Timetable: Pere Marquette - Hart Sub - North Yard to Pentwater (and Hart)

This was an original Chicago & West Michigan branch line north to Pentwater. Station hours and passing siding capacity as of 1946.

 Key: BB=Bascule Bridge | C=Coal | CS=Car Shop | D=Open > Day | DN=Open Day and night | DS=Dispatcher | DT=Double Main Track | EH=Engine house | F=Diesel Fuel | HI=Half Interlocked Crossing | I=Interlocked Crossing | J=Junction | LB=Lift bridge | N=Open at night | P=Passing Track w/40' car capacity | Q=Quarry | RH=Roundhouse # stalls | RT=Railroad Resort | S=Scales | SB=Swing bridge | T=Turntable | TC=Telegraph call | W=Water | X=Crossing | Y=Wye | Yard=Yard

Sources = PM employee timetable #75, September 8, 1946 plus supplemental information.

Notes

Montague has a one mile long industrial spur to the west of this line.

At Mears, the line to Pentwater was not in operation in 1946.

Time Line

1909. January 30. On the Pentwater division, double-headed engines are pulling all trains. The snow is even with the top of the coaches in some places. [DFP-1909-0131]

1922. April. The PM has ordered material for the installation of 80 miles of telephone train dispatching circuits between Holland and Pentwater. [RSG-1922-04]

1933. January. The ICC grants PM permission to abandon the railroad from Mears to Pentwater, leaving the village of Pentwater without rail service in over 60 years. Residents had petitioned for compensation from the railroad because residents had subscribed $50,000 toward construction of the road  when it was built. The railroad had been built in 1872 from Muskegon. The new terminus at Hart got its track from Mears as a spur line. For over 50 years, Pentwater saw the arrival and departure of two passenger trains each way along with heavy freight shipments. A ferry was used to bring passengers and freight to the north side of Pentwater Lake. The wooden ferry was a scow operated by manpower on a wire cable stretched across the channel. A bridge was built in 1926. [LDN-1933-0122]