The was a railroad that operated in the
Great Lakes region of the
United States . The railroad had trackage in the states of
Michigan ,
Ohio ,
Indiana and the Canadian province of
Ontario . Its primary connections included
Buffalo, New York ,
Toledo, Ohio and
Chicago, Illinois .
It was incorporated on
January 1 ,
1900 as the from the merger of several Michigan railroads, the most prominent being:
In the
1920s the Pere Marquette came under the control of
Cleveland financiers
Oris and
Mantis Van Sweringen who also controlled the
New York, Chicago And St. Louis Railroad ,
Erie Railroad and
Chesapeake And Ohio Railroad and planned to merge the four railroads. The
ICC did not approve the merger and the Van Sweringen brothers sold their interest in the Pere Marquette to the C&O, with which it formally merged on
June 6 ,
1947 . The C&O has since become part of
CSX .
In
1984 ,
Amtrak named their passenger rail service between
Grand Rapids, Michigan and Chicago the ''
Pere Marquette ''.
In
2004 ,
The Polar Express featured
Pere Marquette 1225 , a steam locomotive originally serving the Pere Marquette. The train seen in the movie, although not the same train in the book, was a model of the 1225 based from actual measurements and recordings of the 1225. The locomotive was scheduled to be at the premiere in
Grand Rapids ,
Michigan , originally where the writer of the popular children's book was born, but cancelled due to interferences with the schedule of CSX.
The Pere Marquette also operated a number of
Rail Car Ferries on the
Detroit and
St. Clair River s and on
Lake Erie and
Lake Michigan . The PM's fleet of car ferries, which operated on Lake Michigan from
Ludington, Michigan to
Milwaukee ,
Kewaunee , and
Manitowoc, Wisconsin (see
SS Badger ), were an important transportation link avoiding the terminal and interchange delays experienced by freight traveling around the southern tip of Lake Michigan and through Chicago.
On
September 10 ,
1910 , Pere Marquette 18 was bound for
Milwaukee, Wisconsin , from
Ludington, Michigan , with a load of 29 railroad freight cars and sixty two persons aboard. Near midnight, the vessel began to take on massive amounts of water. The captain dumped nine railroad cars into
Lake Michigan , but there was no use -- the ship was going down. The Pere Marquette 17, traveling nearby, picked up the distress call and sped to assist the floundering vessel. By the time they arrived, there was no more of the ship than thirty-seven survivors floating upon the lake.
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