DT&I: Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Overview

Unknown Author, Public Domain
This is a map of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad
as of 1918, with trackage rights in purple
 and then-proposed lines dotted.

(Update: an album of DT&I photos by John F. Bjorklund)

The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton route started as various narrow gauge railroads. With a series of bankruptcies and corporate maneuvers, it became a contiguous standard gauge railroad between Detroit and Ironton with a branch to Toledo. When Henry Ford was building his huge River Rouge Complex, he bought the DT&I on July 9, 1920 and added the Dearborn branch shown on the map below. The DT&I route connected his plant to all of the major east/west railroads and allowed him to choose which railroads handled which shipments. But his vision was much more than a glorified industrial spur. He planed to build an extension to Deepwater, WV where it would connect with the lucrative Virginian Railway. He then planned to buy that railway to give him a connection to an Atlantic port. He also planned to electrify the DT&I. The Dearborn Branch was built with 25-cycle, 22kv catenary. And his company built two electric locomotives to use on that branch. But the bully and horse&wagon attitudes of the Interstate Commerce Commission took all the fun out of playing with railroads. So on June 27, 1929 he sold the DT&I to Pennsy. The route ended up as part of Grand Trunk Western in 1978 instead of becoming part of Conrail. [american-rails] Remnants of the route are now part of the G&W's Indiana & Ohio Railway.

Franklin Hubbard posted, cropped
After my late uncle's passing when I was cleaning out his house I discovered this route map on the back of his bedroom door. Today I got it back from being mounted and framed. I think it came out really well. [GTW]

Michael Schwiebert: It’s unfortunate that the GT cared more on paper than they did in reality.

Peter Dudley shared, cropped
A c. 1976 map shows the north end(s) of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad (DT&I).
The Dearborn Branch (extending north from D&I Junction) still features about 100 reinforced-concrete electric catenary arches (overhead electrification was unplugged in 1930).

In the background of the photo below you can see some of the 7.5 ton concrete catenaries that were built over the double-track Dearborn Branch. I read that they are gong to be torn down.

Assembling a Manitowoc 999

Mark Hinsdale posted

"We'll Meet Under the Arches"

Northbound (R) and Southbound (L) Detroit, Toledo & Ironton trains meet on the railroad's Dearborn Branch near Penford in suburban Downriver Detroit. The iconic concrete arches over this section of the DT&I date back to Henry Ford's ambitious, but ultimately aborted electrification project he initiated after purchasing the railroad in 1920. The short-lived electric operation between the Rouge Complex in Dearborn and Flat Rock Yard lasted less than ten years, being discontinued in 1930. March, 1979 photo by Mark Hinsdale

Sean Trofin commented on Mark's share

Peter Dudley updated
The one-of-a-kind, experimental Pullman Rail Plane was photographed on October 26, 1933, during a test run along the ruler-straight Dearborn Branch of Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad (DT&I, aka "the railroad with the concrete arches").
The overhead electric catenary along the branch line (which was built to serve Ford Motor Company's Rouge River Complex in Dearborn) had been unplugged in 1930, after Henry Ford sold DT&I to Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1929.
A map I've seen of a proposed rapid transit route connecting Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) with downtown Detroit (via Ford Motor Company's Michigan Central Station) included this segment of the Dearborn Branch, currently-owned by Canadian National Railway (CN).
The Rail Plane was designed by William Bushnell Stout, who also designed the Ford Tri-Motor airliner. To me, the Rail Plane looks faster than the Douglas DC-3 airliner, which made its first flight on the thirtieth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight (December 17, 1933).
The Rail Plane's top speed was 90 mph, faster than a speeding Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), which debuted in 1949.
The Pullman Rail Plane project was dropped after sales failed to materialize (Virtual Motor City Collection photo, retrieved online from Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University).

Craig Hensley Photography posted

Under the Arches

Southbound CN L572 with ES44DC #2316 on point as they slowly make their way back to Flat Rock on the Dearborn Sub. The catenary arches were built for the former DT&I as part of Henry Ford's unsuccessful attempt to electrify the railroad. Deemed to costly to remove, the arches stand as a testament to time over a majority of this line. 

CN L572 - Taylor, MI - April 2023

Full resolution image and prints: 

https://www.craighensleyphotography.com/Portfolio/Railroad-Photography/i-HdnDZZw/A

Roy Howze: What are the arches for brother.?
Rich Emery: Roy Howze -- when Henry Ford owned the DT&I railroad, he intended to electrify at least part of it, south of Detroit. These arches are the catenaries intended to hold the electric lines.
Jack Lee Stryker II: Roy Howze these arches were built for double track and electrification, and built with generous clearances. Since this line doesn't see double stack intermodal and plenty tall for the autoracks and autoparts cars that go down this line, the arches aren't a clearance issue for now, at least.