Featuring 150 photographs, maps, and postcards, Traces of the Ann Arbor Railroad chronicles vital aspects of this unique railroad's history, with a primary focus on what has transpired from the 1960s to 2020.
The book's pages reflect on the years (1963-1973) the Detroit, Toledo
& Ironton controlled the Ann Arbor Railroad, which served shippers
along a 292-mile mainline almost entirely in Michigan (the AA operated
several miles in northern Ohio); the demise of the AA's Lake Michigan
car ferries; the new carriers that have sprung up to handle operations
on the former Ann Arbor line in the wake of the company's bankruptcy in
1973; the disposition of the fleet of ten new GP35s that were delivered
to the Ann Arbor direct from the factory in 1964; and the new Ann Arbor,
a shortline operating between Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio,
that was created out of the remains of the old Annie. The final chapter
highlights the 22-mile Betsie Valley Trail between Elberta-Frankfort and
Thompsonville, a rails-to-trails corridor that opened in 2005 along an
abandoned segment of the historic Ann Arbor Railroad.
