Towns and Nature: Durand, MI: GTW Coaling Tower & Roundhouse and 1903 GTW+AA Depot

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Photo by Douglas Weitzman
10-2013. Looking west at the old Grand Trunk Western coal chute at Durand, Mich.
[The yard was along the Detroit Line. The branch curving off and going northeast to Lennon is now the Central Michigan Railway CMGN).]

Photo by Douglas Weitzman
10-2013. The GTW Durand, Mich station. Tracks on the right were the Main, opposite side was the Detroit Line & AA. [Amtrak and CP also operate on the CN/GTW main. Tuscola and Sabinaw Bay Railway (TSBY) operates the GTW Detroit Line to the west. Since the AA was redundant with the GTW line, it has been abandoned. TSBY and CN operate the Detroit Line to Pitt where TSBY heads south on the former AA route.]

Update:

Jim Kelling posted
Durand Michigan (Grand Trunk Western, gone) photo

Terry B. Carlson commented on Jim's post
Sadly, nothing is left. This is a June 2011 shot that best shows the remains.

I found it with this topo map before I saw Terry's comment.

1943 Durand Quad @ 62,500

Mark Mcgowan posted

Durand, Michigan's Union Station once served the Grand Trunk Western and Ann Arbor Railroads. From its construction in 1903 until the late 1940s, only the Detroit Central Station was busier in the state.

The Ann Arbor discontinued passenger service here in 1950 and the GTW in 1971. They closed the depot in 1974, the same year Amtrak restored service here, although only intercity service is offered and an office in the depot is only used for ticket sales.

The building is now owned by the City of Durand. It is preserved and cared for by the non-profit Durand Union Station, Inc. and houses GTW and Ann Arbor rail museums.

I'm assuming the interlocking in the foreground was the GTW/Ann Arbor but I'm not certain. In a Google Earth of the location it appears the diamonds are removed but it's hard to tell.

Any more information (or corrections) on this spectacular structure would be greatly appreciated!

(Undated photo by Robert Genat)

Greg Neyman: Railstream has a live camera at this location.

Steam Engines, Tractors, Trains, & More posted
Seven trains at the Durand, Michigan Grand Trunk Depot, circa 1900-10.
Mark Breznay shared
Stephen Phillips shared
Mark Mcgowan posted

Trains, crews, passengers and the public pose at the depot at Durand, Michigan in 1905. The original depot, exactly like this one, burned in 1904. 

This station served the Grand Trunk Western and Ann Arbor Railroads and saw about 150 trains per day at its peak.

Library of Congress photo

Dan McClary: The view is, of course, a left front 3/4 photo of the depot. The Ann Arbor RR engines are on the track on the depot's right side [behind the depot] facing each other across the diamond. The photo's lower left engine is GTW. The left-hand Ann Arbor engine is above the Lower left GTW engine and the right-hand Ann Arbor engine is next to the depot looking like it is almost hitting the rear passenger car of a Flint heading GTW passenger train. The Annie's track was still used when I worked on the Ann Arbor RR in 1969 and I remember passengers on the depot's right front platform waiting for a GTW passenger train (two years before Amtrak started in1971) as our Ann Arbor freight train crossed the depot's left side tracks on the diamonds behind the depot, curving to it's right side then up along the right side of the depot. We were very concerned that the waiting passengers had their backs toward us and we were afraid they might step in front of our approaching train (lots of horn blowing and constant bell ringing). The Ann Arbor's track has now been removed, subsequent to the Conrail breakup that affected the Ann Arbor RR (the AARR was owned by the DT&I, which was owned by the PRR, which became part of Conrail), and the depot's parking lot was extended over where the tracks were at. So, if you visit the Durand Depot and park your car facing the right side of it, you are parked on top of where that track was at.
When the Conrail assets were sold off, the GTW bought the Ann Arbor RR's track from Durand through Owosso, including the AARR'S shops, and up to Ashley, where the GTW's second line (ex TS&M) branched off toward Muskegon. For years, the GTW had to pay trackage rights to the Ann Arbor RR from Owosso to Ashley. Now the roles were reversed. The GTW now owned the tracks from Durand to Ashley. They removed the Ann Arbor's trackage on the right side of the Durand Depot, put in a switch to connect the Ann Arbor to the GTW's left side depot track and then made the AARR pay revenge trackage rights from Durand to Owosso and Ashley, plus the Ann Arbor and it's successors (TSBY, etc.), had to now rent it's own Owosso shops from the GTW. This was one of the great screwups of the Conrail breakup and the GTW took advantage of it. I don't know if the trackage/shops are still leased from the GTW/CN, or if other arrangements have been made over the years since then. Maybe someone can update me.

A different exposure.

Clare Union Railroad Depot posted

Down at the Durand Station, early in the last century, the Ann Arbor and Grand Trunk Railroads staged what has become this classic photo. No less than 7 trains are seen meeting at multiple diamonds in this uncredited photo from around 1905.

On the rear of the postcard, sender Lyle hopes his friend Hilda Richards gets better. (see comment section) Later, the local papers around Pinconning reported on Miss Hilda Richards’ teaching and social life in the early 1930s. We can only hope that was Lyle’s friend whom he thought of when he sent his note.

The Durand Union Station now houses the Michigan Railroad History Museum. See durandstation.org for details.

Robert Warrick shared

Robert Wanner posted
Grand Trunk Western RR at Durand, Michigan as it looked in 1954. Mainline Port Huron, Battle Creek to Chicago, Detroit to Grand Rapids, Muskegon Line crossing left to right. Lots of activity. Photo from the collection.

Greg Bunce posted
GTW#s 5634, 5633 and two unidentified locomotives in the dead line Durand 1962. Slide from Joe Rodgers.
[The deadline was long enough that he caught the coal tower at the end.]

Peter Mayor posted
A beautiful morning to stare at the coaling tower in Durand and try to picture it alive with activity decades ago on a similar day...
Nicholas Katz I know this is a drone shot, but is it possible to take photos on the ground of the tower without trespassing?
Peter Mayor Negative

Tim Shanahan shared

Roger Riblett shared Craig Hensley Photography's post

CN Combo Shot

Carson and I visited the station in Durand this past Saturday. It definitely was not a busy afternoon as we waited quite a while for this E251 to come through, and it was the only train we saw. We had fun anyways checking out the model railroad in the meantime, and walking through the museum. 

Tech: DJI Mavic Air 2s + Canon 5D Mark III + Canon 70-200mm f2.8 is ii
Symbol CN E251
Date: 7/24/21 430p
Location: Durand, Michigan

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
The GTW depot in Durand, Michigan was photographed on February 26, 1988. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)
Neal Marrison: Before replacement of the dormers.
[So they put dormers back in as part of a restoration effort? A satellite image shows it now has dormers.]

Clare Union Railroad Depot posted

THE END OF THE STEAM ERA ON THE ANN ARBOR

Article by and photo from the Warrick Wednesday Collection

It is early 1951 as brand-new snow capped Ann Arbor locomotives No.51&51A are about to rattle the diamond crossings of the Grand Trunk Western’s Holly subdivision on the east side of the Durand Depot. In the years following World War II most railroad companies rushed to replace their steam locomotive fleets with diesel-electric power and the Ann Arbor was no different.

Owned by the Wabash Railroad, the selection of new diesel power for the AA was heavily influenced by the parent company. The idea then pushed by the diesel salesman was that the sleek new locomotives would replace aging steam locomotives with an eye to the needs of each individual railroad’s operations. Wabash/AA management entertained proposals from every major locomotive builder of the era including the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors(EMD), Fairbanks-Morse(FM), and the American Locomotive Company(ALCO). ALCO won the contract.

Seven pairs of ALCO’s FA-2s would best equal the eight 2-8-2 Mikados which were currently in use. Bowing to concerns from the powerful railroad unions that each locomotive would require a separate engine crew, the new diesels were semi-permanently coupled together to form one “locomotive unit”. To emphasize the pairs were indeed one locomotive, each of them carried the same number, albeit with the letter “A” assigned to one end to distinguish each and for direction when it came to providing train orders. Nonetheless, they appeared in the company’s official equipment book and printed timetables as one unit, one locomotive.

The reign of ALCO road power on the AA was short lived. When the AA was sold by Wabash to the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton (DTI) in December, 1962, the new owners, who exclusively used Electro-Motive GMC power, moved quickly to replace the AA’s rapidly aging fleet of FA2s with ten fresh EMD GP-35s by 1964.

Oddly enough, after serving the railroad together for over 14 years, No.51 was retired in March 1964, but No.51A wasn’t retired until June of the same year when both were traded as credit towards the new EMDs