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RRHX |
Growing Up at "Town Line" |
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Michigan's Internet Railroad History Museum |
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"Town Line", was a Michigan Central Railroad junction on their Detroit to Chicago main line at Greenfield Road, in what is now known as Dearborn. During the early 1960's I grew up in the neighborhood adjacent to "Town Line", and the junction and people who worked there were a significant part of my life for three years between 1964-1967. This was during the middle school period of my life and the New York Central was just ending its life as the owner and operator of the train order office.
Town Line was next to Springwells Park, a neighborhood park operated by the Dearborn Recreation Department. In the summer, the City provided a playground leader and much of the neighborhood played there. My dad (who I think was also a "closet" railroad buff) often took my brothers and me to the C&O Miller Road bridge over the NYC main line or to Delray to watch trains after church on Sunday. Between watching the trains from the park, and with my dad on Sundays, I was hooked on trains and the New York Central in particular. With all of the books and magazine articles written about trains and railroad history, very, very few talk about the important role of the train order office, block office or interlocking tower and the important role they played in the smooth logistics of railroad operations. Railroad towers and manned interlockings are all but phased out in Michigan and throughout the nation. It is less expensive to remote them from regional or national offices. Join me now by reading these small vignettes about my favorite place as a kid. Thirty years later, many of my memories are clear. Where things get fuzzy, I say so and I would invite anyone with information and their own memories to help complete the story. - Dale Berry
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