Thanks for posting this. I had no idea that the valuation maps for every railroad in the state were available.

We found hard copies of the maps for the Port Huron and Detroit Railroad and the Port Huron Southern last year, which were scanned and posted on the internet, but didn't know if the same existed for the other Handy railroad - the Detroit Bay City & Western, until now.

One of the things the valuation maps probably played a part in was when the ICC assigned values to each railroad in the 1920's. I found extensive documentation for the disputes the PH&D and the PHS filed against the ICC valuation - the roads were both fairly recently built at that time and the owners felt their companies were worth more than the ICC did. The valuations were important because they played a part in determining how much profit the railroad was allowed to make - and if a company earned too much, it was recaptured by the government.

The PH&D information will eventually make it to the internet, the maps (which aren't available yet on the LoC site) can be found in the Maps section at www.phdrailroad.us.


Charles W.