[Original Woody's Workshop]

Reed City, Michigan has been a "Cross Roads" town before it actually became a city, especially for the Rail Roads. I'm looking for details on where the tracks were and the surrounding associated buildings in the areas I want to model. Which Include East of Reed City to Clare, West to Ludington (where there was/is Ferry Service to 3 towns in Wisconsin for train, cars & people), North to Cadillac (maybe NW to Frankfort from Cadillac if space allows), South almost to Grand Rapids. 20 miles West of Reed City is Baldwin, where another line runs N/S and is still operational today. From Clare through other lines & small towns to North of Grand Rapids, and back up to Baldwin.
The time frame I'm trying to get information on is between 1930 and 1940. There is little information online for these areas in this time frame.
Where would be a good place to look for old maps, blueprints, or even find out who owned the lines in that time frame?
Is there anyone here that has, or is, modeling in this time frame?
Thank You Kindly

 

[Tom_C]

You need to think outside the box. Do searches for railroad plats in the city hall and tax sites for the city. Depending on the size and budget they probably have digitized their records by now. You can usually find information like tax and sale history of properties, and I'm (almost) certain some of that will include RR properties.

 

[Tom_C]

You should also take a trip to city hall and ask at the help counter. Also, look up historical societies for the area:

https://www.michigan.org/property/old-rugged-cross-historical-society-museum

https://www.findmuseums.org/reed-city-mi/

http://www.osceola-county.org/residents/county_departments/treasurer/index.php

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/stations-locations/131-osceola-county-67/1706-reed-city-mi

OH, and another thing to check is area bike trails, they are often built on abandoned RR lines, and there may be historical information provided for the trails.

https://www.reedcity.org/trail-information.php

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache...csx?guid=d054dadd-0ef1-4cd7-a665-9a87198a3dfc

http://www.migenweb.org/osceola/history/reedcity.html

https://www.mmcaa.org/what_we_do/depot/about_depot.html

 

[Tom_C]

Here's some more. I'm going to stop now, but I think there's a lot more information available than you might think, you just need to go at it from a different angle.

http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/big_rr/c_and_o/reedcity.html

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/RR555PL_250_538555_7.pdf

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/Michigan_Railroad_History_506899_7.pdf

https://www.traillink.com/trail-history/pere-marquette-rail-trail/

http://www.whitepinetrail.com/history-of-the-railroad-before-being-a-trail

 

[QueenoftheGN]

Reed City, Michigan has been a "Cross Roads" town before it actually became a city, especially for the Rail Roads. I'm looking for details on where the tracks were and the surrounding associated buildings in the areas I want to model. Which Include East of Reed City to Clare, West to Ludington (where there was/is Ferry Service to 3 towns in Wisconsin for train, cars & people), North to Cadillac (maybe NW to Frankfort from Cadillac if space allows), South almost to Grand Rapids. 20 miles West of Reed City is Baldwin, where another line runs N/S and is still operational today. From Clare through other lines & small towns to North of Grand Rapids, and back up to Baldwin.
The time frame I'm trying to get information on is between 1930 and 1940. There is little information online for these areas in this time frame.
Where would be a good place to look for old maps, blueprints, or even find out who owned the lines in that time frame?
Is there anyone here that has, or is, modeling in this time frame?
Thank You Kindly

Reed City was served by two Class 1 Railroads, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad, both arriving in late 1871. The GR&I beat the F&PM by a few weeks. The GR&I constructed a depot on the south-west quadrant of the crossing. wikipost

 

[Junnyquest]

Hello,

New to the forum. Been poking around and found this old thread. And while this post is 18 months old, I thought I would suggest another couple of research ideas for the OP or anyone else looking for old maps to help with their layouts.

There are two map searches available.

1. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps which are extremely detailed maps of towns and cities that insurance companies once used when assessing fire risk. Not every town, but quite a few. Usually available to see in multiple date ranges from the late 1800-1920's or so. Just Google Sanborn Fire map and the name of the city you want to see. You can also use county or even state names for your search And this will, by drilling down a couple of pages, bring you here:

Image 3 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Reed City, Osceola County, Michigan.

Aug 1884. 3.

www.loc.gov

2. Try googling 'vintage map Reed City Michigan'. That will get you a search result that brings you here:

Reed City, Atlas: Osceola County 1900, Michigan Historical Map

Map Name: Reed City, Atlas Name: Osceola County 1900, Publisher: P.A. & J.W. Myers, Publish Date: 1900, Dimensions: 24.56 x 20.52

www.historicmapworks.com

Works for most locations. Use city and especially county names in the Google search. County maps will include township maps and sometimes also town maps. Usually brings up a map dating from the early 1900's. Less detail than a Sanborn map, but shows a wider area.