Michigan Central Railroad

“ That it is not, as a rule, unreasonable to require such interchange of cars, sufficiently appears from the universality of the practice, which became prevalent before it was made compulsory, and may be considered as matter of common knowledge, inasmuch as a freight train made up wholly of the cars of a single railroad is, in these days, a rarity. In Michigan, car interchange has long been a statutory duty. ”

“ The Detroit United answered denying the practicability of interchanging carload shipments (supposing a physical connection to have been established) , without out unreasonable expenditure of money in changing its road and equipment. There was a full hearing, at which both companies were represented. The questions before the commission were three: (a) Is a physical connection between the tracks at Oxford practicable? (b) Can the interchange of business be accomplished without endangering the equipment, tracks, or appliances of either party? ”

“ Provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed to require through billing of freight as between steam and electric, suburban or interurban railroads, but such suburban and interurban railroads may be used for the handling of freight in carload lots in steam railroad freight cars between shippers or consignees and the steam railroads, in the same manner and under the same general conditions, except as to motive power, as belt line railroads and terminal railroads are now or may hereafter be used for like purposes. ”

“ The railroad is a Michigan corporation. No part of its line runs into Missouri. It has not consented to be sued there, has never been admitted to do business there, and has never done any business there, except soliciting freight for transportation in interstate commerce over its lines in other states. ”

“ Yet conservatism, valuable as it is in many ways, should never be permitted to impede progress. And real progress long ago would have dictated the electrification of this intensive stretch of railroad; particularly so in view of the fact that the Michigan Central, a New York Central property, was going ahead with a rather extensive electric installation in connection with the new tunnel that it was boring under the Detroit River and with its elaborate new passenger terminal in that city. ”

“ At the outer depot of the Illinois Central railroad the national flag had been raised by the operatives, and a swivel belched forth its roaring notes of welcome. The hardy hands of the mechanics resounded with applause, and cheers and huzzas continued until the train had passed on to the city.
As the train passed along from Twelfth street to the depot, crowds of ladies were assembled on the doorsteps of the residences on Michigan avenue, waving banners and handkerchiefs; the lake part was crowded by persons hastily proceeding to the depot. ”

“ Shipbuilders have done their best to meet the obstacle by building car-ferries of tremendous power, sometimes even equipping them with both side-wheels and screws. But the real problem of possible delay can only be solved there by tunnels, and it is expected that the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Pacific, and the Wabash—which still use the car-ferries across the Detroit River—will sooner or later either tunnel beneath it or acquire trackage rights through the Michigan Central tubes. ”

“ These trains carry through vestibuled Sleeping Cars between Chicago and New York, via New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and between Chicago and Boston, via New York Central and Boston & Albany Railroads. The eastbound "Limited" also carries a through Sleeper, Chicago & Toronto (via Canadian Pacific) , where connection is made with Parlor Car for Montreal. Accommodations secured at the Michigan Central Ticket Offices, No. 67 Clark Street, corner Randolph, and Depot, foot of Lake Street, Chicago.
ASHLAND
M.LS. & W.RY.
ROUTE
The Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway. ”

“ Every large city has become, in a sense, a bottle-neck for the important railroads that pierce it. In some cases like Chicago or St. Louis or Kansas City or Indianapolis, the situation has been solved by the creation of belt-line freight railroads partly or entirely encircling the town. At Buffalo, the New York Central lines have built a connecting line to enable through traffic to escape the congestion of city yards and terminals, while at New Haven, the road of the same name has recently spent several million dollars in enlarging its narrow throat in the middle of the town. ”

“ There is little doubt that the New York Central, at least, could operate a train between these two cities in sixteen hours or in a very few minutes in excess of that time by the use of the long straight tangents of its Michigan Central subsidiary across the southerly portions of Ontario and Michigan. But at what strain upon the men back [Pg 80] of the enormously efficient machine, at what great risk to life and property! ”

“ The railroads that render the most direct passenger service between Toledo and Detroit—sixty miles apart—are the single-tracked branches of the Michigan Central and the New York Central running for the most of the way almost side by side. ”

“ So the traffic from St. Louis and the rich country back of it must needs cross the Chicago currents and go to the north of Lake Erie. The Wabash—one of the least understood and most abused railroads in America—in those days first began really to justify the fine strategy of its position. It became the main factor in bringing St. Louis freight up to Detroit, where it no longer crossed into Canada by ferry but through the great tunnel which the Michigan Central completed about twelve or fourteen years ago ”

“ For many years Syracuse was the principal seat of the salt industry in the United States, but the development of salt deposits in other parts of N.Y. State and in Michigan caused a decline in the Onondaga product, though Syracuse still produced 2,000,000 bushels of salt a year. The Onondaga deposits were mentioned in the journal of the French Jesuit Lemoyne in 1653, and before the Revolutionary War the Indians marketed salt at Albany and Quebec. ”

“ In 1906 the United States Steel Corporation broke ground here for a series of enormous foundries and factories, first laying sewers, water mains, gas pipes and conduits for electric wires, as well as providing other improvements necessary for life of the city. The Steel Corporation had chosen this site partly because of its direct connection by water with the Lake Superior ore region, partly because of its proximity to Chicago, and partly because it was accessible to Virginia coal and Michigan limestone. ”

“ The effect is to build up the cities in wealth and population at the expense of the country. For example, while Indianapolis increased by 32,389 inhabitants from 1880 to 1890, 49 counties remained stationary, and 21 counties lost. So Detroit grew greatly, while 20 counties in the State, nearly all the counties in Southern Michigan, lost population. “It is manifest that the railroads are greatly aiding the cities in drawing to themselves the best and the worst from the country, and every moment are increasing the magnitude of the municipal problem.” ”

“ Even a small road, like the Algomah Central, has its own freight and passenger steamboats running south from the Soo as far as Cleveland, Ohio. It is a pretty poor line with Great Lakes terminals that cannot boast some sort of steamship service of its own.
In the development of the coastwise and the inland waterways of the United States, the railroad may be doing the nation a far greater service than it imagines. For the general trend of railroad expansion in the country to-day seems to be toward a development of the auxiliary water-routes rather than toward their curtailment. ”

“ Intimates of James J. Hill, the transportation giant of the northwest, say that the ambition of his life is to [632] encircle the world with a system of railroads and steamships, all of which shall be under his guiding hand. He has nearly attained it. He owns the Great Northern railway, which stretches from Seattle, Washington, to St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota. He is proprietor of the line of steamers which ply between Duluth and Buffalo. He is largely interested in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which covers the territory between Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. ”

“ Michiganders who take public transportation spend an extra 67.7% of their time commuting and non-White households are 5.6 times more likely to commute via public transportation. 17% of trains and other transit vehicles in the state are past useful life. The American Jobs Plan will modernize public transit with an $85 billion investment. Resilient Infrastructure: From 2010 to 2020, Michigan has experienced 19 extreme weather events, costing the state up to $5 billion in damages. ”

“ At least that is the way the railroad traffic men have argued for many years, and so for these many years car-ferries have plied successfully across the very hearts of three of the lakes. Of all the chain, Lake Michigan offers the greatest natural obstruction to the natural traffic movements of the land—its great length, stretching north and south, forming an obstacle to through rail movements, and contributing not a little to the railroad importance and the wealth of Chicago. ”

“ Toledo is a shipping point for the iron and copper ores and lumber of the Lake Superior and Michigan regions, and for petroleum, coal, fruit, grain and clover seed. There are factories for motor-cars, plate and cut-glass, tobacco, spices, and beverages, also lumber and planing-mills, flour and grist mills, etc., with products of an annual value of $200,000,000 or more. ”

“ The American Locomotive Co., which likewise has a factory here, with 5,000 employees, turns out some of the largest and fastest locomotives produced in America or abroad. During the last 35 years Schenectady has become one of the greatest industrial centers in the United States; its total annual output has a value of nearly $100,000,000, the output of the General Electric Co, alone being about $75,000,000.
We now cross the Mohawk River, and Erie Canal, and our route ascends the valley of the Mohawk as far as Rome. ”

“ It is said that these necessary changes were hastened in the spring of 1865 by the demand that the new "Pioneer" be attached to the funeral train which conveyed the body of President Lincoln from Chicago to Springfield. In this way one railroad was quickly adapted to the new requirements, and a few years later when the "Pioneer" was engaged to take General Grant on a trip from Detroit to his home town of Galena, Illinois, another route was opened to its passage. ”

“ Louis and all points east all electric lighted trains with observation, parlor, cafe dining cars and Pullman sleeping cars; the Chicago & Northwestern, whose through train service to Chicago and the East from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake, Ogden and Denver is not excelled in any land; the Illinois Central Railroad, whose eight track entrance to Chicago from the south along the lake front is one of the triumphs of Yankee railroading, and whose train service is elegant in the extreme. ”

“ A large mileage, however, was early recorded for the southern part of the State, and railway construction has steadily spread to the northward, until recently almost every region is well supplied with railway advantages. Detroit ranks first among the lake ports in the amount of its exports, and second in the amount of its imports. The customs districts Huron and Superior also have a large foreign trade, and a small trade is done from the Michigan district. ”

“ Tourism became more and more a year-around industry and commerce and manufacturing, as well as the trucking industry serving them, became heav­ily dependent on good highways. The department adopted a "bare
Congressional approval of a national interstate freeway system in 1956 triggered the greatest highway-building program in history. Michigan led the way in building its share, typified by this battery of men and machines laying pavement for I-96 in southern Michigan in 1962. ”

“ The Lake Shore Route—selected by the Government to run the famous Fast Mail Trains—is the only double track line between Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and Boston.—During the existence of the White City, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Co. placed in service special trains for the purpose of facilitating railway transportation between the eastern cities and the "Queen of the West." ”

“ Accordingly the government took power to operate the road from Winnipeg to Moncton, and to expropriate the company's branch from Superior to Fort William, pending further negotiations.
The great Canadian railway companies are much more than railways. The Grand Trunk system, in its new expansion, branched into every neighbouring field which could be made to increase the traffic. Fleets of steamers, on the Pacific coast, on the Great Lakes, and on the New England route, filled in gaps in its lines. Modern car-ferries crossed Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan, as well as the river Detroit. ”

“ The Northern, running from Lake Ontario at Toronto to Georgian Bay at Collingwood, was a magnified portage road, shortening by hundreds of miles the distance from Chicago and the upper lakes to the St Lawrence ports. The Great Western, connecting Buffalo and Detroit, was the central link in the shortest route between New York and Chicago. Not only were these roads important in themselves, but the experience acquired in the endeavour to finance and construct them largely determined the policy of the great era of railway construction which began with the chartering of the Grand Trunk. ”

“ Meanwhile the increasing traffic in farm products, mules, and cattle from the Northwest to the plantations of the South created a demand for more ample transportation facilities. In the decade before the Civil War various north and south lines of railway were projected and some of these were assisted by grants of land from the Federal Government. The first of these, the Illinois Central, received a huge land-grant in 1850 and ultimately reached the Gulf at Mobile by connecting with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad which had also been assisted by Federal grants. ”