Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

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David Collins
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Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by David Collins »

I've been trying to find these for awhile, but does anyone happen to have any photos of the Opdyke/Kensington Road crossing from the 80's or 90's? It's considered to be one of the most unique (and in my opinion dangerous) crossings in Oakland County Michigan due to it's setup and I've wanted to see if anyone has got pictures and/or details about what the crossing looked like before they put the cantilevers in (around 2005?)

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Re: Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by Manistique »

I have a few in my book The Railfan Chronicles, GTW Book 4, Holly Subdivision Mainline Action 1975 - 2000. It is available on Amazon or directly from me if you want to stop by someday (I live just up the road from there, private message me). $26.00.

They rebuilt that crossing in the late 1990's to its present configuration. There are two schools there and the traffic on Opdyke, still a country road, was too getting to be too much, especially when school started and ended. There was no left-turn lane or even a traffic light beforehand. Kensington had a stop sign to enter Opdyke.

The traffic lights through the crossing and also a block up at Hickory Grove are all coordinated with the railroad crossing lights and gates, which sometimes gets out of synch. The CN signal guy once told me that this is the most complicated crossing signal-wise on all of the former GTW now. It is also synched with train speed, which I presume most are now.

The day the new crossing opened a school bus from East Hills got confused and turned left into a SB Amtrak, destroying the bus. I think they then realized the gates were not lined up quite right for the left turn off of Kesington and adjusted them. Luckily it was empty. The bus driver, who my kids all knew from riding the bus, escaped with minor injuries. That is the only accident I recall there since the new crossing opened but I am sure I missed others. Opdyke has become a shortcut off of Square Lake/Business I-75 to Woodward and the traffic can be thick and goes very fast through here even though it is still a country road in many ways.

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DaveO
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Re: Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by DaveO »

Where would you rate Joslyn and Brown then?

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Re: Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by Manistique »

DaveO wrote:
Wed May 18, 2022 3:15 pm
Where would you rate Joslyn and Brown then?
I know you aren't asking me but that intersection/crossing is unique and horrible. But, unlike Opdyke, it only saw a few trains a day at its peak since the Orion Plant opened and all the Malls were built there and car traffic increased. And the trains on it were not going 60 mph when they could. More like 40 mph at the most originally and probably more like 20 mph later on.

I don't think Opdyke is all that dangerous. Far from it. It is just that with all the school car traffic and kids crossing there my heart skips a beat when a train goes through it during those times. And it is at a blind curve both directions. And it is 60 mph there and all the car traffic that makes it dangerous. But, surprisingly, I rarely see a car try to go around the gates there so the drivers know about it.

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David Collins
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Re: Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by David Collins »

DaveO wrote:
Wed May 18, 2022 3:15 pm
Where would you rate Joslyn and Brown then?
I've never seen it activated and there aren't any videos of it online in which it's activated. So I can't really say anything about kit, I can infer, judging by the amount of lights, that it looks (or looked) like a christmas tree

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Re: Old pictures of Opdyke/Kensington Roads

Unread post by GTW Dude »

Not the 1980's or 90's but here's some films on YouTube from what appears to be the 1940's or early 1950's of GTW steam (the green and gold paint scheme wasn't applied to passenger cars until 1953/54). At the 10 minute mark is Opdyke and Kensington. The road was still dirt back then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvbwm_I_hks

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