Nostalgia & History > West Michigan Wednesday - Cereal City Sunset

Amtrak's eastbound Blue Water for Lansing and Port Huron rolls past the big Post Cereals plant after completing its station stop at Battle Creek, Michigan on July 28, 2018.

MC

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That was a fun part of Battle Creek to visit back when Nichols Tower was around. Thank you for sharing the photo.

I was in Battle Creek in 1984. I believe the consolidation of the mainline raillroads through the city had just been completed with an overpass. I recall a really nice large station building, likely Grand Trunk? We were there for a few days and other than hearing trains from our motel closer to the Interstate, fairly far from town, I never saw a train despite several drives through town. We did see Tony the Tiger though! WoW!
We fried the turbo of our Dodge Daytona racing that weekend and limped back to town around 2 AM. Not a very successful race weekend. A tough race season with 3 "Did Not Finish" out of 6 starts but we did grab a First Overall in Eastern Canada at the Moosehead Rally in Fredericton, NB, CA. I sorta of recall drinking a lot of Moosehead celebrating and a whooping headache the next day! But without a doubt the now ex-wife was much worse off. Long story not to share here.
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> I was in Battle Creek in 1984. I believe the
> consolidation of the mainline railroads through
> the city had just been completed with an overpass.
> I recall a really nice large station building,
> likely Grand Trunk?

The ex-GTW station is a large brick structure that incorporates an interesting pastiche of architectural styles. It was beautifully restored, and is today the headquarters of a local social service agency, Community Action. Information: http://ca.ils-bc.com/showcases/1    It is not used by Amtrak, but Wolverine trains pass just a short distance away, and the Blue Water trains go right by on CN ex-GTW track directly adjacent to the building.

The ex-Michigan Central / NYC station, bypassed by the track modifications you reference and a few blocks away from the current track route, was also large and stylish, different in style as a Richardsonian Romanesque building. It is today Clara's on the River Restaurant, a great place for a meal or drink in downtown Battle Creek.  https://www.claras.com/BChistory.shtml   and  https://www.michiganrailroads.com/stations-locations/77-calhoun-county-13/565-battle-creek-mi-mcrr-station

Both stations are architecturally distinguished and on the National Register of Historic Places. Both the GTW and MC, as scions respectively of the Canadian National and New York Central, built for keeps. And neither was shy about spending freely on high design by recognized and important architects. Battle Creek is somewhat unusual in having two such stylish and architecturally distinguished stations in the community, with both fortunately having been lovingly restored and preserved in current adaptive reuse that serves the community, That really is quite important.

Information on the track relation project, opened in 1982, and the current Amtrak station, the bright and modern Battle Creek Intermodal Facility: https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/battle-creek-mi-btl/

The photo location for the Amtrak image above is just east of downtown and the ex-MC station, with the ex-GTW station about two blocks away and out of the frame to the left. The train will shortly pass the ex-GTW depot.

Sorry it was tough racing weekend for you in the Cereal City, but hope you enjoyed your visit anyway.

MC



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/24 21:06 by ironmtn.