During the mid 1980s Illinois Central Gulf sold off thousands of miles of marginal trackage, creating 5 regional railroads and several shortlines. A few other class 1s did the same, starting more than a dozen other regionals.
Why did the railroads wait until 1985 before selling unwanted lines? Wouldn't secondary routes be less valuable before Staggers, and therefore more likely to be sold?
Hey Dale, good to see you're still around here.
Line sales and abandonments were an absolute ordeal under the Interstate Commerce Commission. Consider that it took over four years for the abandonment of the North Shore Line from the filing date to the last day of operations.
Chad x Thomas Hey Dale, good to see you're still around here.
The railroads were in a regulatory straightjacket until Staggers came along in 1980. Prior to that making any meaningful changes including line abandonments was a slow, uncertain, expensive and arduous process. It's really a wonder railroads survived at all. The situation was similar in Canada.. I well remember very short trains trundling along lines that had never been profitable.. 2 boxcars and a caboose... a crew of six. We fans sometimes lament the loss of such lightly travelled rural lines, but the railroads wanted to rid themselves of these lines as quickly as possible, decades before they finally could.
Ironically, a number of the lines sold have been reacquired by the original seller (CN lines in NW Canada, CP lines into Maine) or the merger partner of the original seller (IC lines to Sioux City and Omaha, MILW lines to KC and Mason City, BN former NP lines in Montana) or in one case by the prime competitor of the original seller (CN buying WC which had been spun off by CP).
I seem to recall there may be others such as some former IC lines in Misssissippi being reacquired by IC and the former Alton from Springfield IL to KC being acquired by KCS.
kgbw49 Ironically, a number of the lines sold have been reacquired by the original seller.
Ironically, a number of the lines sold have been reacquired by the original seller.
Yes, the competitive landscape had changed, and some lines were brought back into the class 1 fold... the best example I can think of is CP's reacquired "shortline" through Maine. Sold off in 1995.. it went through several owners before CP repurchased it a couple of years ago. CN had also sold off its northern line through NB (the old Intercolonial) and repurchased a part of it a four or five years ago.. Irononically in both cases the lines initially sold off were among the best constructed lines the railroads owned.
In some cases lines were sold off to a shortline with great expectations, only to be abandoned shortly thereafter.. CP's line from Sherbrooke to Levi, QC is one good example, and the government of Quebec has wisely decided to leave the tracks and some of the infrastructure place, hoping that at some point the line might become viable once more. Of course, with each passing year the line deteriorates, and at this point the ties and tracks would need to be completely replaced. I hope someone with deep pockets does buy it.. geographically its a shortcut from eastern Canada to the US... down from Levi to the US border near Sherbrooke is shorter than any route that is currently used. It would need a visionary with alot of money to make that happen..
This document is a bit dated but provides a good summary of the reasons behind the proliferation of new shoreline and regional railroads in the 1980's: https://www.ontracknorthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/Regional-and-Short-Line-RRs-in-the-US-OnTrackNorthAmerica.pdf
kgbw49 i seem to recall there may be others such as some former IC lines in Misssissippi being reacquired by IC and the former Alton from Springfield IL to KC being acquired by KCS.
i seem to recall there may be others such as some former IC lines in Misssissippi being reacquired by IC and the former Alton from Springfield IL to KC being acquired by KCS.
SP and Santa Fe split up the bankrupt CM&W ex-Alton lines in 1989. SP took the Chicago-Godfrey, IL mainline. Santa Fe had a New York investment firm buy the lines from Springfield and Godfrey west to Kansas City and operate them under the name Gateway Western. Santa Fe had coveted access to St. Louis for decades, but had been blackballed by the other St Louis railroads. SP and Santa Fe agreed to joint ownership of the mainline from Godfrey south to Venice/East St. Louis.
KCS bought the GWWR in the late 90's after it became superfluous thanks to the BNSF merger. Traffic has never amounted to much, but the line is in its best shape ever.
ns145 kgbw49 i seem to recall there may be others such as some former IC lines in Misssissippi being reacquired by IC and the former Alton from Springfield IL to KC being acquired by KCS. SP and Santa Fe split up the bankrupt CM&W ex-Alton lines in 1989. SP took the Chicago-Godfrey, IL mainline. Santa Fe had a New York investment firm buy the lines from Springfield and Godfrey west to Kansas City and operate them under the name Gateway Western. Santa Fe had coveted access to St. Louis for decades, but had been blackballed by the other St Louis railroads. SP and Santa Fe agreed to joint ownership of the mainline from Godfrey south to Venice/East St. Louis. KCS bought the GWWR in the late 90's after it became superfluous thanks to the BNSF merger. Traffic has never amounted to much, but the line is in its best shape ever.
The ICG line sales of the 1980's were the work of Harry Bruce. After most of the ex-GM&O trackage was sold off, the railroad's name was changed back to Illinois Central in 1988. Prospect Group purchased the slimmed down IC in 1989 and installed Ed Moyers as president. Moyers brought in Hunter Harrison as VP of Operations and together they ripped out most of the double track and installed CTC. I know that this has always been a controversial move, but with only 35-40 million gross tons of traffic it was hard to justify keeping a full double track railroad.
Harrison then implemented his scheduled railroading ideas and IC's OR dropped to industry-leading levels in the low 60's. That's when he started getting attention from bigger players like CN. The CN/IC merger was as much about snatching up Hunter Harrision as it was about expanding CN's network to the Gulf of Mexico. The rest, as they say, is P$R history.
Chicago Central became one of the several ICG spinoffs when Chicago-Omaha went away in 1985. Recent book about the CC start and its history was published within past couple yrs. I would recommend it to anyone interested.
Just about all the ICG spinoffs themselves received very good article coverage in Trains back when these events happened. The info is there
Sam (from Wichita)
Indiana Railroad and Paducah & Louisville are two IC spin-offs that are still going strong.
I'm not sure how you would classify Mid-South. Traffic was strong enough for the line to be attractive to KCS and is now part of the Meridian Corridor.
CSSHEGEWISCH I'm not sure how you would classify Mid-South. Traffic was strong enough for the line to be attractive to KCS and is now part of the Meridian Corridor.
Indeed! The company that owned and ran MidSouth ended up purchasing the IC in 1989. I seem to recall IC tried to buy this trackage back and lost out to KCS.
SFbrkmnChicago Central became one of the several ICG spinoffs when Chicago-Omaha went away in 1985. Recent book about the CC start and its history was published within past couple yrs. I would recommend it to anyone interested.
What is the title of the book? Who published it?
greyhounds SFbrkmn Chicago Central became one of the several ICG spinoffs when Chicago-Omaha went away in 1985. Recent book about the CC start and its history was published within past couple yrs. I would recommend it to anyone interested. What is the title of the book? Who published it?
SFbrkmn Chicago Central became one of the several ICG spinoffs when Chicago-Omaha went away in 1985. Recent book about the CC start and its history was published within past couple yrs. I would recommend it to anyone interested.
Perhaps this?
https://www.google.com/search?q=chicago+central+railtoad+book&client=ms-android-xiaomi-rvo3&ei=GFgwY8X5D_PD0PEP_NitgAg&oq=chicago+central+railtoad+book&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBwgAEB4QogQyBQgAEKIEMgUIABCiBDoHCAAQRxCwAzoECAAQDToGCAAQHhANOggIABAeEAgQDToFCAAQhgM6CgghEMMEEAoQoAFKBAhBGABQtyBYqTtgmHNoAHAAeACAAYYFiAGPDJIBBzAuNi41LTGYAQCgAQHIAQLAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#imgrc=5-Kz3LdFjVVvLM
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