Very cool presentation, I'm in Anderson Indiana, we have a lot of overgrown right of way in the area around me, old Pennsy line from Frankton to Elwood Indiana and the old Conrail line to New Castle Indiana!! The old Big 4 NYC/PC/Conrail North/ South Main line from Anderson to Marion and on to Elkhart yards is a block from where I grew up, not much traffic now since NS took it over after the merger, NS put in a wye at Alexandria so they could access their yard in Muncie!!!
Another excellent video. As of a few years ago, you could still find a few decaying railroad ties in the grass in the park off of Front Street in Niles just south of the skate park.
The Benton Secondary is very interesting. On Fairland Rd in Niles you can see where the tracks were. I was reading about the owner of the general store in Fairland being struck by a train while he was riding on the tracks. They didn’t find out about him until Benton Harbor. Another thing I heard about is the train being stuck in the snow in the 70s.
That stub you talk about that came off the French Paper lead and crossed Fort Street was used to hold two or three gondola cars full of horse manure that was used in the mushroom plant's hot houses. They used to have an old Michigan crane with a toothless bucket that picked up the manure and loaded it into a couple of small single axle dump trucks. They would haul it to one of the hot houses where it was put on a conveyor belt and transferred to the growing areas n the hot house.
I liked watching this very much thank you, all the way from the UK. Please keep these videos coming, the history is very enjoyable to watch and listen to.
I lived in Niles across the river from French Paper,I remember when my kid was little us walking down and watching Conrail shoving box cars across the bridge into FP thanks for posting this 👌
The main building that was Michigan Mushroom is still there. The complex is used for multiple small businesses. The Benton Harbor secondary ran parallel to the river and crossed main street just east of the main street bridge running roughly through the center of the stage where concerts are held now and behind the Wonderland Cinema. It weaved it's way between the concrete plant and the fish market. When it crossed from the west side of Front st to the east it ran behind Niles Wastepaper and then behind Kawneer(current location of the YMCA and the South County building. My grandpa used to talk about riding the interurban when he was young(graduated in 1931). There was, and may still be, an interurban car built into a house on Starr Ave at Barron Lake. In William Taylor Jrs book, An American Colossus, he states that the multiple level crossing was the only of it's type(number of tracks) in the state of Michigan.
Amazing that so many trains were based out of Kalamazoo back in the PC / Conrail era. I can remember the line up to Benton Harbor crossing Napier Avenue, next to the large cemetery. So what routing would have lead the freight back to Kalamazoo? Did it run out on the Amtrak line?
@@pianoman4Jesus There was no connection even back then. That was an old picture from like the 30,s with the 3 levels. Conrail had just one flat line that went to the switch I showed then up 9th street running to amtrak line.
@@michianamainlines3538 So I will try to find a map during Conrail era that the Michigan Central got joined to the Niles / Benton Harbor line. I cannot envision where that would have happened. Better?
I had just watched your video about the 1968 penn central derailment that happened in Covington Indiana. I was wondering if you would be willing to interview my dad about what happened, because he grew up there and knows some smaller details about what happened.
Back in the 70s my ex had an aunt that lived on Willow St. In Mishwauka. There was an old rail line on the opposite side of Willow. Can you tell me what road that line was I used to walk it.
Check out the video on this channel called Deep Dive Elkhart and Western. Basically where it enters the area you're describing from the east it crossed at McKinley and Capital and then shot due west north along Marion St as best I can tell, to connect to the Grand Trunk Western line coming down from Michigan. E&W also had a spur east of Willow that hugged the river and followed it down around where Willow meets Mishawaka Ave to serve different things along the river. Much of this can still be seen on Google satellite view.
Very cool presentation, I'm in
Anderson Indiana, we have a lot of overgrown right of way
in the area around me, old
Pennsy line from Frankton to
Elwood Indiana and the old Conrail line to New Castle Indiana!! The old Big 4
NYC/PC/Conrail North/ South
Main line from Anderson to Marion and on to Elkhart yards
is a block from where I grew up, not much traffic now since
NS took it over after the merger, NS put in a wye at Alexandria so they could access their yard in Muncie!!!
Excellent presentation! I learned a lot.
Another excellent video. As of a few years ago, you could still find a few decaying railroad ties in the grass in the park off of Front Street in Niles just south of the skate park.
I love the rail heritage of this whole area. Thank you for the education.
The Benton Secondary is very interesting. On Fairland Rd in Niles you can see where the tracks were. I was reading about the owner of the general store in Fairland being struck by a train while he was riding on the tracks. They didn’t find out about him until Benton Harbor.
Another thing I heard about is the train being stuck in the snow in the 70s.
That stub you talk about that came off the French Paper lead and crossed Fort Street was used to hold two or three gondola cars full of horse manure that was used in the mushroom plant's hot houses. They used to have an old Michigan crane with a toothless bucket that picked up the manure and loaded it into a couple of small single axle dump trucks. They would haul it to one of the hot houses where it was put on a conveyor belt and transferred to the growing areas n the hot house.
I liked watching this very much thank you, all the way from the UK. Please keep these videos coming, the history is very enjoyable to watch and listen to.
I lived in Niles across the river from French Paper,I remember when my kid was little us walking down and watching Conrail shoving box cars across the bridge into FP thanks for posting this 👌
Boy that rings a bell Niles chemical paint. Talk about a super fun site..
The main building that was Michigan Mushroom is still there. The complex is used for multiple small businesses.
The Benton Harbor secondary ran parallel to the river and crossed main street just east of the main street bridge running roughly through the center of the stage where concerts are held now and behind the Wonderland Cinema. It weaved it's way between the concrete plant and the fish market. When it crossed from the west side of Front st to the east it ran behind Niles Wastepaper and then behind Kawneer(current location of the YMCA and the South County building.
My grandpa used to talk about riding the interurban when he was young(graduated in 1931). There was, and may still be, an interurban car built into a house on Starr Ave at Barron Lake.
In William Taylor Jrs book, An American Colossus, he states that the multiple level crossing was the only of it's type(number of tracks) in the state of Michigan.
👏👏❤️❤️ Niles!
Amazing that so many trains were based out of Kalamazoo back in the PC / Conrail era. I can remember the line up to Benton Harbor crossing Napier Avenue, next to the large cemetery. So what routing would have lead the freight back to Kalamazoo? Did it run out on the Amtrak line?
that is right.
@@michianamainlines3538 Thank you. So I will look up a track map of Niles to spot where the connection is from the upper to lower track.
@@pianoman4Jesus There was no connection even back then. That was an old picture from like the 30,s with the 3 levels. Conrail had just one flat line that went to the switch I showed then up 9th street running to amtrak line.
@@michianamainlines3538 So I will try to find a map during Conrail era that the Michigan Central got joined to the Niles / Benton Harbor line. I cannot envision where that would have happened. Better?
I knew the lady and her family that only paper business in Niles. She lived almost be a hundred if I remember
I had just watched your video about the 1968 penn central derailment that happened in Covington Indiana. I was wondering if you would be willing to interview my dad about what happened, because he grew up there and knows some smaller details about what happened.
Must be another channel. We did not do video on that.
@ shoot you’re 100% right. I’m so glad you pointed that out I know which channel I mistook you for. 😭
Back in the 70s my ex had an aunt that lived on Willow St. In Mishwauka. There was an old rail line on the opposite side of Willow. Can you tell me what road that line was I used to walk it.
Check out the video on this channel called Deep Dive Elkhart and Western. Basically where it enters the area you're describing from the east it crossed at McKinley and Capital and then shot due west north along Marion St as best I can tell, to connect to the Grand Trunk Western line coming down from Michigan. E&W also had a spur east of Willow that hugged the river and followed it down around where Willow meets Mishawaka Ave to serve different things along the river. Much of this can still be seen on Google satellite view.
Nice pic by corkhous