The first freight train to Greenville over the new line was on November 12, when eleven cars of wheat from Carson City were delivered to
E. Middleton & Sons flour mills. The two track crews met at a location just west of
Cedar Springs on Christmas Day 1887, finishing the main track the entire . The next day a mixed train (carrying freight and passengers) worked the line each way out of Muskegon and Ashley. In the spring of 1888, the TS&M began running a full passenger train from Muskegon to Ashley and back. On August 1, 1888, the
Grand Trunk Railway took control of the TS&M and the trains began using the Toledo, Ann Arbor, & Northern Michigan between Ashley and
Owosso Junction. Operations consisted of mail and express trains #1 and 2 and mixed trains #5 and #6. Trains #1 and #5 were eastbound and trains #2 and #4 were westbound. Later, these trains were given Grand Trunk numbers #31 and #32 for the mail and express and #71 and #72 for the mixed trains. By 1914, the mail and express trains numbers had changed again to #41 and #42 and the mixed trains to #471 and #472. These trains would continue to operate under these numbers for the next forty years. It was common for the TS&M to run second and third sections of trains #471 and #472. Because of the light rail (#60), the TS&M used American type (4-4-0)locomotives. Doubleheaders and extra freights were common. The Grand Trunk experimented with a steam powered motor car between Ashley and Muskegon. The motorcar, #2, started running as trains #43 and #44 from Ashley to Muskegon and back in January 1914. The motorcar broke down frequently and had to be replaced with a regular steam train. After about a year, the motorcar was discontinued. In 1924, the
right of way was rebuilt with #80 rail, and newer locomotives were used. In 1928, the TS&M was merged along with other Michigan Grand Trunk Railway owned rail lines into the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, and the TS&M became the Muskegon Subdivision of the GTWRR.[2] == List of operations ==