Timetable: PRR - Main Line - Cadillac to Mackinaw City

This is the original GR&I line to Mackinaw City. Station hours from 1898. Passing track capacity from 1935 based on 45' cars.

Notes

Manton: Manton Hill has a 1.19% grade.

Walton Junction: A junction with the Traverse City Branch. The Manistee & Northeastern crossed under the GR&I in an underpass at this location.

Crofton: A branch was located here to the Cobbs & Mitchell logging camps.

Antrim: Junction with the Antrim Iron Company logging railroad. The switch went suthwest to the company at Elder Road.

Mancelona: Branches from here to the Mancelona Handle Copany logging railroads.

Williams Brother's Switch: To Williams Brothers logging branch to "Brothers" lumber camp in 1914.

Huntsworth: A PRR enginehouse was located here for the helper locomotive for Elmira Hill.

North Elmira: The Boyne City, Gaylord & Alpena crossed the GRI/PRR on an overhead bridge. The concrete abutments continue to exist as well as the elevated right-of-way.

Elmira Hill was 1.41% on the GR&I.

The grade heading south from Boyne Falls to Elmira was 1.41% (a rise of 500 feet). It was the largest grade on the GR&I. [FL-pg.119]

BCG&A Junction: A switch went southwest from the GR&I at Cherry Hill Road, then across US-131 and the south branch of the Boyne River.

Boyne Falls turntable: This turntable turned steam locomotives working as the helper engine on Elmira Hill.

Cobbs & Mitchell Switch: This switch went to the C&M logging railroad (Boyne Falls & Northeatern). The BF&NE was operated from 1902 to 1924.

BC&SE Crossing: The Boyne City and Southeastern crossed both the GR&I and the Cobbs & Mitchell logging railroad (BF&NE) here, north of teh Boyne River.

Walloon Junction: This was the south limit of the Petoskey commuter operations.

Foremans: Double track began here north to Ke-Go-Mic. There was a 3 stall roundhouse here built in 1903.

Ke-Go-Mic: This was formally Harbor Springs Junction. A junction with the Harbor Springs branch.

Conway: An artesion well pipe was located at this station.

Alanson: This was the northern terminus of the Petoskey region resort commuter rail operations.

Tindle & Jackson Mill Switch: This rack led northwest to the mills.

Pellston: A branch ran four miles to the northwest from here.

Belding-Hall Lumber Branch: A switch here went northwest to Ely (across Pellston Airport) to mills at Ely.

Mackinaw City: The depot and roundhouse here was shared with the New York Central.

Mackinaw City Docks: This is the railroad car ferry dock to St. Ignace in the upper peninsula.

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

[REF] = [MRL]

Time Line

1872. The GR&I is built from Cadillac to Fife Lake. [MRL]

1874. The GR&I is built from Fife Lake to Petoskey. [MRL]

1876. The GR&I is built from Petoskey to Bay View. [MRL]

1882. The GR&I is extended from Bay View to Mackinaw City. [RML]

1908. During the past two weeks 125 car loads of flour shipped from Minneapolis and consigned to New York have passed through Grand Rapids over the GR&I, most of it in solid trains put through as special freight on fast time. The MC and PM are bidders for this business and the road that makes the best time in delivering the goods has a legitimate claim for preference. The flour trains on the GR&I have been covering the 226 miles from Mackinaw to Grand Rapids in about 10 hours. [PHTH-1908-0307]

1920. January. Practically all railway traffic in the upper lake region and northern Michigan are paralyzed in the grip of blizzards and sub-zero weather. Traffic has been ties up for 36 hours on the GR&I railroad where three trains have been reported derailed and several hundred persons were taken into private homes. [JEN-1920-0115]

1950. December 3. The PRR discontinues passenger service north from Grand Rapids. Both the PRR and C&O have been operating resort trains on weekends during the summer months. [PNR-1956-1114]

1963. December. Attorney General Frank Kelly vowed a legal battle against four rail carriers who, he said, want to "discontinue service in a substantial part of northern Michigan. "Information has been received that with the request to abandon the Mackinaw City to St. Ignace car ferry, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and Soo Line railroads will ask the ICC to reduce substantially their services in this state," Kelly said. He also said the Detroit & Mackinac railroad is seeking to halt its service to Cheboygan. Only the NYC confirmed Kelley's statement that it plans to end service north of Gaylord to Mackinaw City.

The PRR and Soo Line denied the accusations, except to say they want to discontinue the rail car ferry across the Straits. George Wyatt, general attorney for the NYC in Detroit, said: "In event the Mackinac Company abandons service, there will be insufficient traffic north of Gaylord to support a railroad, and abandonment of that trackage is almost a foredrawn conclusion." Wyatt said the NYC runs one train north and one south each day above Gaylord, servicing Wolverine, Vanderbilt, Indian River and Mackinaw City, whose combined population is about 4,000.

The NYC, PRR and Soo Line contend that the ferry over the straits can no longer be operated profitably. Each railroad has one man on the company's board of directors. The ferry, Chief Wawatam, has been condemned by the Coast Guard, and has been licensed to operate only until May 24, 1964. The railroads argue that the $1.2 million it would cost to repair the Chief would not be worthwhile in the face of declining freight traffic lost to the Mackinac Bridge. [EDP-1963-1227]

1964. July. The Pennsylvania railroad says they can't conceive of the PRR withdrawing its abandonment petition north of Cadillac, even if the Mackinaw rail ferry is forced to continue. The petition on the Sand Lake to Mackinaw City branch "stands on its own two feet". [IDG-1964-0709]

1964. The PRR said at the ICC abandonment hearing that the cost to replace old ties on the railroad tracks to make them serviceable was $900,000. On the other hand, he said the tracks have a salvage value of $1.2 million if they are torn up and sold for scrap. A PRR trainmaster noted that service at Reed City, Petoskey, Traverse City and Cadillac could be provided by the C&O and Ann Arbor railroads if the Pensy quit. [TCRE-1964-0711]

1982. The Michigan Transportation Commission made a decision not to pay the lease and taxes on 33 miles of track between Petoskey and Mackinaw City and the Michigan Northern railroad has embargoed rail shipments over the segment. They have also reduced service between Cadillac and Petoskey to two days per week. A hearing will be held on the economic impact of the decisions. "We'd like it (the hearing) to be packed," said Beth Andrus, president of the Michigan Northern railroad. "If we can't get the commission to reverse its decision or allow us to purchase the track, there will be no service north of Petoskey". In April, the State will also consider dropping of track from Petoskey to Kalkaska. 

The track is owned by Penn Central Corp., and the state was leasing the track for $22,300 per month. The Michigan Transportation Commission says if the Michigan Northern wishes to run on the track, it would need to come up with the lease payment. Andrus refused, noting the carrier could not afford the $15,000 to $19,000 monthly loss that would result. "We can afford about $4,000 a month to lease or buy, and our proposal is to buy the track if we can," Andrus said.

The carrier operates south to Comstock Park outside Grand Rapids. The state only considers the segment from Kalkaska to Comstock Park as "core system".

"In our discussions with MDOT, they agree that if we run to the Straits with overhead traffic (cars coming from out of state and not stopping in the state), then we could be off state subsidy by fiscal 1984. If we are cut back to just the line between Comstock Park and Kalkaska then we will require continued subsidy." she said.

Ms. Andrus said the state is paying the same subsidy for one day a week or five-day a week service. Until the embargo, the Michigan Northern carried about 7,000 overhead cars and 2,000 locally generated cars. Local cars are not sufficient to provide daily service to local shippers. "What's under attack is our local service, and the Chief (Wawatam, the railroad car ferry at the Straits of Mackinac). The drop in cross-country shipments also affects the Soo Line, which hauls the cars across the upper peninsula. [PNR-1982-0216]

1984. The PRR, former GR&I, from Comstock Park (Grand Rapids) to Petoskeiy is sold to the State of Michigan.

1988. This line is abandoned north of Alanson to Mackinaw City. [MRL]

1992. The PRR/GR&I is abandoned north of downtown Petoskey. [MRL]