Pere Marquette Railway is Classic Trains' Railroad of the Month for April 2020
Switcher at Holland
Chesapeake & Ohio No. 350, a former Pere Marquette 1300-series 0-8-0, works just east of Waverly Yard at Holland, Michigan, in April 1951. The tracks leading out of the picture are the PM main line to Grand Rapids.
Richard Pedler
Carferry at Milwaukee
Former Pere Marquette carferry City of Saginaw 31 is loaded with freight cars at Milwaukee several months after the 1947 C&O absorption of the PM. The crane on the flatcar was built by Universal Unit Power Shovel Corp. of nearby West Allis, Wisconsin.
C. P. Fox
Berkshires meet at East Saugatuck
Two of Pere Marquette’s class N-2 2-8-4s meet at the top of the grade at East Saugatuck, Michigan. At left, No. 1229 is stopped with an eastbound; at right, 1239 passes, about to head down the hill to New Richmond.
Richard Pedler
Local east of Saginaw
Pere Marquette 2-8-0 No. 371 whistles for a road crossing 6 miles east of Saginaw with the westbound Bad Axe local sometime in the 1940s.
Otto J. Brechtelsbauer
New bridge at Saginaw
At Saginaw, Michigan, Mikado 1097 leads a Ludington-bound freight over Pere Marquette’s new bridge over the Saginaw River in the 1940s. The three non-moveable trusses were simply moved from the old piers to the new ones in an operation that took only 13 hours.
Otto J. Brechtelsbauer
Eastbound at East Saugatuck
Berkshire 1220 crests the summit of 2-mile New Richmond Hill at East Saugatuck, Michigan. Visible just to the left of the pilot beam is the exhaust of another 2-8-4 assisting on the rear of the train.
Richard Pedler
Fast freight out of Chicago
West of Porter, Indiana, Pere Marquette ran on New York Central tracks to access Chicago. Berkshire 1227 rushes east through Gary, Indiana, on the NYC in May 1948, nearly a year after PM was folded into C&O.
Andrew Corsini
Local entering Grand Haven
NW2 No. 59, still in full Pere Marquette livery three years after the C&O takeover, ambles into Grand Haven, Michigan, on its run from Muskegon to Holland with a train of Norge refrigerators.
Richard Pedler
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and lore of famed (and infamous) railroads. In April 2020, we celebrate the Pere Marquette Railway.
Please enjoy a collection of locomotive images located in the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include the Pere Marquette’s iconic locomotives and classic scenic photos.
You might also enjoy this Pere Marquette history article from Classic Trains and a photo gallery of Pere Marquette passenger trains.