Standing Stately in Standish

It hasn’t seen a scheduled passenger train since 1962, but the former passenger station in Standish, Michigan, has been handsomely restored.

Lake State Railway now uses the tracks that pass the Standish station. On display are a Detroit & Machinac caboose a passenger car that once ran in Great Britain.

We were returning to Cleveland from a weekend visit to the Tawas Bay region of Michigan in early August when I decided to visit the former Michigan Central station in Standish that is now used as a visitor’s center.

I remembered having seen this depot from aboard an excursion train pulled by Pere Marquette No. 1225 that passed through in October 2005.

The Standish station was completed in October 1889 and features a Richardsonian Romanesque design. The exterior is covered with fieldstone.

The tracks were once part of a Michigan Central route between Detroit and Mackinaw City, Michigan, that was completed on Dec. 18, 1881.

Michigan’s timber industry provided a healthy dose of freight traffic in the 1880s and the New York Central, which controlled the Michigan Central, developed passenger traffic by helping to finance construction of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

Following World War II, passenger service on the route consisted of a daily overnight train between Detroit and Mackinaw City, and a daytime train between Detroit and Bay City. The overnight trains were named The Northerner with the Dec. 2, 1951, timetable change.

On June 27, 1947, the Central had launched a new weekend-only seasonal train called The Michigan Timberliner. 

Carrying coaches and a lunch counter car, The Michigan Timberliner departed Detroit in late afternoon on Fridays and had a mid-afternoon departure from Mackinaw City on Sundays.

The name was shortened to The Timberliner for the 1949 season when the food service car became a tavern lunch car, and later a tavern lounge car. The Timberliner would begin operating in late June and continue through the Labor Day weekend.

For decades, the Mackinaw City line ferried cargo and people to Michigan’s upper peninsula with through cars running through to Marquette via the Soo Line at one point.

For decades the car ferry Chief Wawatam was a fixture that shuttled between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace.

The Nov. 1, 1957 opening of the Mackinac Bridge sent freight and passenger traffic into a sharp decline.

With the Oct. 25, 1959, timetable change, The Northerner was assigned rail diesel car equipment and began operating under the Beeliner name, which the NYC applied to its RDC-equipped trains. It also began operating on a daytime schedule in each direction between Detroit and Mackinaw City.

The change may have occurred as early as September in conjunction with The Timberliner ending for the season. Box lunches would be put aboard the Beeliner at Standish in both directions.

The NYC reinstated the Northerner name with the April 24, 1960, timetable change.  That name remained until the end of service in 1962.

The Central had wanted to end the Northerner on July 19, 1961, saying it was losing $90,000 annually and averaging less than a dozen passengers per trip.

But the Michigan State Public Service Commission stalled the discontinuance for over a year, finally ruling that the trains could end between Bay City and Mackinaw City effective Sept. 4, 1962.

The Timberliner made its final trips for the season on Sept. 3, 1962, and some sources say that was the end of the service. But other sources say The Timberliner ran for one last season in 1963, making its final run to Detroit on Sept. 2, 1963.

The remnant of The Northerner continued to operate through early 1964. The NYC had sought to end the trains, which had RDC equipment and the Beeliner name, on July 2, 1963.

The railroad said the trains were losing $45,000 a year and averaged fewer than 10 passengers per day.

In late February 1964, Michigan regulators approved the discontinuance and the last intercity passengers trains to serve Bay City and Saginaw made their final trips on March 19, 1964.

The Timberliner didn’t stop at Standish, so the last ticket sold here must have occurred with the discontinuance of The Northerner in early September 1962.

Despite efforts by the NYC to abandon the Mackinaw City line north of Grayling, it remained in service under Penn Central and Detroit & Mackinac control until 1990 when it was abandoned after the closing of a paper plant in Cheboygan.

Today the tracks that pass the Standish depot are owned and operated by the Lake State Railway.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

 

Another Part of the Erie is Dying

Looking north on the Youngstown Line at Latimer. The Erie crossed the New York Central between the signal and the control box.

In one of my usual quests to catch Norfolk Southern heritage units, I ventured to the area north of Youngstown on Nov. 16.

A stone train bound for Lordstown was making its way from the quarry to the “45” stone yard in Lordstown.

The routing of these trains has been to use the former Nickel Plate Road to Ashtabula, then the former New York Central Youngstown Line to the ex-Erie Lackawanna Niles Secondary to the Lordstown Secondary.

This routing came about several years ago when NS took over the Lordstown Secondary from just east of Alliance to just west of Lordstown is out of service.

The train I was looking for had the NKP Heritage unit as third of three units. I thought I might be able to catch it on the Youngstown Line as it took the connection to the former EL at Latimer. Prior routing of these trains as well as the Warren ore trains from Ashtabula, had seen them take a section of the ex-EL Youngstown bypass into Warren and exit the EL for ex-Pennsylvania Railroad rails to  Warren and onto the Lordstown Secondary.

This is one of the few sections of the EL in the eastern part of Ohio that still saw daily movements of heavy trains.

My goal was to catch this stone train taking the connection at Latimer, which was where the EL bypass crossed the NYC on a diamond.

Conrail lived up to its “consolidated” name and put a connection in the northwest quadrant from the ex-NYC to the ex-EL and ripped out the bypass from Latimer to Transfer (Pa).

Once the tracks of hotshots like first NY 100 and ACX 99, the EL right of way today is a barely recognizable path east of Latimer.

I walked around the interlocking taking several different views, including some that show what appear to be ex-NYC and Erie signals still in use.

I noticed that the connection and the former EL to the west had not been used in a very long time.

The steel mill in Warren slowly shut down its operations in 2012, resulting in no more ore trains from Ashtabula.

This leads me to believe that these stone trains didn’t run on the ex-EL after all. Even though I didn’t see the stone train, I later found out that was the case.

It passed right through Latimer on the Youngstown Line, ran around its train near Center Street in Youngstown, then headed out the Lordstown Secondary, using the Crab Creek connection near downtown. This is an all ex-NYC and PRR routing.

So like many other miles of ex-EL track in the state, this section now waits out its days quiet and rusting, waiting for trains that may never come. On my way to Latimer, I stopped in an area west of Leavittsburg – a former busy EL junction near Warren – to photograph some remains of the former EL mainline to Kent.

Whistle posts and crossing flashers still stand, but have not seen a train in probably 10 or more years.

A rusting but sturdy truss bridge over the Mahoning River reminded me that even though the Erie was built to last it couldn’t survive the economic and political climate that brought down so many railroads in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Looking west on the ex-EL toward Cortland. The connection is off to the right.

Wider view looking west standing on what was the EL main.

Looking east on the ex EL, connection to the left, Youngstown Line up ahead.

A lonely whistle post in Braceville, looking toward Kent.

Silent relics in Braceville stand and wait….and wait….and wait.

A rusty lock and peeling silver paint indicate years of no attention from the signal maintainers at Braceville.

Looking east toward Leavittsburg.

Closer view of the bridge over the Mahoning River. Ghosts of the Lake Cities and time freights must live here.

The Mighty Oval In the Street

NS 1066 leads the N22 down the street in West Brownsville, Pa., on Wednesday, June 13. The trailing unit is NS 1065, the heritage unit that pays tribute to the Savannah & Atlanta.

I ventured down to West Brownsville, Pa., on Wednesday with my friend Adam Barr in search of a pair of Norfolk Southern 30th anniversary heritage locomotives. We had information that No. 1066 (New York Central) and 1065 (Savannah & Atlanta) were at Bailey Mine with a coal train that was being loaded.

These same two units had come through Northeast Ohio on Sunday afternoon, but I was tied up with domestic duties and couldn’t get out to see them. But Akron Railroad Club Bulletin editor Marty Surdyk did.

For all Adam and I knew, that Bailey mine train might be there all day or it might have already left. Further complicating things were Internet reports that the Norfolk & Western unit was on a coal train heading west to Conway Yard near Pittsburgh and that the Lehigh Valley unit had been put on the 11A at Altoona and was also going to Conway.

Still another heritage unit, the one devoted to the Pennsylvania Railroad, was leading the 23Z at Harrisburg. So many heritage units and so little time.

We got to West Brownsville just before 10:30 a.m. in time to catch a southbound work train with a caboose on the rear. Maybe that was a good sign.

Our plan was to stick around West Brownsville until about noon and then head up to Leetsdale if we didn’t see the heritage units here.

Sometime between between 11 and 11:30, we heard the Mon Line dispatcher mention the NS 1066. That did it. We were staying put because the NYC heritage unit was on the move. It would be a long wait, though.

We were encouraged when the Mon Line dispatcher told a maintainer over the radio that the N22 with the NS 1066 was behind the CSX train.

Our hope was that we could catch the NYC heritage unit and still have time to get to Leetsdale to catch the N&W and LV locomotives. The Internet reports as to the progress of the PRR unit did not sound promising. That train wouldn’t get to Pittsburgh until after dark. Also, we both had to be back home by around 6 p.m.

About 11:45 a.m. we spotted a train approach the signal at Street. We thought it was the CSX train, but it had NS power and NS hoppers.

Not long after that we saw a CSX train on the tracks across the river. We had heard it receive a track warrant to Brown and we thought it might be the CSX train the disaptcher had mentioned earlier. Adam wondered if the NS train we wanted was behind this train. But a quick check of the map made that seem unlikely because Bailey mine is on the line that runs through West Brownsville.

We eventually figured out that the Mon Line dispatcher controlled two routes in the area, including the one on the other side of the river.

It would turn out that there were two CSX trains in the area. The second of them arrived at Street about 12:20 and stopped. We thought it was waiting for a signal. By now we had figured out that the train we wanted was behind this train.

The CSX train sat and sat and sat. After about a half-hour, the Mon Line disaptcher called the CSX train to see what was going on. It turned out that the CSX train, the N65, was unable to reach the Newall train director for instructions as to what to do with the train once reaching that yard.

The NS dispatcher was no more successful in reaching Newall, either. Finally, the NS dispatcher asked a crew that was en route to Newall to ask the train director to contact him.

About 1 p.m., the NS dispatcher relayed the yarding instructions to the N65 and it finally began moving.

It would be another half-hour or so before the N22 arrived at Street. where it stopped for a recrew. By the time N22 got underway, it was 2:15.

We got our photographs and had ideas about catching the train north of California, Pa. We drove up there, but the train was nowhere in sight nor did we hear anything on the radio.

We needed to begin heading back to Cleveland, which was a good three hours away. We drove past Conway but could not see either the N&W or LV heritage units. We heard the train with the N&W unit on the radio, but the conversation didn’t sound like it would be leaving town. An Internet report had it going to leave and go out the Fort Wayne Line.

We needed to get back home so we left Conway empty handed. Still, we had seen two heritage units in the street at West Brownsville. That alone made the trip a success.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Waiting for a recrew in West Brownsville.