Michigan's CRAZY Highway Railroad Crossings
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ธ.ค. 2022
- Interstate 94 is an east-west highway connecting the Great Lakes and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. Its western terminus is just east of Billings, Montana, at a junction with I-90 and its eastern terminus is in Port Huron, Michigan. It’s the only east-west interstate with a direct connection to Canada, crossing over the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, Ontario. I-94 is especially busy between Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan.
When the interstate was built through Michigan’s Jackson and Calhoun Counties in the late 1950s, engineers encountered a significant challenge in the form of a railroad line just east of Albion: New York Central System’s Springport Branch. The lightly used rail line extended just over 10 miles between Albion and Springport but would impede traffic on I-94 unless an overpass was constructed.
Train traffic didn’t justify the cost of building a bridge, so what resulted was one of about 6 at-grade railroad crossings in the State of Michigan on 4-lane divided highways. In this video, we review the history of 4 interstate highway-grade crossings and also visited the sites to show you what these locations look like today.
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“But unless you’re really paying attention, you’d likely never realize a railroad once crossed there.”
This applies to hundreds locations everywhere. I enjoy trying to see old ROW roadbeds, where railroads used to be.
I live in Arizona and most of the abandoned lines have been preserved in the desert areas. Of course they've disappeared where it rains a lot but you can slightly tell something was there.
It's so sad too. I live in Pontiac Michigan. There used to be a lot of tracks around here. But it's all been cut down to one small line with few spurs. I really hope CN never feels the need to close the line because that would be really depressing
Often the utilities still use the old ROW for their path.
I remember in California I was like west of Stanton on my bike and saw what looked like a utility corridor/alleyway cutting through the dense neighborhoods so rode through it as a shortcut. When I hit a street I saw what looked like a disused level crossing and on the sidewalk was a sign explaining what it was.
After the rail stopped using the line the corridor was built over shortly before historical people wanted it preserved so they emptied it back out and it looks like a rail corridor again just without the railroad. I can't remember the significance if it used to be a popular streetcar line or a heritage line that no longer exists.
In a few rare spots in Champaign you can still the light rail interurban tracks. GM bought up these companies, closed them and then sold buses to those communities.
I was born and raised in Albion and remember that I-94 crossing and the trains to Deveraux and Springport. As it was a spur line, I can remember the engine travelling north as regular and then backing up and travelling back to Albion with the caboose in the lead. The bridge pilings across the creek beds and mash lands still exist and are west of M-99 until it crossed over M-99 about a mile south of Springport to go next to a factory in Springport and then to the grain elevator.
👋 neighbor, I’m in spring arbor and know your area well. Regrettably, I worked a decade or so back at the old Chevy and Pontiac dealer in Albion. 👍
As a lifelong Michigan resident I've driven past all these crossings on I-94 ,
Unknowingly of course . Awesome video . Thanks for sharing .
The conductor anecdote was hilarious! Great video.
I can't imagine any of my coworkers doing something like that 😜 (sarcasm)
I just sent this video to my son. He just started working on the the railroad. This is he's 2nd week. He's only 19 and this job has been his dream since he was a little boy. I'm very proud of my son.
This feels like it could go into your abandoned railroad series, also if you ever do anything regarding any abandoned railroads in my area, mainly around Athens and it's surrounding area, I'll be happy to provide any photos I have
I saw the remnants of what looks like an old grade next to what is now a melon processing plant just east of the former LDMA Athens Camp on W Burr Oak Rd. Is that ex-NYC?
The story of the trainee having to relieve himself is hilarious!
Always had a strong affiliation for railroad crossings even as a kid. I miss the old cast setups they had scattered across the US back then. I may not have lived in Michigan, but these signals weren't uncommon to spot in my area.
The old clicking and clacking of the bells and magnetic contacts ring on in my head till this day. New signals are safer, but I wish they kept some of the soul that the originals had.
"Affinity"😉
Same here. Railroad Crossings have always intrigued me to this day.
I may be 25 now, but I always felt where there's a train, there's bound to be those iconic clanging bells and red flashing lights nearby.
I went to apply for a job at a business near Hartland Michigan and in their lobby they had old mechanical railroad signal assembly. I was trying to figure how it worked.
I remember 23 just north of Toledo had a crossing. It seemed so odd, but now it seems more normal for Michigan.
I remember it too. It was just south of exit 13, Ida-Petersburg.
My brother was a track inspector in 1968 and rode that section of track shortly before it was removed
Back in the mid-60's when I was a child in Florida the RR crossings had signs that said "STOP, LOOK, & LISTEN". You never see this great advice on RR crossbuck signs nowadays.
It’s a great way to survive a train
I've always wondered if something like this had ever existed. There were so many strange and wild things that were done in the very early days of the Interstate system. Things that they could never try today as the populations, and use of the highways, have increased so dramatically. Thanks for the vid!
Again crew, a great storied video!
Full of thought provoking information…
Thanks for taking the time to put this one together!
Greatly appreciated.
I've driven past those mile posts so many times and never knew. Thanks for sharing this bit of history!
Thank you for this video, Drayton! The historical information in this video was something I never knew before.
Great video and tutorial of the old crossings in Albion. Sad to see that so much of the rails have become abandoned and removed. I've been a railroad fanatic since I was 5years old. And 46years later nothing has changed! I've become a BIG FAN of the GLC from a couple TH-camrs that capture videos of them presently. I certainly enjoy watching those old GEEPS working hard! Thanks for sharing this video with us D.I.B! Cheers from Delmar, Delaware
Great production! Really enjoy these videos, you give people a platform to share knowledge that would have definitely been lost from time
I would like to visit that last one that is still in use. There is only one grain company using it so you would have to get lucky to catch a train. Awesome video!
Another great video, baby. ❤
I'm a highway engineer and I find this fascinating! Great video
th-cam.com/video/OWZjWQqVW-Y/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=quebecrail heres a local railroad still in use to this day crossing the trans canadian highway...
I'm fascinating and found a highway engineer
Awesome information! I live and have kids that go to school in Springport as well as coaching track there myself. This is a tiny community graduating less then a hundred kids a year but still the grain elevator (and the local bar) are what keeps this small community thriving and still on the map! I can only imagine what it was like back when the train still came through town! Thanks again for some great info!
Reminds me of the I-75 drawbridge that crossed the Zilwakee River . It was there until the early 80s. Huge back ups when a freighter came by.
I remember the problems they had building that overpass. What a fiasco. Remember seeing those huge support pillars as a kid when we went up North. No deck yet, just huge supports.
@@wadehm63 There was an accident putting in one of the highest sections. It was suspended, leaning to one side, all summer while they tried to figure it out.
there was a ship that hit the Zilwakee draw bridge
Great video. Very interesting hearing about all the history of the abandoned railroads.
The rail line that crosses 127 is my northern property line. The video of the train crossing is becoming a weekly or couple times a week crossing. The elevator in Middleton just paid a lot of money over the last couple of years to fix the rail line. Typically, from what I have noticed, they use the line very late at night. Great video!
That is a pretty big elevator they got in Middleton for such a small town. Have eaten at the Middleton Diner quite often.
I go through that way a couple of times a year.
Once about 7-8 years ago there were a handful of derailed ore cars, I think, on the westside of US 27.
Really enjoyed this one. Good stuff Frank. Merry Christmas
Thanks for doing this video of "my old stomping grounds". Very cool info!!!
This honestly reminds me of a section of US Highway 90 (locally just Highway 90), at Knippa Texas where not only does the main line run with the road but also crosses 90 directly into a material plant that's also a historical marker
That 127 crossing footage was awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you 4 sharing,really COOL
The engineer sounds like they’re signaling a road crossing twice at 9:43, which I imagine is because the consist _is_ crossing two roads! Cool!
Really great video as always. We don’t have any interstate crossing like that here in Delaware but we have a few 4 divided lanes crossings. They always interested me.
The Milwaukee Road’s “Bug Line” to North Lake, Wisconsin used to cross the U.S. 41 freeway at grade in Menomonee Falls. The approaching signage on the freeway and the actual crossing protection were both maximized for obvious reasons.
The Milwaukee road also crossed hwy 41 at oshkosh and further north (hwy 141) at Lena and Pound WI
All the way to Houghton.
Also in WI: an active crossing on US151 in Beaver Dam, and a former at-grade crossing on the Madison Beltline (US12/18/151) which was removed years (decades?) ago now.
Thank you for our Michigan history of railroads. Railroads keep our Country moving and thriving. Besides, they're fun to watch.
Thanks for watching!
@@DelayInBlockProductions you should try to dig up what you can about the railroads in Pontiac. It's nothing too exciting now. But there are a ton of tracks that were torn up. I read somewhere "that at one point tracks entered the city from no less than 6 locations". Almost all of which is now gone. Along with much of the spurs being torn up as well. It's really disappointing and I would love to know more how the layout of tracks looked in the cities heyday but I'm not sure where to look to dig up that kind of information. You seem to be mostly based on Michigan railroads and Pontiac was an important link to Detroit. Yet I never really hear anyone talking about this area. Whether it be railfanning or going over the history. I would bet during ww2 this line hauled vital goods as it links Flint to Pontiac to Detroit
There have been plenty of other railroad lines that crossed limited-access highways even before the interstate system. The LIRR Central Branch used to cross the Wantagh State Parkway, and that was abandoned east of Roosevelt Field during the construction of Levittown.
I enjoyed this video alot. I've always found it interesting that railroad right of ways are identifiable even decades after the tracks are gone. Something very evident within the city of Detroit. I'd be interested in learning about the DCON, DCRR, Detroit Terminal RR, the Wabash boat yard, Detroit Union Station and Brush Street Station. Big big Grand Trunk fan here. I've appreciated your videos for years. Thanks
The driveway of my property is the decommissioned New York Central line that ran through a town called Jerome. I believe the only reason the town still exists is that they do have a post office that was right where two rail lines crossed. Found some really nice railroad spikes and plates when regrading the easement.
I grew up in Michigan. In 1977 I went to Central Michigan U, and traveled up highway 127 innumerable times. Being a railfan even back then, I always hoped I'd encounter a train at that crossing (wondering if the tracks were still active), but never did.
Yeah I've traveled that road countless times during my life and I've never once seen a train lol
I love the kind of videos you guys make and this was awesome to watch but I honestly like listening to Drayton talk more than this new guy.
I used ti travel I-94 and wondered about that crossing. Thanks for the history.
Here in Canada, at grade crossings on divided highways are actually somewhat common, especially in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Alberta's highway 4, which the 4 lane divided highway that effectively extends Interstate 15 into Alberta, crosses 4 times. The Trans Canada highway in Manitoba has lots of crossings.
1968 was the first year of the Penn Central merging new York Central and the Pennsylvania RR. A lot of lines were abandoned.
that would’ve been 76 when most were abandoned
@@notafanofthegovernment9982 April 1st 76, was round 2
Dang that’s super interesting. I love seeing where abandoned railroad lines use to be. Drayton the depot in Stanford KY has spots where you can see the rail was. There is a walking trail along where the track use to be and I even found some ties buried underneath
I love these old rail road videos!!!
Such a great video!
Have a great Sunday!! 😉😉
The pissing on the rear porch really killed me! 🤣🤣
Today it would be more hilarious to see a crewman pissing off the back of a EMD or GE while crossing a highway!
I really enjoyed this video..... thank you
I'm not huge into trains, but I live in west MI and enjoy learning about the changes to infrastructure that we've seen throughout the ages.
The urinating conductor likely heard the grade crossing whistle sequence and knew hat was coming up.
We had two of them here in mass: Route 1 in Peabody and route 2 in concord. Unfortunately now both abandoned and turned into paths. The state actually spent the money on route 2 to build a bridge for the rail trail.
Nice to learn so much about ray roads.
It's always good when this man makes a video
I drive on I-94 past Albion regularly and instantly recognized that exit in the photos. Never knew there had been a track going through there though, let alone an "at-grade" crossing. Really interesting!!!
The prank on the conductor was awesome 😂
Amazing video! Funny story with the conductor!
Being born and raised in Michigan, I remember all the crossings mentioned. As a small boy in North Adams, I remember trains on that Ypsilanti branch before it was largely abandoned.
Interesting video. From southeastern PA here. We had a doubletrack section of the Reading Railroad that ran up to Bethlehem PA. I still look on in amazement where the tracks run through small towns and over grade crossings and when I say through, I mean right through the heart of those towns. The towns were built along the railroad. They use to have three or four locomotives hauling a hundred hoppers, full of ore to, or empties back from, Bethlehem Steel. And they moved, they really roared along. All that action faded in the 1970's. The tracks are quiet now with just the occasional switcher lumbering along.
Fantastic and well done
Somewhat off point, I apologize. At 11 years old in 1971, a friend of mine and I jumped this train from Warren, michigan.. all the way up to Port Huron at 10:30 in the morning somehow we picked the correct train home from Port Huron but didn't get there till 11:30 at night My father beat my butt and I was grounded for the entire summer, Except for my paper route and baseball games.. a memory I still cherish to this day ...miss you dad . .you were the best.
Love you and miss you every day.
Awesome video 👍
I've crossed that US-127 crossing many times, but never saw a train there. I also remember the interchange at M-57 used to be a flat intersection, but they eventually added an overpass, even though it's not a limited-access section, I think because there were so many accidents. A traffic light on a rural section of two long, straight, high-speed roads was just asking for trouble.
I travel M-57 a lot and yeah, there were quite a few accidents there. Best thing they did was to build that overpass.
Between 1954 and 1987 there was a railway crossing in the A2 motorway near Loenersloot in the Netherlands. In the early years several freight trains a day ran over it, with road traffic driving into the barriers regularly.
I love stuff like this and it resparked a theory I know for damn sure there was a rail line every time I went by it but I just can't remember where now.
I was interested in Durham Michigan because of the downtown double railroad crossing. Ended up watching this. I do remember using M-127 north of Lansing and I remember railroad tacks like 40 years ago.
Today I live near Romulus Michigan, they have a railroad crossing same as Durhams.
There was also a drawbridge at Zilwaukee right on Interstate 75. Yep. Interstate traffic having to stop for a drawbridge. Then they built the Zilwaukee bridge sometime in the '80's to replace it.
I remember an at-grade crossing on 1-94 in kalamazoo county between portage and sprinkle road exit. They did eventually build a bridge in the 60's. Also on 131 between kalamazoo and plainwell, there was one or two grade crossings. One was what became the kalhaven trail and they tunneled under 131. For years you could see where they patched the road after they took out the tracks in the 70's.
I remember driving over the crossings on 94 & 23, they were rough. Never saw a train on them. I was told the last train was powered by a SW-1 in 1968.
Very interesting. In The Netherlands we had (at least) three crossings with highways, one of them with a main 6-lane highway remained in service until 1986! The one roundtrip a day (two crossings) had to be timetabled between the morning and evening rush hour and the highway traffic was stopped by traffic police (highway patrol) when the train would cross. When an axtra train had to be run, the two would be combined on this section. It would nowadays have to cross ten lanes there would it still exist.
I knew of this one but where are those other two? Or do you include that one in Hoorn from the Museumtram?
@@Hollandstation The line Den Bosch-Lage Zwaluwe ('Halvezolenlijn') crossed Rijksweg 27 and 59 at Raamsdonksveer. Of corse, they both were nothing more than dual carriageways in those days
@@siccodierdorp6947 thx!
As a kid, my family would go on the “Dinner Train” that didn’t serve dinner ironically. I believe it used to be a freight line back in the day but the Dinner Train became the last train to use the tracks. It was based out of Walled Lake, Michigan and the tracks and the train used to cross M5, a 8-Lane road with a median and the busiest in the area, the small passenger train would go by pretty slow and would have to back track leading to long traffic backups. To add to that there was a main intersection (Pontiac Trail) a little north that had a bad light system that would add even more traffic.
After 2008 it had a slow downfall and eventually closed. The abandoned freight cars were removed then a couple years later the passenger cars and locomotives were scrapped I believe, not too sure though.
The original track was 15 miles long and connected Wixom, Michigan to Pontiac, Michigan. It is now all paved and gravel trails. The old M5 & Pontiac Trail Intersection is now a round about and the old M5 railroad crossing is now a pedestrian bridge.
Locals don’t miss it because the area is a lot more high speed, but I definitely miss it. Probably nostalgia talking.
There were at grade crossings on 94 near Benton Harbor and Battle Creek also. The Benton Harbor crossing was bridged about the time 196 was built and eventually abandoned. The crossing near Battle Creek was the spur leading into Fort Custer and was abandoned when the Fort was decommissioned. There was also an at grade crossing on the limited access section of 131 just north of Kalamazoo. The railroad was abandoned and is now the Kal Haven Trail.
Love this video! As I live in this state let's just say I saw one of these type crossings on my way to my uncle's house lmao but never knew the name or what line it was on. All I know is that it was being used for storage and to store cars that were not being used.
that 1 n st.johns lol get stuck at that track when they come thru its usually a long wait been a long while since going thru there but i also recall the 1s in albion n cement city nice bit of history
Been over the tracks on I-94 near Ann Arbor a few times back in those days.
the grand trunk crossing at US131 in schoolcraft is only barely not one of these - the limited-access portion of 131 ends a mile north of it
There used to be an at-grade railroad crossing on the US 131 freeway north of Kalamazoo just south of the Exit 41 131 business route. The Kal-Haven trail now runs underneath the freeway connecting Kalamazoo to South Haven.
Another old railroad crossing can be seen on I-94 in Kalamazoo County between the 4th and 6th Street overpasses. If you look carefully, you can see the grade cuts of the Fruit Belt Railroad on both sides of the road. The Fruit Belt ran from downtown Kalamazoo near where West Main and Stadium Drive intersect to South Haven and has quite an interesting history. However, it had long gone out of business by the time I-94 was built.
Good old GLC still using an at grade highway crossing. Fun story about the Middleton branch crossing (and a band camp one to boot), The ride home from our annual band camp up in evart was going well until we got to said at grade crossing. Our older bus flew over it at high speed and we, being the observant people we were noticed a sudden and loud metallic clank after crossing it and a black tubular object on the road. I remember everyone suddenly realizing the significance of those two events and despite the physical and emotional battering the camp gave us and the relief it was to be in the way home, could not shake the unlikely but present fact that our bus may now be driving without brakes or a working transmission. We realized though that it was fine and made it home safely.
Awesome video of history 👏 👌 👍
This is interesting! I grew up north of Bowmanville, Ontario. At Bowmanville, CN had a spur to the local Good Year plant, and this spur crossed Highway 401 at grade, with signals. Later on CN abandoned the crossing and the spur was relocated slightly west to a new bridge over the 401, and came back down on the north side to reconnect with the spur at Hunt Street. Local 518/519 pout of Belleville switched Good Year and the St. Mary's cement plant.
There was an at grade crossing on the US 131 freeway on the west side of Kalamazoo. The NYC South Haven branch crossed until the mid 70s when it was abandoned.
That's pretty cool! Who knew there were ever at-grade crossings on an Interstate highway? I learned something new today. And just imagine if the businesses around that shortline had flourished instead? Do you think by now there would have been some kind of agreement to build an overpass for the highway or the railroad? Deep down, I can just imagine that there was some kind of discussion where they told the highway dept that they wouldn't keep the tracks for very long,maybe 10 or 15 years at most. And that was enough for them to agree to the crossing. But who knows for sure?
It's also interesting how many utilities paralleled the tracks in the 60s and 70s as part of an agreement. It was for a while, a secondary means of income for the railroads, especially when they were starving on their primary means anyways. And because the utility company had a mostly unobstructed corridor for their services, it was an easy partnership. There are dozens of corridors in Florida where the utilities partnered with the railroad and now the railroads are gone. Some of them were main arteries for serving busy cities even. But as two great competitors merged into one, they felt those arteries were unnecessary and cut them only to find out they would bleed to death in the end.
That's a great story...One minute you're just pissing in the wind and the next you've got an audience 🤣🤣
He had to know at that point it was a set up 😅😅
I grew up in Alma, MI. I remember maybe twice having to stop for the train on family trips to Owosso or Flint.
There's two similar ones in Indiana along US-31, north of Kokomo. I drive over them when I go back to college. Both are active and regularly stop traffic.
I was surprised to see no mention of the grade-level crossing on US-127 Highway North of St. Johns. The crossing has very specific instructions and a traffic light instructing vehicles that normally have to stop at crossings to proceed and do not stop on green.
Great content, thanks for putting this together!
You must not have watched the entire video.
@@DelayInBlockProductions oh shoot, I must have missed something then. I'll watch again! 😅🤦♂️
Somewhere along New Brunswick hwy 1, near the border crossing at Calais ME and St Stephen NB, there's a rail line that crosses the 4 lane divided highway.
There is a crazy, at grade freeway crossing on US 90 near Jeanette, LA. It was recently marked exempt due to several lethal crashes with hazmat vehicles and school buses.
The Willamette Valley Railway has a similar railroad crossing that crosses over HWY 22 in Aumsville, Oregon.
Unfortunately, trackage between Silverton, Oregon all the way to the end of the line in Stayton, Oregon has been out of service since 2012 due to a snowstorm that damaged trackage in some areas, and that crossing just so happens to be in the middle of that. The crossing now has exempt signs up and the lights have been turned around.
And yet, they never made the crossings in the town exempt, so hazardous cargo and busses still have to stop there. I never understood that
Sr 3 near New Castle, Indiana crosses the busy NS NCD, a few miles away is an overpass over an abandoned PRR/PC/Conrail line. When 3 was dual laned, the old NKP was a very lightly used line that INDOT assumed would be removed and the then PRR/PC line was rather busy.
The railroads of Indiana still fascinate me. Strange I didn’t know that crossing, I’m by there a lot, though usually E/W through Mt Summit (almost daily). I thought those were all spurs until I got stopped by a northbound NS with significant enthusiasm. I presume the line through Sulphur Springs to that elevator was somehow related?
I remember the crossing on I-69 as a kid. We also had a drawbridge on I-75.
I forgot about that drawbridge on 75! Then they had all those issues building the bridge. They really messed that up.
@@wadehm63 yeah, it was a long, long wait for that bridge. They started building from each side, and the height was off when they met in the middle.
I loved that drawbridge as a kid. I liked the way it sang when you drove over it. I always hoped the “Be Prepared To Stop” sign would be lit on our trips. My parents didn’t care for it as much.
We had an oddball grade crossing on Highway 99 in Stockton California until the 2000s. 99 is a freeway in the central valley where Stockton is located. I always noticed this strange RR crossing and signals on a freeway! It is gone now, the like abandoned and removed.
Theres one of these near Tipton Indiana and the bumps are so bad a semi tow truck went over one day and it broke the truck frame in half. I used to like going by there to watch semi trailers get air off the tracks.
Great video
I grew up in a tiny town in Indiana called Hanna. Interstate 30 runs through this town. There is a grade crossing (single track) crossing HWY 30 there. I never thought about its rarity until this video. I believe the crossing still exists.
There's another interesting former crossing north of the last one you mentioned. it's at the curve that takes the four lane divided highway 127 towards Ithaca. You can see where there was an off ramp to serve Ithaca from the south. This lead to some rather bad accidents from cars trying to cross 127 on a decent curve. You'd also get people who would do 60+ MPH not realizing there was a track there and they'd hit the track and hit the tracks hard, bouncing cars with many losing control. They finally eliminated it completely.
I was returning to my apartment in East Lansing after assisting some veterinarians out in Atlanta, Michigan (yes, we have one too) and was actually stopped on 127 for a train.
The four lane NY State route 17 near Circleville had a grade crossing. Never saw a train but went over it many times on my way up to college back in the '80s.
Really interesting!
There is another at-grade crossing over a US highway on Business Loop 169 / US 31 in Holland, Michigan.
What did you do to Drayton????? Just kidding, great video as always!!!!
Very interesting! 👍