News « Ohio Valley Railroads

NKP #901 Restoration Celebration

Category: News Railroads: LM&M, NKP

Cincinnati Railway’s GP30, number #85, has been restored to its original as-delivered paint scheme. To celebration its return as Nickel Plate #901, a special excursion has been planned on the Lebanon, Mason, & Monroe Railroad.

Nickel Plate #901 was built by EMD back in 1962. Recently, it has been used by the CNRY for power on their dinner train, and as a backup unit in Lebanon. Restoration began in August and was made possible in part by donations from the member of the Nickel Plate Technical and Historical Society. Final preparations are currently underway in the old Mason locomotive barn, including installation of an original Mars light and number boards.

NKP #901 will leave the Mason engine house overnight on Thursday, September 29th. The special train will depart Lebanon Friday morning. There will be a one-hour lunch layover in Mason at the Brazenhead Pub. The return trip should, weather permitting, include a photo run-by somewhere along the line. The consist is scheduled to include #901 (facing South), the open-air car, and 3 of the ex-Lackawanna coaches. For more information and for tickets, visit the LM&M’s website.

Check back later this week for photos and a brief history on NKP #901. It is currently scheduled to stay in Lebanon through October, and then resume work powering the Cincinnati Dinner Train.

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CSX to Expand Columbus Intermodal Yard

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News

It’s been a while, but there is quite a bit of news from this summer that needs to be recapped. First off, CSX has announced recently they would be expanding their Intermodal operation in Columbus. Known to locals as the Van Yard, the intermodal operation was acquired as part of the Conrail split. It is located directly east of Norfolk Southern’s Buckeye Yard.

Crews have already begun working on the 31-acre expansion, demolishing a number of neighboring warehouses. This area will be paved and used for the storage of containers, the footprint for the rest of the site will be redesigned, tracks realigned, and improvements will be made to increase capacity.

Additionally, CSX will be purchasing three new container cranes for the site, like the one pictured above was purchased for the North Baltimore Intermodal Yard. These cranes run completely off of electricity supplies by an attached tether cable. Overall, $59 million in improvements will be made at the site.

The Columbus expansion is needed with the construction of the new site at North Baltimore. This intermodal hub, part of the National Gateway series of improvements, recently opened Phase II of the project. Click through to read the full press release after the break.
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TLE&W Robbed

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: TLEW

It’s a sad day for area railfans in Northwestern Ohio. The Toledo, Lake Erie & Western, otherwise known as the “Bluebird” was recently robbed of more than $60,000 in equipment. Thefts broke into both the locomotive and the passenger coaches, taking a number of valuable wicker seat bottoms.

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that we published the details from my personal trip aboard the Bluebird as well as some details about the history of the line.

As of right now, the TLE&W was already closed until June, pending FRA required trackwork. With this set-back, volunteers are unsure if the railroad will be able to open ever again. The TLE&W, like many cash-strapped tourism lines, cannot afford to insure their equipment from vandalism.

Source: Trains.com Newswire

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The “Miracle Express” & A Call to Arms

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: NS

NS 4271, shown here in a photo from Norfolk Southern’s Facebook page, was on-hand to lead NS’s special for the Children’s Miracle Network.

I’m not sure how I missed this initially, but Norfolk Southern recently posted a press release calling attention to their “Miracle Train” that ran last month. The special trip was organized specifically for Children’s Miracle Network, and ran from Cleveland to Toledo. On board were over 200 passengers making up 30 families with ill or special needs children.
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Heartland Corridor Opens Today

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: NS

This video was posted on Norfolk Southern’s Youtube page as part of their Heartland Corridor promotions.

Today is a big day for Norfolk Southern fans in Ohio with the official opening of the Heartland Corridor. The Heartland Corridor is a $191 million refurbishment of Norfolk Southern’s mainline that runs from the Virgina Ports through West Virginia to Ohio. Nearly 30 tunnels had their clearances raised to allow the movement of double-stack container trains. The project was funded through a public-private partnership, with Norfolk Southern paying for a little more than half the cost.

Heartland Corridor Map, via Earth and Industry.com

For Ohioans, this means more traffic on the Columbus District between Columbus and Portsmouth, OH. Be on the look out for trains 233 and 234 to run with double-stacks.

This news article in the Business First of Columbus provides a nice overview of the project. Here is another article with more of a West Virginia perspective.

If you have photos of double-stacks on the Heartland Corridor, please send me an e-mail or post them to our Flickr group. I would love to have a chance to get some posted on here. For now Norfolk Southern has posted a few photos on their Twitter page.

In other website housekeeping news, I’ve made a quick fix to our RSS Feed. I was unaware, but apparently it has been down for some time. If you have not subscribed to the feed this would be a perfect time to. If RSS is not really your thing or you are more traditional, then you can also subscribe to our feed by e-mail. Lastly, I’ve set the RSS Feed to update when one of the railroad pages are updated on the site. More and more activity is taking place on those pages, so it’s helpful in order to stay informed.

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Annual Flagg Coal Update

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: LM&M

Each year I normally make a post around the time Flag Coal visits the LM&M Railroad. For anyone who doesn’t know, Flagg Coal is a small 0-4-0 that was restored during the 90′s by Byron and John Gramling. Since the restoration the saddletank switch has been traveling from railroad to railroad via truck. The locomotive spends the weekends for most of the summer pulling tourist trains all over the county.

The weather wasn’t great this past weekend (as you can see by my photo attempt), but I hear the weather should be better this weekend. So if you’re in southwestern Ohio and looking for some steam action, head over to Lebanon Mason, & Monroe Railroad. It should be in town through May 16th.

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Railroad News November 9-16

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News

So I learned a new trick this week. When using Google News you can use a special location tag followed by a semicolon to narrow your search. For instance, by searching “railroad location:oh” I can get all the railroad news stories from the Ohio area.

Now with that out of the way, here are some interesting railroad articles from around the web.

A long legal battle to get a private overpass replaced on the Ohio Central may be closer to a conclusion. Lawyers from the state (who now owns the line and leases it to the OC) can find no documentation that removes responsibility. I can just imagine all the fun digging around in PRR archives looking for that.
Plans are being discussed to build a biketrail along the Mill Creek Corridor in Cincinnati. While not exactly a rail trail it would most likely have good views of the action near Union Terminal.
Lastly there is a great article on Canton Railroad history. One of the “Images of Rail” series is publishing a volume on Canton.

In other news, I’ve put up some of my central Ohio photos up on the Ohio Valley Railroads Facebook Page.I’m also taking submissions now for an Ohio Railway calendar. If you have an event you would like to be on it let me know.

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RailAmerica Stock Slides After IPO

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: I&O, RA

Ready for a few more financial musings? While the rest of the rail industry continues to ride the Buffet bounce things could be looking better for RailAmerica.

After going public again a little more than a month ago the stock has continued a slow slide on light volume from it’s opening price of $15. Fortress Investment Group, who took the company private in 2006, originally wanted $16 to $18 a share for this IPO. Fortress paid $16.35 per share when they bought RailAmerica.

In other I&O news, Aaron Border recently put up this video on rail-videos.net. It shows the Delta-Lima turn returning to the former DT&I from the now CSX-owned ex-B&O.

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River Road Station to Meet End

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: CSX, I&O

I was recently informed that ODOT is planning a major reconstruction project for the Waldvogel Viaduct on the riverfront in Cincinnati. The bids are in and the contracts have been awarded so construction should begin relatively soon.

For those unfamiliar with the Cincinnati area, this is down on the river just west of Paul Brown Stadium and the Mill Creek. CSX has their Indiana Sub in the area and CIND, a Rail America shortline, runs a ditch track that collects from a number of river bulk transfer industries. The junction of the two lines is known as CP Oklahoma.

This project is going to have a number of effects on the rail lines in the area. For starters the CSX will be getting a new #10 switch and the entire set of main lines will be moved south to make space for a future bike trail (and possibly a light rail line?). A little over 400 feet of CIND trackage is expected to be moved to connect to the new alignment.

By far the greatest effect will be the demolition of the old River Road Amtrak Station (show near the “View 3″ label above). This was one of the famous “Amshaks” that opened when Amtrak deemed it too expensive to run out of Union Terminal and other large stations. The one in Cincinnati was the first of these stations Amtrak ever built and was used by the railroad from 1971 to 1991. In 1991 Amtrak moved back to a renovated Union Terminal where the Cardinal stops today (although it may not be only one for long). [Image by G. R. Harper, used with permission.]

In more recent years the station was sold to the I&O. It has been used as a staging platform for I&O Passenger Corporation and Cincinnati Railway excursions.

The River Road station was plagued by a poor location in a bad part of town. Few will miss it, but just the same it will be another piece of railroad history that has disappeared. You can see more photos of the River Road and other Cincinnati stations on this page. There’s also some good photos at Queen City Discovery.

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Warren Buffet Buys BNSF

Author: Kyle Montgomery

Category: News Railroads: BNSF

Image Credit: Kia4067 on Flickr

In case you haven’t heard already, Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway recently announced their intent to purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the major North American Class One Railroads. The purchase included the 70% of the railroad not already owned by Berkshire, a deal valued at around 34 billion dollars. I know the announcement is old news at this point, but I wanted to go ahead and get in my take on things.

First off, I look at this as vindication of my own bullish outlook on the railroad industry. I’m paraphrasing, but it was once said that the steel wheel on the steel rail was “the most brilliant transportation invention devised by man”. As transportation gets more expensive in the future the railroads will continue to be a better bargin. They represent a solid long-term investment.

Railroads are also a conservative investment, and I don’t think this was lost on Buffet as he approaches his twilight years. Clearly he wants solid performers for his company in the future without some of the growth he might have seen in his younger years. At this point larger railroads are a clear conservative investment as it would be near impossible for a new Class 1 to emerge. The current Class 1′s have been built up by combining so many railroads over such a long period of time I really don’t see them letting any new players past the regional railroad level.

Now some have suggested that this purchase by Buffet will spur the last round of mega-mergers and soon we will only have 2 major railroads nationwide. I don’t buy this argument. I think the present situation is an extremely stable setup and don’t think the business world of the political world is accepting to the thought of new mergers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Class 2 be bought out but don’t think anything major will happen.

There was a big article in the Wall Street Journal Saturday comparing Buffet to a modern day Vanderbilt. While I’m sure he appreciates comparisons to the ruthless railroad tycoon, I wouldn’t put Buffet on the same level as the venerable Commodore. Vanderbilt created the New York Central System nearly single handed and all the while helped create the financial systems that made it possible. Check back later this week for a more extensive biography.

So what do you think this deal means for the railroad history as a whole? Let me know in the comments below.