GETTING READY to roll again – Frankie Schwartz has a new project
-restoring this old tractor to full operation. Mr. Schwartz first
saw the tractor three years ago and has been all that time
persuading Howard Miller to sell it to him. Mr. Miller bought the
steam tractor in 1913 for $600 – but that was back in the days when
$1 was worth a great deal more than today. The tractor was used for
back and forth over Dent county. Mr. Schwartz plans to fix up the
boiler and flues, put the old steam tractor in first class shape,
fix up the wheels and drive it in Salem’s centennial parade
next year.
I also have a ‘ scale – 3’ track gauge of a Pennsy K-4
Pacific (4-6-2) in live steam and other odds and ends. This is just
a hobby and not for income.
Taken Feb. 23, 1933. Looking north the Pere Marquette railroad
station, on the west side of the village of Pent water across the
channel. The railroad ran only this far. In the early days a steam
passenger train and a steam freight train ran to and from Pent
water daily. The passenger train stayed over night and went out at
7:30 a.m. and another passenger train came in at 9:15 a.m. As the
automobiles increased, the passenger train service was discontinued
and the freight train ran only. As years went by the freight train
service was also discontinued in the year of 1933. The railroad
from Pent water to Mears, Michigan was then taken up and the P. M.
railroad station was also taken down. There are some houses where
the railroad yard once was in use.
On the picture the box by the telegraph pole is all of iron,
heavily made and belongs to the P. M. Railroad Company.
