Pere Marquette Railway

Pere Marquette Railway
Reporting mark	PM
Locale	Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario
Dates of operation	1900–1947
Successor	Chesapeake and Ohio
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio

The Pere Marquette Railway (reporting mark PM) was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The railroad had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Father Jacques Marquette S.J. (1637–1675), a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie.

History

The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated on November 1, 1899 in anticipation of a merger of three Michigan-based railroad companies that had been agreed upon by all parties. It began operations on January 1, 1900, absorbing the following companies:

• Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM)
• Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad (DGR&W)
• Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM)

The company was later reincorporated, on March 12, 1917, as the Pere Marquette Railway.

Loading salt into a Pere Marquette boxcar.

In the 1920s the Pere Marquette came under the control of Cleveland financiers Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen. These brothers also controlled the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate), the Erie Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and planned to merge the four companies. However, the ICC did not approve the merger and the Van Sweringens eventually sold their interest in the Pere Marquette to the C&O, with which it formally merged on June 6, 1947. The C&O has since become part of CSX Transportation.

In 1984, Amtrak named their passenger rail service between Grand Rapids, Michigan and Chicago the Pere Marquette.

The 2004 film "The Polar Express" featured Pere Marquette 1225, a steam locomotive originally serving the Pere Marquette. The train seen in the movie, although not the same train in the book, was a model of the 1225 based from actual measurements and recordings of the 1225. The locomotive was scheduled to be at the premiere in Grand Rapids, originally where the writer of the popular children's book, Chris Van Allsberg, was born, but canceled due to interferences with the schedule of CSX. It is now housed and maintained at the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan

1907 wreck

On July 20, 1907 an excursion train of 800 passengers from Ionia to Detroit collided near Salem with a freight train, killing 31 and injuring 101. The accident apparently happened because of a hand-written schedule on unlined paper whose columns did not line up, and were misread by the freight crew. The Interstate Commerce Commission investigation also cited various safety violations including use of pine instead of oak for car walls and an omission of steel plates required for mail cars. This remains Michigan's worst rail disaster.

Routes and current disposition of them

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• Toledo Division — Saginaw, Michigan to Alexis, Ohio and (via trackage rights over Ann Arbor Railroad) Alexis to Toledo, Ohio (In use by CSX Transportation south of Mount Morris, leased to Saginaw Bay Southern north of Mount Morris)

• Ludington Division — Saginaw to Ludington, Michigan (Partially now part of the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail, the line between Baldwin and Ludington is in use with Marquette Rail and Saginaw to Midland used by Saginaw Bay Southern, with the rest of the line removed in 1991; the ferry closed in 1990)

• Detroit Division — Detroit, Michigan to Grand Rapids, Michigan (Now in use by CSX)

• Grand Rapids Division — Elmdale, Michigan to Saginaw, Michigan (Only Alma-Saginaw remains in use by Mid-Michigan Railroad)

• Chicago Division — Grand Rapids, Michigan to Porter, Indiana and (via trackage rights over various lines) Porter, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois (Now in use by CSX)
  • La Crosse Branch — New Buffalo, Michigan to La Crosse, Indiana (Abandoned north of Wellsboro, Indiana by C&O in 1989, most tracks removed; Wellsboro to La Crosse remains in use by the Chesapeake and Indiana Railroad)

• Petoskey Division — Grand Rapids, Michigan to Bay View, Michigan (Line in use by Marquette Rail between Grand Rapids and Manistee and with the Great Lakes Central Railroad between Grawn and Williamsburg, with the rest abandoned in 1982)

• Canadian Division — Lines in Canada, including Windsor, Ontario and Sarnia, Ontario via Blenheim, Ontario to St. Thomas, Ontario and (via trackage rights) St. Thomas east to Buffalo, New York (Now in use with Canadian Pacific)

• Saginaw Subdivisions — Saginaw, Michigan to Port Huron, Michigan via two routes and to Bay City, Michigan (Mostly abandoned between 1951 and 1988, some sections in use with the Huron and Eastern Railway)

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  Postcard depiction of the line's streamliners.

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  Postcard photo of one of the railroad's dining cars.

Car ferries

The Pere Marquette also operated a number of rail car ferries on the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers and on Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. The PM's fleet of car ferries, which operated on Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Milwaukee, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin (see SS Badger), were an important transportation link avoiding the terminal and interchange delays experienced by freight traveling around the southern tip of Lake Michigan and through Chicago.

Pere Marquette 18

On September 10, 1910, Pere Marquette 18 was bound for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Ludington, Michigan, with a load of 29 railroad freight cars and sixty two persons aboard. Near midnight, the vessel began to take on massive amounts of water. The captain dumped nine railroad cars into Lake Michigan, but there was no use—the ship was going down. The Pere Marquette 17, traveling nearby, picked up the distress call and sped to assist the foundering vessel. Soon after they arrived, and before the Pere Marquette 17 could come alongside, the Pere Marquette 18 plunged to the bottom of Lake Michigan with the loss of 28 lives; there were 33 survivors.

References

• Pere Marquette Historical Society
• PM 1225 Steam Railroading Institute

External links

• Pere Marquette System Map