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Train DC-7
Business from the auto industry and other sources in Detroit, gathered up the preceding day, leaves that metropolis in the early morning on DC-7, a manifest schedule calling for afternoon arrival at Gibson yard on the IHB. This Sunday edition of the…
Train no. 355
Detroit-Chicago train no. 355 brakes into the station at Niles, headed by J-3a Hudson 5425. Though declining steadily and way down from the immediate postwar level, passenger business was still reasonably good at the time on the 280-mile "corridor"…
Train CD-4
Redball CD-4 hustles into Niles behind F7 units 1676-2435-1667. This is a Blue Island-to-Dewitt schedule operating via Detroit, and its 74 cars include perishables handled by the IHB on the 3:00 AM cutoff from western connections at Chicago. The…
At the Botsford enginehouse
Alco U-2 7368 is pictured in the clutches of a hostler at Botsford enginehouse in Kalamazoo (note the engineer's backrest). This is another NYC town, albeit with some competition from the Pennsylvania's GR&I and a Grand Trunk branch up from their…
Train TL-2
Manifest freight TL-2, the Central's prime service to its prominent automotive customers in Lansing, arrives in that city behind 4-8-2 2973. A portion of the train's 69-car consist originated in Stanley yard at Toledo, and the balance was added at…
X3100 West helper
Helper 7526 will be cut away from extra 3100 west on the fly just around the curve. The train will pick up speed quickly behind the agile 4-8-2 on the first leg of its 190-mile run to the IHB's Gibson yard in Hammond, Indiana. The prosaic 0-8-0 will…
Extra west
A short but stiff grade beginning just west of Jackson station and extending westward through a residential area of the city lifts the main line out of the valley of the Grand River. Steam-powered freight trains of any consequence got rear-end…
Working the Jackson coach yard
This little chuffer covering the Jackson coach yard job is a member of a family of six-wheeled switchers on the Central which in 1940 included seven classes and forty six subclasses. The 6940 represents class B-11g, built, surprisingly enough in view…
Train NJ-2
Coach yard, main tracks, freight running tracks, house tracks and freight house appear from left to right in this scene looking east from Jackson passenger station. NJ-2 continues toward Jackson yard on the eastbound freight runner. Hand operated…
Train NJ-2
The Jackson-Kalamazoo segment of the Michigan Central main line between Detroit and Chicago serves a multitude of industries, particularly at Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. One of the services geared to these customers is NJ-2, a pickup run out of Niles…
Train JK-1
This scene of Jackson passenger station and environs is enlivened by JK-1, the westbound Jackson-Kalamazoo local, rattling through behind H-5 class 2-8-2 no. 1459. Directly ahead of the 1459 is the westbound home signal at Pearl Street interlocking,…
Botsford Turn
This is the west end of Jackson yard, with Mohawk 3100 departing on a 58-car Botsford (Kalamazoo) turn. At the rear end, a U-3 switcher is coupled on for assistance on the one-mile grade west of the depot. The main line passes to the north of the…
Train no. X342
At Ann Arbor, known primarily as the location of the University of Michigan, the Central has a modicum of activity featured by the Ypsilanti switch run, which is headquartered here. In this scene, eastbound mail and express train no. X-342 has just…
Back-to-back GP-9s on Stanley extra, three headed mast semaphore signal in view
The morning sun has begun to make its presence felt at River Rouge as GP-7s 5639 and 5660 lead a Stanley extra off the Junction Yard branch onto the southbound Toledo branch main track. This train departed from Junction Yard with 56 cars and picked…
Train no. 302
Steam condensate is outlined sharply in the chill atmosphere of a fall dawn as Hudson 5358 brings train 302 into Detroit at the close of its overnight run from Cincinnati. Nine cars trail the 4-6-4 into the interlocking of YD tower at River Rouge.…