IORY South End thread

[Mr. Tops]

Also, back then when sidings were measured in car lengths, most cars were a standard 40 foot length; the sizes didn't vary much, if at all. In later years, car sizes increased to 50, 60 and eventually to the 90 foot cars we have today. Once the car sizes started becoming less universal it became less accurate. If nothing else, you measure by the size of the longest cars. Now we have 90 foot multilevels and boxcars while we still have 40 foot covered hoppers and tanks.

[CSX_CO]

However, pre computerized train profile days had car counts only, not feet...so it made more since to provide that information then figure out the actual foot length.

CG Tower

Ok - I understand...but when did they adjust for the standard car length increasing from 40' to 50' then to 60' etc?

Another quandry is when the footage that is known, doesn't match what the computer says the footage is. For example, I put 7300' of cars in a 7113' track last week. Computer said the track length is 7113'. Computer also said the length of the cars I put in there was 7300' (and change, I don't remember the exact number). It fit in there from clearance point to clearance point. Probably could have been 200' of slack in the track which may have been bunched just right. Another time, I may not be able to get 7000' of 'cars' in that same 7113' of track. Sometimes you just have to get lucky.

To echo AARR's sentiments, I always thought it was odd to see old track charts with siding capacity listed in car lengths, until I too realized that anything longer than 40' wasn't common until the 1940's to early 1950's.

[CG Tower]

Most of the timetables that I have from the 70's era and earlier are all done in this car count format. On Chessie Timetables, which is my primary source, you saw the change over from "cars" to "feet" around 1980 or so...and everything from that time was in feet only. Actually, most track charts I have do not have car length listed, its only found in the B&O/C&O/Chessie Timetables under the individual subdivision information.

We had an issue here just last week of a train of 5900' odd some feet trying to fit into a "posted" 6000' siding. All things considered, with cushion draft fear and other oddities, I think the estimated, actual and posted do not always match up.

CG Tower

[midland sub]

Thanks E @ CG for the track chart of Fayne. I forgot about the B&O-DT&I connection at Fayne for the iron ore for JISCO at Jackson. Wasn't the iron ore a straight B&O move the last few years of JISCO's operations in Jackson? On the DT&I at some point there was another lon siding just north at Fayne at Helgler for staging for the iron ore traffic according to Dave Bishop. It's hard to see any signs of the track these days. McDonald & Sons has a small feed mill operation at Hegler that shipped by rail through the early 1970s. The last 20 years it held Dave's #116 DT&I caboose and was the base for the I&O's DT&I South operations from 1991-'94. Dave's caboose went south to Norwood along with the I&O's former DT&I and Conral caboose back in 2007. The switch to the spur was removed last summer. Here's the WCH-S (basically what they run now to Springfield most nights) tied down at Hegler in Feb 2006:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=286646


As for the I&O and Fayne. I believe they plan on rebuilding the B&O trackage into two 5200 ft tracks with a third 2500 track about like the old B&O-DT&I interchange track. To do this they're going to need to relay a short secion of the DT&I on the south end at Hoppes Rd and do quite a bit of dirt moving. There's a huge pile of fill dirt for the project sitting in Wash CH donated to the I&O by the city.

[midland sub]

Hopefully the I&O pulled a "hot" loaded grain train from Urbana on Friday evening. It's due in North Carolina by Wednesday and CSX has been waiting for it for the past couple of days. Another empty Mechanicsburg train was brought down by CSX on Friday.

The next loaded Valero ethanol train should be handed over to CSX on Saturday or Sunday for New Jersey.

The CIND will be getting 2 new Genset locos for delivery sometime before 2015. A $2.6 million dollar grant from OKI along with $600K from RA will pay for the 2 locos.

[AARR]

Hopefully the I&O pulled a "hot" loaded grain train from Urbana on Friday evening. It's due in North Carolina by Wednesday and CSX has been waiting for it for the past couple of days. Another empty Mechanicsburg train was brought down by CSX on Friday.

Just In Time grain...who would have ever thought it would be a reality

[midland sub]

It's more the I&O just never got around to pulling the train until yesterday. It was released earlier in the week and they're back to the point where business has picked up and there's not enough crews again. It should be waiting at Haynes for CSX as the Mechanicsburg train is gone and 4083-3889 are sitting in WCH along with 4030-3887. There should be another crew showing up today to pull that ethanol train out of Valero.

[midland sub]

Here's a couple recent youtube videos of the I&O on the Midland. The first was shot of a daylight Wash CH Turn heading north through Blanchester with the resurrected 4085-3889-4071 and 49 cars. The 4 ballast cars are empties heading back to Lima the rest are Wash CH local traffic. The DT&I traffic ran on the second Wash CH Turn of the day along with more Wash CH traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlxuZVyJbrU

The second is from Redside's neck on the woods in Grove City. The WCH-A with CEFX 9500-IORY 4072 have 15 empty Cargill and private grain cars for the Valero corn shuttle and empty pellet cars from Ashland Chemical in Grove City. In the tree line in the distance lies the AEP spur that occasionly ships transformers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uo9UbFw ... r_embedded

Here's a couple older video. The first is from October 2007 and wil gives you an idea what sort of traffic moves on the Midland minus the ethanol traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8rYFWY ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwefK0-F ... re=channel

Verasun's ownership and production at the Bloomingburg plant lasted but a scant 9 months. Only one solid Verasun train ever ran to my knowledge with the DDG and ethanol shipped via the Wash CH Turn to Cincy. Here's a May 2008 Turn with Verasun traffic on the rear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-7-87GQ ... re=channel

[AARR]

Thanks for posting midland sub. Sounds like you had a young visitor with you

I'll watch any video you post.

Looks like one of the trains had an ex-AA 50' box car. There are not too many orange/faded pink cars out there and it's usually an indication of an ex-AA.

I'm assuming those 60' CSX box cars are in paper service. You had mentioned there's a paper customer somewhere who gets a bunch of cars everyday and would get more if they could get the service they need from the railroad.

I'm also assuming your video's are along the Columbus-Cinncy line. I didn't realize how heavy traffic was down there. IORY picked up a good line for themselves.

[midland sub]

I didn't shoot any of the videos. The Blanchester and the 3 older videos came from a guy in Loveland. The Midland alone generates 18,000-19,000 carloads a year for the I&O. For 2008 the I&O generated 62,000 carloads. Figure they lost 4,000 to 6,000 carloads when the Ford traffic disappeared. They figure to lose some grain traffic due to Valero, but I think they'll actually see higher overall numbers from (and profit) the outbound DDG and ethanol and inbound corn.

That's Domtar in Wash CH that receives the 60 ft CSX boxcars. Domtar is having all sorts of issues with paper mill that supplies WCH. I believe it's somewhere in Tennessee. At this point they seem to be trucking most of their paper in and getting maybe 20 or less boxcars per week.

[redside20]

was in Springfield around noon and spied CFE 3889 on the Urbana Sub just behind the shopping center with five cars
He had a four bay dowx hopper, one csx boxcar, and three CBBX four bay hoppers. Where did the boxcar come from?

[midland sub]

Redside I must have just missed the 3889 on the Urbana Sub when I was also in Springfield on Thursday. Those CBBX cars come from the plastic plant in Urbana (Orbis). I don't know about the CSX boxcar. Probably came from the old IH warehouse at the end of the Pennsy Bradford main.

There's 2 empty grain trains waiting to go to Mechanicsburg- 61 and 67 cars each. Both came down in the past 24 hours by CSX.

CFE 3887 has been sent to the Logan Sub. It replaced the 3884. The 9400 and 5001 are the WCH power. The 9500-5678 are the WCH Turn and McCullough transfer for the moment.

was in Springfield around noon and spied CFE 3889 on the Urbana Sub just behind the shopping center with five cars
He had a four bay dowx hopper, one csx boxcar, and three CBBX four bay hoppers. Where did the boxcar come from?

[redside20]

midland sub, i've been observing the whole conversation on the western ohio yahoo board with an intense curiosity. It centers around Scott Trostel, westco, and a few other participants. I had no idea that Orbis was still using rail and that they had quit using rail not too long ago and i thought they were in danger of closing especially that Urbana has also been hit hard by the job layoff bug. They say that Orbis business is doing good, but in this day and age of here today, gone tomorrow i really don't believe a word that anyone says. I have no idea who Scott Trostel is other than he wrote that awesome DT&I book and this whole westco thing sounds like a fiasco. From the way he talks, it sounds as if the line past Urbana and up to West Liberty is in danger of being pulled. Now seeing that CSX boxcar surprised me as i wasn't aware that any boxcar traffic went up to Urbana. I can only hope Westco can pull there head out of there @@@ and save the line north of Urbana

[AARR]

midland sub, i've been observing the whole conversation on the western ohio yahoo board with an intense curiosity. It centers around Scott Trostel, westco, and a few other participants...I can only hope Westco can pull there head out of there @@@ and save the line north of Urbana

Great, you've inserted politics into my railfan dream world where everyone with a siding and a need ships by rail. Seriously, whatever it is I hope it gets worked out as I enjoy reading about the rail action on the old DT&I lines.

[redside20]

midland sub, i've been observing the whole conversation on the western ohio yahoo board with an intense curiosity. It centers around Scott Trostel, westco, and a few other participants...I can only hope Westco can pull there head out of there @@@ and save the line north of Urbana

Great, you've inserted politics into my railfan dream world where everyone with a siding and a need ships by rail. Seriously, whatever it is I hope it gets worked out as I enjoy reading about the rail action on the old DT&I lines.

Well...didn't mean to rile you up there Don In all actuality, i have no clue what goes on in the inner circles of westco, i read this information that is handed down to me by other people. Oh and DT&I didn't go through Urbana, rather the IORY traverses the former NYC big four line to get there

[midland sub]

I really can't comment on the future of the Orbis Urbana location, because I really don't know. Scott knows quite a few people that have inside knowledge of things in the Urbana area. As for WESTCO, yeah there's been some problems with the board in the past couple of years with a lack of direction. They seem to have a better grip on the situation than in the past. The biggest problem seemed to be the last director set up a pretty one sided lease agreement with the I&O- i.e. the I&O pays basically nothing for rights to run the lines and wasn't responsible to maintain them. Throw in a pretty a pretty ineffective I&O general manager before Ratliff showed up and the WESTCO lines turned pretty ugly real quick. Things seemed to be much better in the past 18 or so months- 3 major bridge projects, track work on the DT&I South-Urbana-Springfield-Mechanicsburg lines. I think with the exception of the Springfield yard and city trackage the entire WESTCO lines are back up to 25 mph. The Mechanicsburg line looks to be in great shape- welded rail with 4 major grade crossings renewed and a tie and surfacing project finished last year.

Redside remember that strong opinions don't make them anymore true than opinions keep to one's self.....

The second Mechanicsburg grain train will be going north from WCH tonight- all CSX cars.

[midland sub]

The storage BNBX coal train in Lima will soon be leaving the I&O. They will need to switch the train a bit to get the rotary couplers positioned correctly. Train will be heading south to Cincy and NS. Might go either the Midland or the Dayton Dist. trackage rights.

[Loco_Engr]

The SLGG boxcars are also coming out of storage...in 30 car cuts. They're being interchanged with the AA at Diann.

[AARR]

The SLGG boxcars are also coming out of storage...in 30 car cuts. They're being interchanged with the AA at Diann.

Any ideas where AA takes them? Reason I ask is it seems IORY could take them to whichever Class 1 they're going too so I'm wondering what AA will do with them that IORY can't?

[midland sub]

The I&O doesn't have much choice what they can do with the SLGG boxcars. They're all have build dates from 1968-69 and are past the 40 year interchange period. The Andersons own the cars and hasn't gotten a waiver to tack on another 10 years. Both CSX and NS refuse to take the cars in interchange. So unless the I&O hands them back to CN the AA is about it. The last I heard was 6 months ago and the 200 or so cars at Midland City were supposed to be heading to Cincy to be scrapped. They were in captive paper service on the CN before going into storage.