Goshen

[Stinger4me]

While in Goshen, IN I spotted a NS drag traveling on the tracks adjacent to Goshen College, where do these tracks go?

Who owned that ROW before the big merger?

[justalurker66]

That is the Marion Branch, it goes south to Marion and is historically a NYC line.

[berkmeister]

That is the Marion Branch, it goes south to Marion and is historically a NYC line.

Physically, the line goes all the way south to Anderson, IN. For many years in the late 1800's to around 1900 it was the Big Four railroad (Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinatti and St. Louis Railway). Around 1900, maybe a few years before, it became a subsidiary of the New York Central. The C,C,C & St.L was wholly merged into the NYC around 1930. During the Penn Central years was when the PC started to call it the Marion Branch. This title continued during the Conrail years; Norfolk Southern offically calls it the Marion District, but many railfans still refer to it as the Marion Branch. I usually call it the latter most of the time. There are rail connections with other NS lines at Claypool, Wabash and Alexandria. Only a local freight plys the line from Alexandria to Anderson with trackage rights on CSX into Indianapolis. All the through freights get on/come off the 3 towns mentioned above. I've been told that the Marion name was applied because of a large General Motors stamping plant on the west side of Marion, which provides a large amount of business for NS as well as earlier with CR, PC and NYC. Berk