The Pere Marquette 1223 is a steam locomotive on permanent display in Grand Haven, Michigan. It is one of two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type locomotives, along with sibling engine No. 1225, the inspiration for the locomotive in the book and movie versions of The Polar Express, which is in operating condition.
Pere Marquette 1223
The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago.
The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
Loading salt into a Pere Marquette boxcar
C&O's The Pere Marquette at Grand Central Station in Chicago on December 26, 1967
Postcard depiction of the line's streamliners.
Postcard photo of one of the railroad's dining cars.