Station: Lake Orion, MI

Lake Orion was settled about 1819 and a power dam was built here in 1828. The town was known as Canandaigua and renamed Orion in 1834, and then Oakland in 1842. It became the village of Orion in 1859 and renamed Lake Orion in 1926. [MPN]

Lake Orion was located on the Michigan Central's Bay City branch, about 10 miles northwest of Rochester. The town was also served for a period of time by an interurban railroad time.

Photo Info: Top, the DUR interurban depot at Lake Orion. 2nd photo, the Michigan Central depot at Lake Orion. [both, Alan Loftis collection]; 3rd photo, a colorized postcard of the MC Lake Orion depot. [David McNeill collection]. 4th photo, New York Central passenger train No. 334 pulls through Lake Orion on June 3, 1949 with five cars. [Elmer Treloar photo, Charles Geletzke collection]

Notes

Time Line

1902. A new passenger station is built here by the MC, at a cost of $7,600. [MCR-1902]

1917. The MC had an agent-operator here during the day shift.. [TRT]

1928. The Michigan Central adds 1.7 miles of automatic block signals in Orion, including 2 GRS D.C. signals and storage batteries. [RSC-1929] Note: This was likely for station protection.