Railroading in the Thumb SAGINAW


AMTK- Amtrak CMGN- Central Michigan Railway CN- Canadian National CO- Chesapeake & Ohio CSX- CSX Transportation GLC- Great Lakes Central GTW- Grand Trunk Western HESR- Huron & Eastern HUCK- Huckleberry Railroad LSRC- Lake State Railway


Map illustration by Otto M. Vondrak ©2013 Carstens Publications, Inc. Not an official map. Not all routes and stations shown.


0 5 10 MILES Saginaw Bay Essexville HESR (CMGN) BAY CITY Munger Caro Reese Swan Creek


MMRR (PM)


SAGINAW Buena Vista Fosters Montrose


SGVY (MC)


Richville (PHNW)Caro Jct. HESR VASSAR Millington Clifford Fostoria Otter Lake Genesee Crossroads Village Vernon


DURAND Owosso


Lennon FLINT Lapeer Imlay City Tappan


ONTARIO, CANADA


Brown City CSXT


(PHNW) Yale Croswell Marlette Applegate Akron


Unionville Sebewaing


Colling Cass City Owendale


Wadsworth Ubly Tyre


Palms Ruth


15 20 25


MC- Michigan Central (NYC) MMRR- Mid-Michigan Railroad NYC- New York Central PC- Penn Central PHNW- Port Huron & Northwestern PM- Pere Marquette SGVY- Saginaw Valley Railway


Grindstone City


Caseville Pigeon


Kinde Fillion


BAD AXE Port Hope Harbor Beach


ice lives by the mid 1990s when the railroad acquired a fleet of GP38s that formerly belonged to the Rock Island (and later Pittsburgh & Lake Erie). These units continue to operate as numbers 3865-3868.


General Electric motive power found its way into the railroad’s fleet when RailAmerica


acquired the Central


Michigan in 2004. The GE’s currently owned by the railroad include a pair of former BNSF C30-7s, numbers 5086 and 5175, along with a former Burling- ton Northern B30-7. Each of these units remain in their previous owners’ paint schemes and had been mostly used by crews


based Minden City


Deckerville McGregor


Poland in Bay City


throughout their time on the railroad. Genesee & Wyoming has phased out the use of these General Electric units as locomotives were brought in to re- place them, with the first being a pair of former Union Pacific SD40M-2s, numbers 2661 and 2668, which were acquired by RailAmerica in 2012. Central Michigan also had a number of EMD units when acquired, which in- cludes a pair of rebuilt GP38AC’s, a for- mer Canadian National GP40-2LW, and Central Michigan 2014, a GP38-2 formerly owned by the Devco Company in Nova Scotia.


Units from other RailAmerica prop- erties were assigned to the railroad, giving railfans the opportunity to see engines and paint schemes from far reaching areas of the country. This in- cludes Minnesota Northern 1471, a GP9 built in 1959 that was previously owned by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern. The railroad also has a pair of Central Oregon & Pacific GP38AC’s, along with New England Central 3852, which was placed into service in 2008. Additional changes to the locomotive fleet are likely to occur under Genesee & Wyoming’s ownership. Current operations have the railroad


using four-axle units on the various jobs across the system, with one loco- motive being assigned on a rotating ba- sis to the Mid-Michigan Railroad in Al- ma. The six-axle units are assigned to trains based out of Bay City, mainly on the Durand turn and Essexville coal trains where the larger units are able to better meet tonnage demands.


Railfanning in The Thumb


duty at Bad Axe and will head west to Sebewaing, where cars are swapped with the train that has come eastward from Reese. Extra trains will often run in the area as dictated by customer needs.


Huron & Eastern also has a strong presence in Tuscola County, with lines stretching out of Vassar area. A local train will work southward from Reese to Vassar, and eastward into Caro and


Colling as required. The Port Huron Subdivision also extends through Vas- sar, with most traffic generated on this line coming in unit grain trains bound for elevators in Gera, Marlette and Brown City.


Motive Power The fleet of former Chesapeake &


Ohio GP9s, and a former Santa Fe GP7u had reached the end of their serv-


Photographing the former lines on the former Central Michigan section of the railroad is often sought by those visiting the area. The entire run from Bay City to Durand runs across nearly 55 miles of Michigan, and varies from urban areas in Bay City and Saginaw to rural sections of Genesee and Shi- awassee Counties.


Trains heading for Saginaw and Du- rand will start their journey from Wenona Yard, which is located on the western edge of Bay City along M-13.


45


PC (MC)


H C


HESR (PHNW)


PM


GTW


PC (MC)


G I


N


Midland Auburn


Denmark Jct. GTW


PORT HURON SARNIA


HESR (MC)


A


PC (MC)


GTW


HESR (PHNW)


CO/PM (PHNW)


R O N CO (PHNW)


LSRC (PM)


HESR (CMGN)


GTW


HESR (MC)


LSRC (PM)


HESR (PM)


CN (GTW)


GLC (MC)


GLC (GTW)


PM


HUCK (CO)


CSXT (PM)


CO (PM)


CN/CSXT/AMTK (GTW)


CN/CSXT/AMTK (GTW)


E


LSRC (PM)


CSXT (PM)


CN/AMTK (GTW)


HESR (PM)


L


H U


K A


CSXT (PM)


CSXT (PM)


I M


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