This railroad, also known as the Ludington & Northern Railway, was built in 1896 as the Epworth League Railway, and ran for two miles between Ludington and Epworth. It joined with the Ludington Division of the Pere Marquette Railway, a subsidiary of the Chesepeake & Ohio, just southeast of Ludington proper. In 1901, it became the Ludington Northern.

Its main commodity was sand: The Sargent Sand Company operated numerous sand mines north of Epworth, near Ludington State Park, to which the Ludington Northern provided shipping service. The sand company soon purchased the Ludington Northern outright, and extended the line northwards to access other sand mines within Ludington State Park.

The entire line was abandoned in 1982, after Sargent Sand discontinued mining operations in the area. The C&O line to which it connected is still active today, however, operated by CSX.

Also featured in this page is the abandoned Pere Marquette/C&O line that offered access to Lake Michigan from the Ludington Yard. This abandoned extension, about 3/4-miles in length, ran west from the yard, past the Ludington Passenger Station, to the dock on Lake Michigan, where the SS Badger would ferry the rail cars across the great lake to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on the other side.