This cache is near the site of the former Grand Trunk Western railroad station. Access the site from Morley Park, as the former business site accessible from Main street is private property. The park is closed at night. Bring your own pen.
TS&M/GTW Depot, Cedar Springs, MI, in busier times.
The second railroad to reach Cedar Springs was a branch line of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. The line ran east-west across central part of the state. According to plat maps, the depot was situated on the west side of Main Street and the grade passed through the south side of Morley Park.
TS&M/GTW Depot, Cedar Springs, MI, nine years after abandonment
In 1887-89, a railroad line originally known as the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon, was constructed between Ashley and Muskegon. Rails reached Carson City in September of 1887, Greenville in November of 1887, Cedar Springs and Muskegon by the end of the year. Construction continued in 1888 for ballasting, sidings and depots. On August 1st, 1888, the lease of the TS&M to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was completed. GTC later purchased the line outright. A mail and express train and a mixed train (with passenger service) was operated daily between Owosso (over Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan to Ashley) and Muskegon. The line was locally known as the GT version of the Turkey Trail because it meandered like a turkey and also because it allegedly never made money.
In 1928, GTC was merged with other Michigan Grand Trunk subsidiaries into the Grand Trunk Western, itself a subsidiary of the Canadian National. In 1930, GTW secured trackage rights between Grand Rapids and Muskegon over the Pennsylvania Railroad (former Grand Rapids & Indiana). Service on the Turkey Trail was reduced to way freights and mixed trains. In 1946, with heavy service operating over the PRR, the portion of the line between Greenville and Muskegon was abandoned. Mixed train service continued leaving Durand, to Greenville and back each day until the end of 1955. On January 1st, 1956, this was reduced to a way freight turn daily. On January 11th, 1983, the last train left Greenville and the line was abandoned after between Greenville and Carson City. The rails are still in place from Ashley to Carson City and are being occasionally operated from 1982 by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay and since 2006, between Ashley and Middleton by the Great Lakes Central.
Sources:
TS&M history.
RRHX: Cedar Springs.
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