Nostalgia & History > Maple Leaf Takes Pause in Battle Creek

As my dad grew up in Battle Creek, MI he captured quite a bit of GTW action including this chilly day at the station. Exact date unknown but likely mid-60's.

Grand Trunk's Maple Leaf attracts attention at the Battle Creek depot on a cool but clear day.
Shot by Daryl McGee
PQM

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Old GTW RR conductors and head brakemen on either Train#17, the Inter City Limited or train#59, the Maple Leaf, were based out of Port Huron, MI and worked tween Port Huron and Chicago. Tail end brakemen were based out of Battle Creek. and worked Battle Creek-Port Huron-Chicago-Battle creek.   Battle Creek based engine crews worked b etween Battle Creek and Chicago and Battle Creek and Port Huron.

Very interesting photo.  Based on the look of the white station wagon with simulated wood sides, I would date it late 1960s.  Great composition!
ALLEN

The "Woody" is a 1965 model.

Excellent photo PQM.  Love to see back when steam leaked out of the passenger train connections.
Brian Stevens

The woody is a 66. Rectangle tail lights. 65 had round tail lights :)
Those GMD handrails always amuse me.
Is that girl looking for frame numbers? LOL.

...And just to the right out of the view rests a 4-8-4 GT steam locomotive on display that would someday come back to life! In 1968 I embarked on a "Reading Rambles" excursion to Durand, MI and return, my first steam trip, I was all of 10 years old. Reading 2102 sat at this exact spot. My Mom dropped me off at this same depot in desperation after my Dad, who was a foreman at Post Cereals, had worked the night before and needed sleep, so I went alone. On the 2102 trip I remember going by "Spartan Village" at the MSU campus where when I was much younger, outside our college apartments there sat a big, scary black thing that was a steam locomotive, caged behind a fence that would also come back to life and even be in a movie. I faintly remember once running to the tall fence to the right when another went by the village, must have been one of GT's final steam runs. I was not in Kindergarten yet, I must have been all of four years old! But after embarking from here, now I was on the other side of the fence... === === = === JLH