NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

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AARR
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NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by AARR »

From the other board: https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 65333.html
Posted by NILE on 5/11/2021, 4:35 pm
NYC used to have many lines in southern Michigan and according to the "Evolution-of-michigan-railroads" link on this website. The line from Ypsilanti through Saline to Hillsdale was slowly pulled up from 1960 to 1970, with Pitt Junction to Saline part being sold to AARR in either '69 or '70. I suspect it was pulled up because it was redundant to many other NYC lines in the area.

What were some of the major industries along this line? Was it used to haul traffic south from Hillsdale or west to Eklhart? I maybe moving to this area soon and I'd like to know a little more about the history of this line.
DaveO correctly responded: https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 71476.html
Posted by DaveO on 5/11/2021, 6:17 pm, in reply to "NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)"
That it crossed both the US-23 and I-94 freeways at grade didn't help with longevity.
As DaveO correctly pointed out the reason AA (not AARR) was awarded the line to Saline was because the NYC branch to Hillsdale through Saline crossed US23 at grade. IIRC US23 was scheduled for either an expansion or renovation and someone must have determined that was a good time to make the change. However, most, if not all, of the traffic from the Ford plant in Saline went to NYC in Ann Arbor and later Toledo and/or Milan.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by ns8401 »

AARR wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 7:25 pm
From the other board: https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 65333.html
Posted by NILE on 5/11/2021, 4:35 pm
NYC used to have many lines in southern Michigan and according to the "Evolution-of-michigan-railroads" link on this website. The line from Ypsilanti through Saline to Hillsdale was slowly pulled up from 1960 to 1970, with Pitt Junction to Saline part being sold to AARR in either '69 or '70. I suspect it was pulled up because it was redundant to many other NYC lines in the area.

What were some of the major industries along this line? Was it used to haul traffic south from Hillsdale or west to Eklhart? I maybe moving to this area soon and I'd like to know a little more about the history of this line.
DaveO correctly responded: https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 71476.html
Posted by DaveO on 5/11/2021, 6:17 pm, in reply to "NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)"
That it crossed both the US-23 and I-94 freeways at grade didn't help with longevity.
As DaveO correctly pointed out the reason AA (not AARR) was awarded the line to Saline was because the NYC branch to Hillsdale through Saline crossed US23 at grade. IIRC US23 was scheduled for either an expansion or renovation and someone must have determined that was a good time to make the change. However, most, if not all, of the traffic from the Ford plant in Saline went to NYC in Ann Arbor and later Toledo and/or Milan.
They had plans to build bridges at both 23 and 94 for the traffic to Saline to come out of Ypsilanti. When the PC merger happened the plans were scrapped and the line was abandoned in late 1969 with the AA taking over Pittsfield to Saline because of the PC’s control of the DT&I and by extension the AA. It made it much easier to access the branch. The line was ripped out from Ypsilanti to Pittsfield in 1970, from Saline to Bridgewater in 1967 or 68 and from Bridgewater west in 1961.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by Buster Manning »

The line from Hillsdale to North Adams was still in place at Conrail day....the HCRC slowly pulled it up in the late 70s'-early 80s' with the last section in Hillsdale city limits removed in the 90s'

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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by ns8401 »

Buster Manning wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 12:31 pm
The line from Hillsdale to North Adams was still in place at Conrail day....the HCRC slowly pulled it up in the late 70s'-early 80s' with the last section in Hillsdale city limits removed in the 90s'
Right, I forgot about that small section… only 4 or 5 miles wasn’t it?
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by AARR »

Little over 7 miles from Hillsdale to North Adams
ns8401 wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 4:55 pm
Buster Manning wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 12:31 pm
The line from Hillsdale to North Adams was still in place at Conrail day....the HCRC slowly pulled it up in the late 70s'-early 80s' with the last section in Hillsdale city limits removed in the 90s'
Right, I forgot about that small section… only 4 or 5 miles wasn’t it?
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by ns8401 »

AARR wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 6:25 pm
Little over 7 miles from Hillsdale to North Adams
ns8401 wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 4:55 pm
Buster Manning wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 12:31 pm
The line from Hillsdale to North Adams was still in place at Conrail day....the HCRC slowly pulled it up in the late 70s'-early 80s' with the last section in Hillsdale city limits removed in the 90s'
Right, I forgot about that small section… only 4 or 5 miles wasn’t it?
Thanks… it’s really a shame that the lines out there deteriorated and were eventually torn out… that was a lot of track the NYC had in that area.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by mach69 »

You can very clearly see most of the line's remnants if you follow its former routing. A shame they didn't pave it into a rail trail as a lot of the RoW still remains.

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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by Chip »

mach69 wrote:
Sun Jun 13, 2021 2:03 pm
You can very clearly see most of the line's remnants if you follow its former routing. A shame they didn't pave it into a rail trail as a lot of the RoW still remains.
I wish there were more rail trails in general in Michigan.

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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by mach69 »

I also wish that Faurecia could move to a different facility around Saline and that another company (who want rail service) could pick up where Faurecia left off.

As for the (hypothetical) Ypsilanti-Hillsdale rail-trail, it would start near Ypsilanti junction, then move to the north side of the Pittsfield-Saline branch at Pittsfield Junction, then merge back onto the ROW west of Saline for most of the remainder of the run to Hillsdale.

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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by Macowiec »

There was also a segment retained between Brooklyn and Cement City, being serviced from the Cincinnati Northern line.

I can remember the railroad crossing on M-50 as a kid. It must have come out circa 1970.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

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The cement plant near Cement City closed during the 60's, IIRC, so you are probably correct about the track coming out
Macowiec wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 7:11 am
There was also a segment retained between Brooklyn and Cement City, being serviced from the Cincinnati Northern line.

I can remember the railroad crossing on M-50 as a kid. It must have come out circa 1970.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

Unread post by Macowiec »

The segment to Brooklyn was to serve customers there (a lumber yard and perhaps something else). The local came off the CN from Cement City.
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Re: NYC, Ypsilanti to Hillsdale line (1950s)

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Peninsular Portland Cement Company of Jackson built the plant in 1899 as the first factory in the world to be powered by electricity. It shut down in 1961.Finally in the 1990's, after 30 years of sitting empty & being a source of thrills for adventure-seekers, it was all razed in a halfhearted attempt to do something different with the property...but it still sits bare to this day.
https://99wfmk.com/cement-city-factory/ ... m=referral

The Peninsular Portland Cement company had a plant in northwest Lenawee County just south of Cement City. (This was in the area north of US-12 in and around Goose Lake. Plant operations were in the southwest quadrant of the north-south Cincinnati Northern and the east-west Detroit Hillsdale & Southwestern railroad. Both railroads serviced this facility.
This plant was founded in 1899 and mined marl from Goose Lake. This marl was processed with clay (from Milbury Ohio) to produce cement which was shipped out by railroad in barrels. Early on, the plant produced 700 barrels of cement per day. [GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MICHIGAN LOWER PENINSULA 1900-1903 VOL. VIII PART III]

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