Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Eastern

[MP173]

I guess the CF&E is up and running. I heard a train call out a track warrant, identified as "X56. The old CSX symbol was 356, so I went down trackside and caught it on film.

The "train" consisted of 4 very freshly painted locomtives in the 3800series....red, and grey in a very colorful paint scheme. There were no cars in the consist. The units did stop here at Valparaiso and switched the Von Tobel's lumber yard, but did not have cars as it left.

It seems as if this is a move to place power in place.

Does anyone know anything about this railroad? What are the operations going to be? Will Ft. Wayne be the hub? Will the trains run to and from Clearing Yard in Chicago?

Thanks,

MP173

[espeefoamer]

Is this the oldPennsy main line?If so,how far east does this new railroad run?

[locomutt]

Is this a new regional? Have not heard of this one before.

[MP173]

Yes, this is the old Pennsy mainline from Pittsburgh to Chicago. The CSX had purchased it from NS when the Conrail split occurred, but it didnt have much traffic, just a train into Chicago one day and back the next.

Traffic levels seemed to be pretty good tho....lots of covered hoppers (mainly Central Soya). Given shortline successes, there could be an improvement.

Hey, the diesels looked great! A matched set of four, freshly painted.

Anyone else see them?

MP

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by locomutt

Is this a new regional? Have not heard of this one before.

It is a new Rail America operation.

LC

[Anonymous]

According to CTC Board, Lima OH is expected to be the base of operations.

[Randy Stahl]

Shucks I thought he was talking about a trolley line!!!
Randy

[MP173]

The first westbound was thru Valpo this evening. Stopped and switched a couple of cars and then headed west with 2 locomotives (appears to be GP38 types) numbered 3885 and 3887 ( in old CNW colors).

Not much of a train, 18 cars, mostly WC boxcars.

Mp

[joegreen]

I live in Freeport,IL along the CN/IC and I have been seing ex-CNW GP38-2s renamed into NREX,the numbers I have seen are 3881,3882,3883,3884,3885,3888,4612,4615,
4618,4620,4621, and 4622.They are coming from Oelwien,IA and going to NRE's
Dixmoore shops to be repainted.4620 was renumbered to 3886 and painted into red and gray.3887 was painted but I don't know what number it was renumbered from.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP173

I guess the CF&E is up and running. I heard a train call out a track warrant, identified as "X56. The old CSX symbol was 356, so I went down trackside and caught it on film.

The "train" consisted of 4 very freshly painted locomtives in the 3800series....red, and grey in a very colorful paint scheme. There were no cars in the consist. The units did stop here at Valparaiso and switched the Von Tobel's lumber yard, but did not have cars as it left.

It seems as if this is a move to place power in place.

Does anyone know anything about this railroad? What are the operations going to be? Will Ft. Wayne be the hub? Will the trains run to and from Clearing Yard in Chicago?

Thanks,

MP173

Here's a little additional info

http://www.dhke.com/CRJ/fwjct.html

[MP173]

The west bound ran out of time last night. Are they running that train out of Ft. Wayne or Lima. Dont know how they could run out of time if running from FtW.

MP

[Anonymous]

Has anyone taken any pics yet?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by howeld2

Has anyone taken any pics yet?

Hey I can, if you really want me to, I saw a pair of pretty, new red engines sporting C,F,&E logo's staging in the Piqua yard earlier in the week, sitting in the exact same spot CSX engines used to sit all the time, so I'm sure I could get you some pic's if needed.[:)]

[MP173]

Yeah, I got pics of the first Eastbound thru Valparaiso back on August 1st. It was 4 engines ... no cars.

ed

[Anonymous]

HI

I hav e a pic I took yesterday of units 3888 and 3889. Do you guys know what type of locos these are? thanks

[MP173]

I think they are GP 38 rebuilds.

Which train were they on? The 3888 went thru Valpo last night around 5:30pm.

ed

[wcfan4ever]

I saw a CF&E unit (GP38) in Dixmoor a while back...in September in fresh paint. The number was 3802 I think. I will try to get a picture uploaded later this week.

[MP173]

The eastbound went thru around 2pm on Sunday and I went down to check it out. It had 3888 and 3889 and about 35 cars...all in all, not a bad train. It had quite a bit of scrap in gondolas. Any idea where that is going?

BTW...the NS 177 is handling a lot of scrap these days. Today there were 37 cars of scrap metal, plus some auto racks. It too was a healthy train with 106 cars total and as the engineer indicated "train is not handling too well." Talk about a junk train!

ed