Sunfield, on the northwest edge of Eaton County, was settled around 1836. It was incorporated as a village in 1899. [MPN]
Sunfield is on the former Pere Marquette (now CSX) line from Lansing to Grand Rapids.
Photo info: Top, the PM depot at Sunfield, date unknown. 2nd photo, an early photo of a passenger train chugging into Sunfield,. [Alan Loftis Collection]. 3rd photo, the depot and Water Tower about 1915.
1901. The vestibuled Chicago flyer, No. 5, drawn by engine No. 67 from Detroit, was ditched at Sunfield on the Pere Marquette at 4:15 Saturday morning by spreading rails. The train was going 50 mph when all at once the engine careened and plunged into a bank. The cars were torn from their trucks but none telescoped. The smashing of the engine caused the escape of steam, scalding the engineer seriously, while the fireman was fatally hurt by being pinned under the wreck. A relief train brought the injured and 70 passengers to this city, give hours late.
1931. DERAILED FREIGHT CAR CRASHES INTO STATION. Aug. 8 - (AP) Thirteen cars of a Pere Marquette freight train were derailed here today, smashing the signal tower and damaging the depot. No one was injured. The train, headed west on the main Detroit-Grand Rapids line, derailed in front of the depot, a box car crashing into the signal tower and caroming against the telegraph operator's office in the depot. The top of the west end of the depot was budged a foot by the impact. About 10 rods of track were torn up. [BCE-8/8/1931]
1945. The west end of the siding here had a spring switch. [PM45]
The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:
