SEMTA Commuter Rail on January 16, 1989
Welcome to the sixteenth day of the first month of the last year of the "Swanky Eighties." Transition is a next-day occurrence on January 16, 1989. A transition that will forever change the course of the history of suburban bus and commuter rail transit in Motown. Here are a few photos of SEMTA trains I took on the eve of Freshwater Railway (and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation).
We woke up early on the morning of 01/16/1989. We arrived at the Wyandotte depot in time to board Toledo (Erie) Line train #1004 for Detroit. Here we go, riding the last #1004 under the SEMTA reporting mark.
The engineer was kind enough to let me ride in the cab of that mighty-old and mighty-fine ex-RDC cab car that morning. Here we are, pulling out of the depot and about to cross Vinewood Steet. The southbound Conrail Detroit Line main is to our left, the GTW Shoreline Subdivision is to the left of that.
Nearly a half-hour later, we pulled into the Michigan Central Station just outside of downtown Detroit. Our next train, Washtenaw-Jackson (Michigan) Line train #2211 for Ann Arbor, waits in the station, along with Amtrak Wolverine #350 for Chicago to the far right. Both trains will be pulled by F40PHs.
Here's a great shot that I took, showing the train we just left to the left and the one we would board to the right. Michigan Central Station back in 1989 was a bit clean, but was still derelict...large billboards literally blocking every last wall in the concourse.
Shot this from inside our gallery car...we're about to cross under the CSX Detroit Subdivision in east Dearborn. Capital Line train #3103 for South Lyon is about to cross over us, led by a former C&O GP40-2 still in Chessie paint.
Caught this interesting meet a couple hours later at the Inkster Road crossing on the border between the city of Livonia and the charter township of Redford. Capital Line train #3008 for Detroit creeps through as Soo Line train 500 (this was before CSX added letter prefixes) barrels through with an SD60-2 at the point, back when Soo/CP had an agreement to send trains along CSX rails across southern Michigan.
We spent the middle of the day back home in Southgate. After watching that afternoon's repeat of the old 1961 Mixels TV series, we jaunted back up to downtown Detroit and caught this GTW GP9 leading Oakland (Superior) Line train #4028 for Flint north out of the Renaissance Center Station up the Holly Subdivision in the evening rush, crossing Woodbridge Street a few blocks east of the Renaissance Center Station. In 1993, Freshwater Railway rerouted their two GTW lines into Michigan Central. The sun has already set for the day and after the evening rush ends, it will set on SEMTA as well, the following morning rush bringing along the start of a new unknown era, as we called it back in the "winter of '89."
ENJOY!
