page_title: Michigan Central Railroad
section_title: Freight services
hierarchical_section_title: Michigan Central Railroad / Freight services
caption_attribution_description: Men, loading platform, box marked Fragile. Michigan Central Railroad car #93378. Either west or east side of building, smoke stack visible at left. Museum move series. Field Columbian Museum move to new FM building. 1920. Original size and material: 5x7 inch glass negative Digital Identifier: CSGN40533 Part of the Illinois Urban Landscapes Project: www.fieldmuseum.org/urbanlandscapes/
context_page_description: The Michigan Central Railroad was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the United States and the province of Ontario in Canada. After about 1867 the railroad was controlled by the New York Central Railroad, which later became part of Penn Central and then Conrail. After the 1998 Conrail breakup, Norfolk Southern Railway now owns much of the former Michigan Central trackage.
  At the end of 1925, MC operated 1871 miles of road and 4139 miles of track; that year it reported 4304 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 600 million passenger-miles.
context_section_description: Prior to the automobile, Michigan Central was mostly a carrier of natural resources. Michigan had extensive reserves of timber at the time, and the Michigan Central owned lines from east to west of the state and north to south, tapping all resources available. After the advent of the automobile as one of the most dominant forces of commerce ever seen by the world, with Detroit at the epicenter, the Michigan Central became a carrier of autos and auto-related parts. The Michigan Central was one of the few Michigan railroads with a direct line into Chicago, meaning it did not have to operate cross-lake ferries, as did virtually all other railroads operating in Michigan, such as the Pere Marquette, Pennsylvania, Grand Trunk, and Ann Arbor Railroads. Michigan Central was part owner of the ferry service operated to the Upper Peninsula as well as cross-river ferry service to Ontario, but these routes did not exist to circumvent Chicago.
caption: Loading dock with a Michigan Central boxcar in 1920
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