Albion MI Railfan Guide

RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

Railfan Guide to
ALBION MI

Admittedly, there is not a whole lot in Albion to make the railfan come here for a trip by itself, but if you are going to be travelling the I94 corridor, it is certainly worth the stop.

The station was built in 1882 by the Michigan Central, which also built the still standing freight shed. It was abandoned in 1971 when Amtrak took over, and later "fixed-up" in the 1980's by local community groups.

The freight shed currently houses a restaurant called Davan's.

Today the depot services 6 trains a day, going between Detroit (Pontiac) and Chicago. According to most sources, the Albion station has the lowest "ridership" in Michigan, with an average of 4 riders. The station is used by Amtrak's Wolverine, and has only one stop a day for each direction. The depot serves as a terminus for both Amtrak and bus service.

On the west side of town, there are some typically Amtrak "tri-light" colorlight signals.

And for you fire fighters out there, the area's volunteer company is on the other side of the tracks from the depot.

Getting Here

Albion is very convenient to I94 using exit 121... then head south on Eaton, it takes you right to the depot. Jackson is 18 miles to the east. Albion is about 98 miles west of Detroit, and 23 miles east of Kalamazoo.

Aerial shots were taken from www.bing.com/maps (it used to be maps.live.com).

The snap-shots off of Bing are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! Give it a try!

My RSUS philosophy: Pictures (oh yea, my maps too) 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 (or a GPS). 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 consise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.

As always, if you have something to add or correct, it's toddgp30@yahoo.com