Erie Western Railway

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Erie Western Railway
legal form Corporation
founding August 1977
resolution June 1979
Seat Huntington , Indiana ,United StatesUnited States
management Craig Burroughs
Branch Rail transport

The Erie Western Railway ( AAR reporting as mark: ERES) was a Class-3 local railroad - railway company , which from 1977 to 1979 in the US states Indiana and Illinois plus freight on routes with a total length of around 300 kilometers (100th km Trackage Rights ). Around 255 km of its own infrastructure was accounted for on the western section of the insolvent Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL), which, in contrast to most of the EL connections east of Indiana in 1976, did not enter the ConrailNetwork had been taken over. After the income generated could not offset the costs and necessary investments, the Erie Western ceased operations in June 1979. By the end of 1979 the Chicago & Indiana Railroad (AAR reporting mark: CINR) took over their duties; then a large part of the infrastructure was shut down and dismantled.

history

After the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) had to report insolvency on June 26, 1972, business operations were continued under American bankruptcy law. An integration into the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), which was prepared by the United States Railway Association (USRA) as a rescue company for most of the railways in financial difficulties in the northeastern United States, was rejected by the EL shareholders and management. Plans for the acquisition of large parts of the EL by another railway company, such as the Chessie System , failed until February 1976, so that Conrail also took over a large part of the EL railway operations at the start of operations on April 1, 1976.

While a large part of the EL systems east of Marion (Ohio) was transferred to Conrail, the new railroad company had no use for the 450 km long EL main line from Marion to Hammond near Chicago due to parallel and crossing connections taken over from Penn Central . In its Preliminary System Plan and the subsequent Final System Plan, USRA had advised against taking over the line in Conrail. It was based on the freight figures of the EL for 1973. On the Lima –Huntington section (each exclusive) in 1973, 1226 freight wagons were sent or received by local freight customers, on the Huntington – Hammond section (each including) 7097 freight wagons. A large part of the volume fell in places that were also accessible by crossing or connecting railway lines from other operators. Often only a few wagons were loaded each year at the locations that were only accessible through the EL. Significant exceptions were Markle with 333 cars, Akron with 488 cars and Monterey with 1054 cars in 1973.

This infrastructure remained with EL, which continued to exist as a company without rail operations. However, the section located in Indiana was rented to a USRA client from the state of Indiana, who initially commissioned Conrail to serve locally based freight customers until the summer of 1977.

Erie Western train with ALCO RS-3 diesel locomotive in Hammond, 1978

The holding company Trans-Action Associates of the entrepreneur Craig Burroughs, which among other things already operated the Louisiana Midland Railway , then founded the Erie Western Railway on August 1, 1977 . Tom Hoback, who later became the founder of Indiana Rail Road , held a management position in sales at Erie Western. On September 25, 1977, the Erie Western took over the former EL main line from the border between the states of Ohio and Indiana near Wren to Hammond and the former Penn Central branch line from Decatur to Portland . From November 15, 1977, 11:59 p.m., the Erie Western also had trackage rights on the route of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad from Hammond to Pullman Junction in Chicago , where there was a transition to the Belt Railway of Chicago . The Erie Western gradually began serving local freight customers on its routes; the first train went from Decatur to Huntington on September 26, 1977. In addition to a car service order client from the Interstate Commerce Commission , Erie Western received start-up funding from the state of Indiana and the federal Local Rail Service Assistance Program .

The Erie Western mainly carried grain, wood, manure, steel products, food and plastic. In 1978, Erie Western also set up a weekday Trailer On Flatcar (TOFC) connection between Griffith near Chicago and its headquarters in Huntington, southwest of Fort Wayne , with which truck semitrailers were transported. However, the income generated was insufficient to finance the purchase price demanded by the EL for the infrastructure of around $ 75,000 per mile. At the same time, the generously dimensioned infrastructure with double-track sections and signal boxes manned by people caused significant running costs. When the state start-up funding of the Indiana Public Service Commission (PSC) expired due to differences between PSC and Erie Western and Erie Western was removed from the State Rail Plan , which is essential for state grants , Erie Western finally ended its business activities on June 24, 1979 .

From June 27, 1979, 11:59 p.m., the Chicago & Indiana Railroad (CINR) , founded on May 15, 1979 by local freight customers, took over for a short time . Hoback and a few other Erie Western employees moved to CINR, but Burroughs did not. The route network of the CINR corresponded to that of the Erie Western, with the CINR also leasing the facilities through the state of Indiana. However, due to a lack of economic viability, this company ceased operations at the end of 1979. The former EL main line between the Ohio / Indiana State Line and Hammond was largely returned to the EL, which had the track system dismantled there in the early 1980s and sold the land. The only exception was the 25 km North Judson –Monterey section, which was taken over by the newly founded Tippecanoe Railroad .

Infrastructure

The section of the Erie Lackawanna Main Line used by the Erie Western and Chicago & Indiana began on the border between the states of Ohio and Indiana near Wren and ran 256 km west via Decatur, Kingsland , Huntington, Rochester , Monterey and North Judson to Hammond. From Huntington to North Judson, the line was cut back from two tracks to one track by the EL in the 1950s, but equipped with Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) controlled from Huntington and long sidings. From Milepost 193 east of North Judson to Hammond the line was double-tracked, with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) sharing the line on the 11 km section from Griffith to HY Tower in front of Hammond and owning one of the two tracks.

In the hamlets of Newton and Bolivar in Wabash County , in Delong , North Judson and Kouts, as well as Griffith and Highland (both near Hammond), routes of Penn Central crossed or began. In North Judson also crossed a route of the C&O, in Wilders a route of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&W). In Kingsland, Huntington and Rochester routes crossed the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), in Decatur there was also a transition to the N&W and Conrail. In Hammond there was a transition to the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad as well as L&W, N&W and Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad , in Griffith also to the C&O, Grand Trunk Railway and Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway (EJ&E). The branch line from Decatur to Portland led from Decatur 45.7 km south. At the end point Portland there was again a transition to the N&W. Erie Western and Chicago & Indiana manned several local signal boxes to secure the numerous intersections.

vehicles

The Erie Western owned seven diesel locomotives of the manufacturer American Locomotive Company (Alco): Three of the Long Iceland Railroad acquired machines of the type Century 420 and from June 1978 also four from the Chicago and North Western Transportation acquired RS-3 . Until the takeover of the RS-3, Erie Western rented an EMD NW2 from EJ&E.

Web links

Commons : Erie Western Railway  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Roger Grant: Erie Lackawanna: The Death of an American Railroad, 1938-1992 . Stanford University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-8047-2798-3 , pp. 176-177, 182, 190, 201 (English).
  2. ^ A b H. Roger Grant: Erie Lackawanna: The Death of an American Railroad, 1938-1992 . Stanford University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-8047-2798-3 , pp. 212-213 (English).
  3. ^ A b United States Railway Association : Evaluation of the US Railway Association's Preliminary System Plan: Supplemental Report; Report of the Rail Services Planning Office to the US Railway Association, Ex Parte No. 293 (Sub-no. 5) Northeastern Rail Investigation . Ed .: Interstate Commerce Commission . 1975, p. 14-16 (English).
  4. ^ A b Christopher Rund: The Indiana Rail Road Company: America's New Regional Railroad . Indiana University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-253-34692-6 , pp. 48-49 (English).
  5. ↑ Joe DeMike: Erie Western train # 35 1st run Huntington, IN 9/26/77. September 26, 1977, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  6. ^ A b c d e Edward A. Lewis: American Shortline Railway Guide (3rd Editon) . Kalmbach Publishing, Co., 1986, ISBN 978-0-89024-073-1 , pp. 41-42 (English).
  7. ^ A b Graydon M. Meints: Indiana Railroad Lines . Indiana University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-253-22359-3 , pp. 166 (English): “Erie Western Acquisition / Disposition Record: OH state-line – Hammond; Decatur-Portland; Transfer to Erie Western 1977/9/25; 187.6 miles ”
  8. ^ A b c Joseph P. Schwieterman: When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Volume 1 . Truman State Univ Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-943549-98-9 , pp. 76–77 (English): “When the state government intervened on behalf of concerned shippers (...) operations resumed (...) Erie Western Railway which received subsidies from the federal Local Rail Service Assistance Program as well as the state government . Efforts (...) ultimately fell short and this (...) was aggravated by the termination of public subsidies. "
  9. ↑ Interstate Commerce Commission : Erie Western Railway Co. Authorized To Operate Over Tracks of Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Co . In: Federal Register . tape 42 , no. 223 , November 18, 1977, pp. 59503 : “Operations of the Erie Estern (EW) line between Hammond, Indiana, and North Judson, Indiana, will commence October 15, 1977. To affect interchange of cars between the EW and The Belt Railway of Chicago and its connections it is necessary for the EW to operate over tracks of the Chicago and Western Indiana between State Line Tower at Hammond and Pullman Junction, Illinois. (...) Effective 11:59 pm, November 15, 1977 ”
  10. ^ A b Railroad Changes Hands . In: Logansport Pharos-Tribune . June 24, 1979, p. 3 (English): “The Chicago and Indiana Railroad, first named the Indiana Railroad Co., was formed at a meeting in Huntington May 15 (1979) by shippers and receivers. They withdrew their support from the Erie-Western because the PSC eliminated that company from the state's rail plan thus cutting off its federal subsidy. The PSC said Erie-Western officials refused to cooperate. "
  11. ^ Interstate Commerce Commission : Car Service; Chicago & Indiana Railroad Co. In: Federal Register . tape 44 , no. 129 , July 3, 1979, pp. 38849 (English): “The Chicago & Indiana Railroad Company is authorized to operate over tracks leased from the State of Indiana between Hammond, Indiana, and the Indiana-Ohio-state line (...) and between Decatur, Indiana, and Portland , Indiana (...) effective 11:59 pm, June 27, 1979 ”
  12. ^ Interstate Commerce Commission : Car Service: Tippecanoe Railroad Co. Authorized to Operate Over Tracks Leased From the State of Indiana . In: Federal Register . tape 45 , no. 9 , January 14, 1980, p. 2655 : “The Public Service Commission of the State of Indiana permitted the Chicago and Indiana Railroad Company to terminate its services effective December 31, 1979”
  13. ^ Edward A. Lewis: American Shortline Railway Guide (5th Edition) . Kalmbach Publishing, Co., 1996, ISBN 978-0-89024-290-2 , pp. 163 (English): "The Erie Western operated (...) from September 1977 to June 1979. It was followed by the Chicago & Indiana Railroad from June through December 1979."
  14. ^ Bill Vandervoort: Erie Marion Division / Second Subdivision. Retrieved March 28, 2020 (English).
  15. ↑ Joe DeMike: "WR" Interlocking and CTC Machine. 1977, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Joe DeMike: Erie Western's former CNW RS-3's arrive "WR" Huntington in fresh paint and ready for service. June 26, 1978, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Sam Beck: EJ&E 436 on the Erie Western. February 10, 1978, accessed March 29, 2020 .