The Saginaw Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The line runs 105 miles from

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

, to

Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in Saginaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 44,202 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Saginaw River, Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township, ...

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

owns the line although since 2006, the section from Mt. Morris to Saginaw has been leased to the

Lake State Railway Lake State Railway is a railroad operating in the Saginaw River, Saginaw Valley and northeastern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The railroad moves large quantities of aggregate and limestone, as well as coal, grain, and chemical p ...

but is still occasionally used by CSX. The Plymouth to Mt. Morris line was also leased to LSRC starting in March 2019.

History

Before

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

operated trains on the Saginaw Subdivision, it was originally owned by the

Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes (North America), 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 Canadi ...

. In the year 1947, the PM was acquired by the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

. It continued under the control of the C&O until 1973 upon which the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated u ...

assumed operations of the line. In 1980, when the Chessie System merged with the

Seaboard System Railroad The Seaboard System Railroad, Inc. was a US Class I railroad that operated from 1982 to 1986. Since the late 1960s, Seaboard Coast Line Industries had operated the Seaboard Coast Line and its sister railroads—notably the Louisville & Nashvi ...

, the line became owned by its current owner, CSX. Over the years the line has lost a lot of traffic and many of the

industrial spur A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

s have since been abandoned. The

Flint and Holly 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 orig ...

was built by businessman, and later Michigan Governor,

Henry H. Crapo Henry Howland Crapo (pronounced ''Cray-poe''; May 24, 1804 – July 23, 1869) was a businessman and politician who was the 14th governor of Michigan from 1865 to 1869, during the end of the American Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. ...

in the 1860s to serve his lumber mill. A park near the junction of

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

's Holly Subdivision (a branch line of the old

Grand Trunk Western Railroad 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 ha ...

), is named for him and a Michigan Historical Marker about him and the railroad's section stands there.

Toledo to Plymouth

The line begins in

, where it connects with the Toledo Terminal Division. Heading north, the line comes into the village of

Carleton, Michigan Carleton is a village in Monroe County, Michigan, United States. The population was 2,326 at the 2020 census. The village is located within Ash Township. History The community was first platted in 1872 by Daniel Matthews, who had worked previou ...

. In Carleton, the Conrail Lincoln Secondary branches off and the

's Flat Rock Subdivision crosses. Continuing onto

Wayne, Michigan Wayne is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A western suburb of Detroit, Wayne is located about southwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 17,713. Wayne has a long history of autom ...

, the line crosses the Michigan Line, operated by Amtrak. CSX trains can interchange with NS here. There is a

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

automobile plant, which requires

autorack An autorack, also known as an auto carrier (also Flat wagon#Car transporters, car transporter outside the US), is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new ...

cars for loading. North of Wayne, it enters

Plymouth, Michigan Plymouth is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A western suburb of Detroit, Plymouth is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and northeast of Ann Arbor. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 9,370. ...

. At Plymouth Diamond (MP CH82), the Saginaw Subdivision meets the east-west

CSX Plymouth Subdivision The Plymouth Subdivision is a freight railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is owned by CSX Transportation, CSX. It connects the Plymouth Diamond at milepost CH 24.5 to Grand Rapids at CH 148.1, passing through the Lansing metropolitan ...

-Detroit Subdivision line.Michigan Department of Transportation
Michigan's Rail System
/ref>

Plymouth to Mount Morris

Beyond Plymouth the line crosses the now abandoned Michigan Air Line Railroad in

Wixom Wixom ( ) is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northwestern suburb of Detroit, Wixom is located roughly from downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 17,193. The city was home to the now-demoli ...

. Then the line continues north. North of Plymouth is the village of

Holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

, where the line crosses CN's Holly Subdivision near a historic abandoned depot. In

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

, it interchanges with

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

's Flint Subdivision at the Atwood Wye. Also in Flint is the McGrew Yard and engine facilities for CSX equipment. In Genesee County, it closely parallels M-54 (Dort Highway) for several miles.

began leasing the line from Plymouth to Mount Morris starting in early March 2019.Lake State Railway to lease 53 miles of CSX track in Michigan
''Trains'', February 26, 2019

Mount Morris to Saginaw

On October 29, 2005,

Saginaw Bay Southern Railway Saginaw Bay Southern (reporting marks SBS) was a shortline railroad operating in the lower peninsula of Michigan. The railroad was a subsidiary of Lake State Railway until the two companies merged in 2012. It interchanged with CSX Transportation ...

(now

) began leasing over 67 miles of

trackage, part of which includes the Saginaw Subdivision from Mount Morris to Saginaw.

Traffic

As with most lines in the

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, metropolitan area, automobiles are the main source of revenue on the Saginaw Subdivision, although other freight is important for the businesses too. Once a month, a

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

contracted

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...

coal train works its way up the line. Plus, local freights diverging onto or off the Lincoln Secondary use the Saginaw Sub to head to or from Toledo.

Passenger service

As of 2019, there is no passenger service on the Saginaw Subdivision.

Pop culture

In the computer game series

Trainz ''Trainz'' is a series of 3D train simulator video games. The Australian studio Auran (since 2007 N3V Games) released the first game in 2001. The simulators consist of route and session editors called ''Surveyor'', and a ''Driver'' module t ...

, the Saginaw Subdivision is available as a user-created route on the Trainz Download Station. In Trainz 2010, it is available as a built-in route.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* CSX Chicago Division Timetable (2005

CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in Michigan Rail infrastructure in Ohio Pere Marquette Railway