Grassroots Railroad Sports?

An eclectic mix of power at the Michigan Northern's Cadillac yard, with two ex-C&NW Alco RS-3s still in C&NW paint (one of them was the last RS-3 that Alco produced) and two ex-SAL/SCL Baldwin RS-12s in Michigan Northern green and white. It looks like there might be one of the Baldwin RF-16s tucked behind the second RS-12 as well. Michigan Northern came into existence in 1976 when Conrail was going to abandon the trackage of former PRR subsidiary Grand Rapids & Indiana. The state of Michigan didn't want the track to be abandoned and the on-line customers left in the lurch, so they put out a bid for an operator and the Michigan Northern was born. At the time, Conrail had a lot of oddball power and a lot of power that was in poor shape, and they were leasing anything EMD that they could get their hands on, forcing the MIGN to grab up whatever oddball power they could find.

An amusing comparison taken a year apart at the Cadillac, MI facilities. That's ex-Central of Georgia/ex-Southern RS-3 #2307A in pretty scruffy condition. It also looks like something went through the engine house door fairly recently.

A year later, the shop door has been fixed, but not painted, and the #2037A has been relettered to Michgan Northern but not repainted. You can see that the painted over the S and U with an N and R to make it read Northern, and then they tacked on a "Michigan" above it. The footboards also look a bit cattywampus.

The end of ex-Green Bay & Western RS-2 #1501. Just a year earlier, MIGN had had the engine overhauled on the #1501 and had also chopped the nose on it, but within 12 months, it suffered a failure of the 244 V12 and was cut up at the shops in Cadillac.

The MIGN did later get their hands on some GP7s of various ancestries. MIGN also assumed operation of the former C&O/Pere Marquette from Grawn to Williamsburg and from Charlevoic to Petoskey, and the former Ann Arbor Railroad from Alma to Frankfort, adding to the freak factor of the railroad as it began operating several car float operations. 

Unfortunately, things rapidly came undone for the MIGN. In May 1984, due to poor accounting and operating practices, the Michigan Department of Transportation withdrew subsidies from the MIGN and operations on the state-owned railroad lines were transferred to the Tuscola & Saginaw Bay nad service south of Reed City to Comstock Park was discontinued. At this time, only the segment from Petoskey to Mackinaw City was operated by the MIGN. Following Penn Central's departure from ferry services and unsuccessful attempts to operate regular excursion trains, the MIGN also abandoned the railroad line from Pellston to Mackinaw City. A "truck-to-rail" transload facility was established in Pellston to handle steel products from Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie. This constituted the MIGN's sole source of revenue in the final years with the only exception being the occasional excursion train. However, in January 1986, after claims the MIGN had been delinquent on payments to Penn Central for the remaining railroad line, a federal judge granted the MIGN a six-month grace period to make a payment of $150,000 to the Penn Central. Unable to make the payment due to the limited remaining traffic, the Michigan Northern ceased to exist in June of 1987, just 11 years after coming into existence.

A Northwestern Pacific GE 44-tonner unloading a Santa Fe car ferry at Tiburon, California in 1958. Car float operations were definitely an odd little corner of the railroading scene, often overlooked. Note the three flatcars behind the switcher, which were used to "reach" out onto the barge and collect the cars without putting the load of the locomotive on the barge. Also note that the tugboat is wearing ATSF warbonnet paint.

A CPR SW8 works a ferry at Windsor, Ontario. Check out the counterweight system used to work the landside ramp.

A Sacramento Northern juice jack goes for a float on the SS Ramon. The Sacramento Northern would float locomotives and interurban cars across the Suisun Bay on the catenary-strung SS Ramon.

SN #604 switching cars on the SS Ramon.

GTW Alco S2 #8100 shifts cars onto the SS Madison at Muskegon, Michigan.

A C&O NW2 loads the SS Badger at Ludington, Michigan.

Ann Arbor Alco S-3 #10 loads the Viking at Elberta, Michigan while the Arthur K Atkinson sits nearby, laid up with a damaged crankshaft. The third ferry, to the left rear, is the City of Milwaukee, on lease by the Ann Arbor while the Arthur K Atkinson was out of service. The Atkinson was named after a president of the Wabash Railroad, which owned the Ann Arbor at the time the ferry went through a rebuild.

One of the Missouri-Illinois Railroad's picturesque little Consolidations hooks a string of hopper cars off of the Ste. Genevieve. The Mike-N-Ike, a subsidiary of the Missouri Pacific, ran this car-float operation until 1962, although an Alco switcher replaced the steam engines by 1952.

C&O SW9 #5251 has just finished loading the 41-car City Of Midland at Milwaukee, and the cars will be off across Lake Michigan to Ludington for unloading.

That looks like a DL&W Geep, but that's actually from the Algoma Central. The DL&W livery was picked from EMD's catalog of predesigned liveries, and the Algoma Central also ended up chosing the exact same livery later on. The #168 is on lease to the power-short Soo Line and is being used to load the famed car ferry Chief Wawatam.

The coal-fired Chief Wawatam belches smoke as a Soo Line GP30 loads cars aboard. You can't see it in this shot, but the Soo Line GP30s rode on Alco trucks, plucked from Alco FA-1s that were traded in on the Geeps. This is why the GP30 is referred to as the first second-gen diesel: It was a diesel designed to replace other older diesels.

A Detroit & Mackinac Alco RS-2 unloads the Chief Wawatam at Mackinaw City.

Detroit & Mackinac #4610 trudges through the snow to unload the Chief Wawatam. The Chief was unique in that it was a bow-loading car ferry, and it was the last of the old hand-fired coal-burning car ferries and ran from 1911 to 1984. 

GB&W Alcos shove loads down into the MV Viking. Check out how heavily it lists as they load one rail and then the other. There was careful consideration to the loading of empties and loaded cars for once they got out in the open water.

An F7A belonging to the incredibly short-lived Seattle & North Coast shortline unloads a ferry. The S&NC was very bizarre in that it was a "railroad Island". It operated on the Olympic Peninsula and had no physical interchange with other railroads, everything came and went by boat. The S&NC opened in 1980 and was dead by 1984, the victim of a soft pulpwood market.

A Burlington Northern SD9 switches the CPR-owned ferry Incan Superior at Superior Wisconsin. The ferry operated on Lake Superior between Thunder Bay, Ontario and Superior, Wisconsin usually hauling boxcars of newsprint but also hauled grain cars and other assorted freight.

GB&W #309 and #316 unload Ann Arbor's Arthur K Atkinson. The #309 may look like an Alco C420, but it's actually an RS-11 that was given a chopped nose with a Century-style hood.

A quick look back at some of the highlights of my 2022.

Early in the year, I went for a ride on the Adirondack Railroad and checked "ride in a dome car" off my bucket list.

Then in May, I returned to the Road Of Anthracite to see Reading T-1 #2102's triumphant return to operation. And what a sight that was. With 19 sold-out cars and no diesel assistance, plus a bit of rain, it was a helluva show. I'd said some untoward things regarding Reading T-1 aesthetics, but seeing one in action made me take it back.

I also got to meet the great Andy Muller, president of the Reading & Northern, and thank him for all he does.

Then, in August,it was off to Ohio for a ride behind NKP #765 on a romp from Edon, Ohio to Hillsdale, Michigan. I've lamented missing out on the heyday of the steam excursion era, a lot of the big engines are cold or just don't make frequent appearance, there are typically diesels cut into the consist, most trips have moved towards closed-window coaches with the vestibules damn near under armed guard. This trip was a like a time machine: hanging out of the open doors on a baggage car as NKP #765 made track speed all by herself with 12 cars. And then on arrival at Hillsdale, you had Little River Railroad's tiny 4-6-2 and chunky 0-4-0T running short trips out of Hillsdale.

In October, I caught the historic first run of the Adirondack Railroad to Tupper Lake, the first in 41 years.

A couple weeks later, it was north to New Hampshire for a photo charter aboard the Conway Scenic behind the 470 Railroad Club's two B&M F7As. The event was a bit hectic and disorderly but it was still a great time.

And on the way home, I went to Corinth yo the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson, new kid on the NY scenic railroad block, and went for a cab rode in their Alco S-1, which was the Alco Schenectady factory switcher.

Two weeks later, it was back to Reading. This trip was a bit bittersweet as it was my farewell to the #425, as it is now down for it's FRA-mandated inspection. The #425 is my favorite steam locomotive operating, and it was sad knowing it'll likely be a couple years before I see her again.

And then the torch was handed off to #2102 for the final fall foliage trip of the year.