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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 Site Outages - During the last few days of April we experienced a site outage. Features that were not functioning earlier this week should now be working again. If you come across anything that is still broken, please let us know. Walthers Releases C&O Pere Marquette Streamliner cars - During late January, Walthers delivered the first batch of its HO scale streamlined passenger cars. The second batch, consisting of the coach-diner, 10-6 Pullman and lunch counter-buffet-lounge, was delivered in late February. The E7s are projected for late-June. A comprehensive review will appear in the March-April 2013 issue of PM Tracks.
Walthers to Release C&O Pere Marquette Streamliner as its 2013 Name Train - At the National Train Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Walthers announced that its HO streamlined name train for 2013 will consist of equipment to model the C&O's Pere Marquette streamliners they appeared after 1953. From September, 2012 to March, 2013, Walthers will release new cars and C&O/PM E7A diesels to model these trains. For this project, Walthers will re-release its Pullman Standard streamlined PM baggage car and its 52-seat streamlined coach (C&O 1610-1668 series). New cars include a C&O coach diner (#1610-1611), lunch counter-buffet-lounge Chessie Club, and a C&O-style Pullman Standard 10-6 sleeper. These cars will be fully assembled, with handrails installed and plated fluting. Details can be found at http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/pere_marquette.
PM #1223 Featured in Railfan and Railroad - Pere Marquette Berkshire #1223, preserved at the Tri-Cities Historical Society's railroad display in Grand Haven, Michigan, is featured in a three-page article titled "The Pride of Grand Haven: Pere Marquette No. 1223" in the March 2012 issue of Railfan and Railroad magazine.
Model Railroading Resources Section Added to Web Site - We have added a section dedicated to resources for model railroaders to the PMHS web site. Currently, it contains the Pere Marquette Railway HO Modelers' Reference Guide, and files listing customers in towns served by the PM. PMHS Archives Closed - Due to a lack of resources and volunteers, the Pere Marquette Historical Society reluctantly announces that its archives, located at the Joint Archives of Holland in Holland, Michigan, are now closed. The materials in the collection remain under the ownership of the Society, and we hope that in the future we will be able to make them available again for use by researchers. The Society will continue, focusing on the publication of its newsletter, Tracks, to promote and disseminate the history of the Pere Marquette Railway. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the material, please direct them to Bob VandeVusse, c/o PMHS, P.O. Box 422 Grand Haven, MI 49417 or r.vandevusse@gmail.com .
Waverly Yard Engine House Demolished - Sometime during the last two months of 2010, the former PM engine house at Waverly Yard in Holland was demolished. It is believed to have been built by the Chicago & West Michigan in 1892. In its place now stands a modular office building.
Update: During early February 2011, the modular office building and an adjacent storage building were destroyed by arson. A suspect is in custody.
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Joining the PMHS
Pere
Marquette Historical Society members receive six issues of PM
Tracks, the bimonthly PMHS newsletter, and two issues of Pere
Marquette Rails, the PMHS magazine, each year. Members also receive
notices of special projects, such as our
custom-run PM freight cars.
We hold an annual "get-together" for members and their immediate families each year at a town along the former-PM right-of-way. Plans for the 2010 Get-Together are being developed.
To join the Pere Marquette Historical Society, send a check or money order for $30.00 (Canadian residents $35.00 US) payable to the "Pere Marquette Historical Society" to:
| Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. Membership Officer P.O. Box 422 Grand Haven, MI 49417-0422 |
A copy of our membership application form is available on this Web site.
The Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization incorporated in the State of Michigan and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service.
Acknowledgments
This site would not be possible without the gracious assistance of fellow PMHS members and numerous others who have contributed information and photographs for use on this site, most notably:
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And of course, no work on the PM would be complete without acknowledging the fine work of PMHS President Art Million, who is not only the pioneer PM historian, but has written most of the books and articles published about the PM over the past several decades. Art has also provided valuable background information (and error-correction!) for this site.
Use of this Web site and the materials contained within it is subject to
specific
terms and conditions.
| Do you have questions or comments
regarding this Web site? E-mail to  All original contents of this Web site are Copyright © 2012, John F. ("Fritz") Milhaupt, on behalf of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc., All Rights Reserved. |