Detroit Line Territory

The Conrail Detroit Line mains are the parallel products of competing railroads from Toledo to Detroit which were acquired by Cornelius Vanderbilt and absorbed into his New York Central System. The southbound main track #1 is ex-Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rwy. property while the northbound main track #2 is ex-Michigan Central RR iron.

Between CP-MILL in Ecorse and FN Tower in Trenton, the Detroit Line is accompanied by the GTW River Subdivision and the GTW Shore Line Subdivision, creating a wide right-of-way shared by 4 mainline tracks and 3 subdivisions of 2 two railroads. Visually, it is very impressive: four mainline tracks running straight and parallel, each seperated by earthen right of way with cattails and grasses and wetlands instead of ballast. It is like this, to varying degrees, all the way down to FN Tower in Trenton.

South of FN the Shore Line Sub parallels Track #2 of the Detroit Line to a point just north of the Ohio state line, while the River Sub heads west to Flat Rock MI. Meanwhile, Track #1 of the Detroit Line moves slightly to the west of Track #2, about 1/2 mile, leaving room for both Trenton Yard and Monroe Warner Yard. The two mains come back together at CP-LASALLE and run parallel south all the way to CP-289 on the NS Chicago Line in Toledo.

Locations of note North to South:

milepost 2.9 CP-WEST DETROIT Junction with the Conrail North Yard Branch and Michigan Line, Begin Detroit Line
3.7 CP-WATERMAN Crossover
5.3 Delray CSXT Detroit Subdivision connection and crossing
6.1 Bridge River Rouge crossing
6.5 CP-YD Junction with Conrail Junction Yard Secondary, junction with Marsh Track, junction with CNIC Shore Line Subdivision End Conrail Detroit Line Dispatcher, begin NS Dearborn Dispatcher
7.0 River Rouge Yard
7.8 Visger Road south end of Rouge Yard, a common place for outbound trains to be held
9.3 CP-MILL Crossovers, connection with GTW River Spur
11.8 Wyandotte Defect Detector Still reads Conrail!
15.5 FN Crossing with CNIC Shore Line Sub and CNIC River Spur
15.8 Trenton Yard !!Closed!!
17.0 Trenton Detroit Edison Plant Lead
18.3 Gibraltar Road Northward Connection from CNIC Shore Line Subdivision to #2 track
20.0 Gibraltar End Conrail Shared Assets, begin Norfolk Southern
22.1 NS Defect Detector #1 Track southbound main
22.4 NS Defect Detector #2 Track northbound main
32.7 Sandy North siding switch, #2 Track southbound main only
34.0 Warner Yard Ford Lead, #2 Track southbound main only
35.9 Monroe Former LS&MS Adrian Branch connection
36.6 CP-DUNBAR #2 Track connection with CNIC Shoreline Subdivision at Plum Creek to the shared Primary Lead to the Detroit Edison Monroe Plant and Thompson McCully
40.2 CP-LASALLE Crossovers
46.6 NS Defect Detector
49.3 Michigan-Ohio State Line
50.3 CP-ALEXIS Crossovers, Crossing with CSXT Toledo Terminal Sub, Ann Arbor RR, End Dearborn Dispatcher, begin Toledo Yard Dispatcher
51.4 CP-K Crossing with CSXT Toledo Terminal Sub
52.5 CP-52 North End Wagonworks Switch, #2 Track only
53+- Wagonworks "Where the coal trains hang"
54.7 CP-54 South End Wagonworks Switch, #2 Track only
55.9 CP-56 Crossover, junction with the Inbound Track to the Mega Yard and westward NS Chicago Line
56.9 Detroit Yard
57.7 CP-289 Eastward Junction with NS Chicago Line, END OF DETROIT LINE

Back to Detroit Line Page

Back to Conrail Detroit SAA Page

Drop me an email