TUSCOLA, SAGINAW BAY MIDDLETON BRANCH
The Middleton Branch has its beginnings back in January, 1886, when John Ashley along with other investors,
incorporated the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railway. At this same time period, Ashley was in the process of
building the Toledo, Ann Arbor and  North Michigan Railroad, later to become the Ann Arbor Railroad. The T.,
S. & M. was to run from Ashley to Muskegon via Carson City, Greenville, Cedar Springs and Sparta.
Ashley ran up a debt of $1,560,000 and on the date of August 1, 1888, when the line was completed to
Muskegon, the Grand Trunk of Canada took over Ashley's big debt and assumed control. Trackage rights were
acquired of the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railroad from Ashley to Owosso Junction in June of
1897 and there they connected with the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway. The meandering route of
the line west of Greenville led to the name "Turkey Trail."
The line never became a bridge route,so it depended on freight generated from the towns along the line. As the
local business dwindled, the route west of Greenville was abandoned in 1946.
Fred Olds, a writer for the Lansing State Journal, and a friend, William Duchane, took a ride on the local freight
from Durand to Greenville and it was printed in the Sunday edition on October 24, 1965. Here is his story:
The Grand Trunk Western's "Turkey Trail,"
is a branch line railroad that has managed to sur-
vive drought, flood, depressions, horseless
carriages and the Dutch elm blight.
Its rails poke west out of Ashley and run to
Greenville, meandering across mid-michigan
through communities bearing friendly names like
Butternut and Vickeryville.
Riding its once-a-day freight train calls up an
almost forgotton past in which mile posts measure
distance and Mr. Morse's telegraph furnishing
communication, clattering keys spelling out, in the
old tradition, staccato train orders and messages
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for depot agents.
The depots with their weatherbeaten maroon paint set off by yellow trim, are sturdy relics of the steam age, and probably
were hammered together in the era when Teddy Roosevelt bolted the Republican Party to campaign on the Bull Moose
ticket.
This is the "Turkey Trail," 40 miles of track more properly designated on the Grand Trunk Western timetable as the
Greenville subdivision.

EARLY  START
About daybreak one morning this fall Bill Duchaine and I climbed aboard Local Freight No.451 in the Grand Trunk yards
at Durand, for the 73-mile trip to Greenville. Our power was Diesel No.1951, an Alco. [The term railroaders apply to an
engine built by the American Locomotive Co.]
Our genial hosts were Engineer William Rinker and Brakeman Forest Cottenham in the cab. Conductor Clare Jewell and
Brakeman Lloyd Russell in the caboose. All are from Durand.
Shortly after 7a.m. Rinker backed our diesel off the "ready track" at the engine house to get his train of 16 cars and
caboose. After coupling on, the crew compared watch times, an important railroad ritual, and checked the train orders.
This yellow sheet, called a flimsy and prepared by the dispatcher, carried a massage that was brief and explicit:
"ENG 1951 WORK EXTRA EIGHT O'CLOCK 800 AM UNTIL, NINE O'CLOCK 900 PM  BETWEEN ASHLEY
AND GREENVILLE NOT PROTECTING AGAINST EXTRA TRAINS WORK EXTRA 1951 MAY LEAVE
ASHLEY WITHOUT OBTAINING CLEARENCE."
Rinker climbed back into the cab and pulled the whistle cord. Our air horn blasted its metallic echoes across the yard as we
chugged slowly out on to the Grand Rapids "main", heading west across the "Leaky Roof."
There's a bit of a mystery about this nickname that GT railroaders have given to the Detroit-Grand Haven Division.
Someone said it goes back to the days of wooden passenger cars when, after a heavy rain, the lamp globes in the cars had
to be taken down and emptied of water that had dripped through the leaky roofs.
We can only guess why the branch line west of Ashley is called the Turkey Trail. It probably has something to do with the
erratic wandering of these birds through Michigan's pioneer forests. But the name hardly fits the branch today, because the
"trail" runs in a fairly straight line, due west, to Greenville. The crooked section, which was west of Greenville, has been
abandoned.

A BUSTLING ERA
Because of abandonment of the Greenville-Muskegon section, the Grand Trunk's Greenville branch is completely
separated from the parent system. To get to it, trains use the Ann Arbor Railroad from Owosso to Ashley where the
transfer is made back to GT rails.
The old Ashley-Muskegon line [96 miles] was built in railroading's promotional heyday when ambitious or public spirited
men dreamed big dreams or schemed for profits. Communities without a railroad lacked both status and transportation, and
it wasn't too difficult to start one with the aid of generous land grants, sale of stock, or public cash subscriptions.
The Ashley-Muskegon line began service Aug 1,1888, under the title of Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway. The line
had traffic agreements, even then, with the Grand Trunk, which finally consolidated it under the GTW title Nov.1,1928.
The Turkey Trail probably played a secondary transportation role from the start. The Grand Trunk's heavy traffic was
routed over the "Leaky Roof" a few miles south where it hooked up with the system's Lake Michigan train ferry, than
running out of Grand Haven. Later this operation was moved to Muskegon. So the Trail never became a bridge route for
through traffic, but instead has depended upon online freight generated from towns along the branch. As this local traffic
dwindled, the rout west of Greenville was finally abandoned in 1946.
In days of greater glory, however, the line was a complete railroad, even with passenger trains. The Official Guide for 1900
listed two passenger trains each way daily, Muskegon to Durand, and the Official Guide for 1936 listed one train daily.
So much for history.
As we jogged toward Owosso I wondered what Rinker thought of his diesel steed after spending most of his 50 years of
train service in steam.
"Wish it was a steam engine?" I shouted across the roar of a thousand horses churning up power beneath the long hood in
front.
It was too noisy for conversation but he nodded "yes" and later, at a switching stop, he said steam would always be tops in
his book. "More of a challenge" he said.
Our engine, he explained, was originally intended for passenger service on another railroad. Bought by the Grand Trunk, it
now was used for local freight hauls, mostly on the Greenville branch

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE CABOOSE
Back in the caboose with Duchaine, Jewell's first chore was checking his "consist."
The list included six cars to drop at Sheridan---four empties, a car of lubricating oil for the Russell Oil Co. and a car of
empty condensed milk cans for the Carnation Milk plant. [The empty cars, however, were dropped at Carson City after
trainmen received word that they were not needed at Sheridan.]
Scheduled for Greenville were a load of empty boxes for the Gibson Refrigerator Co., a load of coal for the Vincent Coal
Co., four empty reefers [refrigerator cars] plus some more empties.
The reefers would be loaded with refrigerators. It sounds odd, putting refrigerators in refrigerator cars, but Agent George
Sturgis explained that the reefers, owned by Pacific Fruit Express, were headed for California, and a reduced freight rate
was offered for shipping them.
The conductor is another veteran railroader, having started his career 39 years ago as a call boy. "I used to call Bill Rinker
out for trips," he recalled.
Up in the cab, Rinker was busy at the whistle cord. Traffic was light at the country crossings, but occasionally he would call
a warning to the brakeman: "This crossing's a bad one, Forest" and Cottenham would step to the cab front, watching out
the left side as we sped through, air horns blasting across the farmland.
The first community out of Durand was Vernon. Next came Corunna, with Owosso a few minutes beyond. As we slowed
for the yard limit board the big, new Ann Arbor Railroad freight yard paralleled us to the north. Our track skirted the
business district on the south and at the depot we picked up new orders "on the fly," the agent holding them to the moving
train on a hoop.
Cottenham went out on the running board and caught the "flimsy" containing orders carrying us over the Ann Arbor segment:

"GRAND TRUNK ENGINE 1951 RUN EXTRA OWOSSO JCT. TO ASHLEY WITH RIGHT OVER EASTWARD
EXTRAS"  Translation: Our freight could proceed to Ashley via the Ann Arbor Railroad without interruption for oncoming
trains. [An "extra" is a train not carried on regular train schedules.]

GUEST ON ANOTHER TRACK
Moving slowly through town, we cross the New York Central Jackson Saginaw branch, swung north off the "Leaky Roof"
to the Ann Arbor track at Owosso Junction, halted briefly for Russell to close the switch, then resume our journey on the
new railroad.
Three more stations--- Carland, Elsie and Bannister---and 201/2 miles later our train halted at Ashley so Cottenham could
throw another switch, bringing us back to the Grand Trunk and the "Turkey Trail."
West of Ashley the track is light weight and the roadbed dips and heaves gently over the Gratiot countryside. The engine
jerks and sways in a rock'n'roll motion and, on rougher surfaces performs even wilder gyrations like the Frog and Watusi.
The first time across you feel like a sea voyager in a washtub. Unlike the main line, the roadbed is covered by grass and
weeds in spots, and trees and brush crowd closer upon the tracks like a country lane.
"It's really beautiful when the leaves are turned color," Rinker commented. But the beauty has its bite, too, as the engineer
noted a large elm tree. felled by high winds, had toppled across the tracks a few days before.
"I couldn't stop and ran right through it," he said. The fractured trunk, still beside the track, looked large enough to have
derailed the engine but Rinker said it just dented the front end.
First station out of Ashley is Ola, which now in only a name in the timetable and a wide spot at trackside where US-27
crosses the branch. then came Pompeii, Perrinton and Middleton, where we shifted a car from the Farmers Elevator Co. to
the depot track.
Next was Carson City, once a Michigan oil capital. The Crystal Refinery there still is a major shipper on the branch. Here
we set off in a small rail storage yard four boxcars originally destined for Sheridan, and move two tank cars on the refinery
tracks.

TRADE PLACES
Duchaine and I trade places here and I went back to try the cushions in the caboose. While up front, Bill witnessed a near
miss at the Vickeryville road crossing. Rinker had blown his warning whistle but Cottenham spotted an auto speeding
toward the crossing. Fearing they would crash, Cottenham reached for the emergency brake valve, but the driver spotted
the train in time, slammed his brakes and skidded off the blacktop, halting without mishap.
"A while ago a car hit my engine from the right side at this crossing. The fellow lost his leg in the accident," Rinker said.
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