(The following story by Lindsay Knake appeared on The Saginaw News website on July 20, 2010.)
SAGINAW, Mich. — The Saginaw Railway Museum is no longer in danger of being landlocked.
CSX Transportation came to an agreement with Saginaw Bay Southern Railway to leave in 300 feet of track to keep the museum connected to the North American railway system.
In May, museum board president Jim Trier learned CSX, a Jacksonville, Florida-based company wanted to remove a short line that once connected the former Malleable Iron Foundry, 77 W. Center, to the main rail line running through Saginaw. The unused track crosses Michigan, Hamilton and Salt, which are rough crossings CSX wanted to remove and repave.
The company still plans to remove the crossings, Trier said, and should start soon.
Trier asked CSX to leave in about 300 feet of track so the museum at 800 Maple could move rolling stock if needed. It would not mean any of the road crossings would have to stay, but CSX asked for $20,000, an amount the museum could not afford.
“We were pretty scared we wouldn’t get anymore donations,” Trier said. “What’s a railway museum without access to the railroad?”
Trier said his reaction was joy and happiness when he found out CSX and Saginaw Bay Southern had made an agreement. He had been surprised at CSX’s asking price, he said, as CSX was the company that connected the museum to the line in 1991.
“They were very good to us, and again they are,” he said. “They left the track in there and they’re not going to take it out.”
Now museum board members are no longer concerned about be able to move either of their two engines and taking new donations. Should that need arise, Saginaw Bay Southern Vice President Mark Naggy said the railway company will help move the stock.
The railway company now owns the track and leases the land underneath from CSX, and has no current plans to use the railway for anything else.
“The agreement was facilitated to let the museum have access to the track, Naggy said. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”
The Saginaw Railway Museum may even have benefited from the situation.
Trier said he has received several phone calls from people offering donations to the museum, including photos from a man whose mother once worked at the museum’s building when it was an active depot in Hemlock until the 1940s.