Does anyone know what the crew districts are on the ex-Conrail (exx-PRR) Fort Wayne Line? While it can’t hurt to know about the entire Pittsburgh-Chicago section, I’m particularly interested in the line west of Alliance. Do the road crews and local crews have different bases? Any information - either from the CR or NS/CFER era - would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
I don’t intently follow CF&E, but I have picked up a few things along the way. Most of the crews seem to be based in Fort Wayne at Piqua Yard. They try to run through to Chicago like they did in PRR days (even though the ex-PRR is cut at Gary) on the daily FWCH train. They also run FWLI from Fort Wayne to Lima, OH. The COOP elevator in Hamlet, IN runs grain trains 1-3 times a month that go east to CSX at, I believe, Crestline, OH. CSX supplies the power for these unit trains. I haven’t followed these trains to see if they change at Piqua Yard or somewhere else.
There is a local FWWR that is based in Warsaw, IN to switch the R R Donnelly printing plant. I have heard it coming out of Fort Wayne, but I can’t tell if they start every day in the Fort or just run into Piqua to interchange cars as needed. It also serves other customers in the area and occasionally runs out to the Omnisource scrap metal yard in Bourbon, IN. I haven’t followed them farther west than that. Maybe Ed (MP173) can tell you what happens west of Valpo.
The CFE runs a local from Warsaw west to Plymouth, Hamlet, Hanna, and Valpo (as needed). One customer exists in Valpo which is a lumber yard. With housing in the dumps, it gets to town about 1x week at best. Two years ago it was 3-4x weekly.
Currently CFE is running a FWCH/CHFW into and out of Blue Island (IHB). Goes in one day and returns the next usually at night. Up until about 6 months ago there was a daily train in each direction. I have been told it was reduced to every other day due to a lack of crews, but my guess is the economy has taken a toll on the car loadings. These trains are pretty healthy with car counts in the 50-100…lots of scrap in gons, box cars for RR Donnelly, grain, and other stuff.
ed
Thanks for the info guys. Anyone have any other information? Especially for the line between Mansfield/Crestline and Alliance?