Howell

[Boss Boomer]

The next stop on the tour is the namesake city of Howell. The real Howell in Michigan is a small-ish country town and county seat, but I needed a full-blown "big city" to go with my railroad! Hence, Howell got a major promotion!

To the extreme left is the front of the city power plant which was described yesterday as we left Harville. Across the street from the power plant, though, is the M.R.E.T. Baking Company, a largish commercial bakery next to the tracks. Similar to the company that makes Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies, maybe ya heard of "Aunt Mary's" Cookies and Cakes and "Homestyle Breads?" Anyone? Hands? OK, maybe not. Whatever....

To the right of center is the old Hotel district and behind the hotel, (and quite hidden from this angle,) is the famous Downtown Two Brothers Restaurant. Actually, the Hotel district is now more of the "Apartment" district, although a traveller might find a room to rent by the day or week, most hotels in this area are available by the month.

At the extreme right of this photo, you can make out the grey front of the local Grocery and Cold Storage Wholesaler warehouse. More on it in the next picture.



Here we are looking at the Commuter stop in the business district of Howell. Although commuter service is waning, it is NOT dead. Actually, Michigan had a rather large commuter business even after the end of steam and after almost ALL roads had discontinued passenger service. Michigan ranked behind the Northeast Corridor and the West Coast commuter services. The main traffic was along the Pontiac/Detroit corridor--35 miles or so that was still going along in the '60's, which is the limit of MY railroad time period.

In the background, left, is that Wholesaler Grocer/Cold Storage business. It is the main generator of traffic in Howell, next to the power plants and their coal needs. A city the size of Howell needs lots of food and beverages to feed it's teeming masses and the Wholsaler gets railcar loads every day of the week except Sunday. (Well, Sunday, too, actually, but only if some load show up over the week-end and need to be un-loaded first thing Monday day-shift, which is common, really.)

Between the tracks is Tower HW that oversees the switches and traffic through this portion of the railroad and a small shed for tools for some of the railroad workers, and in the background, you can see more of Howell's business district in the distance.

In the right background area is Electro-Mech Corporation. This company makes a great variety of electrical motors and mechanical products for multiple industries and generates a considerable amount of traffic on-line and off-line. On-line, it receives dunnage, pallets, cardboard and wooden boxes from Harville. It ships and receives just about daily, so it's a good customer for the railroad.

If you look hard, you can see the loading dock for the railroad freight house just above the roof line of the commuter stop, and past the loading dock are the three yard tracks that serve Electro-Mech, it's power plant, the freight house, and the team tracks, which will be clearer in the next photo.



Here's a better view of the freight house and customer sales agent office for Howell, for the railroad. My railroad wants whatever traffic it can move, so The Howell & Marquette Northern still does some amount of l.c.l. traffic, and much of that traffic originates here, in Howell, for the convenience of my customers that will ship by rail rather than by truck for longer distances.

I tell my customers that trucks may be slightly more convenient since they travel anywhere there's a roadway, but trucks are dirty with pollutants and actually cost more due to insurance, fuel, and taxes, because there are so many more trucks doing the same job as the railroad! One train and one engine can do the work of 50 trucks, maybe more! Once you figure out all the costs involved, trains are the better deal! Really!

Anyways...behind the freight house is the yard, and beyond the yard is the power plant and water tower for Electro-Mech Corp. Electro-Mech gets a load of coal each and every day because it generates it's own power and steam and sells any residual back to the city.

In the center of the photo is more of the city industrial section, and to the right of the picture, Curve #3 begins swinging out of Howell toward Littleton and it's several businesses.

We're nearing the end of this trip down Memory Lane, so please be just a little more patient and I'll finish up in the next and last chapter at Littleton.