RailRoadFan.com

I am wondering if anyone knows anything about this. This appears to be an old interurban freight or baggage trailer, and it currently sitting in someone's backyard southeast of Marshall, Michigan. It is located at 42.25915, -84.89557. This photo was taken from the road.



I also attempted to see GTW caboose #75010 northeast of Marshall, but is located off of a private driveway.
Does anyone have any information on this caboose? All I could find is that it is owned by James DiMoff.

Interesting. At first glace it looks like an old semi trailer with a door in the side.

It does look like these examples, at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum.

As the interurban era went on, their equipment started to get bigger and bigger in an effort to carry maximum cargo on each trip. It certainly could be a freight trailer car, later sheathed in steel (or maybe it was steel to begin with). Too bad you can't see more of an end....there might be a lot of clues there. Most steel RR baggage cars had two doors, not a single center door, so if I had to guess, I'd venture interurban. I'd love to know more.

NS3322 wrote:I am wondering if anyone knows anything about this. This appears to be an old interurban freight or baggage trailer, and it currently sitting in someone's backyard southeast of Marshall, Michigan. It is located at 42.25915, -84.89557. This photo was taken from the road.



I also attempted to see GTW caboose #75010 northeast of Marshall, but is located off of a private driveway.
Does anyone have any information on this caboose? All I could find is that it is owned by James DiMoff.

Maybe approach the property owner about the car?

**Additional Info: I've sent a link to this thread about the car to the Lost Railway Museum which isn't far from there and specializes in Interurban Equipment. Maybe they might know about it or were unaware of its existence.

O Scale Railfanner wrote:**Additional Info: I've sent a link to this thread about the car to the Lost Railway Museum which isn't far from there and specializes in Interurban Equipment. Maybe they might know about it or were unaware of its existence.

Already done. But thanks!

The ends look like they have clearance for the tighter radius of an interurban. You could surmise it came off the Michigan United Railway. Give that they abandoned their mainline in the late 20's the history of the car might be lost to time.

That Interurban trailer shows up on Google Street view too and from that angle you can see they had crossbucks mounted on it back in 2012.
https://goo.gl/maps/KQ3AJfnmiLs

Upon further research, the Michigan Electric Ry. did own some steel sided box trailers and this might be one of them. Another possibility might be the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railway, which at one time operated an extensive roster of modern, freight-hauling trailer interurban cars across Ohio and into Michigan via agreements with the DUR and MERy. This site details the operations more and shows photos of many of the freight trailer and box motor cars C&LE operated: https://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2017/03/h640.html

GP30M4216 wrote:Upon further research, the Michigan Electric Ry. did own some steel sided box trailers and this might be one of them. Another possibility might be the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railway, which at one time operated an extensive roster of modern, freight-hauling trailer interurban cars across Ohio and into Michigan via agreements with the DUR and MERy. This site details the operations more and shows photos of many of the freight trailer and box motor cars C&LE operated: https://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2017/03/h640.html

If its Michigan Electric its one hell of a survivor. Anything Michigan Interurban related is an incredibly rare find considering most interurbans and streetcar systems in Michigan were wiped out in the Great Depression. Most of the equipment was sold to pay off investors or scrapped where it sat.

Talked to a friend at the IRM, it is an interurban trailer, they do know it's there and the people who own it know what it is.

Tim wrote:Talked to a friend at the IRM, it is an interurban trailer, they do know it's there and the people who own it know what it is.

Do they have history on it?