I’m back in Mt. Pleasant for Thanksgiving and after watching the Lions dispatch the Bears (not handily, but never mind that) I went out for a short bike ride through Mill Pond Park. The main bike trail comes out at Broadway opposite the old Ann Arbor Railroad station, now the Mountain Town Station brewery and restaurant. I’ve photographed it many times over the years, but tonight the fading light felt really special.
I grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, a county seat and college town of about 20,000 people that hasn’t seen a passenger train in over 70 years (and counting). We had two railroads: the Ann Arbor Railroad main line, running northwest from Toledo, Ohio, up to Frankfort, Michigan, and a branch line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (originally Pere Marquette), running northeast from Mt. Pleasant up to Coleman.
The C&O abandoned the branch line in 1983, a year after I was born. It ran along the Chippewa River, hugging the east bank, then crossing Pickard Road and leaving town. The city looked at buying about 1.5 miles from the Ann Arbor main line up to the industrial park on the the north side of Pickard, but nothing came of it. Still, I grew up with the knowledge that there had been a line there, and there was still some yard trackage at the old junction near Broadway. A man in my church, long retired, was the C&O’s last freight agent in the city.
The Ann Arbor was the formative influence. Everyone called it that, even though the Ann Arbor itself disappeared into Conrail in 1976. The state bought the line and a succession of operators have kept it active since then. The tracks are a quarter mile west of the family home, close enough for me to jump on my bicycle and give chase if I heard a train horn. Bland gray Conrail covered hoppers were the order of the day, and I was always hoping to see something different in the consist.
The bridge over High Street (M-20) is something of a landmark. High Street is the main east-west road and dips noticeably to eliminate the grade crossing with the Ann Arbor main line. It’s something of a natural barrier, as Mill Pond Park is on the northwest side. It’s a good place to railfan, and I have many times.
Passenger service ended in 1950. There are perennial plans to restore service. A2TC (for Ann Arbor-Traverse City) is the most recent version of these. Railroad geography being what it is, such a train would miss Lansing and the Tri-Cities. The only time I rode a passenger train on the route was in the mid-1990s, when the Great Lakes Central Railroad ran passenger shuttles from Mt. Pleasant down to Alma for the annual Highland Games. If it happens, I’ll be first in line for a ticket home.