A guide for modeling the Port Huron & Detroit Railroad has been discussed on and off for many years. Any proper guide should be comprehensive and complete- it would need to cover the entire operational history of the railroad, from the very beginning when Joy Morton built the Port Huron Southern to serve his salt plant in Marysville to the very end when the railroad was sold to Chesapeake & Ohio/CSX at the end of 1984. While getting material from the end of the railroad would be relatively easy, there’s a lot more to this railroad than its last 10-15 years. Like many things in life, there was no guarantee that accurate content covering the early days of the railroad actually existed, or would be made available to those putting together a guide for modelers.
As you peruse the pages of this website, you’ll find maps, diagrams, and descriptions covering various aspects of the Port Huron & Detroit Railroad. Most of the items you’ll find have only recently been made available to those outside the inner circle of PH&D enthusiasts (most likely for lack of a means of distribution- not intentionally for the sake of excluding others). You will also see references to material not available on this site, either because it’s on our list of things to upload, or because it’s in the hands of a private collector and is not available to us.
The purpose of this website is to organize the various materials available, especially those materials most necessary for modeling the PH&D Railroad, and make them available. Our long term goal is to compile enough information to put together a comprehensive guide to modeling the Port Huron & Detroit Railroad at any point during it’s 68 year (or so) history, and in order to expedite the process of getting that information in front of those to whom it will matter most (that is YOU- the model railroader), our team believes that this website is the best way to do that at this time.
At this time we do not intend to put any material behind a paywall or institute any sort of membership system. The information on this website has been (and is still being) collected by model railroaders who want to share the information with other model railroaders and others who are interested in the Port Huron & Detroit Railroad and want to learn more about it.
Questions?
Comments?
Did we completely screw something up or leave out an important detail?
Let us know by contacting us at contact@phdrailroad.us.
See the list of PH&D Documents digitized since the beginning of 2022 here.
If you are a collector of Port Huron & Detroit materials (i.e. maps, documents, etc.) and would be open to allowing us to digitize portions of your collection for this website (and potentially for a future hard copy modeling guide), please contact us at contact@phdrailroad.us.