Time Line - 1885

Last Year | Next Year

• Winter: The winter of 1884-85 was severe, with snow as deep as five feet in northwest Indiana.  Temperatures in January remained below zero most of the month. [LS]

• April: Allegan and Lake Shore Railroad builds a 3-foot gauge railroad from Allegan west five miles.  Abandoned in 1889. [MRRC]

• April: The Lake Shore announced it would replace all old covered bridges between Ligonier and Goshen, Indiana on the Airline, with stone bridges. [LS]

• June 5: State law now requires railroads to place automatic couplers on all cars. [MDOT/MT]

• July: A passenger coach was built for the Cadillac and Northeastern Railroad and passengers were now more comfortably carried between Cadillac to Lake City. [MRC-7/87]

• October 11: Crawford and Manistee River Railway opens line 10 miles in length in Kalkaska County, from Sec. 13 T25N R5@ to Sec. 25 T26N R6W. Abandoned in 1904. [MRRC]

• December 1: Hancock and Calumet Railroad Co. builds 3' line from Hancock to Calumet. Made standard gauge in 1900. [MRRC]

• December 8: William Henry Vanderbilt falls to the floor in his office and dies. [MRRC]

• ---

  The Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan (later the Ann Arbor Railroad) reaches Durand [MHM]

• Cadillac & Northeastern extends 3' logging railroad 4 miles from Lake Missaukee to Lake City. [MRRC]

• A wooden bridge is built which allows the original Mineral Range Railroad to reach Houghton from Hancock.[CRH]

• Frank Hecker and Charles Freer found the Peninsular Car Co. in Detroit to manufacture railcars. [DWS]

• Canadian Pacific Railway is completed. [DWS]

• The GTW builds a small, brick depot in Fenton. It continues to exist as of 1999. [MRP-I]

• Michigan Central opens new depot in West Branch. Depot continues to exist in 2001. [IT-12/1974]

• The state legislature forbids railroads from blocking road crossings for more than five minutes. [AAD]

• Grand Trunk builds depot at Charlotte. Depot continues to exist as of 2001. [IT-12/1974]

• The Peninsular Car Works builds their facilities at Milwaukee Junction in Detroit. [HWC]

• Roundtrip train fair from Ishpeming to New Orleans and back is $40 via the C&NW. [EHMT]

• It is announced that the Marquette and Western Railroad was sold to the MH&O Railroad.  Stockholders were shocked and claimed a sellout by the M&W.  This sale meant a lot of changing of the tracks. [EHMT]

• 90% of all United States' copper, and more than 40% of U.S. iron ore is being produced from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

• The Janney Automatic Coupler is adopted by the Master Car Builders. [SAM]

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