Battle Creek MI Railfan Guide

RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.

Todd's Railfan Guide to:
BATTLE CREEK MI

In General
Map
Sights
Signals
Floobydust

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What comes to your mind when you think of Battle Creek.... Cereal.... it should, for the majority of America's cereal comes from here. Norfolk Southern and Canadian National service the cereal business in town, and trains comes thru with fair regularity.

On the station side of things, there is an ex Michigan Central depot still standing over in the triangle of Main, Yuba, and Bennett. In downtown, Clara's Restaurant occupies the old Grand Trunk Western depot built in 1888.

I found a bunch of really nice photos from Battle Creek's history at the Willard Library's site:
http://www.willard.lib.mi.us/historical/bcphotos/railroads/index.htm

On my latest visit to Battle Creek in 2011, I had limited time, and did not get to visit the GTW yard :-( If anyone wants to share their photos from there, please email me.

Aerial shots were taken from www.bing.com/maps (it used to be maps.live.com). The snap-shots from 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, but maps are still better). 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.

As always, if you have something to add or correct, please check here

Map

PDF Version

Sights

1 The Amtrak Station

The Battle Creek Amtrak station, in 2011, was under construction as part of an upgrade to an area transportation center.

The new transportation center being built

A passing CN freight

The temporary facility, which also handles Greyhound.

Crossing gates on McCamly, between the two stations

2 Clara's Restaurant, the ex Michigan Central Depot

If you're from B'more, you'll know "Natty Boh"

Postcard from Clara's on the River

3 The ex Grand Trunk Western Depot

The vintage pictures are from the library's website. There is now a hedge line between the depot and the tracks, so pictures of the depot with a train is not possible. Good shots of afternoon EB and morning WB trains can be had from here.

More info on this depot at: http://www.caascm.org/showcases/1

The medium clear is for the Wolverine

The EB Wolverine, train #350, it will get into Pontiac around 3pm, it's now about 11:15am

Crossing gates on Main Street in front of the station

4 The Kellogg Plant

5 Hinman Yard

This yard is located across from the gigantic Kellogg plant on Porter St.

Mile marker by the yard

6 GTW/CN's Battle Creek Yard

7 the Ralston Purina Cereal Plant

8 the Post Cereal Plant

Crossing gates and signals in front of the Post Plant

Signals

Two sets of signals located at the mainline split for EB traffic. Almost all of the signals in town are mounted on cantilever bridges, as these are.

First set of signals for WB traffic after passing the Amtrak station.

Between the two sets of signals above is this pair of signals for EB traffic. I need a detail picture of it if anyone is in the area.

For EB traffic, across from the Amtrak Station, and next to Capitol Ave SW

Looks like these signals have been removed by the time I visited in 2011 :-(

Two sets on individual masts for EB traffic and a double set on a cantilever bridge for WB's next to Capitol Ave SW
I'm taking a guess that the EB signals here replaced the two cantilevered signals at location #4

Shots of the signals (& crossing gates) from E Fountain St

Pictures of the signals taken from the temporary station location

A no left turn signal for trucks coming out of the plant onto E Fountain St

Grade crossing gates at Capitol Ave

For GT/CN trains leaving the yard and heading west. A couple more pix below.

Two sets of signals here. A single mast mounted signal for trains inbound to the yard, and two sets on a cantilever for outbounds.

Floobydust

1903 Firehouse

This cool example of early 1900's architecture is on the west side of town, on Kendall just off Dickman. Too bad Bing doesn't do birds eye views in Battle Creek :-( If you take a walk around the building and look in the windows, you will see a very early fire alarm telegraph.