Detroit Edison

What was the Detroit Edison. I could not find much online about them, except as a power company in south Michigan. But i know there was a detroit edison "railroad" because the MEC bought about half the DEEX fleet in the 80's. What was the DEEX and what happened to cause a railroad to sell half its fleet of locomotives?

I hope this is in the right topic section, not sure what the DEEX was, but based on the locomotive roster it was a small railroad.

This is from recollection and I'm not sure it is 100% - if someone has better details please feel free to correct me.

The locos I believe were purchased by the power company and assigned to unit coal trains operated over...Conrail? The idea was that since the power company was furnishing the locos there would always be motive power to move DE's own trains even if the railroad itself was short of power for other moves. I suspect they also got a lower freight rate by furnishing their own power.

As best I know DE did not operate a "railroad" as such other than around their plants, the big power was for over-the-road use on their Class I connections. I don't think I ever heard what factors led to the discontinuation of this concept and the sale of the power.

i have heard about other aggreements like this in trains magazines. I bet DE got a better offer from Conrail and/or Conrail fixed a motive power proble of their own and the DE units became surplus.

By the way thanks for the info, always appreciated

A lot of their engines were the EMD demonstrators.

i thought that the paint looked a lot like the ones EMD demos had. But i think about half their fleet was U-30-C's from GE. The B&M got these.

Well the EMDs were mostly demonstrators.

atsf sp wrote:A lot of their engines were the EMD demonstrators.

WRONG! DEEX fleet is mostly GE Power mostly U30C's about 10 or so I think there were a few EMD SD40's only 2 are left. There is a 79 minuet video put out by Green Frog Productions called "Detroit Edison Coal Trains from Coal to Kilowatts" that explains the operations of the railroad, the types of units that they operate and the movement of Coal to there power plants.

DEEX often always sends one of its units out with who ever there host railroad is like lets say Conrail or BNSF they do this so when train gets dropped off at the power plant the host roads power is removed as DEEX will not allow it to pass threw the dumper when spotting the first car. DEEX units run in idle and are mostly tag alongs when going to and from the coal mines and are not set to run as head end power this is why they are seen as the vary last unit trailing in the train it also makes the unit easier to get to once dropped off at the power plant as its still connected to the train once the host roads power is removed.

I don't rember but I think DEEX has a small car and Loco shop but could be wrong I'll have to rewatch the video this weekend if I have some free time to refresh my mind.

DEEX Loco fleet below:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoList.aspx?id=DEEX

So the power company pays for the cost of a locomotive and fuel, to trail along idling on the coal train all the way to the mine and back, just so it's there on the train once it gets back to the power plant loaded? No wonder our electric bills are so high!

Nice Point BR&P

BR&P wrote:So the power company pays for the cost of a locomotive and fuel, to trail along idling on the coal train all the way to the mine and back, just so it's there on the train once it gets back to the power plant loaded? No wonder our electric bills are so high!

the thought of them doing that is stupied but thats just how its done. In they do it becouse if one plant has a dead unit or one in the shop for inspection they know that a fresh one would or will arrive in the next rotation of locomotives. However some of there power plants are on the Great Lakes so Self Unloading Great Lakes Bulk Freighters are also makeing frequent stops as well as the railroad. Some of the Power plants take in one type of coal by train only. But have an unloading area for ships and the coal is reloaded on out bound DEEX Trains bound for outher power stations. Its a vary confusing operation.

I can`t say about other DE trains,but the ones that ran down to SW pennsylvania in the 80s, ran with soild DE power including the midtrain helpers.these trains came off the Monongahela rr with 140 loads with helpers 70 cars back.

DE 001-006 SD40
DE 007-012 U30c
DE 013-017 SD40
DE 018-022 U30c

all units painted in EMD demo colors,but I don`t think any were actual demos.

So did they pulled their own trains. Does DE still do this or did the running agreement end?

KSmitty wrote:So did they pulled their own trains. Does DE still do this or did the running agreement end?

I think DE still puts one of there units on every train going to the mine and back to the power plant. Someone on here is bound to know.

RSD15, I remember seeing those trains on Penn Central / Conrail. Always with mid-train helpers, either half or two-thirds back. They'd come through North Ridgeville (that's Shawville if your system map is old enough) Ohio on the NYC main toward Chicago, although I did understand even then that they headed North at Toledo to get to Detroit Edison's plant. Those trains were the longest we regularly saw and when one of those stopped us my Dad would shut off the car. I saw many of them.

These were the only mid-train helpers I ever saw here in normally-flat Northern Ohio.

The way I understand it now was that the midtrain helpers were remote controlled, and that some of each type of unit (SD40, U30C) were Locotrol masters or slaves. That's why they were numbered in separate number series - some of each masters, some of each slaves. EMD did I believe build some SD40 units for DE after the SD40-2 was in production. The color scheme was very much like that of some of the EMD 645-engine demos and artwork for never-built demos.

I had thought that DE sold off all these units many years ago.

-Will Davis

Typewriters wrote:RSD15, I remember seeing those trains on Penn Central / Conrail. Always with mid-train helpers, either half or two-thirds back. They'd come through North Ridgeville (that's Shawville if your system map is old enough) Ohio on the NYC main toward Chicago, although I did understand even then that they headed North at Toledo to get to Detroit Edison's plant. Those trains were the longest we regularly saw and when one of those stopped us my Dad would shut off the car. I saw many of them.

These were the only mid-train helpers I ever saw here in normally-flat Northern Ohio.

The way I understand it now was that the midtrain helpers were remote controlled, and that some of each type of unit (SD40, U30C) were Locotrol masters or slaves. That's why they were numbered in separate number series - some of each masters, some of each slaves. EMD did I believe build some SD40 units for DE after the SD40-2 was in production. The color scheme was very much like that of some of the EMD 645-engine demos and artwork for never-built demos.

I had thought that DE sold off all these units many years ago.

-Will Davis

I think All but 2 or 3 DE SD40's were all sold off