Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway And The Ann Arbor Railroad

From Wikipedia
The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway (DT&I) obtained control of the AA in 1905 but sold its interests in 1910. In 1925 the Wabash Railroad, which was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) interests, acquired control of the AA. In 1963, the Wabash sold the AA to the DT&I (which was owned by the Wabash and the PRR). On October 16, 1973, AA declared bankruptcy. AA ceased operation as a railroad on April 1, 1976; Conrail assumed operations that day. The state of Michigan then purchased the railroad from the DT&I and arranged for its operation by Michigan Interstate Railway. The remaining train ferry lines from Elberta to Manitowoc (79 miles (127 kilometres)) and Kewaunee (60 miles (97 kilometres)) ceased operation in April 1982. In 1983 because of disputes over terms and payments, the operation was split among three railroads:

• Michigan Interstate Railway
• Tuscola & Saginaw Bay Railway (T&SB)
• Michigan Northern Railway (MN)

In 1984 T&SB took over MN's portion of the AA.

On October 7, 1988 a new Ann Arbor Railroad began operating the portion south of Ann Arbor; the Great Lakes Central Railroad (the former T&SB) currently serves the remaining portions of the line. Some sections have been abandoned: from Yuma to Elberta and Frankfort (approximately 45 miles (72 kilometres)), approximately 10 miles (16 kilometres) in Shiawassee County, Michigan (in three discontinuous sections), and the trackage around the now-demolished Cherry Street Station in Toledo.

More on the DT&I

In June 1905, the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway (DT&I) took control of the Ann Arbor Railroad (AA), which they purchased from Rudolph Kleybolte & Co.^[4] The AA connected Toledo with Frankfort, Mich., and the acquisition essentially doubled the DT&I system. DT&I only controlled the AA until 1908 when another bankruptcy forced the DT&I to divest its acquisition.

In 1963, the DT&I, itself by then a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, once again gained control of the AA. The Ann Arbor lines would later become part of the formation of Conrail in April 1976 but were still facing abandonment. They were purchased by the state of Michigan in October 1977 with the intent of preserving rail service over its tracks. Subsequently, the state divested itself of the lines and remnants of the AA are now owned and operated by several short line railroad companies (including one with the same name as the original).

Ann Arbor Railroad Paint Scheme of the 1960's and 1970's

I found this great photo on line (PHOTO CREDIT: TODD GREENBERG
http://reeb88.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx…) of an Ann Arbor GP35 AA390, and thought I would share it with all of you. I really like this paint scheme. I believe it was used during the 1960's and 1970's by the Ann Arbor Railroad under the control of the Detroit Toledo and Ironton Railroad. It is only missing the compass logo under the cab windows.

The missing logo looks like this

the Paint scheme and logo are copied directly from the Detroit Toledo and Ironton paint scheme and logo

as shown below

and the logo looks like this

New Farmhouse and Barn

I was able to find kits to build a farmhouse and a barn for my grandchildren's HO layout. I still need to find a rock, a flagpole and a shed to put with them. On the rock I will paint the name "Myers" to copy the look of the home they live in. Sandy found a fence and some cows to place near the barn and a cloths line to place between the house and the barn. I am starting to get really excited about this layout. I know the grandchildren enjoy playing with it.

Modeler's Block

The coffee table layout brings me a lot of joy but I need to stop watching it so much and continue working on the landscaping. For some reason I just can't find the motivation or inspiration to put foliage on the trees and glue down more grass. All of the buildings are in place and I have enough rolling stock.

My Grandchildren's Layout

This weekend, my grandchildren came over for a visit. I had their BNSF HO layout all set up for them to play with. I had purchased two cars before they came over one was a BNSF 50 foot gondola with it's own scrap metal load and the other was a BNSF 50 foot boxcar. My grand kids, Billy and Emma had fun playing with the throttle controlling the speed and stops the train was making. They also had fun placing people on the layout.

When we are playing with the train we talk all about the train and where it goes across the United States. They are learning Geography and all about railroad operations and they don't even mind. I even discussed my plan to create an N scale Canadian National layout. This caught their interest because they have relatives in Canada.

My grand kids are not strangers to model railroading, they have watched me create a large HO scale layout featuring a New York Central Passenger train and an Ann Arbor freight train.

Progress On The Coffee Table

After some time of leaving the layout alone I started working on the coffee table again. The trees on the left side of the table still need to be worked on I changed the name of the station to "Salt Creek" Station named after the original name of the village of Shepherd Michigan. The locomotive is a GP35 painted up with markings that represent the Ann Arbor Railroad under DTI control, followed by 4 boxcars with Ann Arbor Railroad markings as existed under Wabash control. Two tank cars followed by two covered hoppers a coal car and a gondola and finally a caboose brings up the rear. The layout also includes a farmhouse and a barn, a residential area, a school house, a feed store, a hotel, and a church. A lake separates the two half's of the layout. a mountain with a train tunnel gives the impression that the train is traveling further than it actually is. Working on this layout is what inspired me to want to create a larger N scale layout. The Canadian National layout that I have been talking about.

The Great Debate

I have been debating what scale I should concentrate on. So far I have built a large HO scale layout on my sun porch, a large G scale layout in my back yard, and a small N scale coffee table layout in my library. I have two layouts in the planning stages a large N scale layout and a smaller HO scale layout for my grandchildren.

The N scale layout is the Canadian National layout I have been talking a lot about lately. with it I can cover a lot more scale miles and have a greater variety of landscapes and structures. I have already begun to accumulate the parts such as track and cars to put the layout together.

The HO scale layout is not so far along I have a small amount of track, enough to run a small oval, and a BNSF locomotive and caboose along with a boxcar, gondola, and 3 bay hopper. there are also some street signs and telephone poles that I can integrate into the layout. The grandchildren seem to like it and we have talked about buying a barn and a farmhouse for the layout as well.

What do you think I should concentrate on?