Hartford was settled about 1837 and was a station on the Pere Marquette main line about eight miles south of Bangor in Van Buren County. The town became a village in 1877. [MPN]
Hartford was also served by a PM branch line between South Haven and Lawton.
Image info: Top, he depot at Hartford, with two PM trains nearby.
This was reported as a "Gravitt" pattern interlocking in 1890. [MCR-1890]
The PM has a branch line to South Haven from the west side of the main line, 16 miles. They also had a branch to Paw Paw on the east side of the main line, 15 miles. [PM45]
1903. The South Haven & Eastern railroad company is purchased by the PM railroad.
1906. The PM leased the South Haven & Eastern to the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago railroad for use as an interurban company (which ran steam-powered trains along the line). The line was returned to the PM in 1916. [PM45]
1914. December 30. A score of persons were injured, four of them seriously, when the west bound Fruit Belt passenger train was struck by a Pere Marquette fast freight on the Hartford crossing at five o'clock last Saturday. The rear coach of the passenger train, containing 33 passengers was cut from the train, carried several feet down the PM tracks and overturned into a ditch. Passengers of the overturned car fell from the seats into the ceiling of the coach amid a shower of broken glass from the windows. That they all escaped death is miraculous. Three Hartford physicians were summoned to the scene. Injured were taken to various homes. It was determined that the engine crew of the freight train failed to observe the signals. The engineer stated that escaping steam from a leaking cylinder obscured the target at the crossing.
The crossing where the accident occurred is but a few rods north of the Hartford depot. The passenger engineer, realizing a collision was about to occur, threw on all steam in an effort to clear the crossing and probably saved the train from further wreck.
The crossing of the Fruit Belt and PM is controlled by a "half-interlocker" with targets all four ways but derailers only on the Fruit Belt. The wrecked train had the right-of-way. Had derailers been installed on the PM the wreck would have been averted. [HDS-1914-1230]
1949. The C&O passing siding here is removed as a part of their CTC project between Porter, IN and Lamar (Grand Rapids). [RSE-1949-04]
The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:
