by Ben Higdon » Tue Oct 08, 2019 8:51 am
First, the GTW. I know they at one time had a line coming across the state from Greenville, but that was torn up many years before this early 1970's map. How far out of town did the line continue. It appears there used to be a tank farm east of town. Was this the "end of the line" for the GTW line along Laketon. How busy would this have been by the 1970's and when was it finally removed from service? Were there any other customers along this line by the time the line ceased service? Speaking of the Laketon Branch,
*customers toward the end included Viking Foods, Geerpress, a lumber company, and Pro Gas at the end of the remaining trackage.
Second, Looking a the older maps it appears the line that now ends at Webb Chemical used to extend farther. The best I can tell it went up and around to connect with the ex-Penn Central (then GTW line) that came up from Grand Rapids. Was this the access to the Henry Street Yard?
*From Webb Chemical north to Simpson, where it tied into the GTW Laketon (TS&M), the track was MR&N. GTW took over MR&N in the 20s or 30s (but still had a MR&N roster for a single yard crew into at least the 60s). The track between Webb and Shaw (where it crossed the PRR main line from Grand Rapids) was out of service by the 60s
West of Webb, the belt line trackage was owned by C&O along Manahan Ave, with MR&N having haulage rights and PRR having trackage rights and shared servicing of customers. At Dresser Crane the track was again owned by MR&N and continued on to Henry St Yd.
The MR&N was not used to access Henry St Yd. GTW ran over Pennsylvania/PC trackage all the way to Waalkes (immediately north of Dresser Crane), where their track connected to the PRR spur from their wye down to Muskegon Heights.
Third, looking at the maps, and following along the line that used to run to the paper mill it gets a bit confusing. I know GTW's access to the car ferry was east of the old paper plant. It appears the old ferry dock is still in place per Google maps. It appears that just to the east of this was a spur going back to what is now the Ferry Express and Great Lakes Dock and Materials location. Was this also a ferry land or was it just a customer spur? Which line was this off, the C&O, or the GTW (PC) line that also appears to have been the same line? To the west of the paper mill it appears there was a railroad yard. The yard is listed as GTW and Penn Central. Did the PC and GTW (after buying the trackage) also serve the paper mill? Finally, what customer would have been at the end of the tracks (now Torresen Marine).
*the dock east of the ferry dock was a C&O spur. Penn Central didn't operate in this area. (I've seen a topographic map that mislabels the paper mill track as C&O/PC. Only C&O ever served the paper mill. This track was called the South Horn. The "yard" west of the plant was just a runaround as far as I know. Originally this track continued around Pigeon Hill and ended alongside the channel to Lake Michigan, where there was a car ferry slip. The notch in the river where they currently have the USS Silversides was the location of the ferry slip. This operation ended around 1910 due to redundancy with the Ludington operation. It was cut back a ways and still served a water treatment plant or something (coal shipments I presume) until later being cut back to the business just west of the paper mill.
Also, the current map shows an old ROW that extends NW from roughly where the old PC/GTW line crossed US31 to along Nim St then crossing the GTW Laketon Branch near Madison. Just to the north there appears to be a small yard on the old map. This shows as C&O. Was this an interchange yard. This area was slightly north of where the wye connecting the PC/GTW line from grand rapids to the Laketon branch line and the line to Henry St yard was.
*This was the C&O Freight Main. SImpson was where it crossed the GTW on Laketon. There wasn't a connection to the GTW there. What appears to be a yard would just be a few side tracks for local customers. The Freight Main was an alternate route between North Yard and Kirk, just north of Grand Haven. Originally it was part of a second route between Muskegon and Holland.