I am scheduled for 2 weeks in Michigan this next July. Part in the NW corner at Bellaire and part in South Haven. Any suggestions on sites I should not miss along the western edge of Michigan?

Thanks,

Harry

The areas of Michigan you’ve mentioned are primarily tourist destinations void of any action packed railfanning.
Asking your question at the “Michigan Talk” forum board at railroadfan.com will likely generate more productive info for you.

Not suggesting there is absolutely nothing to seek out on the western side of the lower peninsula.
Grand Haven has their display but the center and eastern half of the state is where you’ll find more active lines.

Bring your bicycle. Michigan’s vast network of rail trails is immense.

Michigan rail fan site URL Reference: http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=3

John

This is the wrong forum for this type of question, a better place for the type of information you're looking for is:

http://michiganrailroads.com/.

That said, the best place to see trains near South Haven is Porter, Ind.

Durand is also a must see and the Little River Tourist railroad is worth a visit.

BOb H

There's not much active rail preservation in west Michigan, but there's some history on display at a few sites. From south to north:

The picturesque PM depot at St. Joseph.
The former helper district where the PM crossed the Kalamazoo River at New Richmond hill.
The modern (1930s) PM depot at Holland.
The Coopersville and Marne tourist railroad, and the museum at Coopersville, with an interurban under heavy restoration.
PM 1223 and GTW cabooses at Grand Haven, and the city history museum in the GTW depot.
The former PM carferry operation at Ludington. Not much of the railroad plant is left, but the coal-burning ferry Badger still runs.
Much of the city of Manistee, including remains of the Manistee and Northeastern, and the preserved carferry City of Milwaukee.
The former PRR and AA depots at Cadillac, and a preserved Shay.
The steam tractor show and railroad at Buckley.
The remains of the Ann Arbor carferry terminal at Elberta.
Not much is left of the former East Jordan and Southern and Boyne City, Gaylord and Alpena.
The PM depot/museum at Petoskey, and Ephraim Shay's home at Harbor Springs.

Aarne Frobom
Kaleva, Michigan

To add to Mr. Frobom's excellent list...

Silver Beach Pizza at the St. Joe station gets two thumbs up from me.

Kaleva, MI (don't blink, you will miss it) is home to what I believe is the last Pere Marquette NW2, although it is in Manistee & Northeastern paint. I believe there is a small museum, too.

Ludington has White Pine Village. They just purchased the Augusta RR 300 (44 ton cooke mogul) and are doing a cosmetic restoration with a logging display.

If you are into ships, Muskegon has the Milwaukee Clipper (at the old GTW carferry dock), Silversides (submarine) and LST393 (was at D-day invasion, very cool tour and military museum).

If you are into 7.5" gauge trains, Russ Eldred's very impressive White Creek RR is just north of Grand Rapids. I believe they are having a meet in July. He has around 6 miles of track.

As far as freight rr action, as stated, Michigan is kind of a dead end line (except from Detroit to Chicago). The west coast gives you Marquette Rail from Grand Rapids to Ludington and Manistee. Michigan Shore from Holland to Muskegon and Freemont. And CSX south of that. Travel inland a bit and you can catch Great lakes Central through Cadillac on the old AA. Coopersville and Marne with a lumber car or two (usually in the evenings). Grand Rapids Eastern, Grand Elk and more CSX.

PM me if you have any questions along the way.
safe travels
E

Silver Beach Pizza probably has the best pizza in the state.

The rail display at Sparta (which features one of the two surviving, intact, C&O roadrailers).

Charlevoix has a restored depot.

Alden has a little railroad display with a switcher, flatcar, and caboose.

The Oden Fish Hatchery has an old CN? passenger car on display to mimick an old fish transport car. There are also two privately owned GTW passenger cars down the road from the hatchery.

A Leelanau Scenic caboose is on display near Traverse City. The TC depot is also brewery.

Grant, MI also has a nice depot restaurant, with a caboose and railroad water tower on display nearby.

Ravenna has nice railroad display with a caboose.

Muskegon and Whitehall each have a nicely restored depot and caboose.

Thompsonville has a caboose on display.

East Jordan has a steam locomotive on display, of EJ&S heritage.

There is also the caboose hotel in South Haven. Which has two cabooses converted to hotel rooms. I believe Jensen's RV park in SH also has a caboose, which they recently moved from the WMRR in Lawrence.

The recently reopened Club Car Restaurant in Kalamazoo (dine in an old passenger car used on the old KLSC tourist railroad).

Bangor, Bloomingdale, Allegan, Kalamazoo, and Plainwell all have cabooses on display.

PM me if you have any questions
And thank you for choosing Pure Michigan as your vacation destination :)

Aarne - A couple of comments:

* The PM center swing bridge across the river is pretty neat too, especially if you could catch an AMTRAK train on it.

** In addition to PM 2-8-4 # 1223 and those cabooses, I think that there's a Pere Marquette boxcar as part of that train consist too.

*** I had heard that the City of Milwaukee has some boxcars down on the car deck but not sure if that is true or what their railroad heritages are.

Les

In south central Michigan, there is a nice display at the former GTW depot in Vicksburg, including a couple freight cars and a 1927 cupola caboose. The GTW line is fairly active and one can see around 15-25 trains per day, however, the CN crews in the area typically aren't too friendly towards railfans, so beware. There are also depots in nearby Schoolcraft and Lawton. Also in Lawton is the Chicago-Detroit highspeed Amtrak line, and there are plenty of places to railfan from.

Thomas

for more curiousity..
http://www.monon.monon.org/rr/sjsbands.html

Should you get to the St Joseph station, it was served by another line, the St. Joseph, South Bend and Southern Railroad, which curved off to the north around the north end of St Joseph practically on where the road is now, and turned south, the right of way is visible and you can trace it in google maps all the way south, there is another station in Stevensville that still exists.

Should you get further south into Michigan City theres the South Shore still with street trackage.

Yeppers on the Silver Beach Pizza, frequent eater there, its actually a franchise out of Michigan City which serves the same pizza there.

I thank everyone for their input. I knew I could count on help at RYPN, even if it was not real RR questions. Now, I know where to go for Pizza and where to stop all along my way up, and back down, the state.

Thanks, all.

Harry

Schedule & fare information: S.S. Badger

Minor clarification- the switcher at Kaleva, M&NE #3, is actually the last remaining M&NE switcher.

It lost its prime mover as part of moving it out of Traverse City following the demise of its previous owner, the Leelanau Scenic Railroad.

As for the last PM switcher, I'm not certain that any of them are still intact.

For those who like beer, I'll throw in a recommendation for Mountain Town Station, a brewpub restaurant in the former Ann Arbor station in Mt. Pleasant, along the present Great Lakes Central, former Tuscola & Saginaw Bay. When the TSBY was running excursions, it based some dinner trains out of/to this brewpub, now in its 22nd year of operation. It has a lot of railroad-themed beers, something a bit unusual for rail-station brewpubs as it turns out, and you can get six-packs to go. The restaurant is casual-steakhouse in character--pricier than fast food, but doesn't break the bank. The building was vastly reconstructed and added to, and you kind of have to dig to find the original structure, but it's there--supposedly.

http://www.mountaintownbrew.com/

Fritz -

Well, Pere Marquette SW-1 #11 still exists in the B&O Museum. I believe it is the first PM diesel.

Les

I went back a re-read the info on the PM historical societies website. My mistake. It does say M&NE bought the 3 new, but says "it is the last PM related NW2 in existence". Worded kind of funny.