In General
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Location / Name:
Bridgeport MI
What's Here:
Junction Valley RR - A quarter size railroad
CSX rolls thru here
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 43.334616, -83.833275
Phone A/C: 989
ZIP: 48722
Access by train/transit:
None
The Scoop:
--- I'm sorry to report, but as of December 2018, Junction Valley RR discontinued their operations ---
It was billed as the largest quarter scale railroad in the world, and although I have nothing to compare it too, I can't imagine many other quarter size railroads packing more into a certain size area than these guys have, and let's not forget the elevated diamond!
North of the exit in Bridgeport, the CSX line, which is now leased to the Saginaw Bay Southern Rwy, crosses at grade both Dixie Highway, and Williamson Road, which splits off to the left about 2/3 of a mile from the interstate. Not sure of the frequency of trains. Blackmar Rd follows it for a little while, so that gives you some chance to follow the trains as they come thru.
The Central Michigan line is a little to the west. Nothing follows it, so you only have grade crossings to take pictures at.
Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
JV's website is no longer functional
The easiest way to get here is via I-75, exit #144, way north of Detroit. Once you take the NB exit, take a right to go south on the Dixie Highway if you're coming up from Detroit (~90 miles), Pontiac (~67 miles), or Flint (~31miles). If coming south from say, Saginaw (~7miles) or Bay City (~20miles), take a left at the bottom of the ramp and head south under the interstate. The railroad is just under 2 miles south of the exit.
JVRR Info
Above, flyer for open house 2009, and below, the 2009 JV pamphlet
Although not many of the signals function as trains pass by, they nevertheless add a realistic atmosphere, and are very well done!
The main building on the road, which is a truck repair facility. The
hobby shop is at the far left of this building.
The tower is kinda the centerpiece up at the main station.
A train on the loop. It will pass by the station area, then back into the station.
The main interlocking tower "down in the valley"
If we turn around 180 degrees from the two above photos, you get this view of the yard.
On the approach to one of the many trestles.
Heading down the 6% grade "into the valley", we're adjacent to the roundhouse area.
So how do you throw one of the switches?.... with this miniature throw of course!
Some of the trestles.
Trains crossing each other at one of the trestles.
The A-B-A set running around the pond.
Exiting the tunnel near the picnic area
A Train coming into the picnic area station.At the Shops and Roundhouse
The roundhouse is located a little bit down the hill from the main building and hobby shop, and the owners house is located "above" it.... nice model layout to play with, huh? The shops where they fabricate everything is located behind the roundhouse and the main building.
On the turntable.
Inside the shops where they make all of their equipment.Engines
Junction Valley RR has many engines. They are all patterned after the real deal, but are customized to make their construction easier. Wheels are also not prototypical, but the large flanges allow the trains to negotiate tighter changes in direction than do standard profile wheels... this is especially handy on their switches which are fairly abrupt, maybe some like a #3 or #4 turnout.
An A-B-A set, you could say they are loosely patterned after the Alco FA's.
Inside one of the cabs, there is a fair amount of room inside of most of them.
The innards to one of the engines.Rolling Stock
You name it, they have built it... well almost everything anyways, but they do have a large variety of cars and cabooses!
An air operated dump car that they use to ballast the tracks.
Just enough room inside for small adults! :-).
You saw this photo earlier with the bi-level car in it....It shows the building expertise these guys have...... they do not run this car :-(
Aerial Shots of the Property
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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