The Detroit Citizens Railway has been dormant since mid-2003, its cars tucked away in a city warehouse, its track covered with asphalt or buried in dirt. Now, the cars, most from Lisbon, Portugal, are on the block, along with nearly 450 buses, trucks, snowplows, trash trucks, backhoes and other wheeled vehicles. The auction will take place on Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. as a webcast, with a second sale on Nov. 13.
The trolley line, just a mile long, was built in the mid-1970s as part of a downtown renaissance that never really took off. Reports indicate only one car was operational when the line was shut down in June 2003. There were originally nine single-truck trolleys on the line, seven closed cars, an open bench car, and a double-decker open top car from the Burton & Ashby system in England. The auction listing includes six cars. The other three are reportedly held for sale in the Pacific Northwest.
The auction is being handled by Hilco Industrial, which has promised the city a $5 million up-front payment, according to local news sources. The actual selling will be performed by Miedema Auctioneering and Appraisal.
To view the auction details, go to www.hilcoind.com.
Now that the sale has passed, I'd love to know how much the cars brought and who purchased them. I looked on the auction company's past sales list, but no info there yet. I'm guessing the Lisbon cars are similar to the one at the Rockhill Trolley Museum in PA.
Detroit has had to sell off a number of its assets due to their financial problems. Most of that stems from absent landlords who were delinquent on property taxes, utility bills, and orders to make repairs for health and safety.
If I'm not mistaken, there was some thought of relocating the cars to a new line along the waterfront.