Pete Bloom posted two photos with the comment:
Abandoned and shortly to be torn down at the time of this photograph, the tower at Milwaukee Junction guarded the crossing of the GTW and NYC, PC, and Conrail up until the 21st Century. Milwaukee Junction, Detroit Mi. May 2001Todd Harrelson This was closed already when this pic was taken. Conrail operated.
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| 1, looking southwestish |
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| 2, looking southeastish. To the left of the tower, you can see the stand for the former water tank of the Milwaukee Lofts. |
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| Satellite |
In the satellite link at the beginning of the post, there are still two double-tracked routes running roughly southwest/northeast. The southern route is CN+Amtrak/GTW+Wab. The northern route is CRSA (Conrail Shared Assets)/NYC/LS&MS+MC. The southeast leg was GTW+LS&MS, but is now just an industrial spur run by Detroit Connecting Railroad (DCON). The northwest leg is CN+Amtrak/GTW. Since the southeast side is now just an industrial spur, the crossover diamonds have been removed since it is no longer a through route. However, there are still four diamonds because the northwest leg is connected to the southern CN+Amtak route and those connections cross the northern CRSA route.
Update:
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| Carl Venzke posted 4-8-4 No. 6328 taking on a fresh load of coal at the GTW's Milwaukee Junction terminal in Detroit - from: Richard Lenard's Steam Locomotive Archive [Not only do we see the base of a coaling tower, we see coal being put into a tender..] |
And here is a better view of that coal tower.
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| Paul Jevert posted Grand Trunk in the TT pit in Detroit. Brian A Morgan: Milwaukee Junction, Detroit. David Jansson: A known issue with steam locos was a “drifting throttle”. Even fully closed, Steam could leak into the cylinders and as the valve gear cooled off, small steam leaks could make the damn thing move. Many roundhouses mandated chains or wheel blocks to prevent this. |
Fortunately, there was only one roundhouse in the area so it is easy to locate.
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| 1940 Detroit and Highland Park Quads @ 1:24,000 |
In fact, you can still see some of the foundation of the roundhouse.
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| Satellite |
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| Mark Hinsdale posted Westbound #995 at Milwaukee Jct. in Detroit MI... 4-73 |
Threading the "Ho Chi Minh Trail"Ken Hissong The top photo is a train coming off the Grand Trunk Western's Holly Sub on to the old Shoreline once operated by the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline RR which was co-owned by the GTW and the Nickel Plate. The GTW's Mt. Clemens sub to Port Huron joins the tracks there and crosses over the old New York Central tracks. The area is still know as Milwaukee Junction.
In Detroit, Grand Trunk Western and Conrail Shared Assets occupy an elevated right of way that runs diagonally across much of the west and southwest sides of the Motor City. The two mostly double track lines are parallel and adjacent, with overpasses lifting them over many city streets. In the 1960's and 70's, when a combination of interlockings, congestion and, at least on Conrail predecessor Penn Central, poor track conditions served to severely limit train speeds, break-ins of slow moving or standing trains by organized thieves were rampant. The right of way was difficult to patrol by the two railroads' special agents, because the access roadway alongside the routes was not contiguous across some of the bridges, and police had to ramp down to street level, navigate traffic laden city streets well below the embankment the tracks rested on, and then regain access at some point further down the line. The criminals knew this well, and they stole valuable goods from many trains quickly and effectively over the years. Among railroaders, this dangerous path acquired the nickname The "Ho Chi Minh Trail," a reference to the hard fought and battle scarred corridor between North and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War era of the 1960's, that was commensurate with the alarming rise in such robberies. The route kept its infamous moniker and reputation well into the 1990s, when declining overall rail traffic in Detroit and upgraded track and signal work finally permitted faster train speeds and significantly fewer stops. In these views, a Grand Trunk Western automobile train is entering the northern end of the "Trail" at Milwaukee Jct., and is well into it in the New Center area, with Detroit's iconic Fisher Building and GM Headquarters in the distance. October, 1996 photos by Mark Hinsdale
Mike Robinson I hated working t Milwaukee Jct., I worked the Open hole one night, and I heard more gunshots than in hunting season!
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Curt DanielewiczGroup Admin That segment of elevated line was primarily known as the “highline” and subject of an article written by Charles Geletzke Jr., Walt Van Gieson Jr., and Byron Babbish that appeared in the GTWHS Semaphore issues 51 and 53.
George Patak I was a cop in that neighborhood from 1978 to 1985. On midnights we use to shine our spot lights on the open auto racks coming out of Hamtramck Assembly Plant. Quite often we see suspects working on vehicles breaking into him as the train moved toward the Southwest.
The railroad cops had their hands tied as there were so few of them and so many perpetrators. In addition the area is indeed very hard to patrol from a vehicle. A Conrail Railroad Cop told me that suspects you to take the engineers hostage at gunpoint in order to stop the train so their cohorts could break into cars for their back in the train.
Tom Habermehl Wow yes, when I worked for the Signal Dept. 1969 - 1983 I was told to carry two wallets. One with just a few dollars in it and if someone was going to rob you I was to throw the dummy wallet at them and run. I never had to but I not forget the things that I saw while working in Detroit.
Dave Salamas The “Trail” is really down at Fort Street Hill. That’s where most of the thievery happens. Things have really fallen off. It’s easier to do an ID theft or retail fraud these days.
George Patak Better sealed auto racks and containerized shipping have cut down on a lot of thefts.
One of the COPS from Detroit's cargo theft unit told they used to lock themselves inside the box cars with a seal on the door at Mohawk Liquor in Lincoln Park and wait for the thieves to break into the car only to find a COP with a shotgun pointed at their face.
They figured that the thieves must have had a girlfriend who work in the railroad clerks office who knew what was contained in the box cars.
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| Craig Hensley Photography posted Turn CN E251 with a pair of UP motors makes the turn north onto the Holly subdivision at Milwaukee Junction in Detroit. CN E251 - Detroit, MI - September 2023 |
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