Station: Albion, MI

Above, a postcard view of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Depot at Albion, on North Superior Street, date unknown, and an early photo of the same depot below. [Bottom photo, Alan Loftis Collection]

The first interlocker was apparently installed at that time and the tower at Albion was known as Tower "A". Letters were often used to describe towers and stations as a time saving step when using the telegraph. The Michigan Central operated on a manual block system at this time.

By 1925, the LS&MS was down to two passenger trains each way per day, and perhaps a freight or two. The LSMS and MCRR both were under control of the New York Central, and most traffic between Ohio/Indiana and Lansing and points north were being routed via Jackson (or Detroit). The LSMS route became less and less important during this time.

Posted by G. M. Meints on 5/4/2005: By the end of World War II, most of Albion's heavy industies were located east/north of town on the NYC Lansing Branch. The only major industry on the Michigan Central was Albion Malleable Iron. The switch engine, when there was one, would spend most of its shift on the NYC tracks. Most freight was setout westbound (from Jackson) and pick ups were eastbound (to Jackson). When I worked at Albion in the early 1960's, there was an agent and three clerks. The station was busy.

Posted by Lee Lovellette on 5/4/2005: A gentleman that worked out of Hillsdale in the 1950's told me that a crew out of Hillsdale would taxi up to Albion and switch the branch and taxi home. I do know that up until Conrail day, a crew out of Hillsdale would taxi up to Ypsilanti and switch the branch there and taxi home. He suspects that this is because both routes were former LS&MS routes and subject to NYC union rules (vs. MC union rules).

Reply by G. M. Meints on 5/4/2005: I can't confirm that the Hillsdale crew came to Albion. I do remember the Hillsdale crew riding up to Ypsilanti and handling the Saline turn, then returning back to Hillsdale in their own car - no taxi. This subject brings up an interesting point about reciprocals. The train crew on the Three Rivers yard engine was MC but the engine crew was sometimes MC and sometimes NYC. The agent had to keep track of how much time the crew was on NYC rails and how much on MC rails. The same situation prevailed at Homer, Eaton Rapids, Lansing, and probably at Albion. At Kalamazoo, one had to keep track of MC, NYC and CK&S crews. Somewhere, somehow, the reciprocals were worked out so each road crew's got their proper amount of work.