History
The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated on November 1, 1899 in anticipation of a merger of three Michigan-based railroad companies that had been agreed upon by all parties. It began operations on January 1, 1900, absorbing the following companies:
- Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM)
- Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad (DGR&W)
- Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM)
The company was reincorporated on March 12, 1917 as the Pere Marquette Railway.
In the 1920s the Pere Marquette came under the control of Cleveland financiers Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen. These brothers also controlled the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate), the Erie Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and planned to merge the four companies. However, the ICC did not approve the merger and the Van Sweringens eventually sold their interest in the Pere Marquette to the C&O, with which it formally merged on June 6, 1947. The C&O has since become part of CSX Transportation.
In 1984, Amtrak named its passenger train between Grand Rapids, Michigan and Chicago the Pere Marquette.
The 2004 film "The Polar Express" featured steam locomotive Pere Marquette 1225. The train in the movie (not the same train in the popular children's book) was a model of the 1225 based on measurements and recordings of the 1225. It is the locomotive that Chris Van Allsberg claimed was the inspiration for the book, which he visited as a child when it was on the MSU campus. The locomotive was scheduled to be at the premiere in Grand Rapids, where the writer of the book, Chris Van Allsberg, was born, but canceled due to interferences with the schedule of CSX. It is housed and maintained at the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan
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