Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad

The Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1879 to reorganize the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad, which owned a railway line between Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Jackson, Michigan. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway leased the company in 1882. Most of the company's line has been abandoned.

Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad

Overview
Dates of operation	1879 (1879)–1976 (1976)
Predecessor	Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad
Successor	City of Auburn Port Authority Conrail Hillsdale County Railway
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Length	97.6 miles (157.1 km)
Route map Legend mi 0.0 Jackson Michigan Central Railroad Grand River 1.1 LS&MS Jackson Branch Cincinnati Northern Railroad 5.1 Michigan Air Line Railroad 10.4 Horton Detroit, Toledo and Milwaukee Railroad 14.1 Hanover 16.2 Stony Point 18.8 Mosherville 24.6 Jonesville 25.3 Fort Wayne Junction LS&MS Old Road LS&MS Ypsilanti Branch 31.1 Bankers 35.8 Reading 41.2 Montgomery 44.7 Michigan Indiana 44.8 Ray 56.2 Angola 60.5 Pleasant Lake Wabash Railroad 63.5 Steubenville 64.7 Summit 70.3 New York Central Railroad 70.4 Waterloo 75.4 Auburn 76.6 Auburn Junction Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad 80.1 Saint Johns 81.6 New Era 86.4 Huntertown 90.7 Academie 97.4 Nickel Plate Road Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad 97.7 97.9 Pennsylvania Railroad 98.0 Nickel Plate Road This diagram: view talk edit

History

The precursor of the Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad was the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad, which was incorporated on January 26, 1869. That company consolidated two older companies, the Jackson, Fort Wayne and Cincinnati Railroad of Michigan and the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad of Indiana.^[1] Construction began the same year, and the company completed a 35.4-mile (57.0 km) from Jackson, Michigan, to Reading, Michigan, on November 22, 1869. A further 20.4 miles (32.8 km) from Reading to Angola, Indiana, was completed on January 17, 1870. The final 41.8 miles (67.3 km) from Angola to Fort Wayne, Indiana, was finished on December 5, 1870.^[2]

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway leased the company in 1882. This lease was later assumed by the New York Central Railroad (1915) and Penn Central Transportation (1968).^[3]

Much of line was abandoned in 1973, following the Penn Central bankruptcy:

• Waterloo, Indiana–Pleasant Lake, Indiana
• Jonesville, Michigan–Bankers, Michigan
• Haires, Michigan–Horton, Michigan

These abandonments left four sections of the old line: yard trackage within Jackson, a branch from Jonesville to Horton, a branch from Bankers to Pleasant Lake, and a branch from Fort Wayne to Waterloo.^[2] In 1976, several small sections within the vicinity of Fort Wayne, Jackson, and Waterloo were conveyed to Conrail.^[4] The lines between Jonesville and Horton, and Auburn and Waterloo, saw little traffic and was abandoned.^[5][6] The new short-line railroad Hillsdale County Railway took over the section between Bankers and Pleasant Lake.^[7] In 1981, the city of Auburn established the City of Auburn Port Authority to purchase the remaining 1.7 miles (2.7 km) that connected the city with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and then leased the line to the B&O (now CSX Transportation).^[8][9]

Notes

1. Meints 1992, p. 76.
2. Meints 2005, p. 247.
3. Meints 2005, pp. 247–248.
4. USRA 1975a, p. 268.
5. USRA 1975b, pp. 162, 418.
6. "Indiana Railroad Abandonments" (PDF). p. 7. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
7. Lewis 1986, p. 99.
8. Meints 2011, p. 79.
9. Jones, Jeff (September 26, 2021). "Shortline railroads provide vital links". The News Sun. Retrieved January 7, 2023.

References

• Lewis, Edward A. (1986). American Shortline Railway Guide (3rd ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-073-6. OCLC 14819199.
• Meints, Graydon M. (1992). Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-318-3.
• Meints, Graydon M. (2011). Indiana Railroad Lines. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-22359-3.
• Meints, Graydon M. (2005). Michigan Railroad Lines. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-693-1.
• United States Railway Association (1975). Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (PDF). Vol. 1. Washington, DC. OCLC 2889148.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• United States Railway Association (1975). Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (PDF). Vol. 2. Washington, DC. OCLC 2889148.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)