Location: Monteith Junction, MI

Monteith Junction was the crossing of the Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee and the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, five miles north of Plainwell. The area was also served by the Michigan Railway interurban line from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids.

Photo info: Top, the union depot at Monteith Junction with a section crew in front. [CMUL]. 2nd photo, two interurban cars at Monteith Junction. 3rd, a view of a Michigan Railway interurban car in the Kalamazoo River near Monteith in 1924 (see story below).

Notes

Time Line

1903. This was reported as an interlocked crossing which used gates. [MCR-1904]

1924. April 21. Seven persons miraculously escaped death or serious injury when a Michigan Railway interurban car jumped the rails at the approach to the bridge across the Kalamazoo river and tumbled, rear-end foremost into the stream. The car contained the motorman, conductor and five passengers.

All suffered bruises and cuts from splintered glass and received a ducking [in the water]. Local physicians were summoned and administered first aid. George Giles, residing near the river, was first on the scene and aided in removing the occupants from the car as it lay, its front end still on the rails, tipped on its side in the shallow water near the bank.

The cause of the accident has not been determined. Motorman Young said that the rear trucks suddenly left the tracks and the momentum of the car, which had just rounded a curve, swung the rear end from the tracks. Speed was moderate, he said.

Had the car gone 20 feet farther before leaving the rails on the bridge, it would have landed in 15 feet of water, sufficient to submerge it. Shortly after the injured had been removed the front end of the car rolled down the bank. [SJHP-1924-0421]