Traverse City Yards

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AARR
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Traverse City Yards

Unread post by AARR »

From the other board: https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 59062.html
Posted by Alex on 7/7/2021, 7:57 am
Question on rail yard ownership in TC.

As it's been gone for several years, which RR owned the yard which is now occupied by US31 divided highway paralleling the shore of the West Bay just N of downtown?

Was it GR&I (my best guess)? Was it PM/C&O, or was it the MN&E.

Thanks Guys.
From Alex's description I'm not sure which yard he is referring too. Boardman Yard was on the west side of Boardman Lake but it seems he is asking about another yard north of there. Anyone know which one he's asking about?
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aadti
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Re: Traverse City Yards

Unread post by aadti »

The old M&NE yard was up in that area. Been gone a LONG time
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MIGN-Todd
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Re: Traverse City Yards

Unread post by MIGN-Todd »

The Pennsy had a yard in the area of where Clinch park Marina and former zoo was. That was moved later to where the new TC Library now stands. The latter only had three tracks with a parallel spur spur to the farm bureau coop. C&O had Boardman yard of course. The Iron works also had a small yard. M&NE occupied quite a bit of area along which is now Grand View Parkway with numerous spurs and tracks. I haven't seen any info or maps showing an actual "yard" though. I'm sure somebody on here will know more.
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Standard Railfan
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Re: Traverse City Yards

Unread post by Standard Railfan »

There was a lot of industry tracks along the lakeshore but not really a “yard”. The historic trackage along what is now Grandview parkway was used by three different railroads.
From the Boardman river on the east the GR&I track ran to the depot and freight house then to service industries and connect with the Traverse City, Leelanau, and Manistique and the Manistee and Northeastern.
Both of these roads ran a shared line along the bay into Leelanau County.
The TCL&M had a turntable and enginehouse located near the corner of Bay and Oak streets.
The Pere Marquette also served industrial tracks from a line that ran northwest from Boardman yard along the river to Front street where the line turned north into what is now the warehouse district.
A Sandborn map of the area from 1920 can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4114tm.g ... 08,1.106,0

There is also a map on train web here: http://www.trainweb.org/mlsrr/History_ ... 20CITY.jpg

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