#williamsburgmichigan

[railwayhistorical]

End of the Line

The Great Lakes Central Railroad operates across the lower peninsula of Michigan. One section of the operation runs on the former Pere Marquette in Traverse City with a few miles emanating in either direction. These images were made on the eastern section, where the line terminates, in Williamsburg.

Up until sometime in the late 1960s I imagine, one would have been able to board a train and to go north to Petoskey or south all the way to Chicago.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken January 25th 2021.

[railwayhistorical]

Great Lakes Central Traverse City Turn, Part One

About midday I heard the train in town, and ran off to see if I could chase it. I caught up with it after it had picked up an empty at the lumber yard at Bates, near Williamsburg, Michigan. The first image shows the diminutive train at Lautner Road, east of Acme while the second and third shows if off the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay. The final image was made at Holiday Road, east of Traverse City.

The Great Lakes Central runs over rails of several former railroads, but this section is a portion of the Pere Marquette. The locomotive is a former Ann Arbor unit, an EMD GP35 built in 1964. While the train is running long-hood forward here, it will reverse when it switches back over to the former Grand Rapids & Indiana (Pennsylvania) branch which it will negotiate back to Walton Junction.

Four images by Richard Koenig; taken October 20th 2020.

[railwayhistorical]

More Great Lakes Central, Part Two

Here we see the conclusion of yesterday’s post: a train movement from Traverse City, Michigan, to a lumber yard near Williamsburg.

The first three images show the train approaching Lautner Road, west of Williamsburg (along with a going away shot from the same location). The final images has the train ready to drop four cars at Amerhart.

All of these views were made along what was once the Pere Marquette Railway, the C&O after that. I’ll have five more pictures of this run tomorrow. Five photographs by Richard Koenig; taken July 7th 2017.