1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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GP30M4216
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1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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I recently came across this article about the huge project in the late 1920s to realign several miles of what is now the Holly Subdivision from Royal Oak up to Bloomfield Twp to make way for the widening of Woodward Avenue. Seems we have a fair number of members who fan along that stretch and this is some interesting history and background. Enjoy!

http://trowbridgefarms.org/uploads/1/1/ ... legacy.pdf

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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Thank you! I had no idea that this happened.

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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Could you imagine an electrified GTW running from Pontiac to Detroit? I wonder if any more plans were drawn up. When Trowbridge bridge was built it had 4 arches. Was it planned for one track to travel under each arch or was it two tracks in both of the middle two arches?

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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GTW Dude wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 8:32 am
Could you imagine an electrified GTW running from Pontiac to Detroit? I wonder if any more plans were drawn up. When Trowbridge bridge was built it had 4 arches. Was it planned for one track to travel under each arch or was it two tracks in both of the middle two arches?
My HO scale layout (whenever it gets "finished") will be a what-if electrification of the Holly sub.

The DTI arches are actually kind of cleverly designed. It was designs so that the vertical pole and 90 degrees of the arch can be a stand-alone single-track arch; you can then put another arch beside it, joining at the top to create a double track arch; add a second 90 degree top bit to one of the verticals for 3-track; for 4 tracks there were two options, you could have another 2-track arch connected to the first, or there was a middle bit that could be spliced in to make it a single arch for 4-tracks. Any more tracks from that used a combination of the different options above to achieve it, never going above 4-tracks per arch.

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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The entire relocation from 11 Mile to Long Lake was built to allow for 4 tracks.

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

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DaveO wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 11:16 am
The entire relocation from 11 Mile to Long Lake was built to allow for 4 tracks.
Is this true, Dave? I always heard three tracks until recently. If you stand on any of the new bridges, like the one over Long Lake, it is much wider on the west side. The east side doesn't have a lot of clearance for another track unless all of them were realigned a bit. I had heard that one track, on the west side, was going to for the electrified commuter line.

South of Milwaukee Junction it was four tracks most of the way to the river but the two mainlines were in the inside tracks and the two outside ones were for local trains switching all the industries on what was at one time the busiest industrial corridor of GTW. Oddly enough, though, only a single track crossed the two mains at Milwaukee Junction to continue the Holly Sub south of there.

If you look closely on the east side of Woodward starting just north of Lone Pine Road you can still see evidence of the old right of way veering away from Woodward to avoid the large glacial moraines before and after Long Lake Road. If you go down the neighborhood road Trowbridge, about 300 feet in was a bridge over the tracks there on its original route. This is all filled in now, has been since I was aware of it, but you can see the ROW ditch on either side through the overgrowth. Years ago someone kept the ROW cut from there north a ways and it was an informal walking trail but now it is overgrown. It was very swampy between there and Long Lake Road but no hill.

And if you poke around just south of Long Lake Road on the east side you can make out where the old and new lines converged. There is a very old culvert there where the Rouge River flows underneath both line's ROWs.

I always wonder if they did some realignment of the track just north of Long Lake Road? If you walk it it seems that the original single track mainline may have been to the west of the current line by a few yards until close to Opdyke Road.

And of course the old Trowbridge Bridge, the big concrete one, was where GTW had to dig out the huge glacial moraine to level the track. Those photos in the article were the first I have ever seen of them doing this.

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Re: 1930 reroute of the GTW Holly Subdivision

Unread post by DaveO »

Yes, 4 tracks. Don't remember anything about the section north of Long Lake before realignment.
From Royal Oak to Milwaukee Jct. was 4 or more tracks.

edit: Looking at the old topo, basically the GTW and Kensington Rd. were both relocated east.
another edit: 3 or more tracks RO south based on topos.

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