Available Now!

Welcome to the official web site of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.!

The Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. (PMHS) was founded in 1995 as a means of collecting and disseminating information regarding the Pere Marquette Railroad. Our membership is made up of historians, former employees, modelers, and railfans. If you are interested in the PM, we encourage you to join.

The Pere Marquette Railroad Company was formed in 1900 by the merger of numerous Michigan railroads, the most prominent of them being the Flint and Pere Marquette, the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western, and the Chicago and West Michigan. During its existence, it came under the control of several other railroads at one time or another, including the Baltimore and Ohio and the Erie. In the 1920s, it came under the control of Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, two financiers from Cleveland who also controlled the Nickel Plate, the Erie, and the Chesapeake and Ohio. Over the years, the C&O gained more and more control over the PM, until on June 6, 1947 the PM was formally merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio.

The Pere Marquette operated over trackage stretching from Buffalo, New York to Chicago, and from Bay View (Petoskey) Michigan to Toledo, Ohio, with trackage in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario. In addition to its strictly rail operations, the PM also operated railway car ferries on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, and a fleet of car ferries from Ludington across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, Kewaunee and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Nearly all of the trackage CSX operates in Michigan today is former PM trackage.

Please Note: The PMHS is unable to provide information regarding specific PM employees, as we do not possess any of the PM's employment records.

News

2008 PMHS Members' Get-Together Set for July 26 in Owosso - After some ten years of gathering in Grand Rapids for a day of presentations on PM history, we've decided to try something a little different this year. Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 26, when we will gather in Owosso, on the grounds of the Steam Railroading Institute, home of Pere Marquette 1225. At 9:00 a.m. we will depart on an excursion behind 1225 to Alma, arriving at 11:30. There will be a 2-1/2-hour layover there, plenty of time for photos and lunch. We will re-board at 2:00 for our return to Owosso, stopping along the way for a photo run-by. Following our return to Owosso at 5:00, SRI will have their PM rolling stock prominently displayed and (we hope) give rides on the former New Buffalo turntable. There may even be a surprise or two! There will also be plenty of time to socialize.

Fare for the excursion will be $75.00 each. There will also be 12 seats available on PM caboose A909 for $125.00 each. If those sell out, and if there is sufficient interest, an Ann Arbor caboose could be added, as well.

To make your reservation, call the Steam Railroading Institute at 989-725-9464 and mention that you're with the Pere Marquette Historical Society group. If you need overnight accommodations, hotel information for the immediate area is available from the Shiawassee Convention & Visitors Bureau (http://www.shiawassee.org). You can also book a room in the Lansing or Flint areas, about 25 miles away. SRI will be running another trip to Alma on Sunday, the 27th for your riding or chasing pleasure, or take in the Huckleberry Railroad in Flint, which runs on ex-F&PM right of way.

Pere Marquette Bekshire 1225 leads a photo freight on February 16, 2008
Robert Milhaupt photo
 

RailAmerica Files to Abandon Lowell-Greenville Segment of former PM "Turkey Trail" - On November 27, 2007, RailAmerica, owner of short line Mid-Michigan Railroad filed an application with the Surface Transportation Board to abandon the Mid-Michigan Railroad's trackage north from Lowell to Greenville, Michigan on the MMRR's Greenville Subdivision. The filing describes the abandonment as applying to 26.4 miles of track beginning at milepost 103.2 in Lowell and passing through Kent and Montcalm Counties, including the communities of Belding and Greenville. At the time of the petition, no customers remained on the MMRR north of Lowell, with the last revenue carload being handled in December, 2006.

The trackage in question was part of the PM's "Turkey Trail" line which connected Grand Rapids and Saginaw by way of Elmdale, Lowell, Greenville, Edmore, Alma and St. Louis. The Mid-Michigan Railroad had operated the remaining Greenville-Elmdale segment since 1987, when it served appliance and auto parts manufacturers in Greenville. Frigidaire's March, 2006 closing of its manufacturing plant in Greenville eliminated the last substantial source of traffic on the line.

The filing indicates that the MMRR has executed a Memorandum of Understanding with the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition for the sale of the right-of-way. Upon approval of the application, it intends to remove all rails and other track materials on the line, leaving bridges in place. Once that is completed, it will sell the right-of-way to the Trails and Greenways Coalition for development as a recreational trail.
 

PMHS HO Boxcar Kits Still Available - The USRA double-sheath wood boxcar kits we had Accurail run for us are still available. These easy-to-assemble plastic kits are painted and lettered in two different schemes, representing the cars as delivered in 1919 and 1920, and as some were repainted after 1931.

Drawings of both cars and ordering details are found on our special-run HO freight cars page.

Additional details on the prototype cars on which these kits are based are found in the May, 2005 issue of PM Tracks.

• Tom Amrine
• Dennis Bean-Larson
• Willard Benedict
• Ben Boshoven
• Gary Boyer
• Art Chavez
• Bob DeClerg

• William Dewey
• T.J. Gaffney
• Eddie Gross
• Max S. Hanley
• E.L. Huddleston
• Roger Kirkpatrick
• Chuck Neal

• Paul Quintus
• Bob Sanford
• Leon Schaddelee
• Robert Vande Vusse
• Cliff Vander Yacht
• Dave Zelisse