We’ve been workin’ on the railroad! Maybe not all the live-long day, but our volunteers are always busy with something! Check out the latest updates about everything our volunteers have been working on below.
- Do you want to help with projects like these? Consider becoming a member of the society and volunteering with us! Visit our Membership page for details about getting involved.
- You can also support these projects with a monetary donation – visit our Donate page for more information.
- These projects all require supplies and tools to make them happen. Visit our Wish List page for some ideas of the tools and materials we could use to continue these great projects.
Grant Award: John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust
We are pleased to announce that the John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust has granted $10,000 toward the movement and stabilization of our heavyweight Pullman sleeper ‘Emerald Vale’! This is one of 19 grants totaling $250,000 toward preservation of the “Golden Age” of railway travel, from 1920 to 1960. The Trust’s founder, John H. Emery, wanted to ensure future generations could share his experiences of rail travel, and we are excited to help carry out his mission. The ‘Emerald Vale’ is a heavyweight Pullman sleeper car. It was originally built as ‘Wetamoo’ in 1915 by The Pullman Company for use
Project Update: SMRS #2022 Receives a New Floor
#2022 arrived with a severely deteriorated steel floor. In many spots, the cab floor was rotted complete through to the mechanical space below the cab! Volunteers have installed a new wood floor in the cab that will bring this locomotive one step closer to service!
Project Update: PC #593356 Gets a Paint Job!
Our volunteers have worked hard over the last few weeks to put a new coat of paint on our open air gondola! New lettering to match out logo style and historically accurate markings have been applied. This refresh will definitely make this car stand out on our trains and show off the Southern Michigan Railroad name! Now who’s ready to go for a ride?
Project Update: Trenton High School Restores Speeder
The amazing students at Trenton High School have restored one of our speeders! This 1976 Fairmont A8C received a new cab floor, new lights, a tune up, and of course the flashy safety yellow paint job! Absolutely great work by these students, led by one of our volunteers, to bring this piece of equipment back to life. The speeder will be used by our maintenance crews to transport track materials on the line and perform inspections of our railroad right of way. The enclosed cab and heater will give our crews a MUCH more comfortable experience in the cold months.
Project Update: GMDH-3 Receives New Fuel Injectors
We have some more exciting news from this weekend! In addition to the arrival of our new locomotive last week, our General Motors GMDH-3 prototype demonstrator spoke its first words in years on Saturday. The GMDH is a extremely unique one of a kind locomotive that was designed for export, and was sent overseas as a demo unit before returning to North America. Powered by a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel 8V-71 engine it has a exhaust note that sounds quite odd, and is a smaller cousin to large EMD engines powering many freight locomotives to this day. This was just