Grand Trunk Western Railroad Grand Haven Coal Tipple

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Grand Trunk Western Railroad Grand Haven Coal Tipple
Grand Trunk Western Railroad Grand Haven Coal Tipple.jpg
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Location 300 Block of N. Harbor Dr. in Chinook Pier Park
Grand Haven, Michigan
Coordinates 43°4′5″N86°13′51″W / 43.06806°N 86.23083°W / 43.06806; -86.23083 Coordinates: 43°4′5″N86°13′51″W / 43.06806°N 86.23083°W / 43.06806; -86.23083
Built 1925 (1925)
NRHP reference # 16000583 [1]
Added to NRHP September 6, 2016

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Grand Haven Coal Tipple is a coaling tower designed to feed coal to steam locomotives located on the 300 block of North Harbor Drive (in Chinook Pier Park) in Grand Haven, Michigan. It is the tallest structure in the city. [2] The coal tipple was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. [1]

Coaling tower

A coaling tower, coal stage or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops.

Grand Haven, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Grand Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County, formerly known as Grand Heaven.. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River, for which it is named. As of the 2010 census, Grand Haven had a population of 10,412. It is part of the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area, which had a population of 1,027,703 in 2014. The city is home to the Grand Haven Memorial Airpark (3GM) and is located just north of Grand Haven Charter Township.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

History

In 1869, the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway purchased the river frontage at this location and placed their operations at this site. structures located here included a turntable, a grain elevator, an engine house, a freight warehouse, an icehouse, a depot, and a water tank. The railway underwent a series of mergers, and was eventually obtained by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, although the subsidiary retained an independent identity. In 1902, railroad began car ferry service at this site. the In 1924-25, the railroad upgraded its Grand Haven facilities, building a 50,000 gallon water tower and this coaling station. [2]

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.

Grand Trunk Western Railroad

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary 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, Illinois, 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.

When in use, the structure contained a hoist that provided coal to locomotives through the two steel chutes projecting from the structure. An electric motor in the adjacent engine house powered the system. In 1933, Grand Trunk Railroad transferred its ferry service to Muskegon in 1933, the coal tipple fell into disuse. In 1949, the ferry dock in Muskegon collapsed and Grand Trunk briefly re-activated the site. However, diesels replaced steam locomotives in the 1950s and no further operations took place at the tower. The steel hardware was eventually removed. Grand Trunk ceased passenger operations to Grand Haven in 1955, and in 1975 it ended freight service and abandoned the track. [2]

Description

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Grand Haven Coal Tipple is a massive structure built from reinforced concrete, standing 79 feet high and covering an area 38 feet by 30 feet. The structure includes a large coal storage section along with a small gabled unit above that at one time housed the hoist machinery. Adjacent to the main structure is small single-story reinforced concrete power house building. Also located in the park is the Pere Marquette Railway Locomotive No. 1223, separately listed on the National Register. [2]

The first floor of the coal tipple is constructed from ten concrete piers that define three bays on the longer sides and two on the shorter. The bays are composed of arches running from pier to pier. Some bays are entirely open, while others are filled with a concrete panel. A wide horizontal concrete belt course above the arches defines the base of the structure's second level. This level has bays aligned with those on the first story, with all containing recessed rectangular planes without windows. This level originally contained coal storage. The wider central bay continues upward to form a third story with a gabled concrete roof. [2]

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