Does anyone know what happend to the Clover Leaf after the NKP, Wabash, N&W and others merged in 1964? Obviously N&W kept the more superior Wabash route to St. Louis/KC - when did service stop? Is any of it still operated today? Thanks!
Chase Z.
Yes. Various parts are still in existence. In 1988 the St. Louis Line was abandoned from Cowden, IL–where it connected with the B&O–to somewhere in Indiana. I think Frankfort. After the B&O pulled its like going through Cowden, I think NS stopped running to Cowden. However, there is a power plant in Coffeen on the line that started taking coal from the Montery Mine on the CNW, which kept the line alive.
NS pulled the line from Cofeen to Cowden sometime in 1996–roughly. Then, more recently, NS acquired trackage rights over the BNSF and pulled the line from Sorento to St. Louis. However, the line from Sorento to Coffeen still sees regular coal trains.
I am pretty sure NS’ line to Peoria is part of the old NKP, but am not certain.
Gabe
The first section torn up would seem to be at the east end, between Waterville and Douglas in Ohio, between 1975 and 1985.
The first parts of the Clover Leaf to fall in Illinois was from Cowden to Neoga (IC connection) in 1988, and Metcalf (CSX connection) to Frankfort, IN about the same time. Neoga-Metcalf is still in and used by the Eastern Illinois RR. The Neoga-Cowden segment had some very high and impressive trestles that spanned several creeks in that area- would have been awesome to see trains cross them. Cowden to Coffeen was in until 1994, when the grain elevator at Cowden stopped shipping by rail ( I can still remember going to Cowden when both NKP and B&O lines were being torn out at the same time there.The former interlocking signals were left up for a while after the diamond was gone and the NKP ended just past the highway crossing.) That segment also had some really neat bridges just past Coffeen and near Ramsey (where the IC/NKP tower is now a very nice little museum.)
Sorento-Coffeen is still in, but the segment from Madison-Sorento was axed in 1996 after the Coffeen trains moved over to their current route via Litchfield, and Richards Brick in Edwardsville stopped shipping by rail (they also used to receive inbounds of clay from pits by New Douglas).
As for the old Peoria line- it is still in from Peoria to Gibson City, but is torn out from there to Cheneyville, where it then is still used by the KBSR to get to Lafayette, where it then becomes NS again to Frankfort. Main customers are Mitsubishi at Normal and ADM at Gibson City.
Also, I think the Indiana Transportation Museum’s line from Indy to Kokomo is part of the Clover Leaf. The Indiana Railroad tried to make a go of this line in the 90s, but NS and the Kokomoa Grain Company really sabotaged their attempt. Too bad. It still exits though and occasionally will see runs by the 587 and geeps pained in Nickle Platte Colors.
Gabe
Roughly 15 miles of ex-Cloverleaf track in Bluffton,Indiana is operated by a shortline.Power is a pair of old GP’s.The railroad used to go close to my house.I believe the track in Decatur, Indiana was removed in 1997.A few miles of track southwest of Delphos,Ohio might also remain. Joe
Actually, that line was “Lake Erie & Western”
System map: http://www.nkphts.org/images/system.jpg
Here is an interesting history of the Nickle Plate in it’s entirety
The Cloverleaf was largely an inferior route to the Wabash, as you pointed out.
The segment from Craigville Indiana to near Warren Indiana. still see’s some traffic via the shortline “Wabash Central”, that interchanges with the NS’s New Castle district at Bluffton IN
Here is a picture of a bridge that was once part of the Cloverleaf , where it crosses the Salamonie River (and a road paralleling the river) in Warren Indiana.
The last through trains east of Frankfort to Toledo ran in 1969, IIRC, when the bridge at Dupont, Ohio, was damaged by some autoframes that didn’t clear the bridge. After that, through service ended east of Delphos, OH. There was local service operated out of Continental, OH, north, for a period of time after that and a local that ran from Frankfort to Delphos one day and back to Frankfort the next, as well as yard engines in Marion, IN, and Kokomo.