An engine facility with a variety of power and cabooses
| Layout Photo Tour - Page 3 A quick photo trip around the layout - continued The layout is always changing but this is a snapshot as of May 2009 |
[Click images to Enlarge]
| Traverse City, Michigan |
| Traverse City is located at the south end of the Grand Traverse Bay, a beautiful, thriving vacation destination in northern Michigan for well to do Chicago residents. In addition to tourism, Traverse City, in the 1960's, had plenty of railroad activity. |
| These photos show some of the trackage in Traverse City and some of the various industries that use the transportation services of the C&M. Traverse City is served by an out-and-back turn out of Mackinaw City yard. Since there is not much space in our model Traverse City, just like the prototype, switching operations are pretty tight. |
The photo on the left is the
trackage looking north out of
Traverse City. This track is
directly above Cadillac (above the
Cadillac valance) and Petoskey is
on the other side of the blue
backdrop on the left. This track is
approximately 4 inches wide and
virtually unnoticeable while
standing in front of Cadillac,
however, the track is slightly higher
than my eye-level (about 70" off of
the floor) so when a train is on that
track it is very visible and I get a
fantastic view. This is my favorite
spot to watch trains on the C&M.
trackage looking north out of
Traverse City. This track is
directly above Cadillac (above the
Cadillac valance) and Petoskey is
on the other side of the blue
backdrop on the left. This track is
approximately 4 inches wide and
virtually unnoticeable while
standing in front of Cadillac,
however, the track is slightly higher
than my eye-level (about 70" off of
the floor) so when a train is on that
track it is very visible and I get a
fantastic view. This is my favorite
spot to watch trains on the C&M.
| The details of Traverse City: Traverse City is built on a mere 3' by 8' sheet of plywood and is 63" above the layout floor. Traverse City is operated from a 10" high small platform/step that folds out of the way when not in use. With the platform/step, the actual operating height for the City operator is 53". I find that height okay (I am 6' tall), which is fine for a 6 footer like myself, but could be a tad high for shorter operators, especially for switching near the back of the benchwork (not much to switch back there, but it could be a problem in the future). The trackwork is located directly above my workbench. Traverse City is a tight little switching area. |
| Petoskey, Michigan |
| From Traverse City, we switch over to the C&O (ex-Pere Marquette) trackage north to Petoskey. Petoskey is another resort community where affluent Chicago executives and their families vacationed. However, in the 1950's the City of Petoskey actively encouraged business to locate in their city, by offering land, granting tax breaks and other incentives. The campaign was highly successful and, in spite of being a quite resort town far away from the automotive capital of the world, Detroit, Petoskey developed a good industrial base mostly centering around the automobile industry. This base fostered much railroad activity which is still going strong in 1967. |
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| At right is a wide angle photo of Petoskey. and below is a more close shot of the south part of the City. |
| At left is a helocopter view of the south side of Petoskey. Above middle is the Petoskey Transfer Terminal and Team Track and at the above right (on the left) is the Petoskey News Review shipping and receiving dock. |
| Below - Perry Oil Company |
| Below is Perry Oil Co on the left and the McLaughlin Company on the right. |
| The McLaughlin Company is a industrial fastener manufacturer, making fasteners mainly for the auto industry. |
| At the right is the Michigan Maple Block company |
| Petoskey Passenger Station |
| To the right are shots of the north portion of Petoskey, where the main line goes through a cut. See extra 309, a C-425 lugging a through freight south. Also see a RS-3 traversing the same stretch of track. And finally, see a leased PRR with a third southbound through freight. |
| To the right is a photo of the station track (in the center) and the Harbor Springs interchange track on the far right. |
| Above, the new Chateau Grand Traverse Winery in Traverse City. Below, things are busy at the Chef Pierre Frozen Foods shipping and receiving facility. Chef Pierre was one of the largest employers in Traverse City since the 1950's. |
| Below- Freight & Express tracks behind the Winery |
| Above - This is a wide angle shot of most of Traverse City (2 photos placed together to show the scene). |
| Above is a picture of the recently forrested track described at the left, with Extra 1812 rolling through. |
