The abandoned railroad route between Sand Lake and Mackinaw City, known as The Grand Rapids Branch, of which 223.6 miles have been abandoned, was once operated in Michigan by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
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The mackinaw branch was not abandened by the pennsy. It went thru the PC merger and into conrail. It was mostly bought by the state. It was operated by michigan northern ry until about 1981 or so. Cadilliac sout to Grand rapids area was abandoned and pulled up.cadilliac to petoskey is operated by tsby rr with walton branch to Traverse city still being used.Track north of Petoskey to mackinaw city have been pulled up.
blake kearns houghton lake , MI 11/30/2011
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the RRHX webpage has a very good history of "the Fishing Line"...the Grand Rapids and Indiana. This went from Richmond, IN to Mackinaw City. Later it was part of the Pennsy, then PennCentral, etc. Most of the entire line is gone ... and the White Pine Trail north of Grand Rapids is this right of way. Grand Elk south of Grand Rapids to White Pigeon is the last active part of the GRI. I went to college in Big Rapids, and the line was active when I was there. We often could hear the train blowing for the crossing east of the river. RRHX for Michigan is a great site to use for reference, maps, etc.
Sam Denn Wauseon, OH 7/22/2012