Eastern Railroad Discussion > "The Alphabet Route" in Lima, Ohio

If if you count I&O to W&LE over the CF&E then it is sort of like that, except no Alpha Jets here...

Instead, to my surprise, the I&O delivered a 70 car grain train to the W&LE via their trackage rights agreement over the Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern.  All of that being said, the train also sported three W&LE geeps, 304, 106 and 100.

Photo 1: Pausing next to the DT&I high switch stand, the grain train waits for its conductor to return to the head end.

Photo 2: Into the sun...the grain train rounds the connection at Sugar Street between the DT&I and the former PRR Ft. Wayne Line (now CF&E).

CG Tower



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/16 17:03 by CGTower.

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First of six for the Coshocton Ethanol plant on the Ohio Central. OC will pick up at Brewster on Friday.

Great visual evidence in the difference in previous short line agreements by the Class 1 that sold them and today's interchange barrier heavy deals of the past 10 plus years. The lack of interchange barriers allowed G&W and WLE marketing to bypass using CSX as part of the move. Unfortunately G&W wasn't able to keep the move "in house" by having the I&O move the train south on the former DT&I and then to Columbus via their former B&O line and interchanging it directly with the Ohio Central. But NS refuses to allow the I&O and OC develop a direct interchange there. 

Thanks for the additional information Mark. The crew was very talkative, but didn't have much info on the train other then they liked the nice looking (and well running) motive power.

This move makes a lot of sense...hopefully it will be the start of some new traffic to the W&LE.

CG Tower


mhiser Wrote:
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> First of six for the Coshocton Ethanol plant on
> the Ohio Central. OC will pick up at Brewster on
> Friday.
>
> Great visual evidence in the difference in
> previous short line agreements by the Class 1 that
> sold them and today's interchange barrier heavy
> deals of the past 10 plus years. The lack of
> interchange barriers allowed G&W and WLE marketing
> to bypass using CSX as part of the move.
> Unfortunately G&W wasn't able to keep the move "in
> house" by having the I&O move the train south on
> the former DT&I and then to Columbus via their
> former B&O line and interchanging it directly with
> the Ohio Central. But NS refuses to allow the I&O
> and OC develop a direct interchange there. 

Nice shots! Definitely an alphabet route, that train essentially went from CSX, to IORY, CF&E, W&LE, CSX, W&LE, and OHCR (CUOH).

Matt