Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad: Map, Roster, History

Last revised: October 21, 2026

The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton was a freight railroad between Detroit and the Ohio River at Ironton, Ohio, with a leased entrance to Toledo. Reporting mark DTI. The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway was organized on May 2, 1905, the day after the Detroit Southern was sold at foreclosure. A new company, the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad, filed its articles in Delaware on February 21, 1914.

Henry Ford bought the railroad in 1920 and sold it in 1929 to the Pennroad Corporation, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Railroad. George H. Drury’s list of steam locomotives built after 1900 is the steam roster. Last steam was Mikado 805, to Flat Rock, on December 24, 1955. The Pennsylvania Company sold the stock under an Interstate Commerce Commission approval of June 3, 1980. The buyer was the Grand Trunk Western. The DT&I name remained in use after that approval.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP40 404 at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982

GP40 404 at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: Iron Railroad · Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy · The Railway and the Railroad · At a glance · Henry Ford · Steam and diesel · Maps · Grand Trunk Western

Iron Railroad

The oldest piece was the Iron Railroad, incorporated on March 7, 1849. It was built to Ohio’s broad gauge of 4 feet 10 inches, from Ironton north to Center Furnace, about 13 miles, between 1849 and December 1851. The traffic was pig iron and the materials that made it: ore, timber, limestone, and charcoal.

In 1883 the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington, part of the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis narrow-gauge project, reached the Iron Railroad near Center Furnace. That project failed. In 1884 the property went back to its earlier owners and was reincorporated as the Iron Railway. The Detroit Southern added the Iron Railway on September 25, 1902.

The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad logo. Author’s work.

Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy

The immediate line of the later DT&I begins with the Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy Railroad, incorporated on December 14, 1874. It was a 3-foot railroad, built for the coal of Jackson County. George Hilton, in American Narrow Gauge Railroads, counts it the third-longest narrow gauge in the country when it was completed on July 18, 1878. One segment ran from Springfield to Luray. The other ran from Washington Court House to Jackson. Five miles of trackage rights over the Dayton & Southeastern joined them. The completed railroad was 108 miles.

The hauls were short, and the company was in trouble before regular service had settled in. Built at a cost of $1.5 million, it was sued by its contractor in 1876 for unpaid construction of about $800,000. Receivership and a sale followed in 1879. The Springfield Southern was organized on November 3, 1879. The new owners converted the line to standard gauge and finished that work by January 1, 1880.

Austin Corbin’s Indiana, Bloomington & Western acquired the railroad on May 1, 1881. It took the name Ohio Southern on May 21, 1881, and it was spun off in 1886. A line north to Lima was finished late in 1893. An abandoned property, with short extensions, supplied a cross line through Jeffersonville, between Kingman and Sedalia.

The Railway and the Railroad

In 1901 the Ohio Southern and the Detroit & Lima Northern were consolidated as the Detroit Southern. The Detroit & Lima Northern was the railroad built north from Lima toward Detroit. The Iron Railway, added on September 25, 1902, was still a separate property at the Ohio River.

The Detroit Southern was sold at foreclosure on May 1, 1905. The purchaser was Harry B. Hollins & Company of New York. The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway was organized the next day, May 2, 1905, as the successor, and it was incorporated in Michigan.

The Railway was in receivers’ hands from February 1908, after a default on consolidated-mortgage interest. On February 21, 1914, articles of incorporation were filed at Dover, Delaware, for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Company, capital stock $12,500,000. The New York Times reported the filing the next day. The Railroad was formed to purchase and construct railroads, including the Railway and named predecessors. The preceding April, the Ohio Southern mortgage property had been sold to H. J. Schumacher and Daniel B. Murrey, for the reorganization committee, for $1,550,000. The Northern and Southern divisions were later sold to the committee, Otto T. Bannard and W. N. Buckner, for $1,650,000. The plan raised $4,079,055 in cash.

The reorganized railroad leased the Toledo-Detroit Railroad and thereby reached Toledo. For a time after 1905 the Railway controlled the Ann Arbor, and it lost that control in the 1908 receivership. The 1969 map shows the Ann Arbor again, in the years when the DT&I controlled it once more. During the First World War the railroad was under federal control and came back worn out.

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Detroit, Toledo & Ironton. Mark DTI. Michigan and Ohio
Railway	Organized May 2, 1905, the day after the Detroit Southern foreclosure sale. Purchaser Harry B. Hollins & Company. Incorporated in Michigan
Railroad company	Articles filed at Dover, Delaware, on February 21, 1914. Capital stock $12,500,000
Route	Detroit to Ironton, on the Ohio River, with a leased entrance to Toledo
Earlier gauges	Iron Railroad, 4 feet 10 inches. Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy, 3 feet until standard gauge by January 1, 1880
Henry Ford	Bought the railroad in 1920. Sold it in 1929 to the Pennroad Corporation
Electrics	501A and 501B, D-D+D-D, Ford, 1925. Counted apart from the diesels
Steam	Quantity column 141. Frames, each once, 137. Last steam, Mikado 805, December 24, 1955. Roster
Diesels	119 frames, each once. Roster
Sale of the stock	Interstate Commerce Commission approval on June 3, 1980. Buyer, the Grand Trunk Western. The DT&I name remained in use afterward

Henry Ford

Ford bought the railroad in 1920 because it could serve the River Rouge plant, then under construction at Dearborn. He built a connection from the plant that met the railroad again at Flat Rock, about 16 miles, and he built the Fordson Shops at River Rouge. The shops became the place where the railroad overhauled its locomotives. The engines of those years were kept in a high finish: nickel on the piping and fixtures, polished boilers, and white-walled wheels. In 1921 he published an essay, “If I Ran The Railroads.”

The project people remember is the electrification of that northern section, Dearborn and River Rouge to Flat Rock. William D. Middleton, in Trains for September 1976, dates the start of construction to 1923 and the opening to January 4, 1926, after the overhead and the two locomotives were ready. Ford also talked of carrying the wire on south, of reaching Deepwater, West Virginia, and of buying the Virginian. The Virginian purchase stayed a proposal. He sold the DT&I to the Pennroad Corporation in 1929. Pennroad ended the electrification.

Road numbers	Wheel arrangement	Builder	Built
501A, 501B	D-D+D-D	Ford	1925

The two boxcabs worked the Dearborn and River Rouge to Flat Rock electrification, together or separately. They are counted apart from the 119 diesels.

Steam and diesel

Under Pennroad the railroad kept the automobile traffic and replaced the older steam with heavier Lima engines, then with Electro-Motive diesels. The class grid is the steam roster. Dieselization began with two switchers in 1941, SW1s 900 and 901, and seven NW2s in 1948. GP7s arrived in 1951, and more GP7s followed in 1952 and 1953. GP9s arrived in December 1955 and in February and March 1957 and finished the change. Mikado 805 made the last steam run, to Flat Rock, on December 24, 1955. The serials, builder orders, and later Grand Trunk Western numbers are on the diesel roster.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP35 355 at Dearborn, Michigan, on November 21, 1964

GP35 355 at Dearborn, Michigan, on November 21, 1964. American-Rails.com collection.

Maps

Official 1940 system map of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton

An official system map of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, 1940. Author’s collection.

Official 1969 system map of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, including the Ann Arbor Railroad

An official system map of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton in 1969, including the Ann Arbor Railroad. Author’s collection.

In the spring of 1978, GP40 405 and GP40-2 408 were on the Louisville & Nashville in Cincinnati.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP40 405 and GP40-2 408 on the Louisville and Nashville in Cincinnati in the spring of 1978

GP40 405 and GP40-2 408 on the Louisville & Nashville in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the spring of 1978. Rick Burn photo.

Grand Trunk Western

Through the Penn Central liquidation, the stock stayed with the Pennsylvania Company, Pennco, and Pennco set out to sell it. The Norfolk & Western and the Baltimore & Ohio applied on October 21, 1977, in Finance Docket No. 28499 (Sub-No. 1), for joint control of the DT&I. On February 16, 1978, the Grand Trunk Western Railroad and the Grand Trunk Corporation filed their own application, Finance Docket No. 28676 (Sub-No. 1), inconsistent with that one. It asked for control of the DT&I and of the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line. The Shore Line is a different railroad. The notice states an offer of $15,000,000 for Pennco’s DT&I stock, substantially all of it, and a separate offer of $1,920,000 for the Norfolk & Western’s half interest in the Shore Line. The Grand Trunk Western already held the other half.

Administrative Law Judge Richard H. Beddow Jr. recommended the Grand Trunk Western purchase on July 30, 1979, and preferred it to the Norfolk & Western and Baltimore & Ohio application. The Commission’s reported decision came in November 1979. It approved Grand Trunk Western control of the DT&I and the Shore Line, and it denied the applications that would have given the Norfolk & Western and the Baltimore & Ohio each half of the DT&I stock. The report is Norfolk & Western Railway Co.—Control—Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Co., 360 I.C.C. 498 (1979).

A contract acceptable to Pennco and the Grand Trunk Western was approved by the Commission on June 3, 1980. That is the approval of the contract. The purchase was in 1980. The DT&I name remained in use after the approval. Court captions in 1982 still styled the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad Company as a plaintiff alongside the Grand Trunk Western.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP38-2 228 in an experimental paint scheme at Port Huron, Michigan, on May 27, 1981

GP38-2 228 at Port Huron, Michigan, on May 27, 1981, in an experimental scheme applied to only a few units. Doug Kroll photo.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP40 405 on the turntable at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982

GP40 405 on the turntable at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982. American-Rails.com collection.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton caboose 125 at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982

Caboose 125 at the Flat Rock yard in September 1982. American-Rails.com collection.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton GP35 354 in Grand Trunk Western colors at Flat Rock, Michigan, in September 1982

GP35 354, in Grand Trunk Western colors, at Flat Rock in September 1982. American-Rails.com collection.

Sources

George Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads. The Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy, incorporated December 14, 1874, and completed July 18, 1878. Hilton’s account of the completed railroad: the third-longest narrow gauge, 108 miles, Springfield to Luray and Washington Court House to Jackson joined by five miles of Dayton & Southeastern trackage rights, and the 1876 contractor’s suit of about $800,000 on a road built at a cost of $1.5 million.
The Iron Railroad of March 7, 1849, the Ohio broad gauge of 4 feet 10 inches, Ironton to Center Furnace, the 1883–84 passage through the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington and the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis, and the Iron Railway’s addition to the Detroit Southern on September 25, 1902. The Springfield Southern of November 3, 1879, standard gauge by January 1, 1880, and the Ohio Southern name of May 21, 1881. Austin Corbin’s Indiana, Bloomington & Western acquired it on May 1, 1881. The company was spun off in 1886. The Lima extension was finished late in 1893, and the Kingman–Jeffersonville–Sedalia line was the cross-line purchase.
Scott D. Trostel, The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad (Cam-Tech Publishing, 1988). The May 1, 1905 purchase by Harry B. Hollins & Company, and the Michigan company organized the next day.
The New York Times, February 22, 1914, dateline Dover, Delaware, February 21. Articles for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Company, capital stock $12,500,000. Receivership of the Railway since February 1908. The Ohio Southern mortgage sale the preceding April, $1,550,000, to H. J. Schumacher and Daniel B. Murrey. The later sale of the Northern and Southern divisions, $1,650,000, to the committee, Otto T. Bannard and W. N. Buckner. Cash raised, $4,079,055.
William D. Middleton, “Henry Ford And His Electric Locomotive,” Trains, September 1976. Construction of the northern electrification begun in 1923. Opening on January 4, 1926.
George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 167–168. The steam counts are the steam roster. Dieselization in 1941 and 1948, GP7s in 1951, and last steam on December 24, 1955. The later GP7s and the GP9s are the diesel roster.
Federal Register, March 17, 1978, Finance Docket No. 28676 (Sub-No. 1). The February 16, 1978 application, set against Finance Docket No. 28499 (Sub-No. 1), filed October 21, 1977. The offers of $15,000,000 and $1,920,000.
The New York Times, July 31, 1979. Judge Richard H. Beddow Jr.’s recommendation of July 30, 1979.
Interstate Commerce Commission, 94th Annual Report, for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1980. The November 1979 decision. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.—Control—Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Co., 360 I.C.C. 498 (1979).
Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. United States, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, judgment February 13, 1981. The contract acceptable to the Pennsylvania Company and the Grand Trunk Western, approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission on June 3, 1980.

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