May 31, 2018 – PAL 4516, the DPU end of a LG&E Paducah and Louisville Railway loaded coal train, makes it’s way across Trident off CSX’s Morganfield Branch and over the Henderson Subdivision. From there it heads through Atkinson Yard where it will make it’s way back onto its own line before heading on to Louisville, Ky later in the evening. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #pal #palrailway #paducahandlouisvillerailway
June 6, 2018 – As the last light of dusk fades from the sky, Indiana Southern Railroad 3052 leads local PL-2 south through Elberfeld, Indiana as it heads to Evansville for interchange work with CSX.
According to Wikipedia: The Indiana Southern Railroad (reporting mark ISRR) is a short line or Class III railroad operating in the United States state of Indiana. It began operations in 1992 as a RailTex property, and was acquired by RailAmerica in 2000. RailAmerica was itself acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in December 2012.
Indiana Southern Railroad operates 176 miles of track from Indianapolis to Evansville. From Mars Hill (a neighborhood on the southwest side of Indianapolis) southwest through Martinsville and Spencer to Bee Hunter in Greene County, the ISRR runs on tracks that once made up the majority of the former Indianapolis & Vincennes Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. State Route 67 parallels the ISRR along much of this section. From Bee Hunter to Elnora, the ISRR has trackage rights over the Indiana Rail Road. ISRR tracks resume from Elnora through Petersburg before terminating in Evansville, IN along the former New York Central’s Evansville & Indianapolis Branch.
The railroad’s traffic comes mainly from coal and grain products, including corn and soybeans. The ISRR hauled around 70,000 carloads in 2008. It also is supplying coal to the Edwardsport power plant since 2012. There are around 2 trains per week supplying it with coal and carrying byproducts from the plant. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #isrr #indianasouthernrailroad
June 1, 2018 – Ft. Campbell Railroad GenSets USAX 6519 and 6520 pull southbound with a loaded military freight through a tunnel of trees, approaching the “Tiny Town” grade crossing, as it heads back to the post.
Both Locomotives are N-ViroMotive model 3GS-21B, manufactured by the National Railway Equipment Company, headquartered in Mount Vernon, Ill. Fort Campbell has about 40 miles of Army railroad tracks located both on post and leading to Hopkinsville where it interchanges with CSX on the Henderson Subdivision. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad #militaryrailroad #ftcampbellrail #usarail
May 19, 2018 – Decatur Junction Railway Company’s Pioneer Lines 1608, 1607 and 1609 sit at the Moweaqua Farmers Co-Op Grain in Moweaqua, Illinois as they wait for their next day of work.
The Decatur Junction Railway Co. (DT), a wholly-owned Subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, operates 21 miles of track from Assumption to Elwin, Illinois. The railroad’s principal commodities are grain, fertilizer and plastics. They serve Elwin, Macon, Moweaqua, Radford and Assumption, Illinois. – #jimstrainphotos #illinoisrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #pioneerlines
May 8, 2018 – Paducah and Louisville Railway local WW3 works on putting it’s train together at the yard in Princeton, Ky for the run to Madisonville, Ky to perform interchange work at CSX’s Atkinson, Yard. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #pal #palrailway #paducahandlouisvillerailway
February 2, 2018 – Squaw Creek Southern 21 backs cars into the small yard at Yankeetown, Indiana. The Squaw Creek Southern Railroad is a subsidiary of the Respondek Railroad Corporation. The name comes from an Indiana coal hauling line that Respondek purchased. The Squaw Creek Railroad was a Peabody Coal operation in southern Indiana which pretty much solely existed to move coal from Lynnville and Squaw Creek Mines to a power plant on the Ohio River.
January 17, 2018 – It’s a cold winter day as Indiana Southern Railroad’s 3371 and 3388 makes the turn heading back out of the coal loop at Peabody’s Somerville Central Mine in Somerville, Indiana. The train was about halfway loaded when the mine developed a problem with its belt-line and the train had to slow from a craw to a dead stop while it was repaired.
December 26, 2017 – Indiana Southern’s 3382 heads up a coal train as it snakes it’s way through the landscape at 0.25 mph as it loads coal at the Somerville Central Mine in Somerville, Indiana on a cold December day.
December 26, 2017 – Pioneer Lines PREX 912 (GP9) and 806 (GP8) sit idle in the yard at the Indiana Southwestern Railway at their Harwood Yard in Evansville, Indiana the day after Christmas. I hadn’t been to this location before fellow railfan William Crupper took me by there today. I’m sure someone’s mentioned it before though, perhaps Ryan Scott?
I’d love to catch them out working in the Evansville area sometime. Can anyone tell me when they run their trains and any sort of a schedule when I might catch them leaving? Also, any info on industries they pick-up at would be nice to know as well!
According to Wikipeda: Indiana Southwestern Railway (reporting mark ISW) is a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The ISW is a Class III railroad, and operated on 17 miles of track from Evansville, Indiana, northward to Cynthiana, Indiana. That track is currently out of service but switching still occurs in ISW’s yard and surrounding industries.
The line was originally operated as part of an Illinois Central Railroad line that ran all the way to Newton, Illinois. Illinois Central sold off the line south of Browns, Illinois, to Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation; the line went through a succession of operators, all of which had to contend with the line’s ancient bridge over the Wabash River near Grayville, Illinois. The bridge suffered damage from floods on more than one occasion, and one span finally collapsed completely around 1999.
Pioneer bought the line and its Evansville shops in 2000 from the Evansville Terminal Railway. However, when Pioneer stopped shipping grain, the track had to be dismantled and salvaged at the close of 2011. Only the small stretch from the interchange northwest of Evansville to just north of their yard is still used, a distance of about 4 miles.
The dates back to 1881 as part of the Evansville and Peoria Railroad, which then became part of the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway through a series of purchases. The PD&E became part of Illinois Central in 1900. The ISW is currently the only remaining in-service segment of the PD&E south of Mattoon, Illinois.
January 25, 2003 – I wish I had shot more of this shortline railway before it disappeared in 2010. Here I caught a set of engines from the Western Kentucky Railway pulling a freight north of Providence, Ky with a light dusting of snow on the ground. The power was 3419 (Ex. Texas and New Orleans Railroad, GP10), 1342 (Ex. Rock Island, GP18) and 1338 (Ex. Rock Island, GP18).
According to Wikipedia, the Western Kentucky Railway (reporting mark WKRL) was a shortline railroad in Kentucky, that connected coal mines with CSX Transportation at Providence. The lines were part of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad until March 1982, when Costain Coal, Inc. bought the trackage and set up the Tradewater Railway (reporting mark TWRY) to operate it. In January 1995, the Rail Management and Consulting Corporation acquired the property and transferred it to the new Western Kentucky Railway. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. acquired it from the Rail Management Corporation in 2005. In 2010, WKRL abandoned all of its remaining lines north of Providence, and the rails were removed shortly after. The only remaining tracks that were originally owned by WKRL are operated by Martin Marrieta Aggregates’ Fredonia Valley Railroad from Princeton to Fredonia.
When created in 1995, the Western Kentucky Railway owned lines from Providence to a junction at Blackford, and from Blackford north to Waverly and south to the Paducah and Louisville Railway at Princeton. Most of the north-south line, once the main line of the Ohio Valley Railway (an Illinois Central Railroad predecessor) was abandoned in 1995 and 1996, leaving only the piece between Blackford and Dekoven. (The Fredonia Valley Railroad later acquired the section from Princeton to Fredonia. The rest of the line was then abandoned in 2010 and removed from Providence to Wheatcroft and the surrounding mines.