Michigan Railroad Club

Anything pertaining to railfanning in Michigan.
KenB
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Location: Dearborn, Mich.

Michigan Railroad Club

Unread post by KenB »

Hi everybody. Next meeting of The Michigan Railroad Club will be Wednesday, Sep 01, 2021. Program by Dean Pryers on "Train Robberies in Michigan".
Meeting held at the Ford Community Arts a& Preforming Center, 15801 Michigan Ave just East of Greenfield. Meeting starts at 1900 and ends at 2100. Come early and photograph Amtrak #355. Only a few more weeks left to photograph train on North side. ALL are most welcome!
During these past months many of you had time to photograph trans and work on your material. I have plenty of open dates for programs for 2022. Won't you share your material?

Man o' War
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Location: Mount Clemens, MI/Hawks Nest, WV

Re: Michigan Railroad Club

Unread post by Man o' War »

Glad to hear the meetings are back on track (pun intended). "Train Robberies in Michigan" sounds interesting. Saw one performed several seasons ago now when one of the Mt. Clemens locals broke into a 40' boxcar and removed 41 cases of Old Milwaukee Light (tantamount to stealing water), loaded them into his pick-up and headed out - in broad daylight. This, back in the halcyon days of beer warehousing in Mt. Clemens. He was caught some hours later.

Man o' War

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LansingRailFan
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Re: Michigan Railroad Club

Unread post by LansingRailFan »

Man o' War wrote:
Thu Aug 12, 2021 6:40 pm
Glad to hear the meetings are back on track (pun intended). "Train Robberies in Michigan" sounds interesting. Saw one performed several seasons ago now when one of the Mt. Clemens locals broke into a 40' boxcar and removed 41 cases of Old Milwaukee Light (tantamount to stealing water), loaded them into his pick-up and headed out - in broad daylight. This, back in the halcyon days of beer warehousing in Mt. Clemens. He was caught some hours later.

Man o' War
Old Milwaukee Light ain’t so bad actually.

I had a dog named Keystone once.

Tim
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Location: Perry, Mi

Re: Michigan Railroad Club

Unread post by Tim »

Could I get Dean's email, I have one robbery I'd like to send him

Tim
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Location: Perry, Mi

Re: Michigan Railroad Club

Unread post by Tim »

Desperado takes $40
By PHIL JURIK, Lansing State Journal, June 23, 1987 pg 1C
Lansing lapsed into the bygone era of train robberies Monday when a masked man hopped aboard a slow-moving freight and stunned the engineer by pulling a knife.
The robber – wearing a dark, shiny mask with holes cut out for his eyes – escaped with $40 from the engineer, who apparently wasn't carrying any gold or silver pieces.
"The Train Robbery Caper," as Lansing police were calling it, might not rank with the great heists of Jesse James, but was believed to be a first for modern-day, local law.
"A train robbery, right here in River City," said Lansing Police Capt. Jerry Mills. "I would bet if you went back through the annals of LPD, you would probably find a train robbery. But I don't remember any. Of course, I've only been here 24 years."
Engineer Ernest Billings, 53, was operating the train about 2:25 a.m. near Turner and Reasoner streets, two miles north of the Capitol, when he heard the door shut behind him.
The engineer from Pierson, 30 miles north of Grand Rapids, turned and was confronted by a young man with a mask on the top half of his face.
The robber, waving a knife 10 inches long, forced Billings to lie on the floor of the CSX Corp. train.
The robber told the engineer if he tried to move, he would be cut in the neck. While holding the knife to the back of Billings' head, he took his billfold and watch.
"The subject jumped off the train to parts unknown," Mills said, unable to resist adding: "He may have jumped on a horse, we don't know."
Billings waited a few minutes and then contacted his base by radio. A police dog was called in but couldn't pick up a trail.
The bandit was described as a black male, 18 to 25 years old, 5-foot-l0 to 6-foot-l, with a medium build.
Sgt. Don Dufour and his detectives now have the case. But Dufour said there wasn't much to go on.
"I had to read the report twice," he said. "I never heard of such a thing. I've seen it in the movies, 'The Great Train Robbery.' That's it."
Police and area rail history buffs said the only train thefts they could recall were larcenies from box cars. The only other train robbery they found was in Detroit in 1970 when three youths held a conductor at gunpoint and broke into two freight cars. They were filled with baby strollers and rattles.

My take on this is since the engineer was alone in the cab, I would imagine he was either on a road train making a pick up/set off or he was on the afternoon yard job working overtime. There was no night yard job at this time. This is occurred at the east end of Ensel Yard on the north side of Lansing.

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