Eastern Railroad Discussion > New York Central "Old Road" Passenger Train in the snow

I'm pretty sure these three slides are the same train. The last photo was taken at Hillsdale, Michigan. These originals were purchased at an estate sale in Toledo some years ago. Normal power on the Old Road passenger trains in the diesel era btw Toledo and Elkhart were geeps but in this case it appears to be one of the rare NYC passenger F-3's. These slides would have been taken in the 1950's. Consist appears to be baggage, RPO and combine--not an untypical consist for the the Old Road passenger train in the 50's.

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Going

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At Hillsdale. No date on the slides. The two tone green brick building next to the train is the Hillsdale depot. The other building is the former Lansing Division Headquarters. Note the water crane. Train is a westbound. Note what also appears to be a REA truck at the depot.

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What does old road mean in this context?

Thanks.

Thanks for the memories, Victor. Things were sure slowing down then, weren't they?

Old Road was the term used for the line that ran from Toledo across southern Michigan and down to Elkhart. The line is now segmented in 3 parts. NS runs a short segment from Toledo to Ottawa Lake, Michigan. The Adrain and Blissfield runs a segment from Riga to Adrain and the INER/ Michigan Southern runs from the Hillsdale area to Three Rivers where is connets with the Kalamazoo to Elkhart segemnt. I don't know how the term "old Road" came about but it has been called that the entire time I've heard about it.

There was a book written several years ago that covered the history.

The New York Central had two routes between Elkhart, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio.

The older of the two routes, the "Old Road" ran mostly through southern Michigan: Elkhart,Indiana then White Pigeon-Sturgis-Coldwater-Jonesville-Hillsdale-Hudson-Adrian-Lenawee Jct, Blissfield, Michigan then Sylvania-Vulcan and Toledo, Ohio (not all locations listed here for clarity).

In the old days long before airline jets, air line meant the shortest distance between two points. The other route that ran mostly through northern Indiana was known as the "Air Line" because it also ran btw Elkhart and Toledo but was in addition to being relatively newer also shorter:

Elkhart-Goshen-Kendallville-Waterloo-Butler, in Indiana and Bryan-Wausean-Delta-Toledo, (again, not all locations listed for clarity).

The Airline was the mainline of the New York Central. It is interesting to note that for freight billing purposes Elkhart-Toledo was billed using the Old Road mileage regardless of which route used! It is also interesting to note the New York Central was such a dominant sprawling system that there were many other locations that it had duplicate lines btw two points.

The Old Road is the former Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, competitor to Michigan Central (before they were both merged into the NYC), and the original route (LS&MS) into Chicago from the east. In fact, the active tower at 16th St. in Chicago used by Metra today is originally LS&MS property. Anyway, the "old road" passenger service was ended in the 50's I think, but the depot shown in pic #3 at Coldwater still stands today (and is still painted two tone green I think) as a restaurant.

The segment on the west end, White Pigeon Jct., to Sturgis is operated by the Pioneer RR. They have not been running east of Sturgis (thru Burr Oak and Bronson) to Coldwater in a few months I'm told.

Cool depots still stand at White Pigeon, Sturgis, and the original milepost markers, cast concrete, counting from Buffalo NY still stand. The RR parallels US 12 from White Pigeon eastward to Sturgis, a small yard at White Pigeon serves as a base of operation. At White Pigeon, the old road connects with the former LS&MS Kalamazoo branch.

There was a nice article about the old road in a Railfan & Railroad mag from a few years back. Next time instead of blasting across northern Indiana on the toll road, get off at White Pigeon (Middlebury exit), check out the facility on the south side of town (time trip), then head east on US 12 to Sturgis, where you can get back on the toll road. At Sturgis, the old road crossed the PRR GR&I line, part of which still exists in town and is used also. The diamond is still intact (80lb. rail here)...

thanks for posting those shots wabash, they are quite a treat.

nycman Wrote:
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> Thanks for the memories, Victor. Things were sure
> slowing down then, weren't they?

I don't have the date handy for the last regularly scheduled passenger train on the Old Road but it may have been as early as 1956 or maybe the late 50's. I know I've got it somewhere.

To the surprise of some, Hudsons ran on the Old Road in passenger service in the last days of steam.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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>
> In the old days long before airline jets, air line
> meant the shortest distance between two points.
> The other route that ran mostly through northern
> Indiana was known as the "Air Line" because it
> also ran btw Elkhart and Toledo but was in
> addition to being relatively newer also shorter:
>
>

there was another NYC predecessor subdivision named "airline" sub parallel the old road, just a few miles north---the Michigan Central "airline" sub originally ran from Jackson, MI. to Niles, MI., connecting with the MC Det-Chi passenger main at each end. that airline sub was ripped up in the Conrail era.

Chico: You are correct. But also note that the railroad actually had as its legal name "Michigan Air Line". It was gobbled up by the Michigan Central soon after it was built. The Michigan Central would not allow this to be a shortcut from their mainline at Jackson. Most of the line became rather dormant until the late 1950's when the New York Central rebuilt part of the line as part of a fast route btw Elkhart and Detroit via Jackson.

Yeah, Wabash, I grew up on the "other" airline sub, the old MC airline between Jackson and Niles built in 1870---which means the Jackson-Three Rivers segment--because the Three Rivers-Niles segment was ripped up after WWII. You are right about the upgrade in the '50's--the Pearlman era--to run NYC freights directly to Elkhart from the mid-Michigan area. NYC added some controlled sidings, including a nice passing siding at a hamlet known as Wasipi, Michigan, where the airline crossed the GR&I (PRR). This was in the 50's as you stated. Conrail found the route redundant and ended service over it in favor of running 47 miles further via the MC passenger main Jackson-Kalamazoo, then onto the former LS&MS Kal. secondary south to Three Rivers, where the airline crossed at grade until the upgrade to a connection in the '50's which enabled trains to head on south to Elkhart. Funny thing is, Wasipi "could've been" Elkart--as far as the RR was concerned--yet the decision was made to build the major yard at Elkhart and Wasipi died on the vine--with the Amish farms of the area dominating, it is a virtual ghost town. I spent many an hour riding my bicycle out to Wasipi as a kid. Here's a photo I dug up of a busier day:

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stations/CountyStations/St.JosephMIStations/WasepiMI.htm

Going wayyy off topic here, but the MAL (Michigan Air Line) actually began in Pontiac, IIRC. Eventually, the east end (Pontiac to Jackson) went to the GTW.

Nice stuff around Hillsdale, Vic. Hope the book is going well.