IORY South End Part 4

[Rob81]

IORY 5007 working the Mason Sub as I type this. Picking up 3 or 4 hoppers from a packaging plant off of Western Row Rd. 4 boxcars and a blue caboose are sitting on the old CL&N main at the end of track.

[IORY_fan]

[quote="Rob81"]IORY 5007 working the Mason Sub as I type this. Picking up 3 or 4 hoppers from a packaging plant off of Western Row Rd. 4 boxcars and a blue caboose are sitting on the old CL&N main at the end of track.[/quote]

FYI 5007 is CBNS as of now, will become IORY 5007 after painting

Blue caboose is the Mason shoving platform CIND 999999(aka CR 23632). CBNS 5002 was picked up by the CIND turn yesterday so it will likely go to Brookville for paint once TPW 5010 is complete. CBNS 5007 will likely be next after 5002(to become IORY 5012) is complete

IORY_fan

[Rob81]

CBNS 5007 is sitting on the Mason Sub right now tied down awaiting a crew tomorrow to take her back to Cincinnati.

[conrailman75]

Spotted a train facing northbound on the Urbana sub this afternoon on my way home from work around 2:35pm. Power on it was the CEFX(SP) 9400 and IORY 4082 and several covered hoppers. Was sitting with rear of the train just north of the old home signal at Maitland. This is the first northbound train I have seen on the Urbana Sub since I moved down here a year ago.

[midland sub]

5014 sitting at Konrad Sunday afternoon with one of the SD40s. Yard full of Domtar inbounds with a few empty Melvin stone cars. Two five car well sets for BGF. Storage gons also showed up for Midland City off lease from IAIS. Empty grain train sitting in Wash CH.

A few empty FEC intermodal cars sitting in Cincy on the wye from the old PRR Richmond line. Not sure whats the deal with them.

[Rob81]

Thought I would pass this along to everyone, should be alot of fun. LM&M is going to make a run from LEbanon to Monroe and then from Monroe to Mason. I heard from a somewhat reliable source that after the Brazenhead stop, the train will run down to the end of the line just south of Western Row Rd and then travel all the back to Lebanon. That however is unconfirmed at this point. This train is important to us up here and is alot of fun and the CNRY / LM&M is really trying to broaden it's apeal this year to more then just family's but to also the railroad enthusiats like ourselves. Come on up for a fun Friday on the railroad.

http://www.lebanonrr.com/nrhs

[midland sub]

Caught the Wash CH Turn crew getting back to Konrad Tuesday morning. 5014-4083-4085. Maybe 30ish cars for Wash CH, 10 or so P&G loads and the surprise of 15 to 20 empty COFC and well cars along with two loaded five packs for BGF. BGF has been receiving cars with 20 ft containers, these are the first that I've seen come in empty. Looks to be the FEC cars I saw on Sunday in Cincy. Looked like 5 or 6 liquid fert tanks for South Chuck on the rear.

[conrailman75]

Today on the way home from work I spotted the southbound Urbana Sub local returning to Maitland as I crossed over the tracks on SR 41 in Springfield. This is the second Friday in a row I've seen a train on this line, does the local have set days it works or is it as needed?

[AARR]

Today on the way home from work I spotted the southbound Urbana Sub local returning to Maitland as I crossed over the tracks on SR 41 in Springfield. This is the second Friday in a row I've seen a train on this line, does the local have set days it works or is it as needed?

Did you happen to catch the engine number and number/types of cars?

[midland sub]

Chris,

It used to be M-W-F the Springfield a job would go to Urbana. I think they probably still do for the most part. The Springfield and Wash CH jobs usually do the same things each week, but they pretty flexible can and will change what they are doing. Especially with the amount of grain traffic the Mechanicsburg and West Liberty grain operations load. They also come south to Wash CH from time to time if needed.

[midland sub]

AARR they change engine assignments all the time with the Wash CH and Springfield jobs. It can be anything from one of the CFE GP38s or GP50s to a couple of six axles. Just depends on how much grain traffic is moving.

Roll of the dice how many cars they have. Usually no more than 10 to 15 at a time non grain traffic wise. On the Urbana Sub there's a plastic pellet transload at the former NYC autorack ramp just north of Springfield @ Glen Echo which probably gets three or four cars a week. Used to be a road salt dist in there too, but they were shut down by the EPA a couple of years ago for a water pollution issue. In Urbana there's two steady customers and one on and off one. Orvis receives plastic pellet hoppers and its located on the last active section of the old Erie Dayton Branch. I think they are the most active shipper getting 6 or so cars a week. Then out on the old PRR Columbus-Chicago main is short spur to what used to be called In't Fiber. They are the on again off again shipper. At the far end of the line is the warehouse that gets inbound boxcars. Some are reefers for the GPS warehouse in Springfield, the others can be just about anything. Owner is aggressive to use rail. Can't tell you how much they get a week.

Heritage Co-op has a grain elevator in Urbana on the east end of the PRR main. They can load 25 to 30 cars at a time. North of Urbana on the former NYC is Heritage Co-op's West Liberty elevator. It now can load 65 car trains.

Urbana Sub is the former Erie Dayton Branch from Cold Springs to Glen Echo. From Glen Echo to Bellefontaine it's the former NYC Bellefontaine Branch. NYC days it was fairly busy up to PC, and was CTC controlled. Conrail slowly killed it off into the late 1980s to just what it is now. The Erie and NYC ran parallal from Glen Echo to Urbana. There were a couple more customers on the former Erie in Urbana that went out of business so the those tracks were removed 8 to 10 yrs ago. There's a couple of mile stretch of the PRR main in Urbana also. There hasn't been an active customer north of West Liberty for 16 or 17 years. The connection to CSX was pulled several years ago and the tracks end about 1500 from CSX. It's used for car storage now. There's probably a couple hundered or more former Cargill salt service cov. hoppers in storage with more storage cars supposedly coming.

[conrailman75]

AARR - No I didn't get any engine numbers or car counts/types as it was still a ways off from the bridge as I drove over it and the traffic lights didn't delay me enough to let it get any closer before I got on 68 and headed south.

Midland - Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. That explains why sometimes I see boxcars on the train and other times just covered hoppers.

[AARR]

Midland - Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. That explains why sometimes I see boxcars on the train and other times just covered hoppers.

Thanks for the info midland! I have some document (I think you sent me the link midland) that says the Urbana Sub handles around 1700ish cars per year. Approximately 50% grain and the rest the other stuff you mentioned.

[midland sub]

The WESTCO Port Authority that owns the Urbana Sub released the car loads a couple of years ago. I can't get anything to open up on their website anymore. Grain traffic should be higher now since West Liberty can load 65 cars at a time. The warehouse out on the old PRR main does a decent amount of business since new owners took over a couple of years ago. I think they ended up taking 6 CSX 60 ft boxcars to it last week.

[midland sub]

Since Rob81 does a good job reporting on the Mason Sub and we discuss it from time to time here's some history of the line from PRR Lines West Vol 1.

The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern started as a narrow gauge before being bought by the PRR. The Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati was built to connect the CL&N to Dayton. The line connected to the PRR main at the Dayton Union Station with a 5 mile branch that also connected to the PRR main east of downtown at Clement. Under the PRR and PC it became the Court St Secondary- Court St was in downtown Cincy where it connected to the Oasis Branch. Not being more than a cheaply built branch line such as the Morrow Secondary across southwest Ohio, the line wasn't supported by any through traffic. With that the PRR began to abandon parts of the line in 1952 when it abandoned 10 miles from Lebanon north to Lytle. PC abandoned a section near downtown in 1968 and then Conrail began the slow process of abandoning sections north of Lytle and south of Norwood in the early 1980s.

Actually the line had quite a bit of big industry on it for being just a branch line. GM's Norwood assembly plant, GM's Kettering parts plant and NCR all were located on the line. GM closed the Norwood plant in 1986 which Conrail quickly sold the Norwood yard and what is now the Blue Ash Sub to the I&O. They also the Mason Sub to the I&O at the same time. NCR switched to trucks in the 1970s and Conrail abandoned Lytle to DUS in 1984. The Kettering plant saved the northern section of the line from the plant to Clement. As we discussed several weeks ago the plant is still open is now served by NS maybe once a week or so.

The Mason and Blue Ash Subs are seperated by a 3 mile segment that Conrail in 1976. The I&O looked into rebuilding the three mile segment in 1993 but was shot down by the ICC.

The other section of the Mason Sub is the former PRR Middletown Secondary. Line came off of the C&X Branch and went to the Middletown to the steel mill. The PC merger ended the need for this line along with the abandonment of the C&X line. Conrail retained it to access the Mason area and thus the I&O's access to Middletown today.

[jallenp7]

Customers that are now gone from the urbana sub are Carter Steel in Bellfontaine (flat cars of Steel beams), two ferts plants one in West Liberty and one in Urbana, both on NYC main, Howard Paper (would get several box cars at a time, sometimes needed two spots daily, only had room for two cars) Chivet on the the Erie Main in Urbana would recieve Hoppers but not sure what it was, may have been talc?

Dow Brands would get tanks cars of chemicals and plastic pellets, had room for 3 spots. City of Sprinfield Water Treatment Plant would get a salt type chemical, although they never got a car after I&O took over, we delivered a transformer there for Ohio Edison to unload for a sub station constructed at Deer and Villa roads.

Just before I&O took over, there was a scrap yard in Greenmont Yard and recently there was a transloading facility but it has been not used for several years.

Other customers that used the line under CR was PK Lumber in Bellfontaine, of course IH on both the NYC and Erie sides, 84 Lumber on old 41 were the Red Lobster is now and Shell on 41 were the Target is now. I think DT&I also interchanged traffic at Maitland with PC and CR and Carter Lumber on the Erie Main at County Line Road.

[conrailman75]

Spotted what I presumed to be the Urbana sub local shoving around the connection track at Maitland back onto the DT&I main to head south into Springfield on my way home from work today. Train had the red and gray tunnel motor with the black nose(4070?), several covered hoppers and about two or three boxcars.

[midland sub]

Saw a pic on Trainorders this weekend of 4071 working the Springfield A job on Friday. It and 4070 both have the spray on bedliner material on the front half of the nose. 4070 also has a primer grey color along the roof line versus the standard darker grey.

[midland sub]

Thanks for filling in the blanks on the Urbana Sub. I got introduced to it back in the fall of 1993 when a couple of friends end up going to Urbana University. I caught Conrail a couple of times in Urbana that fall before the I&O took over in Jan. '94.

I remember seeing cov hoppers going into the plant on the old Erie in the ind park part of Urbana. I think they stopped getting cars in the late '90s. I think the fert dealer stopped getting cars around 10 or so years ago. I didn't realize there was one outside of West Liberty. There's a neat looking old mill/grain elevator in West Liberty on the bypass that I assume hasn't gotten rail service in 30 or 40 years since there's no sign of a spur there.

What sort of set up was at the Erie-NYC diamond in Urbana? Any signs of old signals or anything back to the days before Conrail and it was still active under the Erie? In PRR Facilities Vo1 15 there's a couple of pics of the PRR-Erie tower and diamond. I think its great that the old NYC signals are still up along the line.

That's interesting stuff on the Springfield customers. I had no idea there was an old 84 Lumber or Shell dealer. Also never knew the yard was called Greenmont, always thought it was Warder St. I can see where the spur into the water treatment plant was. I wonder WESTCO is regretting abandoning the NYC from Greenmont to Glen Echo and keeping the Erie? If they would have only understood the Ford traffic was going away and even then the I&O had two other ways to access the DT&I in Springfield, they would not have wasted a couple of million dollars on the Upper Valley Pike bridge. A post to Trainorders said the line is now out of service from Cold Springs to I assume just south of Maitland for enough room to access the Urbana Sub.

[midland sub]

I&O 5014 continues to work out of Wash CH. I've heard it will probably end up going to the Logan Sub to replace 5001 when they get ready for it's time in the paint booth.

4083 dragged an empty grain train down from Haynes for somewhere on the DT&I. 4085 should have went to Springfield.

Melvin Stone has a big project coming up that is going to need more stone cars. Sounds like it's going to Cincy and Undercliff and probably end up being around 50 to 60 cars a day just for Undercliff. Throw on top the 15 they load for their Kentucky transload and 10 to 15 that the Logan Sub will be getting.