The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Père Jacques Marquette S.J. (1637–1675), a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
Pere Marquette 1225 is a 2-8-4 (Berkshire) steam locomotive built for the Pere Marquette Railway (PM) by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. 1225 is one of two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 locomotives, the other being 1223 which is on display at the Tri-Cities Historical Society near the ex-Grand Trunk Western (GTW) coaling tower, in Grand Haven, Michigan. Nickel Plate 763 and Nickel Plate 765 is also a Lima built Berkshire very similar in appearance and specifications to the Pere Marquette engines. It is perhaps most famous for serving as the basis for the locomotive in the 2004 film, The Polar Express.
The Pere Marquette Rail-Trail (PMRT) is a rail trail in Michigan occupying an 28-mile (45 km) abandoned CSX railroad corridor in Midland County and Isabella County that was once part of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad. In 1874, the tracks stretched from Ludington to Flint, transporting supplies to the timber industry and lumber/timber to southern Michigan's mills. It is a Michigan Rails to Trails Conservancy Hall of Fame trail.
The Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM). It was established to construct a 14.7-mile (23.7 km) railway line from a junction with the F&PM main line at Coleman, Michigan, to Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The line opened on December 15, 1879, as a 3 ft narrow gauge line. In mid-1884 the line was converted to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 instandard gauge. On January 31, 1889 the company was formally merged into the F&PM along with the East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad, the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad, and the Manistee Railroad.
The Flint and Holly Railroad (F&H) is a defunct railroad that operated in eastern Michigan from 1863 to 1868. It was founded by Henry H. Crapo, a Massachusetts-born lumber merchant who served as Governor of Michigan (1865–1869). The line was originally chartered as the Flint and Fentonville Railroad on January 3, 1863, and was amended on October 16, 1863. On November 1, 1864, the F&H completed a railway line from Flint, Michigan to Holly, Michigan. Via an agreement with the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway (D&M), F&H ran into Detroit's Brush Street Station over D&M tracks.
The Bay City and East Saginaw Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in central Michigan before being bought by the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM). The company was chartered on April 8, 1864, and on November 1, 1867, completed a 13-mile (21 km) railway line from East Saginaw, Michigan to Bay City. In 1868 the F&PM leased the line; in 1872 it bought the company outright.
The Flint River Railroad is a defunct railroad. It was established on December 6, 1871 to construct a 14.4-mile (23.2 km) branch from Horton to Otter Lake to support the logging industry in the Flint River area. This line was opened on October 8, 1872, and the company was consolidated with the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM). In 1881 the F&PM extended this line 5.2 miles (8.4 km) to Fostoria.
The Holly, Wayne and Monroe Railway (HW&M) is a defunct railroad which operated in southeast Michigan during the early 1870s. Although the company was chartered in 1865, construction from Holly toward Monroe did not begin until 1870. The company had experienced financial difficulties, and apparently received help from the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) before the latter bought it out in 1872. The line reached Milford, Novi, Northville and Plymouth in 1871, and Monroe in 1872. That same year the F&PM bought the HW&M, and it ceased to exist as an independent company.
The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad (DL&N) is a defunct railroad which was formed on December 27, 1876 as a reorganization of the foreclosed Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Rail Road. The segment of its main line from Detroit to Lansing became an important component of the Pere Marquette Railroad, organized in 1900, and is still in use by CSX.
The Cass River Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in Michigan during the early 1870s. The company was chartered on December 12, 1871. In 1872 it completed a 19.4-mile (31.2 km) line from East Saginaw to Vassar. The line was intended to exploit the timber resources in the Cass River area. On June 4, 1872, the company was bought by the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM).
The Manistee Railroad in Michigan was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM). It was established on June 19, 1880, to construct a branch line from the F&PM's main line (Ludington–Monroe) at Walhalla to Manistee. The completion of this line in 1883 gave the F&PM access to Manistee's lake trade and local salt mining operations. The Manistee Railroad was consolidated with the F&PM on January 30, 1889.
The Saginaw and Clare County Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM). It was chartered on September 4, 1877, to construct a branch line to Lake George, Michigan. On September 30, 1880, the company completed a 15.5-mile (24.9 km) branch line from Harrison Junction to Harrison. The line did not serve Lake George. In 1883 this line was extended north to Meredith, for a total length of 29.91 miles (48.14 km). The Saginaw & Clare County was consolidated with the F&PM on January 30, 1889.
The Monroe and Toledo Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in southeast Michigan during the mid-1890s. The company was chartered on March 29, 1893, with the proposed object of constructing a line from the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad's Monroe terminal to the Ohio border, just north of Toledo. On November 15, 1896, the M&T completed a line from Monroe to Alexis, north of Toledo. In 1897 the F&PM purchased the M&T outright.
The Toledo Division was the southern half of the Pere Marquette Railway's main line, which ran from Ludington, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo Division encompassed the portion which ran from Toledo north to Saginaw, Michigan, where it met the Ludington Division. The line was built by a predecessor of the PM, the Flint & Pere Marquette, and is currently owned by CSX Transportation.
The SS Spartan is a railroad car ferry on Lake Michigan owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from 1952 through 1979. It alternated routes from Ludington, Michigan, to Milwaukee, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
The CSX Saginaw Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. The line runs 105 miles from Toledo, Ohio to Saginaw, Michigan; although since 2006, the section from Mt. Morris to Saginaw has been leased to the Lake State Railway, but is still occasionally used by CSX.
The Flint & Pere Marquette Union Station, commonly known as the Potter Street Station, is a railroad station built in 1881 and located at 501 Potter Street in Saginaw, Michigan, United States. It was designed by New York City architect Bradford Lee Gilbert. The station is 285 feet by 40 feet with 2½ stories, and is Michigan's second largest depot.
William L. Mercereau was an American design engineer manager of train ferries for the Pere Marquette Railway. He supervised their railroad-over-water system of train ferries as the largest carferry system in the world at the time.
The Bay City Station of the Pere Marquette Railway, also known as The Depot Building, is a former railroad depot located at 919 Boutell Place in Bay City, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
