How many of us don't have a long list of chicken coops and other projects already on the books? The challenge is finding the parts and money to complete them, not bring in new projects to wait their turn.

Update at long last:

It's being claimed by a fledgling railway museum in Michigan:

http://fox11online.com/news/local/weyau ... n-michigan

http://www.lostrailwaymuseum.org/

For the record, Grass Lake, Michigan is located between Ann Arbor and Jackson.

It's good to see that the car is being preserved. There's already a second car body in Grass Lake, that of Michigan Railways interurban car 29 (identical car 28 is currently undergoing heavy restoration work at IRM). Car 29 is owned by the Grass Lake Historical Society but it's not obvious to me what the relationship is between the historical society and this "Lost Railway Museum" effort.

Frank -

I'm not entirely clear on this. Was Grass Lake, Michigan served by an interurban line? As I recall, there is an old interurban depot in that area (not Grass Lake) that is still in existence and used as a library or CofC or police station or city offices or something like that.

Les

Frank -

I did some checking and found out that the interurban depot I was thinking about is located in Parma, Michigan which is just to the west of Jackson toward Battle Creek. According to the listing in the Railroad Station Historical Society website, the electric line serving that depot was the DJ&C. I'm not sure what those initials stood for, perhaps Detroit, Jackson and (?) or.......? While searching on RyPN for Parma, I found an old (2005) thread entitled "Duck Lake Michigan" that was started by Bob Kutella of IRM with a couple of long entries by Dennis Storzek about the move of Michigan Railways interurban car #28 to Union. Interesting reading and a somewhat similar scenario will probably have to be done with CSL street car #1137 from Wisconsin. Incidentally, the Parma depot now houses the town Library, but I think one end is also used by the police department. The building still resembles the original depot, but a bell tower has been added to the roof for a bell that may have come from a local school.

Les

Les, It's been a long time, and I'm not really an expert on the line, but yes the Michigan Electric had a branch to Grass Lake. More of the corporate history here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_United_Railways

There used to be a trailer coach mate to the 28 used as a diner in Parma, but it has been gone for years. Luckily we were able to obtain spare pressed glass for the 28's upper sash.

Parma was once the site of a rather spectacular wreck; IIRC a interurban entering town from the west lost his brakes, and at the speed he was traveling the conductor had a hard time getting the pole on the wire (the ME was a third rail line and needed to raise a pole when entering street running) The conductor eventually did succeed, but in the confusion the motorman failed to throw the trolley rail/wire transfer switch, leaving him with no way to reverse the car. The car breezed four or five blocks down the street and derailed at the curve where the track turned into the main drag, demolishing a building just past the sidewalk at the outside of the curve.

Dennis -

Thanks very much for the information. When Frank mentioned car 29 as being owned by the Grass Lake Historical Society, I thought that it might be the car that was the diner in Parma. If not, I wonder where IT came from, and how it survived.

Les

Darned if I know Les, although quite a few of this line's cars became cottages and cabins. These cars were only fifteen years old when the line quit in '29. Car 26, also a sister to 28 and 29, sat just down the highway from the old shop site in Albion, but 26 was retired after a wreck and had extensive damage to the front end. I believe 26 is gone now, too, as I recall Norm Krental saying he and Bob Kutela were able to salvage some parts from it. One of the problems in those years is the owners of these bodies either wanted them for continued use, or thought they were worth a million dollars. The folks who owned the diner in Parma only consented to allowing us to take glass from the back, non street side when we agreed to replace the pattern glass with clear glass. Nice folks, they really wanted to open the diner again, even though they must have both been in their seventies or early eighties. When they did pass away, the diner disappeared quickly, newly glazed windows and all.

Excellent guess! DJ&C was the Detroit, Jackson, and Chicago, a component of the Detroit United, and later part of Michigan Electric. (The corporate history of these companies is complex.) The main line ran through Grass Lake, and there was a branch south to Wolf Lake, so it was an interurban hub, of a sort. But I don't know if we'll ever be able to find that railway museum....

Riding Amtrak to Detroit, I noted a sign that said "Lost Railway Museum" and this rang a bell to remind me of this thread.

The museum has had an opening and the ex-CSL car is now painted as Michigan United Railways 47. A nice first website for a museum is here as well!
http://www.lostrailwaymuseum.org/

Apparently the Michigan Electric interurban will be installed later this year. It appears to be a good static museum with displays. I wonder if any more ambitious plans will emerge over time? There are two nearby museum groups with electric cars used as coaches in their toursit train service.

Olin -

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. Looked at the "Lost Museum" website and discovered that car number 29, mentioned earlier in this thread, will apparently be moving to Grass Lake and the museum, later next month. Hopefully we will get a photo of two about the move.

Les