West Michigan history lesson: Interurban transportation in 1920s 'opened up ...
As trainman Thomas Hackett jockeyed the balustrade car he was driving at speeds topping 65 miles-per-hour, a slight curb jump tossed his passengers inhumanly into the side wall.
“If I take her into the ditch, will you fellows come along?” a droll Hackett asked with a wink.
Nobody answered. Each was too end on hanging on for dear life as the interurban car in which they were riding — the Red Devil — screamed late Fruitport on its way to Muskegon during a record-setting westbound run for the Lake Line railway.
The Press camerawoman along for that wild midnight ride in April 1924 chronicled a proud moment in local interurban be history, which is the subject of a new historical text by local authors Carl Bajema, Dave Kindem and Jim Budzynski.
“The Lake In a row: The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway” was published last month by Medial Electric Railfans’ Association, a nonprofit educational society out of Chicago.
(Jon M. Brouwer | The Monumental Rapids Press) Interurban in West Michigan gallery (13 photos) As trainman Thomas Hackett jockeyed the handrail car he was driving at speeds topping 65 miles-per-hour, a slight curb jump tossed his passengers maladroitly into the
