Ann Arbor Railroad (1895–1976)

Ann Arbor Railroad
Reporting mark	AA
Locale	Michigan and Ohio
Dates of operation	1895–1976
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Toledo, OH (early years), St. Louis, MO (1925-1963), Dearborn, MI (1963-1976)

The cover from the Ann Arbor Railroad and Steamship Lines 1911 passenger timetable

The Ann Arbor Railroad (reporting mark AA) was an American railroad that operated between Toledo, Ohio and Elberta and Frankfort, Michigan (approximately 294 route miles) with train ferry operations across Lake Michigan.

History

The railroad company was chartered September 21, 1895, as successor to the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railway.^[1] In 1905, it was acquired by the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway (DT&I), which went bankrupt three years later and had to sell off the Ann Arbor.

For many years the Ann Arbor was owned by the Wabash, but Wabash gave up control in 1963 as part of it's absorption into Norfolk and Western. The DT&I, by then itself owned by the giant Pennsylvania Railroad, once again gained control in 1963. The combined DT&I and AA were operated as independent subsidiaries of the PRR, but suffered from the parent company's ill-fated 1968 merger with the New York Central. Upon the resulting Penn Central's 1970 bankrupcy, the GT&I and its Ann Arbor subsidiary were sold off to private investors.

The Ann Arbor Railroad also owned a subsidiary, the Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad (M&LS), from somewhere shortly after that line's origin in 1909 until it was abandoned in 1968.

After itself going bankrupt in 1973, the Ann Arbor ceased operations as a railroad on April 1, 1976, when the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) temporarily took over. Since Conrail only wished to operate the south end of the AA, the state of Michigan acquired the entire line, and operations were transferred to the Michigan Interstate Railway, a division of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), on October 1, 1977. The state eventually privatized this entity, selling it off in pieces to several different short line railroad companies.

On October 7, 1988, a new Ann Arbor Railroad began operating the portion south of Ann Arbor; the Great Lakes Central Railroad now serves the remaining portions of the line. Some sections have been abandoned: from Yuma to Elberta and Frankfort (approximately 45 miles), about 10 miles in Shiawassee County, Michigan (in 3 discontinuous sections), and the trackage around the now-demolished Cherry Street Station in Toledo.

Train ferries

The Ann Arbor's Lake Michigan train ferry fleet started in November 1892 when the Toledo, Ann Arbor and Northern Michigan Railway acquired its first two boats, Ann Arbor 1 and Ann Arbor 2. At its height, the AA served four ports on the west of Lake Michigan:^[2]

• Kewaunee, Wisconsin from 1892 connecting with Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad,
• Menominee, Michigan from 1894 connecting with Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, Chicago and North Western Railway, and Wisconsin and Michigan Railroad
• Gladstone, Michigan from 1895 connecting with the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. Later moved to Manistique, Michigan connecting with Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway via AA subsidiary Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad
• Manitowoc, Wisconsin from 1896 connecting with Chicago and North Western Railway, and Wisconsin Central Railway

Fleet

Altogether, eight boats were built for service with the AA and one was leased from the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company.^[2]

• Frank E. Kirby and built by Craig Ship Building, Toledo, Ohio in 1892. Capacity 24 cars on four tracks.
• Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio in 1898.
• Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio in 1906.
• Toledo Shipbuilding Company in 1910.
• Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan in 1917 and rebuilt in 1959 as the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1925 and rebuilt in 1965 as the edit] See also
  • History of railroads in Michigan

  References

  1. ^ Powers, Perry F. (1912). A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, p. 179. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company.
  2. ^ ^{a b} Zimmerman, Karl (1993). Lake Michigan’s Railroad Car Ferries. Andover, New Jersey: Andover Junction Publications. pp. 32–51. ISBN 0-944119-11-5. 

  External links

  • Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association