In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Fire & Police
Floobydust
USGS Maps
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME
Location / Name:
Coopersville MI
What's Here:
the Coopersville & Marne
Railway
the Coopersville
Historical Museum -
Housed in a former
interurban railway
station
the Coopersville Farm
Museum
the transplanted Spring
Lake interurban depot
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 43.063510, -85.935206 (Town Square across from the C&M station/ticket sales)
ZIP 49404
Phone: 616-997-7000
Website:
http://www.coopersvilleandmarne.org/index.html
Scanner Frequencies:
160.6950
Access by train/transit:
None
Railroad Signals in the
area:
None
The Scoop:
The
Coopersville and Marne
Railway Company
is a historic and
excursion railroad about
15 miles northwest of
Grand Rapids, and is all
volunteer. You can
also ride in theri SW-9
engine for 35 bucks, and
rent a caboose for
parties or private
affairs hooked to their
excursion train.
The Coopersville and Marne Railway Company
was incorporated on July 13, 1989. The initial purpose of those
involved was to purchase the old Grand Trunk
right-of-way between the towns of Coopersville and Marne, just to the
northwest of Grand Rapids. The idea was to preserve the track for
future use and to provide vintage passenger service. The purchase was
made on December 14, 1989.
The line has a long history. It was chartered as the
Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Company on
April 3, 1848. The purpose was to build a railroad from "Oakland via
Fentonville to Lake Michigan in Ottawa County". The railroad was
merged with the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad
Company in 1855, and the name was changed to the
Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad.
The track through Marne and Coopersville was first laid down in the summer
of 1858. The first train into Grand Rapids arrived there in June of
1858, with the first train into Grand Haven arriving there in September of
that year. There is more history available on their history page,
which is where this was plagiarized from :-).
The main attraction in Coopersville is the Coopersville & Marne Rwy. The railroad is primarily an excursion railroad, with trains operating for almost the whole year except for January and February. Some trains are regular excursion trains, others are themed trains. They offer two special items of interest not offered by most other excursion railroads: you can rent the services of their caboose either in the yard, or to run behind one of their regularly scheduled trains. In addition, they offer cab rides in the engine for $35, with a maximum of two riders per trip. The people running the railroad are all volunteers, most are Ham Radio operators, and they are all just as friendly as can be. As you can see from the pictures below, they have quite an assortment of equipment in their yard. For much more and current information, check out their website here. Below are some of the key points about the railroad:
Another railroad related building is the Coopersville Historical Museum, which is partially housed in a ~1902 interurban railway depot. Outside on display is an interurban car, and a number of older railroad related items as can be seen below.
There is also the Coopersville Farm Museum which looks interesting. We didn't have a chance to go thru either of the museums, for they were both closed.
By far, the busiest area of town for fast food, services, and hotels is on the west side of town, near the traffic circle at 68th Street and W. Randall Street.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Denver Todd for his help with this and the rest of my railfan guides and suggesting welcome changes to help all ya'll. Denver gave me the nickel tour when we came through town on this rainy afternoon - many thanks!
Websites and other
additional information
sources of interest for
the area:
Coopersville's Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.coopersville.com/
Coopersville Historical Museum:
http://coopersvillehistoricalmuseum.org/
Coopersville Farm Museum:
http://www.coopersvillefarmmuseum.org/
Getting to Coopersville couldn't get much easier, being located right off of interstate 96, between Grand Rapids and Grand Haven/Muskegon. Regardless from which direction you come from, it is easier to get off at exit 16, go north to the traffic circle, then proceed east on Randall Street.
Click here
for the above map in PDF form
Coopersville & Marne Shops
GPS Coordinates:
43.064006, -85.938009
311 E. Danforth St., PO
Box 55, Coopersville MI 49404
616-997-7000
Coopersville & Marne Station / Ticket Office
GPS Coordinates: 43.063341, -85.935330
Looking down the tracks from the station
towards the shops
The passenger cars and caboose parked at the station
GRGH&M Interurban DepotGPS Coordinates: 43.064055, -85.935754
This depot served the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Rwy from 1902 till the railroad stopped running in 1928. It was an electric interurban railway that ran on overhead wire in the cities, and 3rd rail power in the country. The building now serves as the Coopersville Historical Museum. That is Denver happily pointing to the sign.
Next door to the Historical Museum is the Farm Museum
ex Spring Lake Interurban DepotGPS Coordinates: 43.064046, -85.937522
This depot was moved from Sprig Lake to here, and it sits next to the shop building.
City Hall / Sheriff's Office / Fire Station
GPS Coordinates: 43.062989, -85.934319
Being a "small town", all of the important city functions and services are located in this one building
When coming into town and Randall Street
off of exit 16, this is the traffic circle you come up to.....
Across the street from the station, in the
downtown district
Historical plaque dedicated to
Charles W. Westover, who was the producer for singer Del Shannon
Left: Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click
here for
their index page.
In their collection, the set of maps is from too early
a time frame to have a quadrangle map for Cooperstown.
I'm not sure when
the newer map is from, but it doesn't have the detail the older maps do.
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.
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! BE NICE!!! Contact info
is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME
NEW 03/10/2015
-- 09/06/2016
Last Modified
02-Dec-2017