Time Line - 1964

Last Year | Next Year

• January: The interlocking tower at North Lansing is torn down and remoted from MA tower in Lansing.

• March 19: Passenger train service ends on the New York Central's Bay City Branch. [CW]

• March: All passenger service ends on the Detroit to Bay City branch of the New York Central. [MRC-3/90]

• June 17: The Superintendent of the Ohio Division of the NYC (Big Four) issues a bulletin abolishing the manual block system between Carlisle Jct. (Ohio) and Jackson, Michigan, encompassing the entire former Cincinnati Northern. [HCN]

• April 29: The COPR connects two locomotives for multiple operation, a first on the railroad. These are used to pull sand trains from the Atlantic site or Houghton to the mill at Freda. [CRH]

• June 20: Cadillac & Lake City Railway begins operations on the former PRR Missaukee branch from Missaukee Jct. to Lake City and Falmouth, 21 miles, using an 0-4-0T steam locomotive. [MDOT/MRF-4/90]

• June 30: Copper Range Railroad lines from Atlas to Senter, Lake Linden Jct. to Calumet, Calumet Jct. to Laurium, Calumet Jct. to Nichols, and Mohawk to Gay are abandoned. CR also discontinues operations over the Keweenaw Central Railroad from Nichols to Fulton, which is a leased line. This is a 33% reduction in main and branch line mileage for the CR. [CRAR]

• October 16: Wabash Railroad and Nickel Plate Road are leased to the Norfolk & Western system.   N&W begins serving Michigan. [MDOT]

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• U.S. Supreme Court decides that most freight train and yard firemen should be eliminated. [STOV]

• The ABD brake valve is introduced. [SAM]

• Michigan's logging-railroad era officially ends when the last log train is rolled westward out of Sunrise Landing to Cusino and Marquette, on the LS&I. [MH-11/1993]

• SNAPSHOT: The joint Soo Line/C&NW line between Eagle Mills and West Ishpeming is operated by Centralized Traffic Control (CTC). The line has up to 40 engine movements in a 24-hour period. There are also at least 6 C&NW trains and 4-12 Soo Line train or engine movements daily in the CTC territory. Plants operated on the LS&I include the Empire Mine, Pioneer Improvement Plant, Eagle Mills Pellet Plant, the Mather B Mine, the Tilden Mine, as well as the Republic and Humboldt Mines. [LSIOR]

• The Chicago & Northwestern, in the upper peninsula, celebrates 100 years of service. [EDP-1964-0711]

 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