Back to Peacock, by Rail

 
I'm what's known as a "railfan." I like railroad history, trains and all the associated paraphernalia. So, I have to take you back to Peacock.

Here's a map from the Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. You can find Peacock at the crossing of two dashed lines. Dashed lines are railroads that are no longer in business that were standard gauge (the distance between the two rails).



The north-south line began as part of the Pere Marquette system, and ended its life under Chesapeake and Ohio's flag. I think its route can be seen on the road map I showed a couple of days ago as the power line road. Peacock was 85.0 miles north of Grand Rapids.

The east-west line was the Michigan East & West Railway which ran from Manistee to Marion (south of Cadillac). There it connected with the Ann Arbor Railroad. A timetable places Peacock at milepost 31.2 from Manistee. The entire line was only 71.9 miles long. I haven't noticed an obvious railbed for this line, but it was abandoned in 1917, so it might require more than a casual search to find. (The next station west was at Sauble, a town even more "gone" than Peacock. I blogged about it last year. See Sauble.)

The crossing was interlocked. What that means is the signals and switches were mechanically linked so that two trains could not enter the crossing at the same time. I've found a wonderful picture of the Peacock station at Railroad History of Michigan.



Guess I'll have to search Peacock more carefully for this location.

	See A Tour of Peacock
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