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Detroit & Toledo Shoreline
Detroit & Toledo Shoreline System Map
Reporting marks	DTSL, GTW, CN
Locale	Detroit, Toledo
Dates of operation	1898 – Present under CN
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Toledo, OH

Pleasant Bay Railway incorporated in March 1898. In 1899 Pleasant Bay Railway purchased Toledo & Ottawa Beach and renamed itself the Detroit & Toledo Shoreline Railroad, (AAR reporting mark DTSL) which was a small rail carrier that had a multi-track mainline bridging Detroit and Toledo and served major industries. The line fully opened to Detroit in 1903. Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) and the Toledo, St. Louis & Western (the "Clover Leaf") co-owned the railroad in 1902. TStL&W interest passed to successor Nickel Plate Road in 1923, then to Norfolk & Western in 1964. Grand Trunk Western bought N&W's half interest in 1981 and immediately merged DTSL.

Early D&TSL Gang.

The D&TSL operates 46.98 miles of track between Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan. It is primarily a bridge route connecting the industry and railroads of the Motor City with the rail gateway of Toledo. Back before the Penn Central and N&W/NKP/Wabash mergers, the link between these two cities was vitally improtant to the idependent roads in the area, particularly the GTW and the Nickel Plate.

The D&TSL was originally incorporated as the Toledo & Ottawa Beach Railway in Ohio and the Pleasant Bay Railway in Michigan. In March 1899 the two companies conveyed all their property to a new company incorporated under the Michigan law as the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line. The idea at that time was to construct the railroad as a high speed interurban to be the connecting link between the Lake Shore Electric at Toledo and interurban lines in Michigan. Immediately following the purchase of the right-of-way, they began the actual grading of the road and construction of the Ottawa River bridge just north of Toledo.

From April to December 1901, the road was completed from Toledo to Trenton, with trolley wires in place from Monroe to Trenton. Electric cars were tested a few times as far north as Rockwood. The line was still incomplete when its promoters got into serious financial difficulty. The Shore Line went into receivership, and in the summer of 1902 the receiver became convinced that it would never be viable as an electric road and petitioned the court to allow him to construct a connection from the end of the track at Trenton to the nearby Detroit, Toledo & Ironton (Detroit Southern). This was completed in November 1902, and the construction work ceased for a short period.

In December 1902 the Grand Trunk Western and the Toledo, St Louis & Western (known as the Clover Leaf) entered into an agreement to jointly purchase the Shore Line property by issuing bonds for the payment of outstanding obligations. At the same time they contracted to extend the line northward from Trenton to a connection with the Wabash at River Rouge, on the south side of Detroit. The new owners intended to bring the Shore Line up to the same general standards as the Grand Trunk main line, as task that would require considerable additional track work.

When the line as completed, the D&TSL had no equipment except a small locomotive which had been purchased from the contractor and an old dummy saddle tank engine that had formerly run on the New York City elevated. There was some work equipment consisting of Rogers ballast cars but no cabooses or any freight equipment. Only one station had been constructed-at Monroe-but there were few telephone shanties scattered along the road.

The overhead wire was removed and sold along with the electric motor cars to the Monroe Traction Company and the Toledo & Monroe Construction Company. The line was opened for frieght traffic in September 1903, with each parent company furnishing three locomotives. The D&TSL used the Clover Leaf terminal in Toledo and the GTW facility in Detroit. There were no passing tracks, no classification yards and no locomotive servicing facilities. To reach the Clover Leaf yard in Toledo they used twelve miles of the Toledo Terminal under a trackage rights agreement. In the spring of 1904 they bought six Baldwin compound Moguls along with six cabooses. Work began immediately to upgrade the right-of-way.

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