Time Line - 1950

Last Year | Next Year

• March 7: The Copper Range Railroad experiences a strike by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, which results in a complete suspension of operations until April 28. [CRAR]

• June 16: The Copper Range Railroad coal dock at Houghton is razed.  The need for coal was lessened because the railroad has dieselized and the Freda stamp mill has converted to electricity. [CRH]

• June: Production begins at EMD's London, Ontario plant. [LTimes/9-16-2003]

• July 19: Ann Arbor RR runs last passenger train from Elberta to Toledo. [MDOT]

• July 30: PRR ends passenger service between Grand Rapids and Muskegon. At the end, the line employed a "doodlebug". [PRHTS-W-2000]

• December 31: Michigan Railroad Mileage Totaled 6,803 miles. [MDOT]

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• Pennsylvania discontinues passenger service from Muskegon to Grand Rapids. [MDOT]

• Buses transport 38% of intercity passengers.  Trucks transport 16% of intercity freight traffic. [STOV]

• Nationally, there are 223,779 miles of railroad track. [STOV]

• Pennsylvania Railroad leads the country in freight revenue.  [STOV]

• The Copper Range Railroad purchases its first diesel locomotive. [CRAR]

• The last steam engines run on the former Port Huron & Northwestern lines of the Pere Marquette. [AB]

• The Escanaba & Lake Superior purchases a Russell snowplow from the Ford Motor Company's abandoned logging railroad at L'Anse, Michigan. [EDP-12/27/1950]

• Baldwin Locomotive Works buys Lima-Hamilton Corporation and becomes Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. [SAM]

• General Motors diesel Ltd. (GMDL) is created in Canada.  It is later changed to the General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD). [SAM]

• The New York Central opens its new toledo Central Terminal.  The station had through tracks for main line trains, as well as stub tracks for mail and express. [NYCF]. The offices in the facility also contained the Toledo East and Toledo West dispatcher CTC equipment, operating the line from Berea, Ohio west to Elkhart, Indiana.

• The Mather "B" mine opens in the Marquette iron range. It produces iron ore through the underground method until 1979. [IOHT]

 Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression