Alpena and Northern Railroad
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Dates of operation | 1893 | –1895||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Detroit and Mackinac Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track length | 68.7 miles (110.6 km)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Alpena and Northern Railroad (A&N) is a defunct railroad which operated briefly in northern Michigan during the 1890s.
The company incorporated on July 28, 1893, with the intention of building an 85-mile (137 km) line from Alpena to Mackinaw City, on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac. On November 18 of that same year the company opened a line from Alpena to LaRocque (now Hawks), for a total length of 35 miles (56 km).[2][3] In Alpena, the railroad used the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad's station on the north bank of the Thunder Bay River.[4] In 1894, the Alpena and Northern extended its line another 28.6 miles (46.0 km) southwest from LaRocque into Montmorency County.[5]
On April 16, 1895, the A&N was bought by the Detroit and Mackinac Railway and ceased to exist as an independent company.[2] Its original main line between Alpena and LaRocque became part of the D&M's Northern Division, which reached Cheboygan in 1904.[6] The section of the original mainline southwest of LaRocque, known variously as the Valentine Branch or Jackson Lake Branch after its acquisition by the D&M, was abandoned south of Hurst in 1903 as the logging industry moved on to other areas.[7] The D&M abandoned the remainder of that branch in 1923.[8]
The Lake State Railway, successor to the D&M, abandoned the line in its entirety in the early 2000s.[9]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Michigan Railroad Commission (1895), p. 5.
- ^ a b Meints (1992), p. 36.
- ^ Michigan Railroad Commission (1894), p. 4.
- ^ "Untitled". Alpena Argus. December 6, 1893. p. 3. Retrieved April 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Meints (2005), pp. 149–150.
- ^ Meints (2005), p. 148.
- ^ "New D&M branch to Hillman now in actual service". Alpena Evening News. December 20, 1909. p. 10. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ^ Meints (2005), p. 150.
- ^ "Lake State Railway Company--Abandonment Exemption--in Alpena and Presque Isle Counties, MI" (PDF). Surface Transportation Board. February 22, 2000. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
References
[edit]- Meints, Graydon M. (1992). Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-318-3.
- Meints, Graydon M. (2005). Michigan Railroad Lines. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-693-1.
- Michigan Railroad Commission (1894). Annual Report.
- Michigan Railroad Commission (1895). Annual Report.