Pere Marquette Engine #1223

As you head into Grand Haven, you pass by an old steam engine.  That steam engine used to belong to the Pere Marquette Railroad.  It has been restored to a display status and is pretty cool too look at.

 This is a shot of the front of the engine.  The building to the right is a coaling station.

 The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated in 1899 as three railroads were merged.  Those railroads were the Flint and Pere Marquette, the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western and the Chicago and West Michigan Railway.  Operations under the new name began on January 1, 1900.  It was reincorporated as the Pere Marquette Railway in 1917.

 This was a coaling station.

 In 1920s, the railway was bought by Oris and Mantis Van Swerigen.  They also controlled the Nickel Plate, Erie Railroad and Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.  They had hoped to merge the four railroads but that was shot down.  Eventually, they sold their interested in the Pere Marquette to the C&O.

In 1947, the Pere Marquette was formally merged into the C&O which later became CSX.  The Pere Marquette also operated a number of railcar ferries on the Great Lakes.

The engine pictured here was built in Lima, Ohio by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1941.  She hauled freight between Chicago and Toledo and was retired in 1951.  She was going to be scrapped but was moved to the Detroit Fairgrounds in 1960.  In 1980, she was sold to Grand Haven where she was restored.