“Traces of the Ann Arbor Railroad” By D. C. Jesse Burkhardt

Description

Featuring 150 photographs, maps, and postcards, Traces of the Ann Arbor Railroad chronicles vital aspects of this unique railroad’s history, with a primary focus on what has transpired from the 1960s to 2020.

The book’s pages reflect on the years (1963-1973) the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton controlled the Ann Arbor Railroad, which served shippers along a 292-mile mainline almost entirely in Michigan (the AA operated several miles in northern Ohio); the demise of the AA’s Lake Michigan car ferries; the new carriers that have sprung up to handle operations on the former Ann Arbor line in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy in 1973; the disposition of the fleet of ten new GP35s that were delivered to the Ann Arbor “direct from the factory” in 1964; and the “new” Ann Arbor, a shortline operating between Ann Arbor, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio, that was created out of the remains of the old “Annie.”  The final chapter highlights the 22-mile Betsie Valley Trail between Elberta-Frankfort and Thompsonville, a “rails-to-trails” corridor that opened in 2005 along an abandoned segment of the historic Ann Arbor Railroad.