Original MA Tower Location: (Satellite, southwest quadrant of Michigan Ave. and the tracks.)
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| Walter Jung posted Union Station, Lansing, Michigan - real photo postcard, postmarked 1905. Robert Warrick shared |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's share The railroads were the Michigan Central and Pere Marquette. The street side of that depot is rather fancy, https://maps.app.goo.gl/arWWqXU3W6fBqDav6 |
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| Stadium Sites, Aug 2020 |
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| Raymond Storey posted LANSING MI |
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| Walter Jung posted Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Depot, Lansing Michigan - undivided back postcard, not posted, date c. 1904-07. Located along the Grand River, across from what is now Adado Park. Jim Kelling shared Lansing Michigan (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern) |
The railroad from the south that joins the Pere Marquette through town was the Michigan Central. They shared a Union Station that is extant. The other railroad from the south that went along the river was the LS&MS. The east/west railroad across the south part of town was the Grand Trunk.
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| 1958 Lansing Quad @ 62,600 |
Thanks the the railroad bridge that is now a trail bridge, we know that the road across the top of the above topo excerpt is Saginaw Street. The topo map is not very accurate, so I got an aerial photo. Again, we can correlate the aerial with today's satellite images using the trail bridge. The topo map indicates that the sole purpose of the bridge was to access some industries on the left bank of the river.
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| Apr 1, 1967 @ 19,500; AR1VBRD00010132 |
In this photo taken from the State Capital that is looking down Michigan Avenue, the station is in the middle of the far left side.
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| Gary boynton posted Stand Pipe center right in image [The standpipe implies that there used to be a water supply pumping station long the river.] |
MA Tower
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| Doug Hefty posted "MA" after dark. Fittingly named for Michigan Avenue, "MA" was located just south of the Lansing passenger station used by C&O and, at one time, by NYC. Chessie had trackage rights over the former NYC between "MA" and North Lansing--controlled from "MA." (As a kid in Lansing in the 1950's, I remember a tower up at N. Lansing as well.) Additionally, they had track rights over Chessie from N. Lansing to Turner St to access their Belt Line customers. The yellow light is their version of the train order signal; however, per timetable special instructions, it did not apply to eastward Chessie trains. Pretty sure the tower survived into NS days. As a 12-year-old in 1963, I went up into the tower one time, but only hung around for about a half hour. The operator gifted me a blank NYC train order form and Clearance Form A! Photo credit: Unknown, but may be Dennis Schmidt? Year unknown. Tim Shanahan shared |
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| Michael Frezell commented on Doug's post Here is the restored MA Tower at the Lansing Model Railroad Club, which was moved there in 2016. Conrail closed the tower in 1986 and it was moved to Lansing's Old Town that same year. Our goal is to put our train dispatcher in the tower. |
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| Street View, May 2023 |
Larry W Harrell posted three photos with the comment:
" This Gateman's tower sat at the crossing at Michigan Avenue in Lansing's Old Town area next to Lansing Union Station (the late, lamented Clara's Restaurant), MA Tower controlled the junction between the Michigan Central and the Pere Marquette railroads. The crossing gates on Michigan Avenue were manually controlled from the tower before automation. In 1986, Conrail retired the tower when electronic remote control (known as Centralized Traffic Control or CTC) was extended to the Lansing area. It was moved to Lansing's Old Town that same year by a now defunct electric railway museum". I took the 2 photos of the tower on its original location in April 1986. "Shortly after, the tower was retired by Conrail.After sitting vacant in Old Town for almost 30 years, LMRC (Lansing Model Railraod Club President Michael Frezell noticed the tower was being neglected and got the idea of moving it to the club's property. He thought the club would be in a better position to restore it and interpret the important history. Very few of these towers have been preserved across the United States and this is the only remaining one in the Lansing area. So on Sept. 23, 2016, MA Tower was carefully moved to the LMRC thanks to help from generous volunteers where it sits today". Photo courtesy of LMRC.
Michael Robinson: Nice……I glad to see her preserved. I spent many a cold, windy night up in “MA”, or a sullen hot summer day. Oh, had air conditioning, and heaters….but when you got 100amp service that runs all the crucial electronics, many a day was spent re-setting the circuit breaker. “Lansing MA” was a block station, and a train order office. The operators (me) also controlled the gates at Michigan Ave, and Kalamazoo st. The machinery in “MA” consisted of a 4 handle, semi-rotating switching machine, to the CTC machine that ran from Michigan (MA) Avenue, to “North Lansing” in Grand River Avenue. We could see the indication for Wood Street when the Southbound approached, or the North Bound cleared. I’m 2nd generation Railroader, my father worked here too. His territory ran from Jackson (mainline)to Mackinaw. He took me to a lot of those old stations , and I learned a lot. Another thing is that up until the late 60’s (?), “North Lansing” was a sister tower to “MA”, before the CTC. My dad worked both, but “MA” was home. As time went on, the Penn Central removed “North Lansing”, and installed the CTC at “MA” tower. After the Conrail, everything from Wood Street to Owosso was abandoned. Once again “MA”got more responsibility in the form of controlling everything in the yard limits of Lansing MI. “MA” was a Block Station and Train Order Office that took trains / and train orders / and instructions from the Jackson East Dispatcher. “MA”
Then controlled the main from Yard Limit Aurelius Road to Wood Street. Eventually every thing from “North Lansing” to Wood street was placed out of service when Motor Wheel closed down. “MA” also controlled the Old Belt Line Main from Turner street, to Saginaw Yard. “MA” also controlled the old NYC from Turner Street to EOT at Logan Street. “MA” had to ring up “GTW Cedar Street”, so the operator there could line up the trains to cross the diamonds that the GTW controlled.”MA” was busy , at one time there was BJ-1 & JB-2 ((Jackson to Bay City), the Owosso turn ( this local switch between North Lansing and Saginaw), TL-2 & LJ-2 (Lansing to Toledo via Jackson) the Wicks Turn (Lansing to Wicks lumber Mason MI. Then the Yard Job’s. City Job switched everything from Baker Street (some times to include Aurelius Road to North Lansing. The city job did switch the old NYC. Then you had about 5 Saginaw Yard engines working, and about 1 or 2 South Yard engines working.
Block Station and Train Order office was a busy place. And let’s not forget the C&O. Usually around 6 to 8 thru train, and their switch engine. “MA” was a busy tower, and after the NS removed it, and gave the rights to the C&O, NS Dearborn dispatch the rest. My understanding is that “MA” was a handful and 1/2!!!
There is but a handful of us left that worked there, and I hope the history stays correct .
M. R.Robinson
DOL, 1NOL,&2NOL
Lansing “MA” tower
Tim Shanhan shared
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