D.T.& M., and Goshen Branch...

[Todd Cline]

I have gathered lots of info. on the old D.T.& M. West of Battle creek, all about the interurban years etc. But I can't seem to find much info. about the line east of Battle Creek. I'd like to find maps, etc. Abandonment was in ?? Any remaining pieces of it today??
Then to the Goshen line, I want to learn as much as I can about that line. The old grade passes my house just about a mile away. I know that the Goshen was abandoned in the 1930's, and there isn't much left to see around here unless you know where to look. Much of the old grade is now private property. Are there any existant bridges down near Athens and further south?

Todd

[tazer]

by Todd Cline on Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:00 am
I have gathered lots of info. on the old D.T.& M. West of Battle creek, all about the interurban years etc. But I can't seem to find much info. about the line east of Battle Creek. I'd like to find maps, etc. Abandonment was in ?? Any remaining pieces of it today??

Todd,
The DT&M ran through Marshall where they had a roundhouse, freighthouse and depot from there it ran southeast through Ekford, Homer, Pulaski, Hanover, and keeps going southeast through Summerset Center . I have never followed it much further than that although there is a spot on 127 south of Jackson ust north of the intersection of US 12 and US 127 where a ROW can be seen running east and west which I think is the DT&M
I included a link to what used to be called live search maps but now it is bing.com I created a interactive map with locations I identified from a old map
The roundhouse at Marshall was moved to Greenfield around 1991 according to a article from the Marshall Community Adviser dated June 7,2000 I have the article which is quite long and has pictures for guys like me .
I drive through that area in Marshall quite often and the only left I can identify is part of the roundhouse facility.
If you in Marshall drive south of the circle on Kalamazoo St. and just over the NS main there is a road to the right (west) which is approximately where the DT&M main would have been Also on that corner stood the depot and freight house and just up the road on the left was the roundouse and engine service facilities.
I hope this helps

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

[tazer]

by tazer on Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:31 pm

by Todd Cline on Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:00 am
I have gathered lots of info. on the old D.T.& M. West of Battle creek, all about the interurban years etc. But I can't seem to find much info. about the line east of Battle Creek. I'd like to find maps, etc. Abandonment was in ?? Any remaining pieces of it today??
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Todd,
The DT&M ran through Marshall they had a roundhouse, freighthouse and depot from there it ran southeast through Ekford, Homer, Pulaski, Hanover, and keeps going southeast through Summerset Center . I have never followed it much further than that although there is a spot on 127 south of Jackson just north of the intersection of US 12 and US 127 where a ROW can be seen running east and west which I think is the DT&M
I included a link to what used to be called live search maps but now it is bing.com I created a interactive map with locations I identified from a old map
The roundhouse at Marshall was moved to Greenfield Village around 1991 according to a article from the Marshall Community Adviser dated June 7,2000 I have the article which is quite long and has pictures for guys like me .
I drive through that area in Marshall quite often and the only left I can identify is part of the roundhouse facility.
If you in Marshall drive south of the circle on Kalamazoo St. and just over the NS main there is a road to the right (west) which is approximately where the DT&M main would have been Also on that corner stood the depot and freight house and just up the road on the left was the roundouse and engine service facilities.
I hope this helps

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

This is good also.

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/R ... ukeeRR.htm

[Todd Cline]

Thanks tazer. I remember the roundhouse was there when I worked at walker muffler back there in the mid 1980's. Seems like there was a scrapyard or something in business at that time.

[Ben Higdon]

Here is what was left of Conrail's DT&M track in Marshall and downtown Battle Creek. This set of ZTS charts was supposedly updated to 1987 (which the BC map is), but the Marshall map is still dated 1984, apparently the last time the charts were revised, and some of the Marshall track is noted as approved for abandonment in 84. I don't think there's anything but a single main track here now.




Note the DT&M main is apparently labeled "DT&M Yard Track" at Marshall, and in Battle Creek the track was called the "Moscow Branch". This switchback into Ralston Purina is still in place, although I'm not sure if its still used to serve the plant. Tracks 224, 736 and 737 were removed at some point, and 735 now extends through the unloading shed and splits in a "Y" of two very short stubs. There were a couple covered hoppers near the GTW connection a month ago. The old main crossing Capital Ave stops short of the road now, but the RR door into the plant (can't think of its name) is still there. (By 84 Conrail had already consolidated tracks in downtown with GTW, and there was no remnant of the Goshen branch) I believe track 225 is the only piece of the DT&M main line still in existence, although I read the diamond in Tecumseh is still there.

The ZTS book notes a number of spurs that were deleted from this page for the April 1987 revision:
743 St Regis Paper
745 Battle Creek Gas
747 Stub-Battle Creek
748 Behnke Trucking
751 American Stamping and United Steel Wire

I'd love to know where these sidings were!




This is on the west side of Battle Creek, along the west end of Rumley Yard. It looks like tracks 230 and 231 are the former DT&M main. These sidings are all gone now.




This is a bit farther west at the Clark plant.




Here is a map showing where the DT&M lay before the plant was built. You can see Clark was built over the DT&M and a connection was built to the Conrail main line (but doesn't show on this map). The remains of the DT&M main became a switchback to serve Clark:
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T ... 42.3208766
In the time period this map represents (tough to say exactly when), the DT&M was intact all the way from the Clark plant to Gord, which is the west end of the joint CR/GTW track in Battle Creek. The current NS mainline connection to the GTW at Gord actually is on the alignment of the DT&M main line connection to the GTW. The DT&M then crossed over GTW's main line to reach the track at Ralston Purina and continue east. I presume that before the track consolidation in the early 80s, Conrail still used the DT&M connection at Gord to take GTW tracks to reach Purina.


I have an old map somewhere of Battle Creek that showed the crossing of the Moscow Branch and Goshen Branch in Battle Creek, it appeared to be in the middle of a large bog or pond where both lines would have had to been on fills or trestles. In this aerial photo, you can see the alignment of the Moscow Branch going north-south, and the Goshen Branch was aprox. where I-194 is now. You can see how the pond to the west of 194 would have originally been much bigger. Hope this is helpful!
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T ... 42.3208766

[Todd Cline]

Interesting stuff there Ben. Thanks for posting that.

Todd