Ex-PRR mainline turning into a shortline

[joseph2]

There is news in Indiana, the ex-PRR line from Chicago to Crestline will be leased to a shortline operator.Most likely operator will be Rail America and the line will be called the Chicago,Fort Wayne & Eastern. Haven't heard when they will take over,maybe July 1.Current operator is CSX. Joe G.

[Anonymous]

Why theheck would CSX give THAT line over, I thought it was a really profitable line.[:0][:0][?]

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The old PRR mainline had already been demoted into a glorified branchline under Conrail with little more than a few locals plus the "Broadway Limited". Most of the overhead traffic was transferred to the ex-NYC main.

[Modelcar]

....How sad....hearing of a PRR main line in branchline status and or short line operation....But on the other hand, that's better than being abandoned and lost forever..!
I have a hard time hearing all sorts of happenings like this with the first hand memories of traffic on even several tracks at once...In the Johnstown, Pa. area...and now knowing that it's history. One could stand on the station platform and it wasn't much of a wait to hear and witness a passenger unit fly by and turn and look the other direction and another approaching before the other was out of site....etc. It's "broadway" of four tracks provided much activity to see.

[mudchicken]

Makes sense, in light of RailAmerica's ulterior motive of tying its properties together. CSX is smart to lease and not sell. (BN screwed-up and paid for it big time with Montana Rail Link and the old Washington Central)

[Anonymous]

That's what I've been saying, shortlines are taking more and more chuncks out of the Class One's.

Rail America as a whole will be a class one before we know it.

[TH&B]

Wasnt that line abandoned sometime ago in the 80s????

[UPTRAIN]

I thought so too...are we thinking of a different line?

[ValleyX]

There's a Procter and Gamble plant at Lima, grain elevators at Delphos, the huge grain facility at Decatur, IN, at the end of the GR&I, very little business in Fort Wayne, a Steel Dynamics plant near Columbia City, some business in Warsaw, and a grain elevator at Hamlet. I don't know what else but these are rather far-flung from each other. Will be interesting to see what they'll do with the line.

NS also serves the SDI plant at Columbia City via trackage rights, because SDI wanted more than one road to service it, as they did their plant at Butler, IN, which all three roads, Conrail, CSX, and NS served until the acquisition, even though it's along NS.

There's an ad in today's Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette for freight conductors, haven't looked at the website yet but assuming they're looking for help for this start-up. Also assuming that the CSX men will probably head for Garrett, IN, I'm sure they're not going to be happy to do so. www.AMDG.WS is the website given in the want ad.

[ValleyX]

Go to www.railamerica.com, looks like they're looking for 24 train and engine service employees at Lima and Fort Wayne, experience preferred, 2 track inspectors, a couple of trainmasters, and a roadmaster.

There goes the neighborhood.

[JoeKoh]

Very interesting. was talking to guys at deshler that RJ corman was interested in it too.Can csx bite itself again while looking for places to run trains? time will tell.
stay safe
Joe

[joseph2]

The Fort Wayne message board says the western terminus will be Tolleston,Indiana.That's about 10 miles from the Illinois border.The lease won't include the Crestline yard.Will include the Decatur branch. Joe G.

[Anonymous]

This line was downgraded during 1986-87 from double track to single track. The Broadway Limited remained on this line until 11 November 1991 before heading to ex-NYC trackage to the north. Interestingly, both NS and CSX have enjoyed a slight surge of traffic on the line with the elevator at Hamlet busy enough to warrant a [temporary] engine and the steel fabricating plant just west of Valpo has seen a surge in carloads. Hopefully, this will be one line in the Hoosier state that can be saved in a state savaged by the PennCentral and EL failures!

[UPTRAIN]

How much does a shortline pay? Just curious, I don't see me leaving UP soon.

[Anonymous]

COuld be worse, they could've pulled it up or sliced it into parts...

LC

[XG01X]

I wouldn't mind having another shortline in the area
For info on the decatur portion;
http://www.trainweb.org/fwarailfan/decatur.htm

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Tolleston is located in Gary, IN and may serve as a junction point with IHB. I wouldn't venture a guess on where the actual interchange point would be (Gibson or Blue Island?) but would assume that it would be somewhere within the Chicago Switching District.

[rrnut282]

What makes this even more interesting is that NS dispatches the line west of Fort Wayne as a holdover from when they bought the line from Conrail as a relief route for the parallel ex Nickel Plate line to Chicago. (and because they run more trains on it than CSX, at least on the west side of Fort Wayne) NS ran from the Fort to Valpo, since the PRR was severed in Gary some time ago. NS still uses a portion of this line as the main yard for Triple Crown was carved out of the old PRR Piqua yard in Fort Wayne. NS also uses this line to get Cincinnati (Atlanta) to Chicago trains from one line to the other after a grade-crossing elimination project 99.