Category: Regional Rail Notes

 CN and Indiana Rail Road to launch all-rail service for containerized Trans-Pacific imports/exports between west-coast Canadian ports and Indianapolis

CHICAGO and INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 16, 2013 — CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE:CNI) and the Indiana Rail Road Company (INRD) announced today an agreement on the construction of an intermodal terminal in Indianapolis and their plan to offer Indiana importers and exporters an all-rail option for containerized products moving to/from Asia.

CN serves the Port of Vancouver, B.C., and the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C., and a wide range of container shipping lines that offer scheduled service from all major Asian ports.

“CN is pleased to enter into this partnership with the Indiana Rail Road,” said Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN executive vice-president and chief marketing officer. “This all-rail service will reduce transit times and improve transportation consistency for Indiana importers, making their supply chains more competitive. CN’s level-of-service agreements with the container terminal operators at Vancouver and Prince Rupert deliver superior fluidity from ship-to-rail at the ports.”

“This is a great day for Indianapolis-area importers and exporters who for years have asked for all-rail, direct-west coast intermodal service to the city,” said Tom Hoback, INRD founder, president and chief executive officer. “Anyone who drives Interstate 65 between Indianapolis and Chicago knows what a bottleneck it is. CN-INRD intermodal service will offer a more reliable, consistent and environmentally-friendly movement of goods that is less susceptible to costly weather and congestion delays.”

The new Indianapolis terminal is under construction and will be located at INRD’s existing Senate Avenue Terminal, strategically located in downtown Indianapolis, less than a mile from Lucas Oil Stadium. It will be complemented by a container yard and will start receiving empty containers June 15, 2013; an on-site agricultural products containerized export loading facility will be in service about the same time. The first import train will arrive in late June.

CN estimates containerized import goods will flow in as little as 18-20 days from port loading in Shanghai and Qingdao, China, and Busan, Korea, to the INRD Senate Avenue Terminal, when using first port of call service.

New Frequency for Fredonia RR – Respondek Railroad, operator of the Fredonia Valley Railroad, has recently been issued a FCC license for several locations for their U.S. operations. 160.8750 Mhz is now licensed for several mobile radios. Railfans will want to program this one in their scanner when trying to chase and photograph the trains of both this operation, and their operation in southern Indiana around Yankeetown. Submitted by Chris Dees.

 

Saturday, August 13, 2011, 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm and Railroad Show and Sale in the Rotunda 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Cincinnati Union Terminal, 1301 Western Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio

Join us at this historic art deco railroad terminal to escape the summer heat and enjoy a day of high quality railroad photography. There will be twelve multimedia digital and dual-projector slide presentations, all set to music. The programs will run from 1:00 – 10:00 pm, with a break for dinner (on your own) approximately from 4:30 – 7:00 pm. Admission is $20.

More info on the web at http://cincinnatirrclub.org/Summerail/index.shtml

 

ELIZABETHTOWN, KY (WAVE) – Paducah and Louisville Railway announced Feb. 21 that it will undertake a $9 million effort to replace a bridge built in the 1880’s that uses its tracks.

Next to Fort Knox, one of the two Muldraugh railroad bridges known as “Bridges to the Past,” will be replaced by a bridge 83 feet tall, spanning 570 feet. The railway says it will ensure freight service on the bridge is safe and reliable.

“This bridge provides an important link from western Kentucky, the Hardin County – Meade County area, Fort Knox and Louisville,” said Paducah and Louisville Railway representative Tom Garrett.

The bridge construction will support about 290 jobs in Hardin County.

Copyright 2011 WAVE News. All rights reserved.
Submitted by Bill Grady

2011 is shaping up to be a busy year for the Paducah & Louisville RR thanks to Cane Run Coal facility in Louisville and a new NS train. Cane Run is up to three loaded trains a week.  The empties return to Armstrong Coal, at McHenry, KY, Ohio County, for reloading.

The NS unit coal train  (70J and 71J) loads at Alliance Coal at Princeton, Indiana, proceeds east across the NS (former Southern Ry) to Louisville, and interchanges with P&L in Louisville.  Then it travels  P&L to Jessup, KY (Kentucky Lake) to be unloaded.  This sequence runs about two times a week and has NS power.  The Mill Creek trains are still a daily operation.

The freight business is steadily rebounding and management wants to start running LP3 (Louisville-Paducah, southbound) and PL4 (Paducah-Louisville, northbound) six nights a week – the way we used to do it. It’s my understanding the only thing stopping that right now is a crew and power shortage.

The cement plant at Kosmosdale and the daytime local that serves it should be in full swing sometime in March or April.  – Submitted by Bill Grady, Louisville, KY

 

Muncie Newspaper says CAT to open facility in Indiana…

* Report says 650 jobs could be created

* Not clear whether facility will manufacture locomotives

* Caterpillar currently assembles those in Canada only

CHICAGO, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), the U.S. heavy equipment maker that has been moving aggressively into the rail business, will announce plans on Friday to open a railcar facility in east central Indiana, the (Muncie) Star Press newspaper reported on Friday.

Citing unnamed sources, the paper said Caterpillar’s Progress Rail unit would take over a huge vacant factory in Muncie which has doors in the rear that allow trains to enter and exit.

The newspaper did not say whether the plant would be used to service locomotives and other railroad rolling stock or to manufacture new equipment. It said the facility would eventually employ 650 workers.

A spokesman for Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, best known for its yellow construction and mining equipment, declined to comment on the report.

Until recently, Progress Rail was focused strictly on the business of repairing and remanufacturing existing rail equipment made by other manufacturers, including General Electric (GE.N).

But that changed this summer, when Caterpillar purchased Electro-Motive Diesel, a locomotive manufacturer spun out of General Motors, for $820 million in cash from the private equity firms Berkshire Partners LLC and Greenbriar Equity  LLC.

EMD’s headquarters, engineering facilities and parts-manufacturing operations are located in LaGrange, Illinois, just west of Chicago. But final assembly of the passenger, freight and road-switching locomotives EMD makes is performed at a plant in London, Ontario, Canada.

That has effectively stopped EMD from selling its locomotives to the many regional commuter rail lines in the United States, because they often require that the equipment they buy be assembled in the United States.  Over the past four years, Caterpillar, which is also a big maker of diesel engines and gas turbines, has spent about $2 billion in the rail sector.

It was an industry that was viewed as important but dull until last year, when Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp for $26 billion.

It was Buffett’s biggest acquisition in the 44 years he has run Berkshire and one he characterized as “an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States.” (Reporting by James B. Kelleher, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

• Norfolk Southern Railway Company–Trackage Rights Exemption–The West Tennessee Railroad, LLC June 9, 2010 3:15 p.m. Pursuant to a written trackage rights agreement, The West Tennessee Railroad, LLC (WTNN) has agreed to grant overhead trackage rights to Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NSR) over approximately 118.9 miles of rail line controlled by WTNN, between milepost IC-406.1 near Fulton, Ky., and milepost IC-525.0 near Ruslor Junction (Corinth), Miss.

• From the June issue of “The Nashville Retrospect” historical newspaper:  “Through Sept. 30, the Metro Archives’ “All Aboard! exhibit will feature a working model train along with artifacts, maps, memorabilia, documents, and photographs centered on trains and train service in and around Nashville from the middle 1800s to the present.  On June 19 (11:00 AM to 1:00 PM) the Archives will host a panel discussion on the railroads and their local impact. The exhibit, located at 3801 Green Hills Village Drive, is free and open to the public during office hours, Monday through Friday, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM.  For more information or directions, please call (615) 862-5880.”Steve Johnson

Indiana Railway Museum recently acquired former Indiana Railroad GP 16 number 1813 as part of a donation/purchase arrangement with the Indiana Railroad.  – Chris Dees

CSX won permission from the National Surface Transportation Board to discontinue service on the 62-mile Bedford-to-New Albany (IN) line as of May 7, following a March 5 hearing in Salem. The only active shipper on the line — L. Thorn Co., a Floyd County manufacturer of bricks, stone and concrete masonry — hadn’t used it at all in 2009, according to board documents.  – Chuck Hinrichs

BOSTON (Reuters) – Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) agreed to buy a U.S. maker of railroad locomotives on Tuesday for $820 million in cash, expanding its rail business from service into new engine manufacturing.

The world’s largest maker of heavy equipment said it was buying Electro-Motive Diesel, which last year generated $1.8 billion in revenue, from private equity firms Berkshire Partners LLC and Greenbriar Equity Group LLC. The new business will be a part of Caterpillar’s Progress Rail operation, which will now compete more directly with General Electric Co (GE.N), another major U.S. maker of locomotives.

The deal is expected to close by the year’s end.   Demand for railroad locomotives has been weak of late, as the recession lowered demand for transportation of all sorts of bulk commodities.

However, U.S. railroads including No. 1 Union Pacific (UNP.N) in recent months have begun to report rebounding profits as volumes begin to grow after a two-year slump. Union Pacific last month said it aimed to boost its capital spending budget this year to $2.6 billion, planning to spend that on intermodal equipment, which enables trains to carry equipment that can also travel by ship and truck.  – Chuck Hinrichs

MADISON, Tenn. — The depot that country music star Johnny Cash saved from demolition will open as a visitors center June 3 in the Nashville suburb of Madison. The 1910 Louisville & Nashville Amqui Station is located at 301 Madison Street; the grand opening celebration will run from 5:30 until 7 p.m.

The station served as many as 40 to 50 daily trains at its peak, but by the 1970s, it had fallen into disrepair. Cash was given the station in 1979 and moved it to his property in Hendersonville, Tenn., then restored it to display his collection of railroadiana.  When Cash died in 2003, Halo Properties purchased the station and donated it to the city of Madison. It was moved back to the city in 2006 and was situated near its original site. A $1 million restoration began last October.  The visitors center will feature a museum dedicated to the connection between music and railroads.  – Chuck Hinrichs

SUMMERAIL AT C.U.T.  from 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM and RAILROAD SHOW AND SALE  10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, in the Rotunda Saturday, August 14, 2010 at CINCINNATI UNION TERMINAL at 1301 Western Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio

Join us at this historic art deco railroad terminal to escape the summer heat and enjoy a day of high quality railroad photography. There will be twelve 222 multimedia digital and dual-projector slide presentations, all set to music. The programs will run from 1:00 – 10:00 p.m., with a break for dinner (on your own) from approximately 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. Admission is $15.

A railroad show and sale will be set up in the terminal rotunda from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission is free.  Friday August 13 in CUT Auditorium will be some traditional “talkie” programs from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Admission is free.  Thursday August 12 in Tower A will be the Cincinnati Railroad Club’s monthly business meeting at 8:00 p.m. Admission is free.

BRUSH CREEK, Tenn. – A group of train enthusiasts were among the many people stranded by flood waters on Saturday.  Five-hundred fifty passengers were on a train ride from the Middle Tennessee Central Railway Museum.  They were trying to make it to Crossville when the train tracks were washed out by floods.  Wilson County school buses worked through the evening to take the passengers back to Nashville.

Last week the UP began delivering 35 retired C40-8’s to the CN at Memphis. UP 9065-9099 were built in July-September 1991 as C&NW 8543-8577 (although not in that order), and are now CN 9100-9134, although not all of them are in the correct numerical order. They are still in UP paint.  Mike Palmieri – Ft. Worth, Texas

Cliff Downey’s new book, “Kentucky and the Illinois Central,” is now on sale at the Paducah Railroad Museum Gift Shop. The price is $ 23.25, including tax. This is a great book with many rare pictures. The museum is open on Friday 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday 10:00-4:00. or by appointment by calling 270 559-5253. You do not have to tour the museum to buy the book, but we hope you will want to.  Bob Johnston.  – submitted by Chuck Hinrichs.

Mark your calendars!  The Annual Chapter Picnic will be held trackside in Crofton on Saturday, October 9, 2010.  Noon til ???

Final Blades To Fall…
With news of the pending demise of the south end of the Monon between Bedford and Louisville, the final blades on the Monon’s north end are scheduled to fall by the end of 2010.

A major signal upgrade between Lafayette and Linden took out a large number of sempahores last year – being replaced with rather utilitarian Safetran hooded signal lights.

In March 2010, work began southward from Linden to Crawfordsville to replace the old “upside down” signal lights which have their aspects reversed from “normal” position.  Even the old L&N-style searchlight at South Linden is being replaced as well, truly changing the route to CSX.

With this project, the dwarf blades of North Crawfordsville and the one adjacent to the Ben Huhr museum will see their last trains soon.  The only ones to remain along the line will be museum pieces being restored at Linden.  That’s progress!  – Chris Dees

Cliff Downey’s new book, “Kentucky and the Illinois Central,” is now on sale at the Paducah Railroad Museum Gift Shop. The price is $ 23.25, including tax. This is a great book with many rare pictures. The museum is open on Friday 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday 10:00-4:00. or by
appointment by calling 270 559-5253. You do not have to tour the museum to buy the book, but we hope you will want to.  Bob Johnston.  – submitted by Chuck Hinrichs.

Submitted by Chuck Hinrichs

Regarding the location of the new P&L office complex in Paducah. . . .
The new headquarters will be built on Marine Way in front of Crounce Corp. and behind Phelps Farm Service. This location is a block from the Carson Center downtown Paducah. The city owns the land but will give it to P&L as an incentive for remaining in Paducah. The article also  mentions the addition of 10 new jobs.

An old – really old – NC&StL caboose on the back lot of a house on Edwards Mill Road south of Hopkinsville and east from US41. This at one time belonged to Steve Johnson’s father. Not sure who owns it now.

Paducah & Louisville RR Business Train for Sale!

2 Passenger Cars and 1 Power Car:

“Bluegrass State 1” was originally designed and built for operation as a Business Railcar for the Illinois Central Railroad. This railcar is still being used as a business car. Excellent condition, the interior having been completely gutted & rebuilt alter a fire destroyed the interior in the late 1980’s. It contains an observation room and open platform. Microphor hall toilet, dining room and fully equipped kitchen w/ Microphor toilet, two master bedrooms w/ shared Microphor toilet & shower wet bar along with all furnishings and accessories.

Bluegrass State was originally designed & built as a six double bedroom sleeper/bar lounge by Pullman in 1955 for the New York. New Hampshire (Editor’s note: I believe this to be New Haven) & Hartford RR. The car was originally named the “Nutmeg State” and numbered (NH-552). The car is generally in good operational condition.

The water & power car PAL 10 was built in 1958 as a milk freight carrier.

Price: $445,000

Any takers?

Submitted by Cliff Downey

From Channel 18’s (Lexington KY) web site:

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) – Paducah & Louisville Railway is looking for incentives to build a new headquarters in downtown Paducah rather than move to one of the other cities where it does business.

Railroad President Tony Reck told The Paducah Sun that the company is hoping to stay in western Kentucky, but isn’t close to making a commitment to any place. P&L, a 265-mile regional railroad, has grown steadily in recent years by acquiring rail lines in West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois. Reck said the company has newer contracts with CSX to build and operate intermodal facilities in West Baltimore, Ohio, and Winter Haven, Fla.

Paducah Mayor Bill Paxton says the city is trying to keep the railroad, despite heavy recruiting from places like Louisville and Florida.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Submitted by Chuck Hinrichs

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Canadian National Railway Co. next week will unveil the three-year, $100 million renovation to its Johnston Yard freight car switching facility in South Memphis. The railroad will commemorate its massive investment of time and money on Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. at the yard, 297 Rivergate Road, off Horn Lake Road.

– Chuck Hinrichs

Long, long ago… Oct. 2, 1960, marked the end of the steam era on the Illinois Central Railroad. On that date 4-8-2 2613 pulled a round trip excursion from Louisville, KY, to Dawson Springs, KY. After the trip, the big Paducah-built 4-8-2 was returned to storage at Paducah. The Kentucky Railway Museum tried to save 2613, but the road was unwilling to donate the locomotive. Instead the IC offered to sell 2613 for its scrap value. The museum didn’t have the cash, and 2613 went to scrap.