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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 PM 1225 Renovation Nearly Complete! - Over at the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, work on PM Berkshire #1225, the last remaining operable PM steam locomotive, is nearly complete, following a four-year tear-down, inspection and major reconstruction. During this time, significant parts of the firebox and backhead were replaced, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. While a public steam-up and run was initially planned for Wednesday, October 30, some difficulties arose the weekend before that require some additional work. Check the Steam Railroading Insititute's web site and Facebook page for updates. Update: Farol Henkle advises us that 1225 passed her FRA inspection on November 7.
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 now projected for late July delivery. A comprehensive review of the passenger cars appears in the March-April 2013 issue of PM Tracks.
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.
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Joining the PMHS
Pere
Marquette Historical Society members receive six issues of PM
Tracks, the bimonthly PMHS newsletter 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.
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 late PMHS President Art Million, who was not only a pioneer PM historian, but has written most of the books and articles published about the PM over the past several decades. Art 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  All original contents of this Web site are Copyright © 2013, John F. ("Fritz") Milhaupt, on behalf of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc., All Rights Reserved. |