U.P. buying C.P.'s "latta sub"

[cwillis408]

Has anyone heard any truth in that Union Pacific is thinking of buying Canadian Pacific's "latta sub" that runs down through Terre Haute, IN ???

[Justicar]

Well, the "thinking" process is old, old news. However, just the other day I heard it *was* sold.

J.C. Rausch
Canadian Pacific Railway
Minneapolis, MN

[cwillis408]

Thanks for the info, That will make it more interesting in the Terre Haute area!?

[Justicar]

Well, only in the short term. And, only in the sense that change is interesting. Long term, line sales and mergers only make a more homogenous rail scene and most find that very uninteresting.

If CSX buys the Southeastern then Terre Haute will go from 3 down to 1 in just a couple years.

Going back to my old place near Preston is never going to be the same. I'm thankful that I got the exposure that I did to real mainline railroading with schedules and double track, something that eludes CP at present.

So, do you live in Terre Haute?

[cwillis408]

I never thought of it that way, 3>1 that will be BORING! Now days its mainly unit trains and they're all 'bout the same. I live about 70 miles southeast of T.H. on the old B&O(cinc-st.louis) line. Preston??

[Justicar]

Morning,

Ah, the ole B&O. Is it still the Indiana sub East of Washington and the Illinois West of? Its cool to bump into you...reminds me of all those years listening to the scanner at home. That line was only 30 miles or so South of where I used to live in Linton. I kept track of its operations mostly from listening to the radio. I'm prolly most familiar with the Vincennes spot and the Mitchell spot. Used to hang around the diamond there at Vincennes and hopefully find a Eastbound to pace out on US 50 or a Northbound trailer train to pace along the county road just south of Oaktown. As many rail apprentices had their railroad depot or tower or switch job where they all started out, mine was at Bedford.
Mitchell was just 10 miles South.
Although never officially compensated I have served many an hour and a day at the Bedford depot. We'd always call Mitchell and let them know we had a Southbound by. Many times there were track circuits down (red signals) between Bedford and Mitchell so the track occupancy light on the interlocker board would be lit for days on end. The odd thing about Mitchell was that it did not have a radio with Monon side channels. So, the trains would have to switch over to the B&O channel and call for the signal. Pretty easy nowadays but they didn't always have those new radios with nearly a hundred channels, especially on every engine.

So, what's traffic down there like?
I had heard rumours they were going to embargo the line East of Mitchell...only serving a few customers on the extreme East end near Cincy. They had diverted some traffic bound for the South from St. Louis off the ole C&EI (CE&D sub) on across the old B&O to Mitchell and down the old Monon to Louisvile and on down the Main line (sub) to Nashville. The Cincy traffic they were just going to route thru Louisville up the Short line (sub) to Queensgate.

Last I heard we (CP) were still running into Louisville. Why, I have no idea. The company had p***ed away the business to the point of only having 10-15 cars a day into Louisville.

well, off for some Zzzzz's

jc
CP

PS Preston is the crossing of ex-Conrail's St. Louis line with CP's Latta sub.

PSS Feel free to drop me a line in case I get too covered up to make it back to the forum regularly:
[e-mail]

[cwillis408]

Hello,
It is still the same east/west of washington. The only problem now is most of the freight goes across Indy-Terre Haute-St.Louis not on this line anymore. Its just St.Louis-Mitchell-Louisville, on a good day 5-10 trains, usally the lower #. I've been to all of those places your talking about, I tried alot to catch a train street running through Bedford, but never have been lucky to see one! Washington is my home town, I been to Linton a few times. Are you familar with Springhill Tower in Terre Haute?
Chris

[Justicar]

I just rememered the stack train that used to ply the ole B&O. I suppose that is gone. I never really knew much about its carloads, origin, destination, routing, etc.

Too bad about the traffic being down on the ole B&O. The line from E.St.Louis to about Washington or so was quite a racetrack. Unless there was a delay you had but one chance to catch a train on that line.

Like I mentioned before, I practically lived in the Bedford depot. Watching the trains round the curve coming by the Square seemed almost ubiquitous then. Forunate for me as soon as I had my license my parents agreed to let me be gone away from home most of the time, esp during the Summers. The Summers of '88-92 or so were either spent at the Depot or in Campbellsburg, between Mitchell & Salem (pardon the superfulous information but I'm not precisely sure of your travels and there's a splinters chance that there's one other person reading these threads). My friend, the 3rd trick operator, lived down there and I use to stay with him all the tieme.
It sure beat driving the hour back to Linton!

I have been *inside* Springhill a few times but am very familiar with its exterior! lol The guys there were notoriously unfriendly, even to me who's dad worked with them everyday. Springhill being far South Terre Haute didn't see me as a visitor much. I mostly hung out along Conrail and CSX North of Haley. My apt was 300ft from the St Louis Line and CSX was just down the road about a mile.

Complete
JCR