CN and Indiana Railroad today announced a new container service to Indianapolis for import/export thru Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
INDR again shows how to hustle as a regional railroad. Going to be interesting to see a stack train on Tulip Trestle.
Ed
Wonder if this will help things on I-65, gets pretty crowded on that highway…
That is one lousy stretch of Interstate, particularly north of Lafayette. Bumper to bumper 85mph in the left lane and 64mph in the right lane. It really gets messy when a 65mph truck decides to pass a 64mph truck and traffic backs up for 4 miles…and tempers flare!
ed
I second that comment, the suspension-busting potholes don’t help either, for a while, as soon as my PrePass went off clearing me for the Lowell scale, had to dive into the left lane, or pay the penalty…
Have been on the wrong side of many nasty accidents as well…
anyone have an idea of the city routings of this service ? do not know the pedigree of Indianna RR ?
CN from west coast to Chicago (via the old Wisconsin Central). My guess is the train will be yarded at Markham and then a block of containers will then move to Effingham, Il.
CN runs a nightly local to Newton, Il for interchange with INDR. Dont know if the containers will be on that local or if volume will be sufficient for a dedicated train (probably not).
From Newton the train will move to Indianapolis via Palestine, Il, Bloomington, In and a number of small Southern Indiana communities.
The Indiana Railroad website has a great map.
There is an excellent book out “Indiana Railroad, 2nd Edition” written by Christopher Rudd and Fred Frailey (our very own FF) which provides updated info on the history and the operations…lots of business on this railroad.
I checked the book out at the local public library and it should be available Inter Library Loan program for a small ($2 perhaps) fee.
Strongly recommend this book.
Ed
Just thought of this…not sure about double stack clearances on the Effiingham - Indy route via CN/INDR.
Perhaps these will move from Effiingham to Indy via CSX, or even Chicago - Indy via CSX, since CSX owns 85% of INDR.
Lots of possibilities.
ed
one could dream but maybe this will finally cause CSX to upgrade theie Indy - CHI route ??
I was wondering about the routing. The Indiana also has their own route out of Chicago reaching the Newton-Indianapolis line at Dugger. Historically, that route was Milwaukee Road’s Chicago-Louisville line. Most of the original Milwaukee line was abandoned after the aquisition of trackage rights from the New York Central. The route was retain by Canadian Pacific US subsidiaries, until, as I recall, Indiana Rail Road purchased the route just within the last couple of years. I have no knowledge of the condition of the line and it may not be at the level of track class that allow the desired speeds for a stack train.
Last year I had a ride on a special rare mileage excursion from Chicago to Indianapolis routed CN-Newton-IN R R. Can’t say I was paying close attention to clearances, but I don’t recall anything suggesting clearance problem-although there could be old truss bridges.