Henry Ford liked to own things. In the acquisitory phase of his life, his possessions included an airport, a hotel, a fleet of lake freighters, a rubber plantation in Brazil—and a railroad.

 

 

Originally published in 2013, this piece has become one of our more popular features. We’ve found some great new photos and info since then, so here we go again. -MCG

 

In 1920, Henry Ford paid around $5 million to acquire the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad, a decrepit little road that was known as “the railroad to nowhere” for its tangle of meandering right-of-ways. Launched in 1874 as the Springfield, Jackson, & Pomeroy, a narrow-gauge railway serving the small coal towns of Southern Ohio, the road had gone broke multiple times, merging with a series of equally bankrupt rail companies along the way. One railroad writer of the era called the railroad “a wavering streak of rust.”

However, the DT&I did have one asset with tremendous potential for Ford: a line that ran north to south from Detroit all the way to Ironton, Ohio on the Ohio River near Huntington, West Virginia. Thus the modest little road had a connection with every major rail line crossing the Midwest, allowing Ford to negotiate more economical through-rates for his own cargo to and from his giant plants in Dearborn and Highland Park, and to his regional Model T assembly plants across the country.

 

Henry Ford inspecting a DT & I steam engine in 1921. 

 

In order to further frighten the rail industry into doing business his way, Ford thoroughly rebuilt his railroad in the pattern of his Model T production system, firing multiple layers of management and updating all the rolling stock. You could say that like many men, Henry enjoyed model railroading, but his toy train layout was in 1:1 scale.  With $15 million in investments, soon he had the little railroad gleaming like a new coin in his pocket, and in 1929 he sold the DT & I to the Pennsylvania Railroad interests for a bundle—more than seven times what he paid for it. But before he sold off the line, he performed an interesting experiment or two.

Ford electrified one branch of the road that ran from his massive River Rouge plant in Dearborn south to Flat Rock, then west through the towns of Carleton and Maybee, Michigan, a distance of 40 miles. To support the power wires, hundreds of concrete catenary towers or trestles were erected, many of which are still standing to this day. You can find them from just north of Oakwood Boulevard to just south of Eureka road, but the foundations for them are still present all the way west to Maybee. (The electric section was never completed as intended, evidently.) The trestles are typically between 200 and 300 feet apart, depending on the curve and grade.

 

Standing just north of Oakwood Boulevard and south of the Ford Rouge Plant are a dozen or more of these double catenaries, designed to supply current to four sets of track.

 

In late 19th and early 20th century there were countless electric railways across the United States, constructed mainly for city and interurban passenger travel. Ford’s plan was to use excess electrical production from his big powerhouse at the Highland Park Model T assembly plant to run a heavy freight road, and he had two giant engines built using Westinghouse motors and running gear (above). It’s worth mentioning that Ford was something of an expert on electric power generation. Before he launched his auto company, he was a Detroit Edison station engineer. However, the surplus electrical capacity never materialized at Highland Park, apparently, and at that point the experiment was abandoned.

 

Here’s the path of the DT&I’s planned electric rail line, stretching southwest from the Rouge plant in Dearborn through Flat Rock and Carleton nearly to Dundee. The line crosses under Interstate 75 near Eureka Road, Exit 36—and if you look, the towers there are easily visible from the interstate. 

 

Under the ownership of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the DT&I ran conventional steam engines until after WWII, then switched to GM Electro-Motive diesel-electrics with distinctive colors and graphics until the equipment was assimilated by Grand Trunk Western. The former DT & I trackage, along with the Dearborn and Flat Rock yards, are still in operation today under the management of Canadian National Railway. (By the way, the DT & I also experimented with gasoline-powered rail cars under Ford ownership, but that’s another story.)

 

The catenaries or their remains can be found from near the Rouge plant in Dearborn to the DT&I rail yards at Flat Rock. However, Ford had pedestals for the towers constructed southwest all the way to the town of Maybee (see map above). While the historical accounts differ on this point, it appears the footings between Flat Rock and Maybee were never used. 

 

Since they are mainly concrete, the old catenary towers have little salvage value, apparently, so it seems they just stand there until they get in the way or start to crumble and a few more are torn down. Eventually, the towers will all disappear, we expect. But in the meantime, Motor City residents still have these interesting local landmarks that stretch downriver for miles.