Detroit Line Trains

STIN-6 is southbound coming off the North Yard Branch and is entering the Conrail Detroit Line at CP-West Detroit on February 2, 1999. This location is milepost 2.9, and marks the northern end of the Detroit Line. Photograph Copyright © 1999-2002 Marcus U. Dogg

Traffic volume is light to moderate during the week, very quiet on weekend afternoons. The coal trains between Toledo and Monroe make it busier there than anywhere else south of Delray. The rail between West Detroit and Delray is probably the busiest of all due to the local traffic and the CP trains. The combination of all this plus the CN trains on the GTW River and Shore Line Subs, which we will deal with near the bottom of this page, can add up to a lot of business depending on where you are.

Train symbols that ply all or part of the Detroit Line include:

Norfolk Southern

171 (STPB) Detroit Sterling - Salem IL/UP
11V Bellevue OH - Detroit Sterling
17J (STBN) Detroit Sterling - Madison IL/TRRA/BNSF
17Q (PIST) Pittsburgh - Detroit Sterling
178 (formerly 332...go figure) Detroit Oakwood - Bellevue OH
18Q (BNST) Madison IL/TRRA/BNSF - Detroit Sterling
M8Q (Frequent second section of 18Q)
19M (COST) Columbus Buckeye OH - Detroit Sterling
20N (TV-20N) Chicago Ashland Ave - Detroit Livernois
10N (Second section 20N)
21N (TV-21N) Detroit Livernois - Cicero IL/BNSF
27G Detroit North Yard - Chicago Proviso
28G Chicago Ashland Ave - Detroit Wayne
28K Chicago Calumet Yard - Detroit Wayne
29A Kansas City MO - Detroit Jefferson Ave
331 Detroit Oakwood - Bellevue OH
343 St. Thomas - Detroit Oakwood
344 Detroit Oakwood - St. Thomas
40A Elkhart - Detroit Oakwood
41M (ML-441) Detroit North Yard - IHB Gibson Yard IN
48E (ELST) Elkhart IN - Detroit Sterling
49E (STEL) Detroit Sterling - Elkhart IN
542 (UDR) Shire Oaks PA - River Rouge....Coal Loads
543 (UDR) River Rouge - Shire Oaks PA....Coal Empties
544 (UTM) Shire Oaks PA - Trenton MI....Coal Loads
545 (UTM) Trenton MI - Shire Oaks PA....Coal Empties
546 (UDM) Shire Oaks PA - Monroe MI....Coal Loads
547 (UDM) Monroe MI - Shire Oaks PA....Coal Empties
665 (UTR) Trenton MI - BNSF Cicero....Coal Loads
680 (UDM) BNSF Cicero - Monroe MI....Coal Loads
681 (UDM) Monroe MI- BNSF Cicero....Coal Empties
858 Portsmouth OH - Ford Rouge Fordson Yard....Coke Loads
859 Ford Rouge Fordson Yard - Portsmouth OH....Coke Empties
862 Williamson WV - Monroe MI....Coal Loads
863 Monroe MI - Williamson WV....Coal Empties
880 Williamson WV - Monroe MI....Coal Loads
65A Rouge Steel Detroit - Fairless PA....Steel Empties
67A Fairless PA - Rouge Steel Detroit....Steel Loads
66Q Ecorse MI - Morrisville PA....Steel Empties
68T (MGL) Portage IN - Detroit River Rouge....Steel Empties
68W (DLP) Detroit Livernois - Philadelphia Greenwich....Steel Empties
69T (GLM) Detroit River Rouge - Portage, IN....Steel Loads
54Q Adrian MI - Harrisonburg VA....Grain Loads
55Q Harrisonburg VA - Adrian MI....Grain Empties
58J Albion MI - Valdosta GA....Grain Loads
59J Valdosta GA - Albion MI....Grain Empties
W44 Detroit Oakwood-Windsor Turn

Conrail

Y123/YDRR-23 Brownstown Job works the Ford Brownstown Parts Depot
YDRR-20 "The Glass Man" works the Guardian Glass Plant near Carleton, is also used as a River Rouge-Windsor Turn.
YDRR-50 Rouge/Techumseh/Delta/Livernois Job

River Rouge Yard jobs and Start Times

YDRR-20....0400
YDRR-01....0700
YDRR-32....1450
YDRR-50....1500
YDRR-40....1430
YDRR-03....0630
YDRR-30....2245
YDRR-51....2315
YDRR-R7....variable
YDRR-R9....variable
YDRR-23....0630
YDRR-02....0630

Livernois Yard jobs and Start Times

YDLV-10....0759
YDLV-08....0705
YDLV-R3....variable
YDLV-60....2300
YDLV-33....1559
YDLV-04....0630
YDLV-08....0759
YDLV-07....0600

CSX

Note: CSXT Coal trains to Trenton use either the Lincoln Secondary to CP-ECORSE and CP-YD to the Detroit Line and head south to Trenton on Track #1, OR use the CNIC Shore Line SD from Toledo Lang to Gibralter Road, crossing over to the Detroit Line track #2, then proceeding a mile or so to Trenton. Most loads use the CNIC route from Walbridge, and most empties use the Lincoln Secondary route back to Walbridge.

Q132 Detroit Livernois - Cleveland Collinwood intermodal
Q151 Cleveland Collingwood - Detroit Livernois intermodal
Q304 Toledo Stanley - Detroit North Yard manifest
Q305 Detroit North Yard - Toledo Stanley manifest
K538 Garrett IN - Detroit Livernois limestone
N852 Federal 2 Mine WV - Trenton MI coal loads
N835 Sapphire Mine KY - Trenton MI coal loads
N836 Bailey Mine PA - Trenton MI coal loads
N839 Myra KY - Trenton MI coal loads
N840 BNSF Cicero - Trenton MI coal loads
N841 BNSF Cicero - Trenton MI coal loads
E447 Trenton MI - Russell KY coal empties
E842 Trenton MI - Newell PA coal empties
E946 Trenton MI - BNSF Cicero coal empties
E958 Trenton MI - UP Proviso coal empties
Y203 Rougemere - Livernois Puller
D717 Plymouth - North Yard Frame Turn
D718 Rougemere - CN Windsor VanDeWater Turn

Canadian Pacific

Note: Canadian Pacific trains run on the Detroit Line between CP-West Detroit and Delray only. And we find that many of the Chicago-bound trains now use the new connection at CP-LOU on the Michigan Line to get to CSXT, bypassing this route through Delray and Rougemere. As more trainmen are being qualified for the new routing, fewer of these trains are moving over the Detroit Line to/from Delray. The sight of a CP train sitting on the Detroit Line waiting to get through Delray is becoming a rare one indeed.

500 Chicago Bensonville-Montreal
501 Montreal-Chicago Bensonville
502 Chicago Schiller Park-Montreal Hochelaga, PQ
503 Montreal-Chicago Schiller Park
504 Chicago IHB Blue Island-Toronto
505 Toronto-Chicago IHB Blue Island
507 Toronto-Detroit CSX Rougemere
508 Detroit-Montreal Hochelaga, PQ
509 Montreal-Detroit CSX Rougemere
511 Toronto-Chicago
512 Chicago-Saratoga
514 Chicago-Toronto
515 Toronto-Detroit NS Oakwood
516 Detroit NS Oakwood-Toronto
517 Toronto-Chicago Sunday only, combined 501 & 511
528 Detroit-Toronto
529 Toronto-Detroit NS Oakwood Roadrailer Terminal
530 Chicago-Montreal
531 Montreal-Chicago
532 Chicago-Montreal
533 Montreal-Chicago
534 Chicago-Toronto
535 Montreal-Chicago IHB Blue Island Yard
536 Chicago-Toronto
537 Toronto-Chicago
541 Toronto-St. Paul
542 St. Paul-Montreal
544 Chicago-Toronto
545 Toronto-Chicago
747 Toronto-Chicago IHB Gibson Yard

GTW, er, Canadian National

TRACK RIGHTS
CNIC trains, when possible, use Conrail trackage between CP-VINEWOOD and CP-YD on the Detroit Line to short cut around and avoid the Delray/Ecorse Junction bottleneck, which has plagued through traffic on the CNIC Shore Line Subdivision since Creation.

CN and Conrail have installed a brand new crossover near CP-YD, called COOLIDGE on CNIC. This connection provides yet another crossover between the GTW Shore Line Sub and the Conrail Detroit Line. CN already enjoys a crossover from the Conrail Detroit Line to the GTW River Sub at CP-MILL. This new connection at COOLIDGE allows CN traffic to avoid the maddening Ecorse/Delray congestion.

Brad The GTW Freak Kindschy writes:
"No pattern whatsoever as to which GTW trains use the Conrail Detroit Line between CP-YD and CP-VINEWOOD. Basically, the SAA is now run as a terminal railroad and one of the ways for them to make money is to offer trackage rights...so that is how CN got the rights. SAA will only handle the GTW trains when they have the capacity. CN will only route the trains that way when their own lines are congested. But any train with a qualified engineer can go via the Conrail Detroit Line."

Data provided by Shawn O'Day, Brad "The GTW Freak" Kindschy, John Krattanger, The Bull Sheet,
Wayne "King" Kuhl, James Deeds, Jim H. Harlow, Paul Hammond, Marcus U. Dogg, and Kevin Burkholder.

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