13 months ago the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad was purchased by Canadian National. I have not heard very much about the B&LE since then. Has CN left it alone, perhaps waiting for a good offer, or is CN changing everything and making it a part of their system ? Does the Union Railroad still exist as a 30 mile southern extension ?
The Union Railroad does still exist. It was not part of the deal becuase it remained with Transtar when the reorganized the company. They have a great history of the Union Railroad on the Transtar web page…
CN does show B&LE as part of the system on their system map, but I don’t know what if any changes have been made.
Last I heard, and it’s been a few months, things still look like the B&LE prior to the CN purchase.
As wncrails mentioned, the URR is alive and well. But I was thinking the URR was fully owned by US Steel (USS) rather than the joint venture with Transtar.
I used to live near the line near the Thompson Run RR crossing in Monroeville. Was nice because when you heard a train heading for N. Bessemer, you knew about an hour later it’d (at least the motive power anyway) would be on it’s return trip which gave plenty of time to get setup for photos. There was also a guy I’d talk to at a local hardware store who worked for the URR. Very nice guy and full of good info.
Here’s a link to some URR photos I took last year.
http://bbrant.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=4348
Speculation has been that CN really isn’t all that interested in it, and only took it in the deal that included DMIR. Some people seem to think they will unload it eventually.
Dave
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I would expect that CN will sell B&LE along with Great Lakes Shipping. They are not part of the CN corporate strategy. Also, just rumors here, I was just up on the Algoma Central two weeks ago riding their regular passenger train and while talking with the conductor on the southbound trip he said that the employees of the AC are expecting to leave CN in the next couple years (his words were “we are expecting to buy the company in a couple years”). Maybe the employees are trying to buy AC from CN.
The loco’s seem to have been incorporated onto the general system as I noted a B&LE SD-40T #903 heading westbound as trailing unit on CN train#119 going through Page BC-( thats about 40m east of CN Thornton yard in Vancouver) just over a month ago .
From what I see near me, its business as usual on the B&LE. No paint or logo changes so far. They have started to utilize some of the engines on other parts of the CN system, and also seemed to have increased leasing of engines to other roads like the w&le.
I have read posts of sign changes to CN at the Greenville shops but not sure if that is so or not.
They put up CN signs everywhere and there’s CN trucks about. And all the hoppers are having their Bessemer logos painted over and www.cn.ca stenciled on.
I work for the URR, mostly out of Hall, but I get around the system. The only noticable changes I have seen was the website on the hppers and the lack of the the old bessemer logo with the rail on it. I’d like to see if CN unloads the BLE the URR pick it back up and run it, would make more work for us guys getting layed off here soon. Transtar is owned by USS.
Everything is the same as it is on the DMIR, just a few CN loco’s here, and a few stray DMIR/B&LE loc’s there. Also, the CN moved some B&LE loco’s up to Duluth for use on Dockswitch’s.
Does the B&LE still have a steam locomotive or two stored servicable? Seems to me they saved a couple of steamers for years
Dave Nelson
Hi guys. I live in State College, PA, but visit my in-laws in Meadville, PA all the time. I was wondering if anyone had a good idea of the northbound B&LE from Greenville to Conneaut, and the southbound trips back ? ie., returns from Conneaut to Greenville. I’d love to catch a couple of tunnelmotors running that aren’t in Armour Yellow ( UP ) ! It’s my understanding that most runs are in poor light conditions, either early morning or late at night, but if you know something I don’t, please let me know. All info is appreciated. THANKS.