Chicago, Ft. Wayne and Eastern

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

This railroad has 276 miles of track from Crestline, Ohio to Tolleston, Indiana and operates into Chicago on trackage rights. Their mainline was Pennsylvania’s line into Chicago but was not wanted by Conrail, Norfolk Southern or CSX. Railamerica bought the line from CSX on August 1st, 2004.
How are they doing so far ? Do they still use those 12 former Rock Island GP38-2s for power ? Is Fort Wayne their operating base ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaboard_Airline_Railroad_Station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carrollton_(Amtrak_station)

Capital Beltway MD Delray Beach FL Thalmann GA

2

dont forget about Lima.must be doing pretty good because it looks like they have been working on the track in van wert.
stay safe
Joe

3

I thought that CSX just leased that line, didn’t think they sold it outright?

Just sharing my personal observations, can’t say that they are “all inclusive” but, the line in question used to be a big deal, back in the PRR days, had a hump yard called “Piqua” that was quite a bee hive of activity.

When I moved back here in 2003, the hump was gone, the tracks it fed had been fenced off/converted to NS’s triple crown main yard, and one of the 2 former PRR mains was gone.

At most given times CSX had 4-6 two engine consists sitting idling near the surviving Piqua hump tower, which I guess must have been used as an office.

It was humorous to drive by and see those loco pairs sitting there running for hours on end, moribund just like CSX’s presence in town.

After C,FW, & E took over, I was wondering if big things were in store. only to find on my drive byss those f idling locos that used to be of a CSX livery were now the CFW&E units that were still in Chicago NW , base colors.

So, in a very generalized sense, class 1 lethargy has been replaced by shortline lethargy…

CFW&E does run some trains, I’ve seen them, but by far the heaviest use these rails get is from NS freights east bound on the old Nickle Plate using a short section from “Sand” junction through the Hadley cut off to “Junction” junction (catchy name for a junction, huh?) on their way to the NS Newcastle District.

Details and map of this at http://www.trainweb.org/fwarailfan/fortwayne_rrte.htm

For an “overview” of the general layout, look here: http://www.trainweb.org/fwarailfan/fortwayne_loc.htm and you will see how the CFW&E thru line is affected by the NS Huntington district and it’s tie in to the triple crown yard at 'Mike" junction near the piqua wye…

Trouble there is that the line is just a single line from “Mike” junction to the triple crown yard, which NS seems to have tied up most of the time.
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4

For about 2 years ending back in May I spent two years in Lima, OH within one mile of the CFE line. From the August 04 takeover on CFE was doing quite a bit of trackwork on the west side of town. Power was the GP38-2’s leased from NREX. They are about half and half painted in Railamerica’s old RailTex red and grey paint the others in C&NW paint. Most have Railamerica 3880 series numbers while one or two in C&NW paint still wear C&NW numbers. The trains on the west side of Lima went from 2 a day average under CSX to 4 a day under CFE. One each way before noon and then again around midnight. A few CSX overhead trains snuck in, mostly grain trains.
The operations pattern seemed pretty simple. Power from Fort Wayne would pull into Cole St Yard eastbound, drop the train, do some switching, pickup their train and head back westbound. Trains from Crestline seemed to do the same thing. Occasionaly power from the Indiana & Ohio would show up and every once and a while Ohio Central power. Many times there was a set of CSX power also sitting in the yard.

5

Those CNW units came from Oelwein,IA(CNW Storage Yard).Most came on the CN/IC to NRE’s Dixmoore shops to get painted.

These are the numbers and their former numbers.

3880 ex CNW 4612
3881 ex CNW 4613
3882 ex CNW 4614
3883 ex CNW 4616
3884 ex CNW 4617
3885 ex CNW 4619
3886 ex CNW 4620
3887 ex CNW 4623
3888 ex CNW 4624
3889 ex CNW 4625

6

Wow, thanks that is good to know

7

For a couple of months the CF&E used a Cape Breton & Nova Scotia GP50.Traffic is down on the Decatur branch,I have seen CSX power used on the 65 car unit trains from Bunge - Decatur.

8

Here on the west end…Valparaiso to be exact the CFE runs one train daily. Generally about 7 to 10pm the westbound goes to Chicago and returns the following day, usually around 6pm.

The trains I have seen are generally about 35 - 40 cars in length and include scrap metal in gons, boxcars of paper from CN (for Warsaw, In) and ag cars such as covered hoppers and tank cars of fertilizer. Also included are lumber cars. There have also been flatbed cars of long fabricated steel going west with empty flats coming back east.

In talking to the crews, they indicated they switch lumber at Valpo, fertilizer at Hanna, In, and paper at Warsaw. Also, Hamlet generates unit grain trains.

ed

9

Where do you think that the gons full of scrap originate/terminate?

You are talking about the west end, and The only CF&E freight I’ve seen recently had several such gons, headed west through central Ft Wayne. I was wondering where it might be headed.

Is the scrap you see at your end mostly east bound, or westbound>

10

Saw gons full of scrap in Lima, OH frequently. Don’t know if they were the same cars. Mostly CSX and old Railgon gondolas.

11

were they east bound or westbound?

12

TheAntiGates,
You are right, CSX is leasing the line to the CFE. I just read that it is still jointed rail. Removal of the second main from CP-Colsan in Bucyrus and CP-501 in Gary started in 1983 and was finished in 1985. CF&E is a division of the Central Railroad of Indianapolis.

13

The majority were going loaded westbound. Anything eastbound always seemed to be bailed scrap.

14

I figured that they must be leasing it, since the mileage markers are still in place based upon the east end terminus, from the old PRR days.

15

Interesting,…the scrap I’ve seen them hauling has been westbound, and they have been at a trackspeed of about 10 MPH.

WHICH, west of here I’m not sure where the next scrap yard is, they might have an awfully long haul at that speed

16

Interesting,…the scrap I’ve seen them hauling has been westbound, and they have been at a trackspeed of about 10 MPH.

WHICH, west of here I’m not sure where the next scrap yard is, they might have an awfully long haul at that speed
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10MPH, thats slow for CFE. West of Lima to about Van Wert the speed limit is 45-50 and they run 45-50. Along US 30 west of Plymouth, IN I clocked one train right at 55 mph.

17

Tocay, July 223rd, while driving on Highway 30 near Hanna, I saw track machinery working. The trackwork looked good, There were no rr markings on the machinery.

Mitch

18

Seemed pretty slow to me too. Guy was just creeping along,…

19

Track work in Valpo today…I didnt get a chance to take a look at what was going on, but there are lots of ties that are marked for replacement.

About a month ago an EB went thru at 40mph…kicking up some dust and looking like the ghost of Conrail past.

Now, if this line is rated at 40mph, what reason would they have for upgrading the line, based one ONE train per day, usually 40 cars or less?

Either they have money to burn ( or invest) or something big is on the horizon…

ed

20

You’re right, that is surprising,…wonder what’s in the cards?