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West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for a region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Generally, it refers to the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Peninsula's Lake Michigan shoreline, but there is no official definition.
The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.
The Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's subsidiary company operating its Lake Michigan railroad car ferry operations between Muskegon, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1905 to 1978. Major railroad companies in Michigan used rail ferry vessels to transport rail cars across Lake Michigan from Michigan's western shore to eastern Wisconsin to avoid rail traffic congestion in Chicago.
The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854.
The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Railway was an electric interurban railway that operated in west Michigan from 1902 until 1928.
The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state of Michigan between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway.
The Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1881 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway.
The Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad (C&MLS) is a defunct railroad which operated in Michigan between 1869 and 1878, and as the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad until 1881.
The Grand Rapids, Newaygo and Lake Shore Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1872 and 1881. The GRN&LS was chartered on September 11, 1869, under the leadership of David P. Clay. The company operated a 46-mile (74 km) line between Grand Rapids and White Cloud. The initial segment, from Grand Rapids to Sparta, was completed on May 19, 1872. The line reached Newaygo on September 11, 1872; the first passenger train between the two towns ran the same day, to much fanfare from the local populace. On September 24, 1875, the line was extended over the Muskegon River to White Cloud. On September 30, 1881, it consolidated with other companies to form the Chicago & West Michigan. During its twelve years of independent existence the company sustained a net loss of $36,554.28.
The Ionia and Lansing Rail Road is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan in the 1860s and 1870s. The company incorporated on November 13, 1865; the investors hailed primarily from Lansing, Ionia and Portland. The original charter called for a 34-mile (55 km) line from Ionia to Lansing; on January 13, 1869 this was amended with a much grander vision: a 125-mile (201 km) line from Lansing to the mouth of the Pentwater River at Pentwater, on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railroad (MCW&LM) is a defunct railroad which operated in southern Michigan and Ohio during the 1870s. By the time it went into foreclosure in the late 1870s it owned two non-contiguous track segments, each of which was leased by a different company.
The Michigan and Ohio Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in southern Michigan in the mid-1880s. Originally intended to forge a new line from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan, it came close to its goal, completing a line between Allegan and Dundee before financial embarrassment landed it in receivership.
Michigan United Railways (MUR) was an interurban which owned and leased numerous lines in the state of Michigan during the early twentieth century.
The Grand Rapids and Lake Shore Railroad Company was organized to build a railroad from Grand Rapids to Pentwater, Michigan. The corporation was organized by Lowell Hall and other Grand Rapids businessmen. The company's bonds of $16,000 per mile were endorsed by the Michigan Central Railroad in January 1870, and much of the early construction was performed by Michigan Central crews treating it as an extension of that company's Grand River Valley branch. By May, officials had extended their plans to build to Manistee, and the company projected construction reaching Pentwater by November. Track was completed between Nunica and Muskegon in 1870.
The Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the US state of Michigan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Itself the product of several consolidations in the 1870s, it became part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad in 1928.
The Grand Rapids metropolitan area is a triangular shaped Metro Triplex, in West Michigan, which fans out westward from the primary hub city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, to the other two metro hubs of Muskegon and Holland. The metropolitan area had an estimated population of 1,059,113 in 2017. The region, noted in particular for its western edge abutting the Lake Michigan shoreline and its beaches, is a popular tourist and vacation destination during the summer. Noted popular metro area beach towns include Grand Haven, Holland, Muskegon, and Saugatuck.
The Northern Central Michigan Railroad (NCMR) was a railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. The line ran from Lansing to Jonesville, then returned north from Jonesville to Albion and Eaton Rapids before closing the loop in Lansing. The NCMR had a short life as an independent company, becoming part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1871 and then consolidating with the New York Central Railroad in 1914.
City of Muskegon was a steel-hulled sidewheel package and passenger steamer, built in 1881 for service on the Great Lakes, which was wrecked early on 28 October 1919 when it struck a pier at Muskegon, Michigan, at 0430 hrs., in a 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) gale, sinking in a period estimated between four and ten minutes. Nine crew and six passengers were killed. There are conflicting sources on the number on board, however. One account listed 37 passengers and a crew of 35.
The Hamilton Northwestern Railroad is a shortline railroad in West Michigan. It began operations in 2022 after purchasing the railroad from Endeavour Ag and Energy. That company's predecessor had purchased the recently abandoned railroad from CSX Transportation in 2003 to preserve rail service at their Hamilton location.
References
- Ivey, Paul (1919). The Pere Marquette Railroad Company. Lansing, MI: Michigan Historical Commission. OCLC 66109442.
- Michigan Railroad Commission (1879). Annual Report.
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