In General
Map
Sights
Signals
Floobydust
USGS Map


MICHIGAN RAILFAN GUIDE HOMEPAGE
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In General


Location / Name:
Battle Creek MI, Calhoun County

What's Here:
Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National
Grand Trunk and Michigan Central depots
Amtrak station
Several yards
Cereal capitol of the United States! :-)

Data:
GPS Coordinates: As needed
Phone A/C: 269
ZIP: 49017

Access by train/transit:
Amtrak

The Scoop:

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 through trains come thru with fair regularity.

As far as surviving stations go, there is an ex Grand Trunk Western depot still standing over in the triangle of Main, Yuba, and Bennett.  In downtown, Clara's Restaurant occupies the ex Michigan Central depot built in 1888.

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.  Signal replacement had already started.

Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd
J. Maloney, for help preparing this page.
Jack Prange II
Aaron Schlegel
Glenn Courtney
Google Maps
Bing Maps

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://www.railroadmichigan.com/countyCAL.html
http://www.willard.lib.mi.us/historical/bcphotos/railroads/index.htm  really nice photos from Battle Creek's history at the Willard Library's site


Map


PDF Version



Sights


  The Amtrak Station

GPS Coordinates: 42.318296, -85.817821

The Battle Creek Amtrak station, in 2011, was under construction as part of an upgrade to an area transportation center.  All of the pictures thumbnailed are from 2011 except for the 2015 set from Denver Todd.







    The new transportation center being built.

              Battle Creek Transportation Center in 2015, courtesy Denver Todd.

          A passing CN freight.

      The temporary facility, which also handles Greyhound.

    Crossing gates on McCamly, between the two stations
















  Clara's Restaurant, the ex Michigan Central Depot

GPS Coordinates: 42.321159, -85.181727



         

             

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

       Photos courtesy Denver Todd.



  Postcard from Clara's on the River


  The ex Grand Trunk Western Depot

GPS Coordinates: 42.312069, -85.174144

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 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.

            Photos courtesy Denver Todd.



 




  The Kellogg Plant

GPS Coordinates: 42.319229, -85.145825



   


  NS Hinman Yard

GPS Coordinates: 42.316438, -85.148071

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

          Mile marker by the yard.




  CN's Battle Creek Yard

GPS Coordinates: 42.339920, -85.138345





At the end of Raymond St, you will find the main entrance and the yard tower.




  the Ralston Purina Cereal Plant

GPS Coordinates: 42.318878, -85.190867

Also note, on the left side of the shot below, is the Amtrak station, and to the right, we can see where Washington St has a new overpass, over the railroad and stream.



 


  the Post Cereal Plant

GPS Coordinates: 42.311206, -85.162747

Crossing gates and signals in front of the Post Plant.



   


 Signals



Jack Prange II wrote to inform me, that as of December 2016, signal replacement is complete, so the searchlight signals have been replaced by the (now) standard "darth vader" color light signals.




Two sets of signals located at the mainline split for EB traffic.  Almost all of the searchlight signals in town were 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 :-(






The view from Fountain St in 2020, still has the old searchlight signals still in place from 2015.




 

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.


In the picture above, you can see the supports being installed for the new signals.  Taken from Fountain St, courtesy Jack Prange II.




 

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

   



The signal bridge is gone, and one of the signals was moved to "the other side" of Michigan Ave.





You can see the new sisgnals from Michigan Ave, where the old signal bridge used to be.




 

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

         






  EB Colorlights by the GTW Depot

These signals are for a crossover.

        The medium clear is for the Wolverine.






  WB Colorlights

A new pair of signals for trains coming from Hinman Yard onto the mainline.




  SB "Trilights" / McAllister Road

A pair of signals here for SB trains inbound to CN's Battle Creek yard -- even in 2020, Google's Streetview still has shots from 2008.








Floobydust


1903 Firehouse

GPS Coordinates: 42.320568, -85.199110

This cool example of early 1900's architecture is on the west side of town, on Kendall just off Dickman.
It is now the FIRE HUB restaurant.
I don't know if it is still there, but if you take a walk around the building and look in the windows, you used to be able to see a very early fire alarm telegraph.

       

       







  Typical of Battle Creek fire hydrants.


Battle Creek Police Department HQ

The Battle Creek police headquarters is at North Division St and John W Patterson Way.

     



AND, speaking of the police department in Battle Creek, on Sunday March the 1st, 2015, CBS had it's debut of Battle Creek, a new cop show.  Unlike other shows, I don't know if it is filmed in Battle Creek as many others are, but at least in the opening credits, they feature two clips of trains, which because of the cantilever signal bridge, certainly could have been filmed in Battle Creek.  I wonder if they will have a story about a Cereal Killer? :-).......

   


Amtrak Wolverine

Denver caught the Wolverine coming thru around 2:00PM on February 28th, 2015, but had no time for set-up.

     


Buses

Last but not least, a few busses caught around town.

 


USGS Map


Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.


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.

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