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Aside from spots where tracks run right along the edge of the road or in a median on a road, but not actually in the pavement, had there ever been any true street running in the State of Michigan? I'm assuming if there had been, it's probably gone by now, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

atrainguy60 wrote:Aside from spots where tracks run right along the edge of the road or in a median on a road, but not actually in the pavement, had there ever been any true street running in the State of Michigan? I'm assuming if there had been, it's probably gone by now, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I could be wrong, but I think there was some in Marine City on the PH&D. It was a block or so in a residential neighborhood, and even though it's long gone, the street is still there. It's probably been repaved a time or two since the RR was removed though. I know there were other instances of street running around here (Port Huron area), including ex-PM on the north side of the Black River drawbridge nobody seems to be able to take down, but it's all been gone for decades.

In Plainwell, the old industrial siding to the paper mill ran down the center of a street for a block. Mill's closed, siding is gone.

Alpena, MI had a stretch of true street running down Fletcher St in addition to the current stretch of "fake" street running down 10th Ave. The Fletcher Street branch has since been removed. Below is a photo taken by Ron Cady of a train running down Fletcher Street, crossing 2nd Ave.



Muskegon Heights, MI also has a stretch of street running, but I'm not sure if it meets your qualifications. Technically I think the rails are separate from the dirt road, but years have neglect have made it closer to true street running.

SW in the Street by Jim Guest, on Flickr

Grand Rapids also had a stretch of street running in downtown, which has since been removed. This video I found on YouTube shows the line in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFwK5hPSX0

There is street running now in Detroit

Q Line - Detroit, MI by tcamp7837, on Flickr

Passenger trains are not real trains

ConrailDetr​oit wrote:There is street running now in Detroit

Q Line - Detroit, MI by tcamp7837, on Flickr

It wasn't that long ago that trains still ran down First St in Monroe, MI. Here is a picture:
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/426665/

Also not all that long ago, trains ran down Guoin St and Wight St in Detroit on the old Detroit Manufacturers Railroad, as described in a book by Byron Babbish. See this post for more info: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34688

Even though it was an interurban, the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon hauled freight, and I have seen a few picture of PM freight cars in tow. They ran on streets in GR, Coopersville, Spring Lake, Grand Haven and Muskegon. Not quite the train one would dream of seeing in the middle of Savidge st in SL, but would have been cool anyway.

Sorry to bump an over-a-month-inactive thread, but it too wasn't that long ago that trains ran down Marshall Street in Wyandotte to access the old Pennwalt and BASF South Works facilities, both long gone since around 1991. You can still see different pavement where the tracks were if you travel along Biddle Avenue in this area. Here is an aerial photo from 1981.

Burb8145 wrote:Sorry to bump an over-a-month-inactive thread, but it too wasn't that long ago that trains ran down Marshall Street in Wyandotte to access the old Pennwalt and BASF South Works facilities, both long gone since around 1991. You can still see different pavement where the tracks were if you travel along Biddle Avenue in this area. Here is an aerial photo from 1981.

Don't worry about bumping a old thread, info is info (we'll take all we can get) . Also on Mulberry st. by the hospital. Penwalt was reached south of Pennsylvania ave.

Grand Trunk Western ran right down the middle of Hart Street in Bay City for about 5 blocks.
I remember following the train(s) while riding on a bike as a kid.

John

There was a spur in Ypsilanti diverging from the Michigan Central mainline eastbound down the middle of Lincoln Street on it's route to the Ford Ypsilanti​ plant. It was probably removed about 10 years ago. I know Mackinac Mac has photos somewhere of the rails in place.

The interurban from Grand Rapids to Holland ran down the middle of 30th St in Grandville from Peck St to "old" Chicago Dr. Tracks where paved over in the past and removed back in the early 2000's when they resurfaced 30th St. The power lines that run NE from Peck St are on the old ROW of the interurban.

Going back a bit, during the late 1830s and most of the 1840s, the rail line that became the Michigan Central ran west down Michigan Ave in Detroit from its depot near the corner of Michigan and Griswold.

And during the 1840s and early 1850s, the Detroit & Pontiac rail line (the most ancient forerunner of the CN Holly Subdivision) ran down Gratiot Ave between Dequindre and a depot east of Woodward.

blueheron13 wrote:And during the 1840s and early 1850s, the Detroit & Pontiac rail line (the most ancient forerunner of the CN Holly Subdivision) ran down Gratiot Ave between Dequindre and a depot east of Woodward.

And let's not forget that the rerouting of those tracks off of Gratiot was the result of a pair of incidents where business owners destroyed the tracks after they were laid. In fact, these incidents are widely known to be one of the first riots ever to break out within Detroit proper (and I'm not saying it just because 50 years ago this week was the infamous 1967 riot).