In General
Getting Here
Maps
General System Pictures
Track, Trackwork, and Signals
2007 Fall Meet
2014 Fall Meet
Floobydust
Here is my map of the Cedar Springs area showing how to get
to the White Creek RR, and some of the other railroad oriented things to do in
the immediate and not so immediate area - Michigan has a lot of neat "stuff" to
offer the railfan. Fall Meet -- Saturday SEP22/2007 Fall Meet -- Saturday SEP19/20/2014
The two maps are available as PDF's here and
here
Let's start with a few pictures of the railroad itself....
The main staging yard. In the distance of the left photo is the
main road and the track to the north loop, adjacent to Russ' house. In
the above picture and off to my right is the "upper yard"
(out of the frame), but can be seen in the picture below.
The receiving yard, most "northbound" trains will head into the tracks to the right
of the light poles, and two of the tracks just to the left of the poles.....
Southbound trains from the north loop by Russ' house will be on one of the
four tracks all the way to the left. The track immediately to the
left of the light poles loops around to the right and feeds the main
staging yard from the north. This are all at "Hidden Valley".
A shot of the two yards above, looking north, from a little further out.
Looking inside part of the the main engine and car storage building.
Looking towards the many bays of the main engine and car storage facility.
Inside the secondary storage facility.
This stub switch is out on 3 Mile Island.
Well crafted bumpers show up all over the place.
Trackwork of the "upper" yard at the main engine and car storage
building, there are 10 tracks leading into the building.
Russ has a substantial signal system in place. Signals are placed anywhere two
tracks go down to a single track. Trains can (or should) only proceed into
the single track territory if the signal is green. If the signal is
yellow, it indicates the track ahead is occupied by a train going in the same
direction. If the signal is red, the track is occupied by a train coming
at you. There are around 30 single track blocks, all protected by signals.
Signals are actuated by a switch mounted on the end of a PVC pipe standing about
two feet high, protected from the weather by a cap of a slightly larger diameter
PVC pipe. Relays for the signals are internal to the signal heads, and are
interlocked so two engineers pressing the buttons "at the same time" will
actuate only one green. The picture shows one of the few places he has
dual signals because the track splits here, with both choices going into single track.
Protecting the grade crossings are these custom built signals.... Nice work.
Pictures of the equipment that showed up for the 2007 fall meet....
Derrick Draft's excellent looking Backyard Engine's CSX B40-8 and the Phoenix sound installation.... sounds nice!
Russ Eldred and one of his Dash-9's.
Cuc Mai Calhoon Lumber Co Shay No. 1 belongs to Bob Calhoon.
This GBW Alco belongs to Dave Gehrke.
These cute little "bicycles" (he had two of them there) are also owned
by Dave Gehrke, and are a hoot to tour the White Creek on.... one might think it was
hard going coming out of the Cornertown area, but since the wheels are 5" in
diameter instead of 28, it's easy going and one can easily leave a train in the
dust - even uphill.
Thanks to David Reinert of the Milwaukee Light Engineering Society for the info on the owners.
I got here late in the day on Friday and spent the night onsite. Took
a run at night - that was fun! Things look way different at night than
they do during the day, plus, you don't have all the visual cues like you do
during the day, so if you don't know the system very well, well, you just
kinda keep on wandering around hoping you come across something familiar :-)
The thing with the bare batteries is my weak attempt at putting something
together in 6 days to ride, it uses a Plum Cove powered truck.
Love his signaling system.
Little green (and yellow) things!
How did that car get on top of a steaming bay track?
This was at the Big Boy's restaurant around 7:30pm, 1:1 scale.
We passed this mile marker on the way home.
Disclaimers:
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert.
My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page. This is something I
have fun with while trying to help others.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.
For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my
indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented
I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while,
an error may creep in :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or
disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the
railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job
of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted. Screen captures are made
with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it!
By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National
Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to
take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit
is always given! Please be NICE!!! Contact info is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated
as being possibly inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME
NEW 09/24/2007, SEP29/2014, AUG14/15/2023
Last Modified:
15-Aug-2023