Another Detroit Question

[chapmaja]

So I have another question about the tracks in Detroit.

CSX's line from Plymouth runs due east into Detroit. When the tracks reach approximately Evergreen, there are two yards. One is on the line that goes SE and stays south of I96. The second is the intermodal yard that is on the north side of the expressway. The line that goes SE is the CSX mainline that ends up going to Rougemere.

The line that continues due east is my question. What is the history of this line? It continues to head east parallel to Fullerton and crosses the Conrail line (with two, apparently OOS wye tracks in the SW and SE quadrants), just east of I-96. The line serves a few customers it appears, including a scrap yard, before crossing I-94 as a two track (main and passing siding I presume) line. Just a bit southeast, beyond the switch to single track, the line ends between Howell and Hammond St's.

The ROW appears to only extend Buchanan St, a few blocks from the end of the track. The ROW now has Vouyager College Prep in the line where the tracks would have run. It appears SE of this location there may have been an old ROW, down to what is now the CP Rail line heading towards the tunnel.

What is the history of this line? At one time was this the main PM line into Detroit from Plymouth?

[Manistique]

Yes.

My understanding is that Oak Yard (the one that now is the CP intermodal yard) was originally the main Detroit Yard. And the "urban branchline" that you mention was a continuation of the mainline to, ultimately via trackage rights and the Union Belt of Detroit, Fort Street Union Station downtown. It ended at West Detroit Junction at GTW's West Detroit Yard (no longer there) and the Michigan Central. C&O in later years switched via this line (or probably shared switching) the Clark Street Cadillac Plant located on the NE quadrant of West Detroit Junction and had to cross GTW to do so. It also interchanged with GTW there.

The overpass across what if I recall is Junction Avenue right there at West Detroit Junction was PM's and hadn't been used in 50 years until MDOT figured out that it could cut some time off the Wolverines' schedule by running its trains from the new Detroit Station westward on GTW (CN) to here to get on CR/NS going west to Dearborn and Chicago instead of onto CR at Vinewood and going through Bay City Junction to do so and so tore down the old PM viaduct and built a new one about ten years ago and now Amtrak connects with CR/NS there. I guess the old viaduct was too far gone to be usable.

The old PM main line, what is known as the West Detroit Branch now I think, used to have some major industries on it, including a huge Kelsey Hayes (spelling?) plant on the north side of I-94. It was an industrial corridor at one time. When Ford built its Rouge Complex in the 1920's, PM built Rougemere Yard and made a new mainline bypassing Oak Yard to reach it and then reached Delray Tower and the Union Belt and Fort Street out of Rougemere, rendering the old main line a long urban branchline.

I am amazed that it is still in use. Pepsi is at the end of it now and gets enough corn syrup in tank cars to keep it open, I guess. Service comes out of Rougemere Yard I think via the West Branch (ex-PRR) of what was the Union Belt Line from P Company Junction up to Fullerton (which at one time had a yard and a wye) then east onto the West Detroit Branch. I don't think this branch ever became part of Union Belt or Conrail Shared Assets but is owned by CSX.

If anyone has any corrections or more to add, feel free.

[Doktor No]

Coke, not Pepsi...two chips, hamburger.

[GTW6401]

CSX has service on this branch line out of Oak Yard twice a week. Its been on Tuesday and Fridays.

Kimmel Scrap Iron and Metal is the other steady customer, plus a few others that ship more sporadically.

[Burb8145]

The overpass across what if I recall is Junction Avenue right there at West Detroit Junction was PM's and hadn't been used in 50 years until MDOT figured out that it could cut some time off the Wolverines' schedule by running its trains from the new Detroit Station westward on GTW (CN) to here to get on CR/NS going west to Dearborn and Chicago instead of onto CR at Vinewood and going through Bay City Junction to do so and so tore down the old PM viaduct and built a new one about ten years ago and now Amtrak connects with CR/NS there. I guess the old viaduct was too far gone to be usable.

You are correct in that it crosses Junction Street. The new viaduct was put in sometime in the mid-2010's, so not ten years ago.

[ConrailDetr​oit]

CSX has service on this branch line out of Oak Yard twice a week. Its been on Tuesday and Fridays.

Kimmel Scrap Iron and Metal is the other steady customer, plus a few others that ship more sporadically.

Word is (from about a year ago, from a CSX Conductor) that the West Detroit Branch is now worked on Afternoon Shift at Oak Yard on Tuesdays and Fridays, with a start time of 4pm and first they switch the yard, then go work the branch later in the evening / night.

What other sporadic customers other than Coke, Kimmel, and the customer between Joy and Linsdale?

[AARR]

Several spurs were removed recently to Heatbath and one of the steel place near Fuller. What few cars they used to receive will no longer arrive by rail.

What other sporadic customers other than Coke, Kimmel, and the customer between Joy and Linsdale?