Over the past few months I have noticed a sharp decline in Indiana and Ohio engines on their tracks and have now noticed Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern instead, does anyone know if Rail America has ceased operations of I&O and replaced it with CF&E instead, or what?
i actually wrote them a letter recommending they formally merge the three railroads that run in Indiand and the surrounding states, the CF&E being one of them! the railroad is still listed on their website, though. Nothing is in their news archives either about it.
It’s all Rail America, doesn’t really matter very much. I believe I saw a pic of a CF&E engine out in Oregon on CORP and I’ve seen CORP power on the CF&E.
No the I&O isn’t dead just slow.CF&E and I & O are both part of rail america.Csx won the auto traffic so the I&O runs a Delta local from Lima.Last I heard though there was enough to keep an engine at Delta so they could run up to Flat Rock too.Rail America also bought the Ann Arbor as well and I’ve heard rumors that CN might be interested in rail america.There is also a new connection being built in Leipsic Ohio for an ethanol plant for the I&O as well to bring cars in.I don’t know if the switch was put in or not but there is a new set of tracks across rt 65.so stay tuned.
stay safe
joe
I know they are all owned by Rail America I just found it very weird that there seems to be no engines with I&O reporting marks lately.
Rail America moves locomotives between its railroads quite a bit.
Yep Railamerica moves power quite abit They just moved TPW 4053 and TPW 4055 off of TPW. Of course Im not really happy with that since 4055 was my favorite loco of theirs. They are going to the Northeast Im guessing the NECR but not sure. TPW has two Indiana and Ohio locos(IORY 4008 and IORY 4011 both in UP paint) which they can have back at any time if you ask me. CFE has TPW 4056.
The way in which RailAmerica shuffles its motive power (I’ve seen CB&CNS power on CFE at IHB-Blue Island) is reminiscent of pre-1970’s Southern, when motive power was sub-lettered and had separate number series for its various subsidiaries (3 separate series for SD24’s) but could be found just about anywhere on the system.
Here in Southwest Ohio, you may see various locomotives pulling grain. Even a few former Southern Pacifics, long way from home.
San Joaquin Valley Railroad has locomotives from Florida East Coast, California Northern (sublettered SJVR), Central Oregon & Pacific, Kyle Railroad, Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, Railink, and Minnesota Northern Railroad. I wonder who is the actual owner of the locomotives included in the last three railroads (they no longer exist or are no longer part of RA) and what are their reporting marks.
All locomotives are owned by Railamerica and leased to the RR’s. The RR’s have to pay more to have their reporting marks on locomotives. If a loco still has reporting marks for a RR no longer existing or part of Railamerica they still have the old RR’s reporting mark. For example TPW’s railink loco still has RLK reporting marks.