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.
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
New Acquisition: SMRS #2022
We have some exciting news to share! This morning saw the arrival of a new locomotive at the Southern Michigan Railroad. “Little Red” as it was called at its former home, was a plant switcher at the DuPont Washington Works facility in Washington, WV. It will be numbered #2022 to celebrate our 40th anniversary of the SMRS this year. #2022 is a General Electric 45 ton switching locomotive, built in April of 1952. We plan to have “Little Red” working in revenue service this summer working alongside our normal power WM #75. This welcome addition to our fleet would not