The Ann Arbor Railroad

The following interesting story of the great freigbt business tbat is being carried on by the Ann Arbor Railroad by means of its line of staam ferries acroe8 Lake Michigan was told by Manager Ashly in an interview with a Detroit Evening News staff correspondent: The Ann Arbor Railroad Co. has succeeded in working ont beyond the experimental stage the problem of carrying freight acroas Lake Michigan all of the year aronnd. The solution of the question bas enabled the company to transform its 300 miles of line between bere and Toledo f rom a ''jerkwater" road, so called becanse of the number of tnrns in it, to a trnnk line, and bas also opened up a sonrce of revenne - the hanlingjrf greatly iuoreased qnantities of through freight - wbich one other line, the Chicago & West Michigan, and perhaps one or two more, rnay yet compete for. General Manager Ashley, of the Ann Arbor company, speaking to a News reporter about this combined rail and water service, said that it opens up the way for the salvation of those roads north of a line drawn east and west from the foot of Saginaw Bay. Before the bulk of the pine was ent away, hauling lnmber was a very profitable business for these roads. Little is produced in what was onoe the pine districts to take the place of luniber. Th factories are comparatively few. A good deal of the land islight sand unsuitable for farming; consequently not inoch farm pioducts are raised for shipment. The population averages only about 10 to the square mile. The growing of sugar beets has been tried tbis year, stimulated by the bonnty bill passed by the legislature last winter; but the time when tbe beet sugar industry can be developed to a stage where it will be profitable to railroads is a good way off. In view oí these conditious Manager Ashley added tbat it is pretty difficult Eor a road north of the line indicated to make betterthan running expenses from purely state business. Everything above running expenses mnst oome Erom through freight trafflo, and it is this traffic that tbe euccessful transportation of oars aoross Lake Michigan makes possible. On the Detroit river ttaonsauds of cars ate transferred back and furth aoross the river every week ; bnt there the largest inn is less than two miles and the water is always emooth. It is a different thing from carrying a train of 21 loaded freight cars over 100 miles aoross the lake in all kinds of weather. That is what the two Ann Arbor ferries are doing. From this poiat they make fonr ports on the west shore - Manitowoo, Kewaunee, Menominee and Qladstone - in sururner, bnt only the first two iu winter, the harbors at Menominee and Gladstone beiag so situated that nnusnally heavy ice forrus in them. A round trip, say from here to Kewaunee, is made in 18 hours, which means better than one long train being transferred every day froiu one side of the lake to the other. As for the sea-going qualities of the boats, it oau be stated that only last Friday, when sorue 15 boats, iocluding one of the New York Central's liners, ran into Frankfort barbor for shelter, one of the ferries with a full load of cars carne across the lake, reaching Frankfort at daybreak. A glance at the map will bhow that, while the shortest rail route from the noithwest is across upper lake Miohigan, yet all of the roads that penétrate that section run to Chicago, exoept the Soo line, wbich is a feeder for the Canadian Pacific. Now that it bas been demonstrated that trains can be moved long distances over water as well as over land, this condition is changing. Thonsands of tons of freight that heretofore were sbipped by way of Chicago are now going aoross the lake without breaking bulk. The Ann Arbor, for instance, is sending empty cars all the way to St. Paul for freight. So satisfactory has the experiment beu that the company is going to put on three propellors to carry package freight, and will open up a new route to Manistique, on the Soo line. To accommodate this businesa they are now completing a warehouse on the water front at Frankfort, large enough so tbat 50 cars can be loaded and unloaded without switebing. The question is sometimes asked how boats can navigate northern Lake Michigan all winter wben down on the Detroit river and Lake Erie they sometimes can do so only under the greatest difficulties. The ieason is that Laka Michigan, being some 900 feet deep, does not freeze like Lake Erie, which is only about one-eightb that depth, or like the Detroit river. It must be a terribly cold night to freeze over the miles of olear water that can be fonnd even in midwinter in Lake Michigan. Such ioe as does form won 't hold more than 24 hours, and offers very little obstrnctitm to stearuers. The Ann Arbor ferries make pretty nearly schedule time regularly during the entire winter. Last winter, Manager Ashley says, Gov. Pingree told him to "pull up bis d d old road" if it wasn't paying. "I told Col. Atkinson to bear witness to the governor's rernark," said Jdanager Ashley, "and the nest week I pulled up eight miles of track and left St. Louis out in the cold. The people of St. Louis kicked, of course, bat I told tkera I was only following Pin gree's advioe. " In the last few years Manager Ashley bas jerked out a lot of tbe ourves on the Ann Arbor's line. Next summer the oompany will begin the construction of a 125,000 hotel for resorters at Frankfort. Crystal lake, near Frankfort, is one of the best fishing points in northern Michigan. Througb night trains with sleepers are to be run both ways, beginning in the spring.