Nostalgia & History > Switcher Saturday: C&O in Grand Rapids

The C&O switched it ex-Pere Marquette Wyoming Yard in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a fleet of EMD switchers, some of them NW-2s inherited from the PM.  These switchers roamed around town servicing the many industries along their three routes in and out of Grand Rapids.  Many of those industries were on the area of town the locals call the “West Side,” so-called because the west-flowing Grand River runs north-south for a short distance through downtown and many of the furniture factories that gave GR its “Furniture City” reputation were west of the river.  So, the C&O switch crew that serviced these factories was called the “West Side Local.” 
That crew was assigned their own caboose, so whenever you saw A953, you knew it was the local.  By the time this picture was taken in April of 1979, the “West Side” had gentrified to older neighborhoods, and the crew decorated their caboose with things they found along the tracks.  On the caboose roof, right-to-left are: a toy push-car with steering wheel, an artificial Christmas tree and a white plastic hobby horse. 
NW-2 #9561 was purchased new by C&O just after their 1947 absorption of the Pere Marquette and painted in PM colors albeit wearing Chesapeake & Ohio on its flanks.  A better-lit shot of the 9561 taken in October, 1975, appears in picture #2.  Sharp-eyed viewers of picture #2 will glimpse C&O’s Grand Rapids passenger station (yes, in the yard, built after downtown Union Station was demolished for US-131) plus the old coaling tower.
Ken Nagel, Grand Rapids, MI
 

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Wow! The Pere Marquette colors lasted into Chessie System's time. I'm impressed.

Great photos and excellent information. Your writeup helped to answer several questions I've had -- thank you! It's always good to see something from our region, which gets relatively little attention on the internet, especially for years past.

The personalization of the caboose was really something. I've seen other examples of that on other roads, but this one takes the prize. Somehow, I think that might have been a good job and crew to work on, and a helpful (and fun?) crew to know as a railfan photographer.

Much appreciated!

MC
Muskegon, Michigan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/20 14:16 by ironmtn.