Grand Rapids, MI related Rail Roads. Does Anyone here model them? - Model Railroader Magazine

When I was living in GR in the 1970s and early 1980s, there were basically three railroads: The C&O/Chessie, Penn Central (later Conrail), and the Grand Trunk Western. In 1976, the PC north of GR became the Michigan Northern.

My focus has been on the Pere Marquette/C&O/Chessie side of things. Up until 1947, anything that's now CSX in GR was Pere Marquette. After that, the PM was merged into the C&O. Around 1972, that became the Chessie System.

Motive power on that line was primarily four-axle diesels. Until the late 1960s, it was almost exclusively EMD power (NW2, SW7, GP7, GP9, SW9, GP30, E7, E8), though the GE U25Bs spent a good deal of time in the GR area. F7s were rare in GR on the C&O.

The C&O's Alcos didn't really figure into GR operations, except for a few years around 1970 when the big C630s were based at Wyoming Yard. GE power (U30B, U30C, U23B) started showing up around 1970.

As much as I concentrate on the C&O-predecessor Pere Marquette, I've always been fascinated by the Michigan Northern, which took over the former Pennsylvania/Penn Central trackage from Comstock Park to Mackinaw City in 1976 and ran it until the early 1980s. They had a colorful ragtag fleet of beat-up Alcos and Baldwins until they replaced them with second-hand GP7s around 1980.

I'm currently finishing up room-preparation so I can build a late-1940s switching layout based on the Pere Marquette's "Furniture Spur", that ran along Godfrey Avenue SW between Market Street and Hall Street. The Pennsy ran through that area, too, but I haven't decided whether I want to include that, yet.