Location: Foss, MI

When the Detroit & Mackinac railroad built south into Bay City in 1895, they crossed the Saginaw River on a swing bridge they built in conjunction with the Flint & Pere Marguette railroad. Once on the south bank of the river, their line crossed the Michigan Central's Water Street spur and joined what later became the Pere Marquette Belt Line at a place which was later named Foss, or Foss Junction. The name was related to the Foss Lumber company operations nearby. The crossing at Foss was controlled by a horizontal/vertical target signal, originally lighted. The target was normally left in position for the D&M to cross and was temporarily changed by trainmen from the other roads when crossing.

Image info: Top, looking east, the line going straight east to the left is the New York Central. Parallel to it is the Pere Marquette line to Essexville. The D&M used the PM line up to this point where it branched off to the north (left in the photo) crossing the NYC and then north over the Saginaw River swing bridge. The D&M crossing at this time was a "slip switch" diamond, which was capable of connecting D&M trains with the NYC, or crossing the NYC for a connection to the Pere Marquette. [Robert W. Smith]. 2nd, C&O 5818 is the local Bay City switcher, near the Foss crossing, in the late 1970's. [Dale Berry]. 3rd image, C&O 6931, a GP-30 road switcher, pulls from the D&M via the Saginaw River swing bridge, at Foss in 1985. [Karl Miller]

Notes

Time Line

1927. This crossing was protected by a target. Horizontal target allows D&M trains to pass the MC crossing to to enter or leave PM track. [ETT-1927]