West Michigan RR Abandonment Petition Coming

[J T]

What is the small raised platform above 85's number boards?

That's a ground plain where the radio and other antennas were mounted. Santa Fe and other railroads added those to older engines, large flat areas improved radio and EOT reception on the head end.

Interesting. I think this is the first unit I've ever seen with that.

[Racer]

It's hard to believe that both railroads the Star Clipper Dinner Train operated on are now abandoned. First the Michigan Air-Line Railway and now the West Michigan Railroad.

[AARR]

Love the pics. This was taken on the line they were filing for abandonment on? When was the last train on that line?

The picture J T took may have been the last revenue trip over the line.

[MagnumForce]

Those pictures are among my all time favorite's, J T

Thanks, Don. Some day I'll go back and reprocess them with CS5 so they look better (used PS 7 back then). High sun that day and the lighting sucked. Wow...hard to believe it's been nearly 6 years!

You need to get out of your high sun funk, when it comes to extremely rare, never again stuff. It doesn't matter!

[J T]

You need to get out of your high sun funk, when it comes to extremely rare, never again stuff. It doesn't matter!

[MagnumForce]

Yeah, I see nothing

[bctrainfan]

Thats what I really love about this board! People know stuff! Someone has some vague memory about something, posts a little info or question, no matter how obscure, and BOOM! Some one or many someones posts an answer with all the info and even PICTURES! And all the pics on this thread were great, as usual, even if the light wasn't perfect.

[intocable83]

I searched Google Images for more pictures of Lake Cora and came across this neat historic shot I thought I would share.

[NSSD60M]

Thats what I really love about this board! People know stuff! Someone has some vague memory about something, posts a little info or question, no matter how obscure, and BOOM! Some one or many someones posts an answer with all the info and even PICTURES! And all the pics on this thread were great, as usual, even if the light wasn't perfect.

I suppose my mind was a bit foggy about them having bi-level cars for the dinner train. Don't know what I confused that with.
At any rate, sure enough, all the photos and info would come right along I had a feeling.

Did they push the dinner train back once they reached the end of the trip? IIRC, that's what happened on the train with the 85, no run around, just a reverse move.

[sgavan]

Sad to hear this but I guess this line has been lucky to last past the early 80s. Here's a few photos I took in 2008 when WM pulled some old CN boxcars out of storage in Paw Paw. I'm pretty certain this was the last train on the line. I had a broken cell phone camera with me as I just happened to be working in Lawrence and heard a whistle in town. They had pulled the CN/ALAB cars from Paw Paw into Lawrence a few weeks early, had apparently had prepped them for moving out. These were all scraped later and were in pretty bad condition. WM seemed to be sorting them out using the run-around track in Lawrence. Interesting to watch the conductor with a sledge-hammer making quick repairs to the tracks as they gingerly switched the cars around. There were places where no spikes (or ties) existed anymore so they were going extremely slowly. Had to get back to work and when I returned, everything was gone except a couple rusted boxcars (probably needed more repairs before moving).









Also when the star clipper train started up in 1990(?), the company I worked for had sold them a phone system and I was helping install it in the office building behind the train in the photo posted earlier. Got a tour of the train just before a run. I think it was a practice run as they were "train"ing the wait staff. Seemed like a very classy operation then with all the formal tables with wine glasses.... There were engines on both ends of the train so I assume the crew simply shut down the lead engine and walked to the other end of the train to turn around.

Always thought this line would be fun to ride on a speeder. You would need a chainsaw and shovel to go very far today on that line.

[Super Chief]

I was on most runs with the engineer Jerry Kerns who is now with Grand Elk. I bought and installed the Kenwood mobile radios in both those engines and Glenn Monhart's F unit Carolina and Western when it was on the property. Like I said in a different thread had the persons in the office kept their hand out of the till the dinner train might still be around. We had good crowds and the food was exceptional. The bar was under the dome on one car and yes we did do back up moves back to Paw Paw as standard practice. Thanks for the memories.

[J T]

They had pulled the CN/ALAB cars from Paw Paw into Lawrence a few weeks early, had apparently had prepped them for moving out. These were all scrapped later and were in pretty bad condition.

A few still exist in Lawrence. Two CN/ALAB boxes on the main, one coal hopper, one ALAB lumber car and the former EJ&E caboose #541 (now PREX) on the spur (visible in one of your pics). Got pics today that I will be posting soon.

[J T]

Here are the pics I took on Sunday.

-Lawrence elevator



-Looking east from Paw Paw St.



-And back to the west



-The two boxcars on the main, looking east. The switch is for the run around track seen in the previous photos












-Looking west

[J T]

West of the boxcars, there is a spur that comes off the main and goes next to the buildings seen in the second pic in the previous post. In the background of this shot you can see a hopper.



-First of the three cars parked on the spur is the hopper






-Then the lumber car



-And finally the caboose

[J T]

After Lawrence, I headed over to the crossing just west of Lake Cora. I posted this first shot earlier in this thread from December of 2011, but here it is again for easy comparison of a similar view:






As you can see, the fallen tree has been cleaned up. Odd to me considering their plan to abandon, and I can guarantee nothing has been down these tracks since that first photo.

From a previous photo, it had appeared to me that a section of the rail was missing closer to the lake, so I walked down the ROW a bit closer to investigate. Well, turns out it was just an illusion. The grass in this one section appears to have taken over the rails and been trimmed as well.






After taking the Lake Cora pics, I headed back west down Red Arrow Highway. And then I spotted this:



Anyone know who Sheldon is? This is just east of the 50th St. crossing, directly north of Baker Lake.

[AARR]

I would railfan those old decrepit tracks with railcars trapped inside growing trees and weeds any day over sitting in Fostoria Nicely done J T!

[TraintrackGal]

GREAT shots J T!!!! Wish there were more old inactive tracks to explore. I know they get some revenue from taking out the tracks but sometimes, it's more rustic and historic to leave some tracks in. The tracks tell a story that no historic marker could.

Keep up the great photos!!!!

[Racer]

When they remove the tracks from Lawrence to Paw Paw is there any chance of growing any business aside from the 1 customer in Hartford? What is the purpose of Pioneer keeping an engine for 1 customer of 2-3ish cars a week on a mile stretch of track?

[wagnew0923]

Any idea if the cars will be collected before the line is torn up

[Tom]

When they remove the tracks from Lawrence to Paw Paw is there any chance of growing any business aside from the 1 customer in Hartford? What is the purpose of Pioneer keeping an engine for 1 customer of 2-3ish cars a week on a mile stretch of track?

You could order 3 carloads of lumber and delay the whole thing by 2 more years