CSX Plymouth Subdivision

History

Construction of what is now the 124-mile CSX Plymouth Subdivision was attempted in the 1860s by a succession of short-lived and undercapitalized railroad companies, including the Detroit and Howell Railroad (organized 1864), the Ionia and Lansing Railroad (organized 1865), the Howell and Lansing Railroad (organized 1868), and the Detroit, Howell and Lansing Railroad (created by merger 1870). Principal construction on the Lansing-Detroit segment was completed by the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad (created by merger 1871), with operations commencing on August 31, 1871.

In 1896 control of this east-west mainline through the state capital passed to the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad (DGR&W), and subsequently by merger to the Pere Marquette Railroad (later Railway) in 1900. Though never among the most profitable railroads, the Pere Marquette persevered until it merged with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) in 1947. The C&O became part of the Chessie System in 1972, and was absorbed into CSX Transportation in 1987.

Route

For most of its length the Plymouth Subdivision crosses gently rolling farm and forested terrain, passing through small towns and the state capital. The high point east of Lansing is 1000.4 feet above sea level at Canwell (CH 51), and the low point 830.6 feet at Beck (CH 27), for an elevation change of 169.8 feet. The steepest grade in this segment is 1.2% west of Canwell. The high point west of Lansing is 883.1 feet at Saddlebag Road/M-66(CH 116), and the low point is 690.7 feet at the Thornapple River (CH 139), for an elevation change of 192.4 feet. The steepest grade west of Lansing is 1.8% in the vicinity of Jordan Lake Avenue on the eastern side of the town of Lake Odessa. Despite the relatively modest grades, trains occasionally stall climbing Salem Hill west of Plymouth and coming east out of the Thornapple River valley.

The route of the Plymouth Subdivision has the following waypoints:

Notable bridges are a three-span Warren deck truss bridge over the Thornapple River, the 1887 "High Bridge" trestle over the Grand River at Grand Ledge, and a deck plate girder bridge over the Red Cedar River and Lansing's River Trail.

Traffic

When it was the Pere Marquette's primary route and the mainline between Michigan's two largest cities, the Plymouth Subdivision's rails were bustling with traffic. Even as late as the mid-1980s, in the first years under CSX, the line saw a dozen CSX and four Soo Line freights daily, in addition to numerous locals and commodity trains. Over time, however, much of that traffic moved southward, using Norfolk Southern's tracks from Detroit to Chicago via Butler,Indiana and CSX's own B&O route between Toledo and Chicago through Garrett, Indiana. As of June 2011, only two pairs of symboled trains are regularly seen on the Plymouth Subdivision, giving it the character of a branch line rather than a mainline. Current and former trains include:

Locals operating west from Plymouth Yard, east from Ensel Yard, and east from Wyoming Yard in Grand Rapids switch customers along this line. A nightly local (CSX D707) shuttles traffic off Q326 from Wyoming to Ensel.

Full and empty commodity trains (grain/coal/lime/stone) operate over the Plymouth Subdivision on an irregular basis.

As of September 2011 CSX N956 brings unit coal trains from Chicago through Grand Rapids and over the Plymouth sub to Plymouth. The train then turns north and terminates in Essexville, MI, at a Consumers Power Company electric generating station. This train operates approximately 5 times per week. The empties usually return a few days later as CSX E945. As of the summer of 2013 these trains are currently routed Chicago-Garret-Toledo-Plymouth Thus bypassing the Plymouth subdivision. They may return at a point in the future.

Signaling and Dispatching

All CSX operations in Michigan, including the Plymouth Subdivision, are managed by dispatchers in Calumet City, IL.

Except for a 30-mile portion west of Lansing Ensel yard to Lake Odessa, which is track warrant controlled by CSX form EC1 authority, the entire Plymouth Subdivision is CTC signaled. The track warrant section is protected by automatic block signals in addition to the track warrants.

The warrant section previously consisted of five ABS blocks (Cash, Ledge, Field, Jordan, and Lako). This Change was made in the summer of 2011.

Passenger Service

There is no passenger service on the Plymouth Subdivision as of 2016, but surviving depot buildings in towns along its route are reminders of a different era.

In 1946, the Pere Marquette introduced the nation's first post-war lightweight streamlined passenger trains, operating between Detroit and Grand Rapids over the Plymouth Subdivision. These were the first diesel-powered trains on the Pere Marquette system, with power provided by EMD E7As pulling Pullman Standard cars. By 1947, there were three daily trains in each direction, an evening and a morning express and a mid-day (late evening on Sundays) local. The expresses had a scheduled trip of 2:40, with intermediate stops in Plymouth and Lansing. The local had a scheduled trip of 3:00 due to additional stops in Brighton, Howell, Fowlerville, Williamston, Grand Ledge and Lake Odessa. The service was continued by the Chesapeake & Ohio under the Pere Marquette name following the 1947 merger. The final passenger train ran on the Detroit-Grand Rapids route in 1963.

The Union Depot at Michigan Avenue, just blocks from the state Capitol, survives as Clara's Lansing Station restaurant. The Williamston Depot was moved a half mile to Grand River Avenue in 1979, where it now houses a museum and the city Chamber of Commerce. The Fowlerville Depot is still owned by the Pere Marquette successor CSX and used as a base for track maintenance crews. As in Williamston, the Lake Odessa Depot survived through relocation and repurposing as a museum.