Unique dialog-Old Wabash

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Back in Ft Wayne In. for a vacation decided to do a little Railfaning along NS’s old Wabash main, out the sw side of town. This is the Detroit-St Louis main.

First thing I noticed, was the huge increase in traffic, over just a few years ago. constant flow so it seemed,…9AM-12 Midnight,…VERY LITTLE SLACK…

Hard not to notice the huge number of UP TTX car racks flowing full,… both ways.

And, spying a track crew, after noticing a train crane, a ballast cleaner, a new delivery of welded rail being pushed into a siding (into the old “triple crown” yard actually), and bundles of new ties sitting every so often, I couldn’t resist…I asked…

SEEMS BNSF is “hot-n-heavy” wanting to purchase this old Wabash line,…according to annomyous well placed sources (IMHO) and there is nothing like selling a silk purse if you want to get top dollar (instead of a sows ear).

Now UP has trackage rights over these rails (they must, I saw UP power over these rails twice in last several days) but if BNSF purchased this route, THAT would certainly give rise to a tidy spat worth watching!!

(Perhaps this is the new strategic alternative to further merger…WESTERN powerhouses buying jewels out of the crown of the conrail successors to the east???

AND, seeing the new triplecrown yard/HQ was kinda neat…LOTS OF ACTIVITY…

Doesn’t take much for one of those SD 70’s to yank a string of semi trailers down the rail fast…first I was surprised to see the train whipping along mega quick,…then the big surprise—the single engine sounded BARELY laboring under the load…

2

I cant imagine NS letting go of that particular line. That is the fabled AUTOMOTIVE ARTERY and surely if there is a line that pays the bills for NS, this must be it. Seeing UP cars means nothing, nor does seeing UP power signify anything other than the trade-offs in locomotive hours that are so common today. I stop short of saying it can’t happen, for we have all seen some mighty strange deals. But, I’ll have to see it to believe it.

3

nor does seeing UP power signify anything other than the trade-offs in locomotive hours that are so common today<<

You might very well be correct,…I certainly have no hard info to support that any contractural agreement exists for trackage rights for UP on subject route…

But, let me tell you what I saw…

Two separate days of the week,…approx 11:50 AM…West bound mixed freight with two UP units as power, grinds to a halt where the double track chokes down into one single track,…and waits.

Then, on track #2, westbound mixed freight having two NS units as power, overtakes the standing train,…after which the standing UP train pulls out behind it…

To me this looks like “favored son” type treatment, where the “native” train gets priority over one “visiting” via trackage rights,…though I’ll admit…I’m just guessing…

Compounded by the observations that many of the other trains observed over this route during 3 weeks had NS featuring a “mixed bag” of motive power units,…often like “two NS and one conrail” in a trio, even “one Illinois Central and one NS”, and even "all NS, but of WIDELY spread vintage "

It just strikes me as peculiar that a road that will field “mixed nuts” for motive power otherwise, would bother to run the matched set of UP units as nearly the ONLY coordinated set of all alike units over this route…

4

No UP trackage rights on old Wabash, but it is not uncommon to see UP power all over the NS acc’t run-through and HP-HR equalization. There are UP run through trains from Salem IL that come on at Sidney IL. Increased traffic you are seeing may be the result of Conrail merger. Some traffic that used to run on CR “Big Four” now runs on NS.

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UP Power can be seen Daily on the wabash as for IC. Here is a list of UP/IC trains that runs over the Wabash,

NS/UP 10E, Sidney,IL/UP-Conway/Pittsburgh
NS/UP 11E, Conway/Pittsburgh-Sidney,IL/UP
NS/UP 15E, Bellevue/Columbus,OH-Sidney,IL/UP
NS/UP 186, Sidney,IL/UP-Bellevue,OH
NS/UP 171, Detroit/Sterling-Salem/Siney,IL/UP
NS/UP 182, Sidney,IL/UP-Elkhart,IN.

NS/IC 16K, Tolono,IL-Bellevue,OH
NS/IC 17K, Bellevue,IL-Tolono,IL

Andrew

6

Cool!!

Thanks for the knowledgeable “heads up”!!

Just being the green horn Dummy that I am…what is “HP-HR equalization”?

I’ve been casually familiar with the line in question since pre 1964

And I have never seen those rails get pounded as hard, as at present, running two or three trains in the same direction one behind the other (the “dual” chokes down to a single line for a short ways on the western outskirts, where there used to be an old switch tower named “HUGO”) then as soon as those trains clear to the next dual,…on comes the onslaught of opposing traffic.

I was fairly impressed with the magnitude of the increase in traffic, especially given that the old PRR line through town has a thick coat of red rust on the rail surfaces…=) (which bode out well the reported change in annual tonnage as reported in a previous “map of the month”)

The comment by the maintenance of way worker that BNSF is working hard to buy this line, intrigues me