Erie Western Railway

Erie Western Railway
	Erie Western #1603 in Hammond, Indiana in 1978
Overview
Headquarters	Huntington, Indiana
Reporting mark	ERES
Locale	Ohio and Indiana
Dates of operation	1977–1979
Successor	Chicago & Indiana Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

Last updated March 25, 2020

The Erie Western Railway( reporting mark ERES) was a Class III railroad operating in Illinois and Indiana from 1977 until 1979, operating a segment of the former Erie Lackawanna mainline that was not included in the Conrail Final System Plan.

History

The Erie Western was incorporated in August 1977 and began operations under an Interstate Commerce Commission car service order on September 25, 1977 to operate freight service for 158 miles on the former Erie Lackawanna Railway main line from the Indiana/Ohio state line near Wren, Ohio west to Hammond, Indiana.^[1] The railroad also operated a 27-mile branch line extending from Decatur, Indiana to Portland, Indiana.^[2] The Erie Western also possessed ICC-granted rights to operate from Hammond to Chicago on trackage rights over the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad.^[2]

The Erie Western was created because the former main line of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, which went bankrupt in 1972, was not included in the federal government's creation of Conrail, prompting the Erie Western to be formed by shippers and others who wanted to retain and preserve rail service.^[2] The railroad was operated by Craig Burroughs' Joliet, Illinois-based Trans-Action Associates.

Conrail began operations on the Erie Lackawanna and other Northeastern rail lines on April 1, 1976. The Erie Lackawanna mainline west of Marion, Ohio, was not conveyed to Conrail because of the Erie Lackawanna's 11th hour entry into the Final System Plan. The ownership of this line remained with the Erie Lackawanna Estate, which was a holding company to which all of the railroad's outstanding debt was transferred. However, since all locomotives and rolling stock were conveyed to Conrail, Conrail was responsible for continuing freight service to customers along the Erie Lackawanna mainline. The condition of this service was only until a suitable short line could assume operations. Conrail's local freight service lasted from April 1976 until early 1977 when Erie Western was formed and began operations.

The Erie Western's headquarters office was at 10 W. Franklin Street in Huntington, Indiana.^[2]

The railroad began operations with seven locomotives: three Alco C420s (which previously had belonged to the Long Island Rail Road) and four Alco RS-3s.^[2]^[3]

Commodities hauled include grain, lumber, fertilizer, steel, food products, manufactured goods and plastic.

The railroad failed and discontinued operations on June 24, 1979. Operations were replaced by a short-lived operator, the Chicago & Indiana Railroad (CINR).^[4] The Chicago & Indiana discontinued operations on December 31, 1979.^[5]

After the failure of both the Erie Western and Chicago and Indiana, the Erie Lackawanna Estate realized that the real estate value of this right of way could be used to offset the debts incurred during and after Erie Lackawanna's bankruptcy. Realizing that profitable local freight service was no longer achievable, mostly due to the increase in trucking shipments, the Erie Lackawanna Estate sold the mainline, and all wayside signalling and structures, to L.B. Foster Company. L.B. Foster's sole intent was to remove the trackage and sell the ties, rails, and ballast to other railroads, and sell the physical right of way to local farmers and developers. The Erie Lackawanna right of way was mostly removed by 1983.

North Judson-Monterey segment

After December 31, 1979, the Tippecanoe Railroad Co. took over operations of a 16-mile stretch of the railroad from North Judson, Indiana to Monterey, Indiana that was known as the JK Line.^[6] In the spring of 1990, the Tippecanoe Railroad was sold to another operator, Daniel R. Frick, and renamed J.K. Line.^[7] In 2003, the operator of J.K. Line, the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway, applied for and later received permission from the federal government to abandon the 16-mile line.

The line has been removed and has been named the Monterey Bike Trail.

Footnotes

↑ Lewis (1986), p. 41-42.
1 2 3 4 5 Lewis (1986).
↑ Trains magazine, December 1977, p. 8.
↑ Lewis (1986), p. 230.
↑ Schwieterman, Joseph P. (2001). When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Eastern United States. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-943549-97-2.
↑ Lewis (1986), p. 208.
↑ Lewis (1986), p. 131.

Related Research Articles

The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's former terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie. It expanded west to Chicago with its 1941 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier, including cities such as Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell, and were Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's main line split into two routes, one north to Buffalo and the other west to Cleveland.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, a distance of about 400 miles (640 km). Incorporated in 1853, the DL&W was profitable during the first two decades of the twentieth century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining traffic in coal and competition from trucks. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

Erie Lackawanna Railway transport company

The Erie Lackawanna Railway, known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route".

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

Conrail was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name, and while it no longer operates trains, it continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.

The Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad is a short line railroad that operates in Livingston County and Monroe County in New York, United States. The railroad interchanges with CSX at Genesee Junction in Chili, New York, the Rochester and Southern Railroad (RSR) at Genesee Junction and the RSR's Brooks Avenue Yard in Gates, New York, and with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum at Industry, New York. Their primary freight consists of food products - grains and corn syrup. In 1997, the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad was selected as Short Line Railroad of the Year by industry trade journal Railway Age. The LAL is also the parent company for both the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad and Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Delaware–Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area.

The Stourbridge Line is a shortline railroad that operates 25 miles (40 km) of former Erie Lackawanna Railroad between Honesdale and Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania where it connects with Norfolk Southern Railway. The line was previously owned by the Lackawaxen-Honesdale Shippers Association and operated under contract by Robey Railroads. The operation was contracted to the Morristown & Erie Railway in January 2009; service ended in 2011. Service was resumed by the Delaware, Lackawaxen & Stourbridge Railroad (DL&S) on May 9, 2015.

The High Bridge Branch was a branch line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that started in High Bridge, New Jersey at a connection with the CNJ main line and continued north to iron-ore mines in Morris County. The High Bridge Branch line followed the South Branch of the Raritan River for much of its duration.

B&H Rail Corporation, formerly the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad, is a Class III shortline railroad. Initially the line served the communities of Bath, New York and Hammondsport, New York. In Bath, the railroad connected with the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. In 1996, the railroad was leased by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad.

Cleveland has been and continues to be deeply rooted in railroad history.

Paterson station rail station in Paterson, New Jersey, United States

Paterson is a New Jersey Transit commuter rail train station located on an elevated viaduct above Market Street in downtown Paterson, New Jersey. The railway through the station is double tracked, for north and south traffic on the NJT Main Line.

The Indian Creek Railroad is a short-line railroad in Madison County, Indiana, United States. The 4.55-mile (7.32 km) line is owned by Kokomo Grain Company, an agricultural products and services company, and connects their property at 40°11′30″N85°44′40″W with the Norfolk Southern Railway's Marion Branch in northern Anderson, carrying outbound grain and inbound fertilizer.

The Central New York Railroad is a shortline railroad operating local freight service along ex-Southern Tier Line trackage in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line begins at Port Jervis, following the West Branch Delaware River to Deposit and the Susquehanna River from Lanesboro, where it crosses the Starrucca Viaduct, to Binghamton. It is a subsidiary of the Delaware Otsego Corporation, which also owns the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, operator of through trains over the line.

The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates freight trains in Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania, United States. The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad line between Hornell and Corry, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA). Through acquisitions and leases, the line was extended from Corry to Meadville in 2002 and to Oil City in 2006, and in 2007 the WNY&P leased and sub-leased portions of the north-south Buffalo Line, a former Pennsylvania Railroad line mostly built by a predecessor of the defunct Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway. The two lines cross at Olean.

The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.

The Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad is a tourist railroad that runs from Titusville to Rynd Farm north of Oil City in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Oil Creek and Titusville Lines is the designated operator of the railroad, as well as the freight carrier on the line.

The Ashland Railway is a Class III railroad shortline railroad operating within North Central Ohio and based in Mansfield, Ohio. Since its inception in 1986, Ashland Railway has grown to provide service 24 hours a day 7 days a week along 55 miles of track in two segments, to industries within Ashland, Huron, Richland and Wayne counties. ASRY interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway in Mansfield, the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway in Plymouth and CSX Transportation (CSXT) in Willard. The line runs southeast from Willard through Plymouth and Shelby, to Mansfield. From Mansfield the line runs northeast through Ashland and terminates in West Salem.

Morristown & Erie Railway is a short-line railroad based in Morristown, New Jersey, chartered in 1895 as the Whippany River Railroad. It operates freight rail service in Morris County, New Jersey and surrounding areas on the original Whippany Line between Morristown and Roseland, as well as the Morris County-owned Dover & Rockaway Branch, Chester Branch, and High Bridge Branch. The M&E also operated the Maine Eastern Railroad from November 2003 to December 31, 2015.

The Lehigh Line is a railroad line in central New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The line runs west from the vicinity of the Port of New York and New Jersey (via Conrail's Lehigh Line to the Susquehanna River valley at the south end of the Wyoming Valley Coal Region. Administratively it is part of Norfolk Southern's Harrisburg Division and is also part of the Crescent Corridor. As of 2016 the line is freight-only, although there are perennial proposals to restore passenger service over all or part of the line.

References

Lewis, Edward A. (1986). American Short Line Railway Guide. Kalmbach Books.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[FOOTNOTELewis198641-42-1] Lewis (1986), p. 41-42.

[FOOTNOTELewis1986-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Lewis (1986).

[3] Trains magazine, December 1977, p. 8.

[FOOTNOTELewis1986230-4] Lewis (1986), p. 230.

[5] Schwieterman, Joseph P. (2001). When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Eastern United States. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-943549-97-2.

[FOOTNOTELewis1986208-6] Lewis (1986), p. 208.

[FOOTNOTELewis1986131-7] Lewis (1986), p. 131.