Time Line - 1950


Last Year | Next Year


  • March 7: The Copper Range Railroad experiences a strike by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, which results in a complete suspension of operations until April 28. [CRAR]

  • June 16: The Copper Range Railroad coal dock at Houghton is razed.  The need for coal was lessened because the railroad has dieselized and the Freda stamp mill has converted to electricity. [CRH]

  • June: Production begins at EMD's London, Ontario plant. [LTimes/9-16-2003]

  • July 19: Ann Arbor RR runs last passenger train from Elberta to Toledo. [MDOT]

  • July 30: PRR ends passenger service between Grand Rapids and Muskegon. At the end, the line employed a "doodlebug". [PRHTS-W-2000]

  • December 31: Michigan Railroad Mileage Totaled 6,803 miles. [MDOT]


  • Pennsylvania discontinues passenger service from Muskegon to Grand Rapids. [MDOT]

  • Buses transport 38% of intercity passengers.  Trucks transport 16% of intercity freight traffic. [STOV]

  • Nationally, there are 223,779 miles of railroad track. [STOV]

  • Pennsylvania Railroad leads the country in freight revenue.  [STOV]

  • The Copper Range Railroad purchases its first diesel locomotive. [CRAR]

  • The last steam engines run on the former Port Huron & Northwestern lines of the Pere Marquette. [AB]

  • The Escanaba & Lake Superior purchases a Russell snowplow from the Ford Motor Company's abandoned logging railroad at L'Anse, Michigan. [EDP-12/27/1950]

  • Baldwin Locomotive Works buys Lima-Hamilton Corporation and becomes Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. [SAM]

  • General Motors diesel Ltd. (GMDL) is created in Canada.  It is later changed to the General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD). [SAM]

  • The New York Central opens its new toledo Central Terminal.  The station had through tracks for main line trains, as well as stub tracks for mail and express. [NYCF]. The offices in the facility also contained the Toledo East and Toledo West dispatcher CTC equipment, operating the line from Berea, Ohio west to Elkhart, Indiana.

  • The Mather "B" mine opens in the Marquette iron range. It produces iron ore through the underground method until 1979. [IOHT]

 

 Time line Key:

  • Railroad event in Michigan
  • Event relating to mining
  • Event related to car ferries
  • Event outside of Michigan
  • Improvement in Technology
  • Railroad built or extended
  • Railroad abandoned and/or removed
  • Economic panic or depression

 

Bibliography

The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:

  • [AAB| = All Aboard!, by Willis Dunbar, Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids ©1969.
  • [AAN] = Alpena Argus newspaper.
  • [AARQJ] = American Association of Railroads Quiz Jr. pamphlet. © 1956
  • [AATHA] = Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association newsletter "The Double A"
  • [AB] = Information provided at Michigan History Conference from Andrew Bailey, Port Huron, MI

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