Nostalgia & History > Conrail work train Ft Wayne Line 1986

In 1985/86 Conrail started pulling up the westbound main of the ex PRR main line west from Ft Wayne. Here is one of the work trains that was tied up on the then recently removed from service portion of the former westbound main. This train was part of a tie gang that came through and did a tie and surf job on what was to become the single main track. Location is at County Line Road just east of Hobart, In. Currently this is the site of where the new (1995) connection to the NKP exists and CF&E trains continue westward on the former PRR.

The second picture is looking east at the same location, however west of County Line Road. This was the TBS (Temporary Block Station) called Ebony. Conrail lingo for EastBart (EB) and they threw on (ony) to make a cute name out of it. This location existed until the line was single tracked between Ebony and CP 501. Trains west of this location operated on rule 251, using the crossovers that were located at Ebony to get to the westbound main. East of here, they operated on form 401 authority, a predecessor to the form D. The operator at Ebony would copy the 401, and every night for a few months they would issue a 401 to train 322 (the dummy), and train 40 (the Broadway). and also the Capitol after they split it apart from the Broadway.

I'll have to dig through some more stuff if anyone wants to see more on the single tracking of this line, unfortunately though, i didnt have a DSLR in those years, i was shooting with a Kodak Instamatic on 126 film.

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My first cab ride was on GP38 7676 on a work train picking up ties from the westbound main west of Columbia City. I remember the faces of the crew but not the names. The conductor was definitely an Old Head, the engineer was much younger. On the shove back into town I rode the caboose with the conductor, where I was told that the engineer had been forced onto this work train from Amtrak service after a practical joke went bad, breaking an Amtrak cab seat -- and perhaps more. I wish I knew the whole story!

I'd love to see more of these pics. Do you have anything further east like Ohio?


Cass Telles
"Slow-Approach-Slow" - 'Go by way of the B&O'
Railroads of NW Ohio
http://www.trainweb.org/rrnwoh

And when you look at it now, you have a hard time visualizing two tracks could fit on the right-of-way...

Great stuff! I have a number of slides which I may scan which show the various stages of track removal in and around Warsaw, IN (area where I grew up.) Railroad Video Productions also did a couple of videos shot from the cab during this process, of the eastbound Amtrak Broadway from Chicago to about Valpo and another from Ft. Wayne west to near Valpo. Don't know if any of those are still available or on DVD but when they were filmed in 85, track had been removed to about Hamlet, I think but ties were still in place.

Paul

Most of the photos I have are from the Hobart - Valpo area, since that's where I grew up. I have all of my shots, which were shot with a crappy Kodak Instamatic, but my father shot 35mm, and most of his photos are the same as mine, only much better. I'll see if he minds if i post some of his shots from around there.