Eastern Railroad Discussion > W&LE trackage rights

Besides CSX New London to Greenwich, NS Bellevue to Toledo, OHCR Bowerston to Jewett and CF&E Crestline to Lima, where else does W&LE have trackage rights on other railroads?

Thanks.

Although ore service is long gone, they may still have Bellevue to Huron, OH.

I believe the trackage rights to the Huron docks out of Bellevue have expired.

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-05489.pdf?1553172322

filed March 21, 2019

Does Wheeling & Lake Erie still have rights over CSX from Wellington to Cleveland?  Those are old rights left over from original Wheeling and NYC (maybe even Big Four) days.  

inrdjlg Wrote:
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> Does Wheeling & Lake Erie still have rights over
> CSX from Wellington to Cleveland?  Those are old
> rights left over from original Wheeling and NYC
> (maybe even Big Four) days.  

Ahh ... yes I have seen them on the Berea Rail Cam headed for Wellington. I have also caught W&LE on the Lake Shore line of NS through Vermilion ..... not sure what that was all about. - see attached image. Is there some residual rights rarely used, or was this some sort of detoured train?  August 26, 2021.

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Does W&LE still run over CSX from Connellsville, PA to Hagerstown, MD ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/25 13:43 by train1275.

train1275 Wrote:
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> Does W&LE still run over CSX from Connellsville,
> PA to Hagerstown, MD ?
No

So exploring their corporate website (2025) still lists Hagerstown, MD and Maryland as a State served by their system.
Do the rights to Hagerstown still exist but not used, or have they just not updated the website. I can't find anything in STB filings.

Is there any other place Wheeling would access or operate trackage in Maryland ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/25 16:18 by train1275.

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Do they not also have rights to Lima, OH?
JB

The Wheeling rights over the CF&E from Crestline to Lima are noted in the initial post.  But that begs another question:  While W&LE has rights from Greenwich to Crestline to Lima, do they also have the option of running over their own railroad to Carey, then running south on the former C&O to Upper Sandusky, then running west over CF&E to Lima?  

And that brings up two other trackage rights notes:  Unless something has changed with the regulator and the original edict, W&LE has trackage rights over the CF&E; however, they cannot interchange directly with them.  They must interchange with the Indiana & Ohio in Lima.  (Of course, IORY could and has interchanged the W&LE cars with the CF&E.  Both IORY and CF&E are G&W properties.) 

Secondly, W&LE had trackage rights over several miles of NS' Sandusky District, extending both north and south from Bellevue.  That was to allow the Wheeling to access a pair of quarries in the area.  Do those rights still exist?  I haven't read of any W&LE rock trains in or out of Bellevue for several years, just the manifest freights.       

I'll take a stab at Hagerstown absent another answer so far (and those are welcomed)...

My understanding is the Hagerstown trackage rights (which begin in Connellsville, PA) date back to the N&W days and were in place to allow Ohio Valley grain to flow to the Shenandoah Valley. That's all those Z416 trains were in my time living in Virginia-- NS grain.

In the late 2000s the traffic moved to an all-NS routing and those rights haven't been used since. The brief moves of taconite pellets to Sparrows Point in the early 2010s were run-through K110 trains keeping the WLE power all the way to the mill and did not utilize the trackage rights. K110 was CSX crews on Wheeling power whereas Z416 was a WLE crew operating over CSX track.

Mike Derrick


train1275 Wrote:
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> So exploring their corporate website (2025) still
> lists Hagerstown, MD and Maryland as a State
> served by their system.
> Do the rights to Hagerstown still exist but not
> used, or have they just not updated the website. I
> can't find anything in STB filings.
>
> Is there any other place Wheeling would access or
> operate trackage in Maryland ?

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