The Territory

The Grand Trunk Western Shore Line Subdivision was once the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line Railroad Company (D&TSL). It served as a bridge line for joint owners NKP and GTW until N&W sold its half to GTW in 1981. From that time forward the Shore Line Sub has been lengthened to include territory that was once part of the Wabash Rwy from Rouge Bridge to West Detroit, as well as territory that was part of the GTW Mount Clemens Sub.

The Shore Line sub parallels the NS Detroit Line from the Michigan/Ohio State Line northward all the way to Gibraltar. From there it parallels the Conrail Detroit Line all the way to River Rouge Yard where it briefly diverges toward the NS Rouge Bridge and then back again to parallel the Detroit Line from Delray north to West Detroit, whereupon it parallels the Conrail North Yard Branch as far as North Yard (at a location called Forest Lawn on GTW).

It runs on the east side of the Detroit Line right of way from Ohio to FN Tower in Trenton, where is crosses over both mains to the west side. At CP-BEAUBIEN on the North Yard Branch it crosses back over to the east side of Conrail property.

Dizzy yet? Don't be, because at FN the GTW River Spur joins in on the fun, running parallel to both the Detroit Line and the Shore Line Sub from there to CP-MILL on the Detroit Line, creating a wide right of way shared by 4 mainline tracks and 3 subdivisions of 2 railroads. Visually, it is very impressive: Four mainline tracks running straight and parallel, each separated by earthen right of way with cattails and grasses and wetlands instead of ballast. It is like this, to varying degrees, all the way from FN Tower in Trenton to CP-MILL in Ecorse.

Through traffic from GTW Flat Rock Yard or Toledo Lang Yard to Durand or Port Huron uses the The Shoreline Sub north from FN Tower to NS River Bridge and CSX Delray to Milwaukee Junction OR uses a brand new connection from the Shore Line Sub called COOLIDGE to get onto the Conrail Detroit Line south of CP-YD in order to bypass the NS Bridge/Delray mess altogether. Trains return to GTW rail at CP-VINEWOOD.

Coolidge is the long-awaited answer to the congestion at Ecorse Jct., NS Bridge, CSX Delray, and the Dix Ave. interlockings. Previously, northbound GTW (CNIC) trains would have to hold at Ecorse Jct., and southbound trains would have to hold at CP West Detroit and or Delray until these interlockings were clear of cross traffic. Now, they can skip all of this congestion if Conrail has a clear route for them between CP-YD and CP-Vinewood.

The latter is a big if. Jim Harlow writes: " Ever since the D&TSL and/or GTW has operated on the Wabash past Waterman Ave. (called "Dix Ave." in the past GTW ETTs - and a SEPARATE interlocker apart from CP Waterman), all trains operating by here have been snarled and confounded here by the yard operations of the MC/LS&MS/NYC, etc., taking place at the South Receiving Yard part of the Livernois Yard complex. This should be continuing right up to the present day. I recall that when I worked at West Detroit tower, we'd have to hold those poor Trunks until their trains crews and dispatchers cried bloody murder, waking the GTW Superintendent up in the middle of night to wake up and call the CR Superintendent about their delays, and the like -- No Foolin Here. The reason was all the switching traffic that crossed the Wabash mains at Waterman, and the switching traffic at Livernois Yard crossing the Wabash/GTW at West Detroit. Now - the switching traffic at West Detroit has virtually disappeared since the closing down of most operations at Livernois Yard, BUT still continues at CP Waterman (Dix), especially during the early evening when the "vansite" next to the South Receiving Yard is being switched for the night "fleet's" intermodal traffic pickups (those trains originating at Sterling and North yards and running south out of Detroit). If you could see how the switches on CR are laid out at Waterman, I think you would be amazed. As one follows the track from the CP Waterman interlocking towards the South Receiving, one first crosses the double track of the former Wabash, and then comes immediately to a hand-throw switch just outside of the interlocking limits on this lead. The right-hand side of this switch is the lead into the Vansite, where various tracks begin to fan out off that track, and the left-hand track is the lead into South Receiving, where tracks immediately fan out from that track also. What happens there in the evening is that the Vansite job first switches the Vansite to block the intermodal pickups cars, then drags them out of that yard and places them on different tracks in the South Receiving Yard - and maybe also on the two sidings paralleling the CR No. 1 track between CP West Detroit and CP Waterman (called the "NYC Passing Track" and "No. 1 in the NYC", east to west). In dragging out these cuts south out the Vansite, the switcher uses a stub-ended track from a hand-throw switch located between the CP Waterman and Dix Ave. interlockings, so that the CR mains aren't tied up. Now -- once all the loaded intermodal cars are taken out of the Vansite, the switcher replaces them with empty cars, for loading the next day, or cars that need unloading -- from either the South Receiving Yard or the two sidings between CP West Detroit and CP Waterman. This switching process consumes HOURS of time in the early evening. And if the operators DARED to hold up this switching job by running a GTW in either direction by there, they would, at the very least, lose most of their skin, and get threatened by the CR trainmaster with their jobs! Holding up switching would might mean delaying a CR southbound for his pickup, thereby creating a blockage on the CR mains. Sometimes, those CR southbounds were well over a mile in length, so stopping at CP Waterman for a pickup would mean West Detroit and CP Scotten would be entirely sewn up with these long trains, blocking ALL the east-west CR tracks at West Detroit. If this sounds like a nightmare, oh Yes, it was, and probably still is, as I assume that NS and CSX trains still pickup intermodal traffic at Waterman on their way out of town at night. This area was not designed to handle long trains performing these maneuvers."

Local traffic from Flat Rock or Trenton to Downriver industries will stay on the River Spur and continue north to GTW South Yard. There is very little Local traffic on the Shore Line Sub north of FN.