Okay, so, we were going to the store today, and the highway we were on goes over many railroad tracks. We went over one, and on it was a trio of Wheeling and Lake Erie SDs. It startled me because they were almost in Rio Grande colors, and I have never seen Wheeling and Lake Erie units before.
How long has the Wheeling and Lake Erie railroad been around, and are they common in the Maryland area?
The W&LE has a spinoff from Norfolk Southern during 1990. Most of the track belonged to the other W&LE which became part of the Nickel Plate back in 1949.
W&LE has trackage rights from the Pittsburgh area to Hagerstown, Maryland.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoList.aspx?id=WE
Man TrainFreak, you’re talking to the right guy (check my homepages below) because I’m a W&LE fan!! W&LE was formed in 1871 as a standard gauge railway proposed to run between Pittsburgh and Toledo. Their main line heads through Brewster, OH whcih where there headquarters are.
In 1949, Nickelplate Road acquired the W&LE and NKP and N&W abandoned their Brewster Yard. When NS was formed, it spun off 180 miles of track in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1990. 498 miles going to the “new” W&LE–now initialed WE! WE has trackage on NS to Bellevue, OH and on CSX to Maryland (where you probably saw them) and is in four states: OH, PA, WV, MD.
The reason WE has DRGW’s paint is because the old president of DRGW became the new president for WE and used the DRGW’s old scheme. Many of those locos are former DRGW units.
They also own alot of ex- Southern Railway GP35 high-noses. Until this day, WE operates as the largest regional railroad in Ohio! Enjoy, and hope that helps!!
P.S.)- BLI released SD40-3s for WE in the DRGW scheme a month ago!!
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W&LE has or had several ex-DRGW tunnel motors. A couple of them spent some time in Maine leased to MMA. Now that is a wee bit from home…
Dan
the last I heard in trains mag was 1900