RailRoadFan.com

Good evening,
Has anybody heard the rumor that CSS freight has bought or received trackage rights on the EJ&E or Gary Railways? My main source on this info is not as in the loop as that person used to be so I'm curious if this actually happened.

LakeATCS wrote:https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... enDocument

"On or about December 1, 2017, Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad Company ("CSS") expects to file for authority from the Surface Transportation Board to lease from Wisconsin Central Ltd ("WC"), and to operate, approximately 5.64 miles of WC's City Industrial Track in Gary, IN, between the clearance point of the switch at milepost 1.21 and milepost 6.85 (the " Rail Line")."

That should be the City Track west from the interchange at Goff on the South Shore. As far as I can tell 1.21 is the switch at the far west end of Curtis Yard (1/5 mile east of Clark Rd - approximately where NS has CP 498). This would allow CN/EJ&E to continue to use the City Track to interchange with CSX at Curtis Yard from Kirk Yard with CSS leasing the track east of that switch.

Interesting. Looks like they got T&B Tube, Republic Steel, Atco, Centennial Processing, and AK Rail Material. Do all still ship by rail? Does this deal also include the former American Bridge plant? The switch appears a hundred yards west of the switch at CSX, so maybe not.

What to look for here is if there is a eastbound connection from the Curtis yard onto the city track. That way a train can go from Michigan City or Bailly to East Chicago without having to make a reverse move at Miller. This could also make the Miller interchange track or CSX siding obsolete allowing for easy completion of the South Shore double track project . Would also potentally save lives by not blocking 6500 residents from emegency services.

There is an eastbound connection. That would be an interesting use of the connection. Although running a train through the yard may not be their best choice. The west end of Curtis does not have an interlocking so trains would need to stop on the CSX main line and realign the switch.

The easier connection would be on at CP 487 and off at CP 497 using trackage rights on the NS Chicago Line.

https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 244879.pdf

Another filing, this has a map.