nine people, four generations.

While we were dining, though, I had a strong urge to go for a ride through Grand Rapids and see something. I have no idea what it was, and--because we had to be back up at the cottage for a visit from my sister--I didn't act on it.

Monday, though, we had to be down in Coopersville for the kickoff of the annual "Quilts and their Stories" show at the Coopersville Farm Museum.  This year Pat's entry in the "director's choice" category has almost as much story as quilt! We decided to make Monday a road-trip day (mostly for me):  Ludington for the bookstore and a railroad yard, Baldwin for freight cars and a quilt shop, Newaygo for a quilt shop, and a new-to-us route into Grand Rapids to avoid the construction and eventual traffic on M37. 

And, since we had an hour or so to kill, we explored a little bit, hoping I'd feel inspired by whatever I'd felt the previous day. I have no idea whether I saw whatever I was hoping to, but we did see a few freight cars in various places, a lot of old factories in places that I remember well from 50 years ago (mostly along Godfrey SW). 

Did I find what had drawn me to Grand Rapids? I'll never know. We did see a lot of interesting things, including a swing bridge for the railroad (CSX) that's still in use as a fixed span--probably the movable span that was historically the furthest upstream on the Grand River. Lots of stored stack cars on CSX (they never get stack trains up that way), the old picnic table where railfans used to hang out. It's really warped now!

Maybe I just wanted to see memories...one place where I saw one freight car was where there used to be a 24-hour manual crossing of three railroads (controlled by gates...and it was fairly common to see yard engines from all three railroads there at once). We drove past Pat's old high school--now luxury apartments--which we hope to tour in a couple of weeks as part of her reunion. The site at Wealthy and Oakland SW where there once were two large expanding tanks for coal gas...I never knew what they were or how they worked while they were in existence. The warped picnic table, now surrounded by weeds, stood at the site where I used to bike into the yard and ride along the access road, harvesting good freight car information. I believe this access road is now covered by a track, and of course there are no-trespassing signs everywhere. There was a site where a small refinery, already abandoned 50 years ago, once stood--long gone. This yard (Wyoming) was at that point the biggest and busiest I'd ever seen, but in less than a year I started working at what once was the biggest yard in the country (Proviso had relinquished that title by that time, but it was still mind-boggling).

One place I want to visit again is a rail-trail that goes behind a lot of those factories on Godfrey (those used to be busy enough to warrant service from three railroads), and crosses the river on a tall bridge that I never had seen a train cross. It was too warm Sunday, and we had too little time.

 

We drove out Chicago Drive to Jenison, then up Cottonwood Drive and Fillmore to Grand Valley State Uiversity (Pat's alma mater) before crossing the river and going to Coopersville.  They've done a great job of hiding all of the buildings we remember from the college nearly 50 years ago.

Did I see what I was supposed to? Probably not...Thomas Wolfe was right!   But am I happy with my response to the call? Absolutely!

[BaltACD]

Attended my 50th HS Reunion a couple of years ago.  Our class was the first to graduate from that particular building after having completed a full year in it.  Upon the 50th that building is now a middle school and the HS is at another location entirely - never saw it.  All the 'sleepy' little two lane roads are 4 lane + turn lane road.  The building I started HS in that city has been demolished and that land plus the baseball field in back of the building are now a shopping center.

Went to a family wedding in Akron July 1.  My Ex had the opportunity to visit her old HS before it was to be demolished - she didn't go.

Home then is not the same now.

[selector]

Tempus edax rerum.

(Time devours everything.)

[samfp1943]

[quote user="selector"]

Tempus edax rerum.

(Time devours everything.)

 

[/quote]  

         AMEN!    

   "...It seems we get too soon old, and too late smart.."

[BOB WITHORN]

Carl, That rail-trail, the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail, is really nice and long. Runs from G/R to Cadillac with the Comstock to Rockford? piece paved. Good friend's dad owned the elevator the Cedar Springs until the late 60's? and remembers the PRR blasting through town as he put it. I remember seeing the Mich. Northern trying to drag a passenger train north once using the best they could find of their junk. Got told they had to double or tripple the hill, (bump ), at Cadillac because the only had 3? traction motors still operating by the time they that far north. That was 3 total, combined. Still working in Flint, I've been able to watch time erase what I grew up with. The C&O in the 60's through downtown, long gone. All but one GM complex gone, the ORIGINAL Buick, ORIGINAL Chevrolet, ORIGINAL AC Spark Plug, ORIGINAL Fischer Body. My HS, GONE. The neighborhood in grew up in, one of the fancier, is now, well, let's just say rough. CSX last year pull up the west main through Flint from Grand Blanc to the CN diamond. The Flint Central class of 1971 has had 2 reunions, last was 1992, won't likely have another. If it weren't for the family business I'd be long gone. So,now that the business is SOLD, on to greener pastures, (somewhere else).

[CShaveRR]

Is it the same trail?  The high bridge of which I spoke crosses the river downstream (southwest) of Wealthy Street (and I still remember the "singing bridge" on Wealthy, which was also once a swing span, built in 1904).  It would have historically been the LS&MS.  I thought that from the river that line curved southwest to go to the gypsum mine, etc.  (That portion of the line, from Oakland/Butterworth SW south to Byron Center, I've biked.)  I know the White Pine Trail runs north on the old Pennsy (GR&I) ... does it follow the same line from Comstock Park into town?  The LS&MS line, as far as I know, curved back southward to go to those factories along Godfrey, coming out the other end not far from where Godfrey joins Chicago Drive.  The line itself somehow went toward the PRR south of their yard (between Burton and 28th).  

I think my problem is figuring out what the NYC did in GR (it had two lines, which I believe were LS&MS and the Big Four or Michigan Central).  Perhaps that would straighten me out.  By the time I was paying attention, these lines were all part of Penn Central.

[MidlandMike]

CShaveRR

...  

I think my problem is figuring out what the NYC did in GR (it had two lines, which I believe were LS&MS and the Big Four or Michigan Central).  Perhaps that would straighten me out.  By the time I was paying attention, these lines were all part of Penn Central.

 

The LS&MS line came from White Pigeon thru Kalamazoo, Allegan, to GR.  White Pigeon-K'zoo is now part of Grand Elk RR.  Almost of all ex-MS&LS north of K'zoo is abandoned, still short segment Plainwell-Otsego.  North of K'zoo, Grand Elk is on ex-PRR.  MC had the other line to GR from Jackson, that ran thru Charlotte and Hastings.  A shortline runs a mile or so east of Charlotte to a grain elevator.  The link is to an old topo map that shows the old RRs aroung GR:

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/img4/ht_icons/Browse/MI/MI_Grand%20Rapids_278166_1914_62500.jpg

 

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for the map link.  Guess what...the high bridge I'm describing isn't on that map!  It crosses the river about midway between the 35/36 section line of GR Township and the bridge to the northeast (Wealthy Street).  The line evidently took advantage of the height of that hill to come up from the other lines, curve, and launch itself over the river.  How it connected with the other lines on that side I'm not sure.

I did find a map that shows how the bike trail on the bridge connects with the line going past the plaster mine and to Byron Center.  It doesn't go as far in the other direction as I'd thought, sadly.

[BaltACD]

The first 5 years of my career were spent as an extra list train order operator on the B&O's St.Louis, Pittsburgh and Akron-Chicago Divisions.  For the most part, all of the office structures I worked in no longer exist - in other cases the railroad itself is no longer a part of the B&O's immediate successor roads.  In other cases the railroad where I worked has been abandoned with rails and ties ripped up and scrapped.  The building where I performed my first day of training still exists, however, it is not the local Chamber of Commerce building.  The building where I made 1st day that established my original seniority date still exists as a railroad building, however, the Divison Offices that were in a separate building a block away has been demolished and is a vacant lot.

Things change over 52 years.