Timetable: Detroit & Mackinac Ry. - Main Line South Division - Bay City to Alpena

Station open, passing tracks as of 1922. This line is single track.

Key: BB=Bascule Bridge | C=Coal | CS=Car Shop | D=Open > Day | DN=Open Day and night | DS=Dispatcher | DT=Double Main Track | EH=Engine house | HI=Half Interlocker | I=Interlocker | J=Junction | LB=Lift bridge | N=Open at night | P=Passing Track w/40' car capacity | RH=Roundhouse # stalls | RT=Railroad Resort | S=Scales | SB=Swing bridge | T=Turntable | TC=Telegraph call | W=Water | X=Crossing | Y=Wye | Yard=Yard

Notes

[REF] = Employee timetables, annual reports [DMAR] plus additional sources.

Time Line

August 18, 1893. News from the northern end of the Detroit & Mackinac Railway is to the effect that Contractor Griffin, of Detroit, has arrived at Hawks, and is building camps for his construction gang. It is proposed to build a distance of twenty miles toward Cheboygan this fall. Teams are hauling out grading implements to the end of the road and active operations will be started at once. Upwards of 200 men will be employed. The draughtsman in the chief engineer's office in Bay City have been working up the details ever since the survey last spring, and everything is ready for work. [DFP-1893-0819]

1894. April. It is reported that work has commenced on the new railroad that will connect Bay City more directly with the DBC&A railroad. The route was surveyed some years ago and it is thought the Grand Trunk railway is interested in the extension. Such a road would be of great benefit as it would furnish competing lines to the great business centers. [AAN-1894-0425]

1901. February. The Pere Marquette has made several improvements in the already excellent passenger service of the road. To still further better the service, it is announced that Pullman sleepers and day cars will be put on between Detroit, Saginaw, Bay City and Alpena. The Pullmans will be in operation beginning February 10 and the old PM coaches will take a lay-off. The cars north from Bay City will be run over the Detroit & Mackinac, and the travelling public will have little cause for complaint over a prospective trip to Alpena in the winter months. [PHDH-1901-0201]

1901. October. A special train for newspapermen reaches speeds as high as 70 mph on this route. "There were moments when telegraph poles looked like a fine-tooth comb, and the passengers had considerable difficulty maintaining their equilibrium when the train swung around a curve. [DFP-1901-1027]

1901. The special train for newspapermen (see above) served breakfast, lunch and dinner for the participants. Here was the menu:

• Breakfast - 9 a.m. - Assorted fruit, oatmeal and cream, broiled English mutton chop, scrambled eggs, Lyonnaise potatoes, coca and coffee.
• Lunch - 1 p.m. - Chicken gumbo soup, celery and olives, fried oysters and tomato sauce, roasted snowbirds with bacon, au gratin potatoes, lettuce and green pepper sauce, rum omelet, cheese crackers and coffee.
• Supper - 7 p.m. - Cream of tomato soup, celery, olives, Porterhouse steak, mushroom sauce, fried French potatoes, baked squash, English plum pudding, rum sauce, cheese, crackers and coffee. [DFP-1901-1103]

1901. December 15. The Harrisville cut-off is opened from Lincoln Junction north through Harrisville. [DMAR-1903]

1950. New, through train passenger service between Alpena and Detroit was announced here by C.A. Skog, vice president and general manager of the GTW railroad, and Charles A. Pinkerton Jr. president and general manager of the D&M. The new service will be operated over the lines of the GTW and D&M and will speed scheduled between cities in northeastern Michigan and Detroit and Chicago. The train will be operated for a six-month trial period rail officials said. PHTH-1950-0131] The train was operated until 1951. [DFP-1951-0402]