Every day throughout North America . . .

...hundreds of thousands of rail cars are in motion, traveling between shippers and receivers. One of the more obscure lines was the Detroit & Mackinac Railway Company (reporting marks: DM or D&M).

It was a Class II railroad or regional short line for most of its existence. The best map I found on-line for the D&M is from 1910, on the Detroit and Mackinac Railway Historical Society web site (2005).

The Detroit & Mackinac never reached its namesake origin . . .

...as best I can tell. The southern terminal was Bay City, Michigan. At the Northern end, Mackinaw City was not always its primary destination either, but many freight and passenger cars did move from Mackinaw City across the Straits of Mackinaw to/from St. Ignace on Michigan's "U.P." (Upper Peninsula - not Union Pacific).

They got there on the coal-fired "Chief Wawatam" . . .

...or one of several other humongous railroad car ferries used beginning in 1882. The Mackinac Straits Bridge, built in 1957, did not serve rail traffic, so carload freight movement to St. Ignace ended with the end of service by the "Chief" in 1984.

Photo by Bruce Oldenberg. Click on image for link to more photos.

The name, Mackinac . . .

...is a "corruption of French term "Michilimackinac" which referred to the straits area as well as the French settlement at the tip of the lower peninsula," per the Clarke Historical Library, Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Some people refer to the railroad as the Detroit and Mackinaw, not Mackinac, although I found no legal or proper reference to it being that way.

Prior to 1912, it was known as . . .

...the "Lake Huron Shore Line", possibly in reference to passenger service to the beach resorts along Lake Huron between Bay City and Alpena. After 1912, it was known as the "Mackinac Route". The reference I used, and several other  lists, had these two nicknames, plus several others.

Several possible points of name confusion might be the

• Detroit, Toledo & Shore Line Railroad (D&TS)
• "Lake Shore Route" (Lake Shore and Michigan Southern)
• "The Mackinac" (Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railway

The last two are both New York Central predecessors.

The modern day D&M system . . .

...encompassed approximately 300 miles after acquiring former Penn-Central tracks and served an alphabet of large shippers. For more details, see Patrick Caauwe's Web site.

About 225 miles of former D&M track still sees regular operations by the Lake State Railway Company (LSRC), handling approximately 20,000 carloads annually. While that is not much tonnage by railroading standards, it's clear that the region is not just remote woods and beach-front properties. However, the D&M transferred these lines in 1992, because it had been losing significant money and was considering abandoning the railroad.

Lake State currently operates two subdivisions: the Huron Subdivision, which runs north from Bay City to Alpena along the Lake Huron shore, like the old D&M mainline did, and the Mackinac Subdivision, which runs parallel to the I-75 trucking corridor between Bay City and Gaylord.

We all tend to build or collect . . .

...what we knew in our childhood. Bob Osborn, of Pleasanton, California, has a nice H-O model empire with his Chicago & Mackinac Railroad.

Have fun surfing the Web for other Detroit and Mackinac links, but don't forget to order your O scale boxcars.

Detroit & Mackinac 40' ARA boxcar

Michigan Central 40' Double Door Automobile Boxcar

Detroit & Toledo Shore Line 40' boxcar

Detroit & Toledo Shore Line 50' Double Door boxcar

An ESLES car - requires joining for one-time $5.00 fee, and application, if not yet a member.

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