Ford's Railroad

The preliminary 1923 figures for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad are in; the showing it has made has justified its owner, Henry Ford, in his prediction. The property consists of over 400 miles of main line with trackage rights over another 50 miles, and about 160 miles of yards and sidings. When Henry Ford purchased the road on July 10, 1920, for $5,000,000, most critics thought he had been stuck rather badly at last. Indeed, during 1920, a deficit of $2,121,524 was run up. Since that time, however, Mr. Ford has routed much profitable traffic over it, its gross has climbed from $4,481,036 in 1920 to $10,417,412 last year. Operating costs for 1923 were reduced by $737,170 from the figure of the year before, and the cost of equipment maintenance also fell off $691,243 over the same period. As a result the net earnings for 1923 amounted to $1,786,924 about a third of the road's original purchase price.

Among the chief and most original improvements which Mr. Ford has established in his railroad have been the electrification of portions of the property in novel fashion, and a policy toward employees which enables them to buy special 6% certificates of the system.