Time Line - 1989

Last Year | Next Year

• March 15: Conrail closes West Detroit tower.  Remoted from their Dearborn dispatching center. [MRC-0689]

• Spring: Bob Sposito converts the old DSS&A depot in St. Ignace to a waterfront restaurant. [MRC-8/89]

• June 7: Part of the CSX Port Huron subdivision between Avoca and milepost 83.28 (7 miles west of Port Huron) is abandoned. CSX now operates by trackage rights on the GTW between Flint and Port Huron. [MRC-9/89]

• August 5: The "Star Clipper" dinner train begins operations over the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago between Paw Paw andLaawrence using ex-Pennsylvania Railroad "Keystone" cars. [MT]

• August 18: CTC dispatching goes on line for CSX in the Grand Rapids area, to be controlled by Jacksonville dispathers. [MRC-9/89]

• Fall: Work begins on a $275,000 state-sponsored engine house at Vassar on the TSBY, northeast of the depot/headquarters. [AATHA-F/1989]

• November: The Michigan Southern Railroad begins operation of the former NYC line from Sturgis to Coldwater, which had been inactive since 1984.

• December: Inland Lime & Stone Company ceases rail operations at their quarry in the Upper Peninsula.  IL&S utilized seven electric locomotives powered by overhead catanary. [MRC-2/1991]

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• Coopersville & Marne purchases line between namesake towns from Central Michigan Railroad. [MRRC]

• CSX begans leasing its Detroit-Grand Rapids-Chicago line trackage rights to the Canadian Pacific Railway, dramatically increasing the number of trains on this east-west route. [COHS-2/1998]

• Rail car owners are no longer required to stencil car capacity on cars. [SAM]

 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