![Image](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jimthias/Tracks/lakecora-3560.jpg)
Looking west from the Hill Rd. crossing near Lake Cora:
![Image](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jimthias/Tracks/hillcrossing-3559.jpg)
A wider shot looking west up the hill at Lawrence:
![Image](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jimthias/Tracks/blackmancrossing-3552.jpg)
A small trestle on the west side of Paw Paw:
![Image](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jimthias/Tracks/pawpawbridge-1704.jpg)
rrboomer wrote:Local arriving at Paw Paw with 1846 for power. They ran Tue-Thur-Sat to Paw Paw and M-W-F to South Haven
That was the original alignment of the MC out of K-zoo, before they relocated it up Miller Hill in the early 1900's. I believe that the line through Paw Paw eventually tapped into that to reach K-zoo originally.J T wrote: When that line continued on east, did it connect up with the (now) Amtrak line somewhere west of Kzoo?
Dick, do you also remember a line that branched off of the Amtrak line in Mattawan? If you look at a satellite image, you can see the ROW which starts on the northeast side of Mattawan and disappears by the Stadium Dr./131 junction on the west side of Kzoo. Those tracks ran in back of my cousin's house in Mattawan and I heard stories of them derailing a local one time on that line.I'm not sure when those tracks were removed, but I feel like I remember seeing them in the early 70s when visiting my cousins.
GLC's CEO, Mike Bagwell, spoke at the last AARRT&HA annual meeting. A question was asked about the Middleton Branch's continuing rehab. Mr Bagwell said that it is ongoing but there is only so much that can be done on a line that generates approximately 1/2 million a year in gross revenue. Another factor is although shipping on the line is better than ever it wasn't that long ago traffic dropped significantly when they started trucking corn to local ethanol plants. So that $500,000 a year could easily drop to $250,000-$300,000 without notice.TSB wrote:Those photos look like Class I mainline compared to my first look at the Middleton Branch. It actually could be rehabed.
Did that branch ever continue west of Carson City, and if so, where did it go?TSB wrote:Those photos look like Class I mainline compared to my first look at
the Middleton Branch. It actually could be rehabed.
This was the original Toldeo, Saginaw and Muskegon line. Went west from Ashley (via the Ann Arbor) to Carson City, Greenville, Cedar Springs and on west into Muskegon. The line was abandoned in the early 30's I think and tore up from Muskegon to where the track ends now west of Middleton during or shortly after WW2. GTW by this time was running on the PRR line from Muskegon to Penn Junction and then on into GR on the Detroit Grand Haven and Milwaukee RR track. About the time I-96 was being put west of Grand Rapids the PRR and GTW agreed to run on the DGHM line from Penn Junction on into GR where the PRR went back on their own tracks near Fuller Crossing.J T wrote:Did that branch ever continue west of Carson City, and if so, where did it go?TSB wrote:Those photos look like Class I mainline compared to my first look at
the Middleton Branch. It actually could be rehabed.
You got most of it tw.trnwatcher wrote:This was the original Toldeo, Saginaw and Muskegon line. Went west from Ashley (via the Ann Arbor) to Carson City, Greenville, Cedar Springs and on west into Muskegon. The line was abandoned in the early 30's I think and tore up from Muskegon to where the track ends now west of Middleton during or shortly after WW2. GTW by this time was running on the PRR line from Muskegon to Penn Junction and then on into GR on the Detroit Grand Haven and Milwaukee RR track. About the time I-96 was being put west of Grand Rapids the PRR and GTW agreed to run on the DGHM line from Penn Junction on into GR where the PRR went back on their own tracks near Fuller Crossing.
Ahh, so this is the line that went through Sparta where the old depot still stands. Did this arrive in Muskegon along Apple Ave? I did some exploring of that old ROW about 10 years ago and found some track that still existed in the woods a few miles east of 31. Then the ROW just seemed to disappear where it would have continued east. I remember when I first started snooping around Muskegon in the late 90s that it was evident were the ROW was along the north side of Apple Ave. I think there were still some RR ties visible. Now it's a bike path.trnwatcher wrote:This was the original Toldeo, Saginaw and Muskegon line. Went west from Ashley (via the Ann Arbor) to Carson City, Greenville, Cedar Springs and on west into Muskegon. The line was abandoned in the early 30's I think and tore up from Muskegon to where the track ends now west of Middleton during or shortly after WW2. GTW by this time was running on the PRR line from Muskegon to Penn Junction and then on into GR on the Detroit Grand Haven and Milwaukee RR track. About the time I-96 was being put west of Grand Rapids the PRR and GTW agreed to run on the DGHM line from Penn Junction on into GR where the PRR went back on their own tracks near Fuller Crossing.J T wrote:Did that branch ever continue west of Carson City, and if so, where did it go?TSB wrote:Those photos look like Class I mainline compared to my first look at
the Middleton Branch. It actually could be rehabed.
Here's the WIkipedia article on the TSM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Sa ... on_Railway
The line from Greenfield to Muskegon via Sparta came into Muskegon parallel of Laketon (north side of Laketon). At Park it turned northwest and proceeded to Western where it connected to PM / C&O.J T wrote:Ahh, so this is the line that went through Sparta where the old depot still stands. Did this arrive in Muskegon along Apple Ave? I did some exploring of that old ROW about 10 years ago and found some track that still existed in the woods a few miles east of 31. Then the ROW just seemed to disappear where it would have continued east. I remember when I first started snooping around Muskegon in the late 90s that it was evident were the ROW was along the north side of Apple Ave. I think there were still some RR ties visible. Now it's a bike path.
C&O got Whirpool and GTW got General Tire in Ionia or whatever they were called. C&O got the better of the deal in the long run.TSB wrote:The CSX (or whatever they were called then) did a "market swap" with us (I was GT Treasurer & Director of Finance then) that was approved by the ICC. We gave up Whirlpool and got something else. The bridge on the west side of Carson City was beyond repair and traffic west of there was lost to us forever.
That was another GTW deal (giving away all traffic from Owosso to Durand was another) that came back to bite me at TSB.