The brick train depot in Albion has been welcoming visitors since 1882. It served the town for decades greeting passenger trains until 1972. It was eventually restored and is still used today by Amtrack and as a bus depot.
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In downtown Battle Creek standing along the river with the same name as the city is this fantastic old train depot. The railroad tracks are gone now and the last passenger train left the station in the 1980’s. I can imagine the in its heyday the passengers coming and going thru this station on their journey looking up at the clock tower to see if they are on time. Trains no longer use the station but it is still used as a restaurant. It also has a Michigan Historical Marker with a sign that reads:
The Michigan Central Railroad Depot opened on July 27, 1888. Rogers and McFarlane of Detroit designed the depot, one of several Richardsonian Romanesque-style stations between Detroit and Chicago in the late nineteenth century. Thomas Edison as well as Presidents William Howard Taft and Gerald Ford visited here. The depot was acquired by the New York Central Railroad in 1918, Penn Central in 1968 and Amtrak in 1970. The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
A much as I like driving around the state I have always wondered what it would be like to travel the state by train, I guess I was born a little late for that.
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This old railroad depot stands near downtown Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula. The old station was built in 1910. I am not sure when it closed but It looks as if it has been a long time since anyone has taken a train ride from this historic depot.
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The old coal tower and railroad station in New Buffalo was a busy place decades ago. It was the largest train yard in Southwest Michigan and many steam trains would stop to get fuel and water. The old station is now a railroad museum and I am thinking it has been a long time since trains stopped for coal to fire the boilers. If you want to visit the museum you can learn more on their website HERE
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I know I am sometimes lost in Michigan but I am not that lost to be in Moscow Russia. The town of Moscow Michigan can be found along historic US-12. The first settlers came to the area in 1831 and it was Alonzo Kies who came to the area from Moscow, New York, and gave the town its Russian name. The old railroad depot is now used as a township hall but a historical marker gives some info and reads:
A grand celebration and a baseball game greeted the Michigan and Ohio Railroad when its track reached Moscow on September 4, 1883. This Stick Style station, completed the following month, was “quite an ornament to the place,” according to the Hillsdale Standard. The two-room depot serviced mail, freight, and passengers for the two freight and two passenger trains passing through Moscow each day on the Michigan and Ohio’s Allegan – Toledo line. In 1887 the Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railroad purchased the Michigan and Ohio and its depots. Successive railroad companies maintained the depot until around 1930 when the New York Central closed the line. In 1933 the building became the Moscow Township Hall.
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The southwestern Michigan town of Three Oaks was named after, you guessed it, three oak trees that stood nearby when the area was settled in 1850. This adorable little brick depot was constructed in 1898. It was used by the railroad until 1959. The little depot sat empty for years before it was restored in 1980. It is now used for retail and community space.
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Deep in the forests of the Huron Mountains in the northwest Upper Peninsula is a huge gash in the solid rock terrain. It was created in the 1890s to run the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad from Champion to an ore dock near Skanee. A group of investors in the Detroit area thought they could make a fortune on hauling iron ore by train from a mine near champion. They spent about two million dollars and employed 1500 men building a railroad and ore dock. By the time it was completed the mine had stopped producing iron ore and the railroad was no longer needed. Shortly after the railroad was sold for about $100,000 and the tracks were removed and used downstate.
The Huron Bay Peshekee Grade Road from US-41 will take you near the famed rock cut. The road follows along the Peshekee River and constructed using part of the old railroad grade. It is not a trip for the faint of heart. It is about 20 miles of rough road back into the wilderness. When I got the rock cut it was pouring rain and the mosquitoes were eating me alive. I think I know how Percy Fawcett felt looking for the lost city in the jungle in one of my favorite books The Lost City Of Z. Although it was a long and rough trip back to the rock cut, it was one of the most impressive things I have seen in Michigan. I can only imagine what kind of hell the men endured to create it only to never be used.
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I was roaming the back roads near Yuma, ( Michigan not Arizona) and I came across these old railroad passenger cars. You can’t see it in the photo but the railroad tracks end a few hundred feet from the rail cars. It seemed peculiar to see them way out in the middle of nowhere. I can only assume they parked them until they are needed again.
P.S. if you are wondering Yuma (Michigan not Arizona) is south of Mesick near the Manistee National Forest.
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This old red caboose sits in the small town of Comins on M-33. In 1985 the caboose was donated to the town from its owner in Monroe. It was given to the town as a reminder of its railroad days. The history of the old rail car is unknown but it was painted red and made to look like it was used by the Detroit and Mackinac Railroad. The other side has a ramp to a door and the caboose is used as a museum. Next time you are driving down M-33 in Northern Michigan be sure to stop and visit the old red caboose in Comins.
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On August 6th, 1903, the Wallace Bros. Circus’s two trains traveled from Charlotte Michigan to Lapeer. The first train stopped in Durand at 8:30 in the morning and put up a red signal to alert the second train. When the engineer applied the brakes they failed and realizing a collision was inevitable, the engineer and fireman jumped from the locomotive. The train crashed into the rear of the first train with tremendous force killing 22 men sleeping in the rear railroad car. Four other men would die at the hospital. Several animals died from the collision and were buried at the site. Many of the bodies were so badly disfigured they were not recognizable and unable to be identified. Ten of the unknown corpses were buried at Lovejoy Cemetery a few miles south of Durand. A stone obelisk was erected and carved on it the words.
In Memory of the Unknown Dead. Who Lost Their Lives in the RAILROAD WRECK of the GREAT WALLACE SHOWS August 6, 1903
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