Info. on the old IC Line from Newton IL to Evansville IN.

Does anybody have any information about the old ICG line that ran through Olney, West Salem, Browns, Grayville, and on to Evansville? I know that at one time Indiana Hi-Rail owned the line for a while. Did they buy it off of IC or did someone else but it from IC before they bought it? I was also reading where Indiana Railroad might have owned part of the line at one time. I also heard where a short line called the Owensville Terminal Railroad owned part of it. Does anyone have any detailed information about this line?
I would appreciate your help.
Thanks.

This was part of an Illinois Central line from Peoria to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The line was extended to Nashville in 1968 when the Tennessee Central quit. Between 1950 and 1970 the IC abandoned their bridge over the Ohio and used the L&N from Evansville to Henderson.
During March 1986 ICG sold 70 miles from Browns, Illinois to Evansville, and the rights to Henderson, to Indiana Hi-Rail, who called it their Wabash division. South of Henderson was already abandoned and sold in pieces. The section north of Browns was sold to the Indiana Rail Road in 1990 and they sold it to Indiana Hi-Rail in May 1992.
I believe CSX has 2 miles running south from Olney and Indiana Southwestern has 18 miles from Evansville to Poseyville and the rest is gone. I’ll get back to this in the morning.[zzz]
www.pioneer-railcorp.com/Subsidiaries/ISW/isw.html

Ed AKA MP173 has a lot of knowledge on this subject.

I have traced the remnants of this line about two years ago. I don’t really have anything to add, other than what is said is accurate or to reiterate the traffic movements on the line that Ed and I had a good discussion about.

I am really sad to see it go.

Gabe

The last vestages of that after Indiana Hi-Rail was the Evansville Terminal Railroad (nee Owensville Terminal RR, Browns to Poseyville 22 Mi and was embargoed for years by ETR ) which was quietly folded into RailAmerica/ Indiana SouthWestern earlier this year.

I grew up one block from the line, a few miles north of Olney. During the 60’s the line was pretty good source of traffic with up to 100 car trains being pulled thru town. I know, because I would stand outside and count the cars. There was one train each way and would usually meet at Olney, Newton or Calhoun.

With the L&N’s purchase of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, the interline traffic from L&N to Chicago dried up at Evansville, as they routed it up their own line to Chicago.
IC deferred maintennace on the line and speed limits fell from 35 to 25 to less. On line traffic started dropping.

At one time, my little town would receive cars of limestone several times a week during the spring, summer and fall for farms. Small grain elevators shipped boxcars of grain. The AMF bicycle plant in Olney would ship several cars daily. It all went away, often driven off by IC (they no longer wanted to haul the limestone).

Sometime in the late 80’s I took my last shot of the IC, as black geeps interchanged with CSX at Olney.

Then Alcos started showing up as the line changed ownership. The trains rumbled thru town about 1 - 2 x a week, often nearly 100 cars. I was told they were coke trains headed for Robinson to the refinery. By then I had moved away and really didnt care much.

The tracks are now gone. I was home earlier this month and it is pretty sad. As a kid, we would walk down the tracks to the woods and trestle and play. In the fall we would hunt rabbits and pickup hickory nuts. The railroad was an important part of our lives although not in an economic sense. It was almost cultural.

As a kid, when the trains came thru town, everything stopped to watch the train and count the cars.

As an adult when I would visit home, we would go for a walk “down the tracks”.

A woman I grew up with lamented last trip that things “it’s really a shame the tracks are gone.” I understood what she meant.

Ed,

You have a way with words. Very nostolgic. Also, I didn’t realize the L&N’s purchace of the CE&I was the reason the traffic dried up; but that makes a lot of sense.

You were the one who told me that he once thought he saw a blue passenger train on it in the middle of the night, right? I bet it was the Dixie re-routing due to a derailment on the CE&I.

Bon chance,

Gabe

Another correction is that the IC had a ferry operation, not a bridge over the Ohio. The approaches were destroyed in a flood and the IC chose to get the trackage rights rather than rebuild.