PRR Detroit

How did the Pennsy access Detroit? If on trackage rights, where did they start? Did PRR have their on own yard and industrial trackage in Detroit? Thanks much for any info..

The September 1967 issue of the Official Guide shows Pennsylvania Railroad reaching Detroit via a line
running from Columbus, Ohio through Bucyrus , Tiffin and Toledo to Detroit. No passenger service is
listed. I remember reading in Trains Magazine an article comparing Detroit-Chicago passenger service
among several roads and covered was a joint service by PRR and Wabash by way of Ft. Wayne, IN and
in the post WWII- early fifties era it was a hot train and quite popular. The 67 Official Guide has an entirely
Wabash route (by then N&W) remaining.

The PRR accessed DET from the Ft. Wayne mainline west of Mansfield, Ohio at Toledo Jct.

The line entered Toledo at Walbridge and ran on the east side of the Maumee River, then crossed the river to the west bank where the PRR Summit St. Stn. was located. The line junctioned with the Ann Arbor for a short distance to Alexis and then had trackage rights over the C&O (x-Pere Marquette) to Carlton where an orphan PRR line diverged and went to Delray, then over the Fort St. Union to that station.

The line had 3 roundtrips passenger, the premier was the "Red Arrow" which was the first PRR train to receive diesels as the Fort St. Stn. Viaduct could not take the weight of a K-4. Before diesels, the train stopped, the K cut off, and a station switcher brought the train to the platform.

The line at Bucyrus was the Columbus / Sandusky Branch that x'd the Toledo line at Carruthers. In later years, the Toledo line was abandoned from Toledo Jct. to Carruthers and traffic went via Bucyrus.

Fun fact: north of Carleton was a crossing of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton named Penford Interlocking. Also, the line from Toledo Jct. was one of the few on the PRR on which the timetable direction was northward.

Thanks very much for your detailed and interesting replies. Am I correct in assuming then, that the PRR reached Toledo and it's own station on it's own rails (not Toledo Union), Then ran the 50 or so miles from there to their isolated Detroit track on a combo of Ann Arbor and Pere Marquette trackage rights? Thanks again and I promise no more questions.

Bill Root
Oceano, California

Yes, the PRR line was a real patchwork north of Toledo. Now that I think of it, I'm wondering whether PRR crews had to carry a Wabash and Pere Marquette (and later C&O) timetable and rulebook; in Buffalo they had to carry a NYC timetable (with separate train numbers for NYC) and rulebook to get from SS49A to Central Terminal (SS49) and back.

I'm now also wondering whether the WAB and PM power was light enough to operate over the bridge or whether their trains, including the PRR-WAB Chicago trains, also had to change power to get into Union Station.