Detroit & Mackinac: Childhood Recollections

One of the things I want to do with this blog moving forward is gather and present as much information as I can about the Detroit & Mackinac railway. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I grew up around the D&M at my family's cottage in northern Michigan. Well, the other day I was at my parents house looking through some old photo albums and came across some great pictures. The are from all different years of the early 90's and cover places like Tawas, Harrisville, and Alpena, MI. 

The first one is a great shot of DM181 approaching the main street crossing in downtown Harrisville. I probably saw hundreds of D&M trains pass through this area as a kid. These trains were usually going 10-15 mph through there so it was perfect for watching them go by just beside the tracks. 

DM181 passing through downtown Harrisville, MI. 

Up next is great shot of DM974 approaching the same crossing on a different day. Too bad there was a random lady standing between the camera and the train, kind of takes away from the image a bit. 

DM974 passing through Harrisville. 

Here is another shot taken just after the last one. In this one you can see the engineer waving to us and the random lady standing in the shot. Gotta love seeing them up close like this. 

DM974 passing through Harrisville. 

Up next is a great shot of DM975 doing some street running through downtown Alpena, Michigan. This was another cool thing about the D&M lines. There were multiple places where the trains ran right through the streets like this. The two that come to mind for me are Tawas and here in Alpena. 

DM975 traveling through downtown Alpena, Michigan. 

This one is a bit newer and is from after the switch to the Lake State Railway (LSRC) for all the D&M Alco's. It shows 381 in dowtown Tawas, MI as part of the Railway Days event in September of 1997. What's cool about this one is that we actually rode on this train as part of that event.

LSRC381 in downtown Tawas, MI for Railroad Days in 1997. 

Up next are a couple of shots from the D&M/LSRC Alpena yard during the summer of 1994. The first one is a great side view of DM646. That's me on the left when I was six years old. I don't even remember this, so it was pretty cool to find.

DM646 at the D&M/LSRC Alpena yard in 1994.

Here is a picture of the front of DM646. The patterns on the front of this locomotive are pretty interesting. The yellow stripes really stand out over the maroon and grey paint scheme.

DM646 at the D&M/LSRC Alpena yard in 1994. 

The last one from that day has an excellent look at the front end of DM469. There's me again on the left. Looking at this, its amazing how big these things really are. It's really hard to grasp until you are actually up on one of them like this.

DM469 at the D&M/LSRC Alpena yard in 1994. 

Last but not least is a picture of me on D&M caboose #207. This was taken in Grayling, MI during the summer of 1995 at the Grayling depot/museum.

DM207 Caboose at the Grayling depot/museum in 1995. 

That's all I have to show for now, but there may be some more photos hidden at my parents house. If I do find some, I will be sure to post them here. Now that I have these, it really makes me want to try and come up with a layout modeled after the D&M. There is just something neat about having a personal connection to a specific railroad like this.