that evening all equipment was moved to the steel loading area at Pellston. The MIGN now operated only the 35 miles of track from Mackinaw City to Petoskey, which MIGN had been leasing directly from the Penn Central trustees and had been operating without state subsidy.
The End of an Era
The Pellston truck transfer facility remained active until April 1987, with Michigan Northern shuttling steel ingots to the TSBY connection. On the last run, April 12, 1987, three loads were deliv- ered and the GP7 returned light. About a mile south of Pellston, the locomotive ran out of fuel. Engineer “Andy” Ander- son and his conductor walked home. Ultimately the Tuscola & Saginaw
Bay was purchased by Federated Rail- ways, Inc., and its name was changed to Great Lakes Central Railroad in March 2006; GLC is now the largest regional railroad in the state of Michigan, oper- ating 400 miles of track. On November 18, 2013, Federated Railways became part of Watco Companies, a shortline holding company based in Pittsburg, Kan., which operates 30 shortline rail- roads with 4400 miles of track, along with contract switching operations and equipment repair facilities. In its 11-year history Michigan North-
ern took a rocky ride across Michigan, battling ice, snow, equipment failure and, perhaps most ominously, the un- certainty of political quagmire. One may note that, despite the obstacles, the com- pany accomplished its designated work, adapting to great changes in railroading and facing down opposition from many corners. On one particular February midnight
Conrail hopper cars in the MIGN yard. The traffic was substantial; within a year the railroad was reportedly run- ning trains of 25-30 cars of sand from Cadillac to Comstock Park three days a week. Motive power was generally a MIGN GP7 and a leased ex-Ann Arbor GP35 — second generation diesel power on MIGN was a rare event. In early 1984 a truck transfer facility
went into operation at Pellston, 17 miles from Mackinaw City. Algoma Steel be- gan trucking 25-ton steel ingots from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and loading an estimated 35 cars a week for shipment, via the C&O at Reed City, to a steel mill in Pennsylvania. Trucking across the Straits of Mackinac over the highway suspension bridge was determined to be cheaper than an all rail route from Canada, although not the cheapest way in summer when the Great Lakes were open for navigation.
Ultimately, it was a political decision
that forced the end of Michigan Northern operations. To keep operating costs at a bare minimum, Michigan Northern was a non-union railroad at a time when such companies were much less common than in later years. Initially this was accepted by all concerned, but after a change in state administration, there was strong political pressure to award state oper- ating contracts to union-represented companies. The contract to operate all track south of Petoskey was transferred to the Tuscola & Saginaw Bay Railway (TSBY), a 44-mile Michigan shortline, whose employees were represented by a maritime union. The change was effec- tive Monday, October 1, 1984, and the previous weekend the MIGN made its final run south, a Cadillac to Comstock Park turn with GP7s 1603 and 1608. On Sunday, September 30, the company material at Cadillac was loaded up and
in 1978, a Michigan Northern train crew switched cars of lumber just south of Pellston. The dark scene was lighted by the locomotive headlight, weak railroad hand lanterns, the distant flicker of the local airport’s rotating beacon, and a sky so clear and calm that billions and bil- lions of stars (the ones Carl Sagan told us about) seemed just out of reach. The snow resembled powdered glass, reflect- ing the starlight and, because of the be- low-zero cold, it barked under foot like sand on a beach. Michigan is a tough place to railroad in winter, yet is some- times so incomparably beautiful that railroaders would not want to work any- where else.
The author would like to thank Beth Andrus, former president of Michigan Northern, and Alex Huff IV, former MIGN Vice-president of Operations, for their hospitality during the company’s years of operation and their assistance in telling its story.
53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74