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Grand Trunk Western Railroad

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Grand Trunk Western Railroad
Overview
HeadquartersDetroit, Michigan
Reporting markGTW
LocaleMichigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Dates of operation1928–

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (reporting mark GTW) is an important American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway (reporting mark CN) operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971 the railroad has been under CN’s subsidiary holding company the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western’s routes are part of CN’s Midwest Division.[1] Its primary mainline between Chicago, Illinois and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad’s extensive trackage in Detroit, Michigan and across southern lower Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

Early History

A 1912 postcard of the Grand Trunk Depot at Charlotte, Michigan built in 1885 by GTW predecessor Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Western grew out of a collection of rail lines which included:

Routes
Grand Trunk Western began as a route for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (GTR) to link its line to Chicago through lower Michigan. GTR’s objective was to have a mainline from shipping ports in Portland, Maine to rail connections in Chicago through southern Ontario and Quebec that would serve Toronto and Montreal.[2] [3]
In 1859 the Grand Trunk completed its route to Sarnia, Ontario and began a ferry service across the St. Clair River to Port Huron. GTR would lease the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railroad to reach Detroit and from there would then run over the Michigan Central Railroad’s line from Detroit into Chicago.[3] It was on the line from Port Huron to Detroit that a 12-year-old Thomas Edison held his first job as a newsboy and candy butcher onboard passenger trains.[4] Grand Trunk would establish its own route to Chicago across Michigan when the New York Central Railroad’s William Vanderbilt took over control of the Michigan Central in 1878. [4] GTR sought to put together a route by acquiring three railroads it had already been sending some of its Chicago bound trains on since 1877. [3] The Chicago and Lake Huron Railroad, the Chicago and Northeastern Railroad (C&NE) and the Peninsular Railway of Michigan and Indiana together formed a direct route from Port Huron through Flint and Lansing, Michigan to Valparaiso, Indiana where it connected into Chicago on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. However, Vanderbilt owned the Chicago and Northeastern section of the route from Flint to Lansing and would charge Grand Trunk higher rates to move its freight over the line. Vanderbilt would soon sell the C&NE to Grand Trunk when GTR bought the other two lines in 1879 and proposed building its own route between Flint and Lansing just north of Vanderbilt’s line. [3] Grand Trunk completed its own route into Chicago from Valparaiso in 1880 and incorporated the entire line from Port Huron to Chicago as the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway.[5] Hofsomer, Don. Grand Trunk Corporation, The Canadian National Railways in the United States 1971-1992. 1995. Michigan State University Press. ISBN#18790-94703</ref>
Over the next two decades through either leases or purchases Grand Trunk would acquire several other branch lines in Michigan. It would take control of the Michigan Air-Line Railway through a lease in 1881. The line connected with the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction at Richmond, Michigan and ran to Jackson, Michigan through Romeo and Pontiac.[6] When Grand Trunk purchased the Great Western Railway in 1882 it also acquired the Detroit Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway (DGH&M) which Great Western had owned since 1877. [7] The DGH&M gave Grand trunk a route from Detroit through Pontiac, Durand and Grand Rapids to Grand Haven, Michigan where it would begin its Lake Michigan railcar ferry operations in 1902.[5] The DGH&M would connect with the Chicago and Grand Trunk at Durand and with the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction in Detroit. Durand would become a major junction point for Grand Trunk when it continued to increase its mileage. It acquired the 96 mile Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railway from Ashley, Michigan to Muskegon, Michigan in 1888. GTR would obtain trackage rights to reach the line at Ashley from Durand with the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railway, the predecessor of the Ann Arbor Railroad.[3] Grand Trunk acquired a route into Saginaw, Michigan in 1890 with the lease of the Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw Railroad from Durand to Bay City, Michigan. The line was the last to be held as a leased property until January 1943 when it was fully merged into Grand Trunk Western.[3] By 1900 Grand Trunk would unite the operations of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway and all of its lines in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana under a subsidiary company called the Grand Trunk Western Railway Company. The name derived from the fact that GTR’s rail lines west of the St. Clair and Detroit rivers were referred to as its Western Division. The lines had also operated under the name Grand Trunk Railway System.[4] Pontiac also continued to become another important junction point when the Pontiac Oxford and Northern Railroad was acquired in 1909. It ran north from Pontiac to Caseville in Michigan’s thumb region.[8] By 1910 GTW would have a network of trackage connecting all of lower Michigan’s major manufacturing cities when it acquired a lease on a short branch of the Chicago, Kalamazoo and Saginaw Railroad giving it access to Kalamazoo, Michigan. A few years before in 1902 GTW had gained access into Ohio with its shared ownership of the Detroit and Toledo Shore Line Railroad. The line was a small carrier that had a multi-track mainline bridging Detroit and Toledo, Ohio and was purchased equally by GTW and the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad, a predecessor of the Nickel Plate Road.[4] GTW eventually took complete control of the line when it bought Nickel Plate’s half interest from its successor Norfolk and Western Railway in 1981. [9] Grand Trunk Western also owned or co-owned terminal switching railroad companies in some of the cities it operated in. Beginning in 1905 it co-owned equal shares of the Detroit Terminal Railroad with New York Central (NYC). By the 1970s Detroit Terminal was suffering financial losses and GTW negotiated to sell its share to NYC’s successors Penn Central and Conrail until it dropped its ownership in 1981. [5] In Grand Rapids, Michigan it acquired the Grand Rapids Terminal Railroad in 1906. In Bay City, Michigan it owned the Bay City Terminal Railway and in Kalamazoo it took over the nearly three mile long Chicago and Kalamazoo Terminal Railroad by 1910. Prior to moving its ferry operations to Muskegon GTW also acquired the railway belt-line Muskegon Railway and Navigation Company in 1924. The company would exist as a GTW subsidiary until 1955.[10] For its entry into Chicago GTW, along with the Erie, Wabash, Chicago and Eastern Illinois and Monon railroads, was a co-owner of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad (C&WI) beginning in 1883. It performed passenger and express car switching duties at Chicago’s Dearborn Station. GTW was also part of a group that created and shared ownership in the Belt Railway Company of Chicago that connects every rail line in the Chicago area. [4] By 1919 GTW’s parent Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was suffering financial problems related to its ownership of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The Canadian Government nationalized Grand Trunk and other financially troubled Canadian rail companies by 1923 and amalgamated them into the new government owned entity, the Canadian National Railway. [2] GTW would become a subsidiary of the new entity and was reincorporated as the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company on November 1, 1928 when nearly all of its lines were formerly merged together under the company. [5][11] GTW’s predecessor Grand Trunk Railway also sought to expedite its rail service between Port Huron and Sarnia by constructing the world’s first international submarine rail tunnel under the St. Clair River. The St Clair Tunnel, completed in 1891, approximately 6,000 feet (m) long and hand dug allowed Grand Trunk to discontinue its ferry service across the river. The tunnel was the last link in GTR’s complete mainline from Chicago through southern Canada.[5] In 1992 Canadian National began construction of a new larger tunnel next to the original tunnel to accommodate double stacked intermodal containers and tri-level auto carriers used in freight train service. The new tunnel was completed in 1994 and dedicated on May 5, 1995. GTW also gained trackage rights in 1975 to use Penn Central’s Detroit River Tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Penn Central’s successor Conrail sold the tunnel to CN and Canadian Pacific Railway in 1985. Eventually CN sold its share of the Detroit tunnel in 2000 after the new St. Clair tunnel was completed. [5] The railroad’s first major line abandonment came in 1951 when it abandoned about half of the former Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railway line from Muskegon to Greenville, Michigan. That same year Grand Trunk Western bought its headquarters building at 131 West Lafayette Avenue in downtown Detroit. [5] At the end of 1970 GTW operated 2,154 miles (km) of track on 946 (km) miles of road and that year it reported 2,732 million net revenue ton-miles of freight and 49 million passenger-miles.

Grand Trunk Corporation

After several years of Canadian National subsidizing the financial losses of Grand Trunk Western a new holding company would be established by CN in 1971 to manage GTW. The Grand Trunk Corporation was created to shift full control of GTW operations to Detroit and begin a strategy to make the railroad profitable. CN’s other American properties, the Central Vermont Railway and the Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific Railway (DW&P) would also be placed under the new corporation initially for tax purposes. [5]

With the new corporation came a new autonomy for GTW from its parent CN. Grand Trunk Western had always shared equipment, color schemes and corporate logos with Canadian National. It shared CN's herald styles with its own name on the previous "tilted herald" and "Maple Leaf" logos. In 1960 when CN launched its new image GTW had its own initials incorporated into the "wet noodle" logo and followed with CN’s black red/orange and gray locomotive color scheme. However, to show its new autonomy from CN in 1971 GTW began receiving its new locomotives in its famous bright blue, red/orange and white scheme. [5] Most of GTW’s freight cars also received the blue and white color scheme. With new management the railroad implemented a new strategy to market shippers and improve its performance. In 1975 the railroad adopted its company slogan: The Good Track Road. This slogan promoted GTW's track maintenance efforts, at a time when many Eastern railroads suffered from deferred maintenance. The company also encouraged better safety practices which earned it the E.H. Herriman Award for safety five times in the 1980’s.[4][5]

DT&I Merger

Part of the railroad’s new strategy in the 1970’a and 1980’s was to seek new routes to expand it mileage and make itself more competitive in the long haul railroad market. After Conrail took over the railroad operations of Penn Central in 1976 the Penn Central Corporation sought to divest itself of its subsidiary the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad (DT&I) which was not taken over by Conrail. After seeking approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission GTW won approval over a joint bid from Norfolk and Western and Chessie System to acquire the DT&I in June 1980. The acquisition increased GTW’s trackage around Detroit's industries including Ford Motor Company’s large River Rouge Complex, DT&I’s classification hump yard in Flat Rock, Michigan and routes south into Ohio with access to rail interchanges in Cincinnati, Ohio. As part of the ICC’s approval GTW was obligated to divest its half or buy Norfolk and Western’s share in the Detroit and Toledo Shore Line. It purchased N&W’s share in April 1981 for $1.9 million and completely merged the line into GTW later that same year. [5]

The Milwaukee Road

Grand Trunk Western sought to further expand its trackage by seeking to purchase one of the bankrupt Midwest railroads, the Milwaukee Road or the Rock Island, of the 1970s. After inspecting the Rock Island’s property and finding its trackage in need of costly repairs GTW turned its attention in 1981 to acquiring the Milwaukee Road. GTW saw the acquisition of the Milwaukee Road as an opportunity to expanded its route further south and west to rail interchanges in Kansas City, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky and transform GTW into a long haul carrier. It would also afford GTW the opportunity to connect directly with its corporate cousin the DW&P at Duluth, Minnesota. Instead of initially placing a bid for the Milwaukee Road and seeking immediate ICC approval GTW embarked on a strategy to improve the line’s revenue and track maintenance. GTW and Milwaukee Road would enter into a ‘’voluntary coordination agreement’’ where GTW would direct more of its shipments over the Milwaukee Road’s route. It would also launch a marketing effort promoting the merger. However, as the Milwaukee Road became more successful two other potential bidders the Soo Line Railroad and the Chicago and NorthWestern Railway petitioned the ICC to purchase the railroad. Despite GTW’s efforts the ICC rejected its bid and approved of the Soo Line’s acquisition of the Milwaukee Road and the two roads were merged in January 1986.[5]

During the 1970’s and 1980’s Grand Trunk Western would continue to improve its efficiency and embark on efforts to improve its operating ratio. It had consolidated some of its operations including dispatching in Pontiac, locomotive maintenance in Battle Creek and railcar maintenance in Port Huron. Its intercity passenger train operations would be handed over to Amtrak in 1971. Responsibility for GTW’s commuter rail operation in Detroit was turned over in 1974 to the regional transportation authority SEMTA. [4] GTW moved into the intermodal freight business by creating intermodal transfer yards in Chicago in 1975 and suburban Detroit, in 1978. [5] The railroad’s president at the time, John H. Burdakin, was also a proponent of the Automatic Car Identification (ACI) system. It was a means to identify the location of shipments and equipment with bar code labels on the sides of freight cars and locomotives. The labels were read by automatic scanners at various rail yards. When Conrail was formed in 1976 GTW sought to acquire some of its routes in Michigan. It gained 151 miles (km) of trackage between Saginaw and Bay City as well as near Durand, Muskegon and Midland, Michigan.[5] Several of GTW’s cuts in its expenditures came from reductions in its workforce through changes it negotiated in union work rules.[5] In 1978 it discontinued its Lake Michigan railcar ferry operations after consecutive years of financial losses over $1 million. By 1987 the company sold its headquarters building on Lafayette Avenue in Detroit and moved to the new office park complex Brewery Park. The complex was developed on the site of the former Stroh’s Brewery near downtown Detroit. Locomotive performance was also enhanced with a rebuilding program of its EMD GP9s.[5] By the 1990’s several miles of routes and facilities were abandoned or sold to regional rail companies. GTW would eliminate all of the former Pontiac Oxford and Northern line north of General Motor’s Lake Orion manufacturing plant by 1984.[12] In 1987 the former Cincinnati Saginaw and Mackinaw and the form Detroit Grand Haven and Milwaukee routes north of Durand were sold to the Central Michigan Railway. Elsdon Yard, GTW’s primary terminal and rail yard in Chicago had been downsized and closed by 1990. It had also sold almost the entire route of the Detroit Toledo and Ironton in 1997 to the shortline rail operator Railtex. By 1998 it had abandoned the entire former Michigan Air Line route except for a portion in Oakland County, Michigan it sold to the Coe Railroad. With the end of SEMTA commuter rail service to Downtown Detroit in 1983 GTW abandoned and sold its trackage from the Milwaukee Junction area to downtown Detroit. That line was the former route to Brush Street Station and its railcar ferry dock on the Detroit River. It is known as the Dequindre Cut which has been transformed into an urban greenway rail trail. By the year 2000 engine terminals and maintenance facilities had also been eliminated or downsized in Chicago, Detroit, Durand, Pontiac, Port Huron and Battle Creek.

In December 1991, Canadian National announced a corporate image and restructuring program to consolidate all of its U.S. railroads under the CN North America brand. Grand Trunk Western along with other CN owned subsidiaries would see their images replaced with the CN logo and name. [5] All GTW corporate identification and that of its new corporate cousins the Illinois Central Railroad (acquired by CN in 1999) and Wisconsin Central Ltd. (acquired by CN in 2001) are referred to with CN’s name and corporate image. However, while each railroad’s locomotives would eventually receive CN’s logo and black, red-orange and white paint scheme they would still retain their respective reporting marks. Despite the corporate re-branding GTW's blue color scheme and its logo would persist on rolling stock and locomotives for several years while they are slowly either repainted or retired. CN also reintegrated managerial and some operational control of GTW as it would gradually shift out of Detroit and into CN headquarters in Montreal. [5] GTW would continue to maintain some office and dispatching functions from offices in suburban Troy, Michigan. All the routes that make up GTW are part of CN’s Chicago Division in its Southern Region. Grand Trunk Corporation, now formerly headquartered at CN in Montreal, is the holding company for almost all of CN's U.S. properties which include Grand Trunk Western, Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific and Great Lakes Transportation which includes the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad (B&LE) and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DMIR.) The Association of American Railroads has considered the Grand Trunk Corporation as a single non-operating Class 1 Railroad since 2002. Grand Trunk Western still exists as a corporate entity but is now considered a company on paper. CN refers to GTW’s routes and operations in its corporate communications as ‘’the former Grand Trunk Western territory.’’[1]

Passenger trains

Grand Trunk Western's primary passenger trains were The Maple Leaf, the International Limited, the Inter-City Limited and The LaSalle, which provided service between Chicago’s Dearborn Station and Toronto Union Station. In 1967, GTW introduced The Mohawk as a fast through train between Chicago and Brush Street Station in Detroit. Passenger operations were handed over to Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak's Chicago to Port Huron trains, known as its Blue Water Service, operates over GTW's route between Battle Creek and Port Huron.

GTW along with the Erie Railroad, Wabash Railroad, Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad and Monon Railroad was a co-owner of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, C&WI, which performed passenger and express car switching at Dearborn Station in Chicago. GTW was also part of a group that created and shared ownership in the Belt Railway Company of Chicago that connects every rail line in Chicago.

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The railroad also operated suburban commuter trains between downtown Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan from August 1931 until January 1974 when the now defunct SEMTA (Southeast Michigan Transportation Authority) took over operating the commuter trains. Amtrak’s Detroit–Chicago trains now originate or terminate over this former commuter line making stops in the northern Detroit suburbs of Pontiac, Birmingham and Royal Oak, Michigan. Part of GTW's former route in Detroit to Brush Street Station and its railcar ferry dock known as the Dequindre Cut has been transformed into an urban greenway rail trail.

Car ferries

GTW also operated rail-barge service across the St. Clair River between Port Huron and Sarnia and a railcar ferry service across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. It also ran car ferries across Lake Michigan from Muskegon, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Originally the ferries originated in Grand Haven, Michigan. The lake ferries were operated by GTW's subsidiary Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company. GTW's Lake Michigan car ferry fleet of steamers included the SS Grand Haven, SS Milwaukee (which was lost in a storm in October 1929), Grand Rapids, Madison and the City of Milwaukee.

The Detroit River ferries ceased running in 1975. They were replaced with trackage rights over the Penn Central through PC's Detroit River Tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Construction of Renaissance Center in Detroit in 1973 necessitated the demolition of GTW's Brush Street Station and carferry slip.

GTW discontinued the Lake Michigan carferries in October 1978. The St. Clair River ferries had initially been discontinued in 1891 when the first St. Clair Tunnel opened, but were reinstated in 1971 due to clearance problems for some cars at the tunnel. In 1995 when the larger St. Clair tunnel opened, the ferries ceased operation on the river. The CN/GTW ferries at Port Huron were the last railcar ferrying operation in Great Lakes waters.

  • Grand Trunk Western GP38-2 Locomotive 4926 idels at siding in Pavilion, Michigan on April 14, 2008.
    Grand Trunk Western GP38-2 Locomotive 4926 idels at siding in Pavilion, Michigan on April 14, 2008.
  • GTW #4619 an GP9 heading south on the Kalamazoo spur track near Battle Creek, Michigan.
    GTW #4619 an GP9 heading south on the Kalamazoo spur track near Battle Creek, Michigan.
  • This GP38-2 GTW Locomotive #4905 is sitting idle in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 7, 2008.
    This GP38-2 GTW Locomotive #4905 is sitting idle in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 7, 2008.
  • GTW 6228, a GP38-2 seen here at Senatobia, Mississippi on December 4, 2006, is an example of GTW power.
    GTW 6228, a GP38-2 seen here at Senatobia, Mississippi on December 4, 2006, is an example of GTW power.
  • GTW Locomotive 5801, an EMD GP38AC built in 1971.
    GTW Locomotive 5801, an EMD GP38AC built in 1971.
  • GTW boxcar at Marichal Joffre carload centre in Charny, Quebec. date taken January 26, 2011
    GTW boxcar at Marichal Joffre carload centre in Charny, Quebec. date taken January 26, 2011
  • A GTW caboose, on permanent display at a tourist information center in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec.
    A GTW caboose, on permanent display at a tourist information center in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec.

Note

  1. ^ a b Canadian National CN-News
  2. ^ a b Mika, Nick and Helma. Railways of Canada, A Pictoral History. 1972. McGraw Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN#0-07-082815-6
  3. ^ a b c d e f Michiganrailroads.com reprinting of The History of the GTW Mainline from Port Huron to Chicago, Cleland B. Wyllie, The Inside Track, Sept. 1972
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Dorin, Patrick. Grand Trunk Western. 1977. Superior Publishing. ISBN#0-87564-716-2
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Hofsomer, Don. Grand Trunk Corporation, The Canadian National Railways in the United States 1971-1992. 1995. Michigan State University Press. ISBN#18790-94703
  6. ^ [www.orchardtrail.org orchard-trail-news-2008-Smr-1.pdf Platz, Richard. Rail Trails. Macomb Orchard Trail News, July 2008]
  7. ^ The Quebec History Encyclopedia, Grand Trunk Railway
  8. ^ [ http://www.avonhistory2008.com/history_books/History_oakland_co_seeley/chapter15.htm Oakland History, Means of Transportation]
  9. ^ Moody's Transportation Manual, 1992, p. 233, 237
  10. ^ Labelle Models Muskegon Railway and Navigation
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Railway was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Enjoy a Slice of the Polly Ann Trail from Oxford to Leonard, Jonathan Schechter, The Oakland Press, June 11, 2011

References

  • Dorin, Patrick C. (1976). Grand Trunk Western. ISBN 0-87564-716-2.
  • Hofsommer, Don L. Grand Trunk Corporation, Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971-1992.
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