RailRoadFan.com

Hello everyone. I have been going to port austin since i was a kid and i'm fairly certain my family's cottage is on one of the old lines to Port Austin (now a dirt road) by the old shipping docks. I digress, I'm planning on modeling this area...i've looked everywhere (including the historical books i can get my hands on) and the only maps i can find are simple non detailed maps telling me what i know already... i'm looking for specifics on the line. I already know there were 2 tracks in Port Auston based on old photos by the station and old elevator. i know those tracks went north, some to Port Austin's marina pier to load boats, but the "main" curved east towards Grindstone. I want to know if Grindstone had any means of a turn around for the steam locos, if there was a wye or run around track for the loco? I'm not huge into the steam era so wasnt certain if it was concievable to run a passenger train in reverse (push) 6-10 miles back into port austin where the books tell me there was a wye. Any help would be great! Maps would be even better! Thanks to anyone in advance that can shed some light. just hard to find info on a line that was abandoned/removed around 1910.

Chris

I believe there was a circular turn around type track near where that mill is today in Grind Stone. And I think that road that goes along the shore is part of the old ROW. I have looked in the area south of Wallace Rd. and There is an old pier that goes out into the water there, and north and south there is what looks like an old lane which i think is the old ROW. Now where it goes after that to the South is hard to tell, It seems to disapear. Or house have been possbily built on top of the old ROW. I would like to know exactly where the old ROW is in that location.

Maps that I have seen indicate a wye in Gridnstone.
1912http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/tiled/ ... =52-9-1912
1919http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/tiled/ ... =52-4-1919
1942http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/tiled/ ... =52-8-1942

Great maps.Definately shows a wye. Thanks for posting these. Neal

I got so focused on Grindstone, that I missed the wye to the west in the 1919 and 1942 maps.

Post by mach69 » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:40 pm

There's an HESR line that ends in Kinde to serve a grain elevator, but on abandonedrails.com it says that it continued all the way to Grindstone City at one point. When was this torn up and what customers were in Grindstone City?

IIRC, the customer in Grindstone City was the Company that mined the "Grindstone". I know the PM/CO went to Port Austin until the Mid '70's. The segment from Port Austin to Grindstone was abandoned in 1932. Don't when the rails were actually pulled.