Central Michigan (CMGN)

Central Michigan Railway

The Central Michigan Railway (reporting marks CMGN) was created in 1987 when the Straits Corporation purchased the former Grand Trunk Western Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland subdivisions from the GTW. Straits Corp also owned the Detroit & Mackinac Railway. The story goes that Straits really only wanted the Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland subdivisons, but the GTW would only sell those lines if the Grand Rapids sub was included in the sale, as they wanted to rid themselves of everything north and west of Durand. Straits reluctantly agreed and the deal was finalized, with CMGN taking over operations on July 15, 1987. Straits had no interest in keeping any of the railroad in operation west of Durand and what was once a nice stretch of 50 mph railroad slowly began to deteriorate. The first segment to be abandoned was from Muskegon to Penn Jct (just west of Grand Rapids) in 1988. The welded rail on the line, which had been laid by GTW only about 10 years earlier, was reused to upgrade the Saginaw and Bay City subs. In 1989, the CMGN sold the branch from Penn Jct to Coopersville to the new Coopersville & Marne Railway. The trackage that the CMGN had retained in Muskegon was operated as an isolated part of the CMGN network for a couple of years before being sold in December of 1990 to Railtex, who formed the Michigan Shore Railroad to operate it. As 1992 dawned, Straits sold the Detroit & Mackinac to the new Lake State Railway, and CMGN became their (Straits) only railroad. In 1993, the rails were cut between Ionia and Owosso, with Railtex purchasing everything west of Ionia and forming the Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad, while the CMGN retained the Owosso-Durand segment. The railroad continued on through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, having a rich mix of traffic ranging from chemicals for Dow Chemical in Midland to western coal for the Consumer's Power plant in Essexville. In 2004, Straits sold the CMGN to Rail America, who merged it with their own nearby property, the Huron & Eastern.

Initially the railway leased motive power from the GTW (GP9s 4901, 4902, 4903, 4904, 4905 and 4134, along with SW9 7011 and SW1200 7017) and borrowed a few units from Detroit & Mackinac until they could purchase their own locomotives. The first of these were a group (4) of ex B&O GP40s that were rebuilt into GP38ACs by Helm Corp, which arrived in early 1988. These units were CMGN 8801-8804. In 1989, Straits acquired 6 ex Missouri Pacific U23Bs, 4 of which became CMGN 8902-8905 (the other 2 ran a short time for the D&M before being laid up and scrapped). After the sale of D&M to LSRC in 1992, the D&M Alcos were no longer a familiar sight on CMGN trains. In 1992, CMGN was bidding on the plant switching contract for Dow Chemical in Midland, and purchased a pair of ex Conrail GP8s for this express purpose. At the last minute, Dow went with a different operator for their inter-plant switching, so the GP8s (CMGN 9209-9210) became part of the regular CMGN fleet. The roster grew again in 1997 with the purchase of a former Canadian National GP40-2LW, CMGN 9712. Then in 2000, the railroad acquired an ex Devco Mining GP38-2 (CMGN 2014) along with 3 cab-less B30-7ABs from BNSF. In 2001, 3 C30-7s and 1 B30-7 arrived from BNSF. The C30-7s became CMGN 5075, 5086 and 5175. The lone B30-7 became CMGN 5492, and the trio of B30-7ABs became CMGN 4065, 2001 and 2002. In 2003, the railroad sold off the GP8s, as they were made surplus by the arrival of the newer GEs. The rest of the fleet continued on with the Huron & Eastern until the GEs and even some of the EMDs were gradually retired, the last one being set aside in 2013. As of 2021, the 2014, 9712 and 8804 continue to work for the Huron & Eastern as HESR 2028, 3036 and 2026 respectively.

Central Michigan Railway Locomotive Roster

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