Railroad: Detroit Terminal Railroad Company

The Detroit Terminal Railroad was a belt line around central Detroit which connected various industrial facilities on the ring around Detroit, including Chrysler plants on the Detroit River east of downtown, the Ford Highland Park plant and Rouge Works in Dearborn. The railroad was jointly owned by the Grand Trunk Western (50%) and Vanderbilt roads (Michigan Central and Lake Shore, each 25%). Most of the railroad was built between 1912 and 1914. In the 1980's the line started to be dismantled. The only section retained today is from North Yard (Detroit) to a newer Chrysler Plant near East Jefferson Avenue. 

Built → Detroit Terminal Railroad → Conrail

Built: 1905 as a joint venture between 3 railroads.

Operated for 76 years.

Became: Conrail in 1981

Reference: [MRRC]

Notes

According to Schramm, et al in "When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails", the idea for the Detroit Terminal railroad was credited to P.N. Jacobsen, a promoter of the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Short Line (an electric road) who organized the DTRR in 1904. Officers of the Berry Varnish Company provided some initial funding. After the LSMS-MC and DGH&M-GTW provided funding for construction, the line was built starting in 1906 on the east side at the Detroit River, and then west as a "belt" through North Detroit, Highland Park, west Detroit and Dearborn. According to an early agreement, the MC operated the DT on behalf of the other railroads, until business on the DT warranted the purchase of their own equipment and hiring of employees. [EMR4]

Owned at incorporation by Grand Trunk Western (50%), Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (25%) and Michigan Central (25%).

This was an industrial belt railroad which served many automotive assembly and supplier plants in the cities of Dearborn, Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

Even though the railroad was owned by major roads, it had its own main yard and locomotive facilities called Davison Yard, which was between Highland Park and North Detroit. Those facilities now make up the Mound Road correctional facility and Detroit Intake Center.

Photo Info: The DT railroad Davison Yard coaling tower in 1964. [Charles Geletzke Jr. photo]. The map below is from 1914.

Time Line

1911. Detroit Terminal Railroad, completed in 1911, originally terminated in a wye-junction with Michigan Central Railroad (M.C.R.R.) in Dearborn, Michigan, just west of the c. 1892 single-track Pere Marquette Railroad (PM) overpass.

1916. The Detroit Terminal railroad builds a new 100-ton coaling chute. [RR-1916-0101]

1918. The DT adds three stalls to its roundhouse. [RR-1918-0105]

1920. The Detroit Terminal serves 127 industries with 244 sidings and a car capacity of 2,546 cars. They have seven sets of team tracks which hold 280 cars and 2 freight houses. [DWT-1920]

1924. A single-track DTRR bridge was built over the M.C.R.R. mainline, connecting with yards further south and the then-new Ford River Rouge Complex.

1962. The wye connection between DTRR and New York Central System’s mainline, straddling the north approach of the Miller Road Overpass, was eliminated in 1962.

1981. DTRR became part of Conrail on July 16, 1981. Nearly the entire one-time DTRR on Detroit's west side has been abandoned.

Map