Everything/Anything CF&E thread...

[bnsf8000]

8/10/11. WB train LIFW at 11:04 AM with IORY 4034/ CFE 3882 and 25 cars. It had around 13 grain hoppers including several FMLX and a MWCX exAGP hopper. 4 or so gon loads, 1 coil car, 1 tank and 6 box cars-including a couple TTX.

EB in VW around 3PM and worked CSP and Scott Equity Exchange elevator. FWLI came in light with CFE 3882/IORY 4034 went out to CSP picked up 2 empty plastics hoppers-OMYA and also picked up the 6 grain hoppers at the elevator. Left town with 8 cars.

WB at 10:37PM in VW as LIFW with IORY 4034/ CFE 3882 and 4 hoppers including 2 CSX and a Potash Corp. car on the end. Left those 4 cars at the elevator just to the south of it. Did work at the VW Terminal east of town and is working in Van Wert as I post this. It left town WB light heading towards Ft. Wayne at 11:35PM. Interesting. It may be going to Ft. Wayne to pick up the FWLI since it came into to town light this afternoon. That's RA railroading for you!

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/11/11. WB LIFW around 10:30AM . Leading were IORY 4034/CFE3882 pulling 33/34 cars. Had 6 or so boxes, 8 or 9 gons, 6 or 7 empty flats, some tanks and the rest grain cars.

Last night's 2nd LIFW also took out to CSP a couple more plastics hoppers. Before heading to Fort Wayne.

Also, they have pushed the 4 covered hoppers to the northside of Bonnewitz Ave. just north Scott Equity Exchange. With the Potash Corp hopper nearest the road. They don't usually move them back there very much.

Today's FWLI went through VW around 3PM EB. No info.

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/12/11. WB LIFW through VW at 11:13AM. Hammerin' the old PRR/CN diamond with CORP 4024/ IORY 4032 and 56 cars in tow. In the freight were 28 loaded gons, 9 box cars, 3 coil cars, 3 empty steel flats, about 10-11 grainers and 2 or 3 tanks. Cruisin' right through town around track speed.

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/14/11. WB LIFW at 9:48PM through Van Wert. In the lead were IORY 4034/CFE 3880 and 44 cars. There were 7 Bunge hoppers upfront for them,6-8 loaded gons, 7 or 8 boxes, a couple empty steel flats, 5-6 tanks and the rest were grain hoppers.

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/19/11. WB LIFW through VW at 10:35AM. Leading were IORY 4034/IORY 4032 and 56 cars . 29 of the cars were SPSX empty welded rail cars in the middle of the train. Also had 15 loaded gons, 6 empty flats for SDI, 1 box car, and 5 plastics hoppers bringing up the rear which I'm sure eventually come to Van Wert for CSP. Maybe even today, but who knows.

PW

[bdconrail29]

Can you believe NOTHING ran for almost 2 weeks between Colsan and Upper Sandusky? Wow.

[bnsf8000]

TWO WEEKS! That's almost disturbing. Is there just not that much traffic on that stretch? We've never seen anything on that stretch moving except a grain train with CSX units WB at Colsan. Let's hope it doesn't become the norm. Or is it? I guess I'm very lucky that the Ft. Wayne-Lima turn runs 6-7 days a week normally. Plus, some like the Van Wert turn among others and grain trains.

PW

[bdconrail29]

Yes that's the norm for this part of the year, mid-late August. It's no big deal, there just weren't any grain trains called during that period. Wait till fall! And obviously the Wheeling run to Lima has ceased for the time being.

[Y@]

Can you believe NOTHING ran for almost 2 weeks between Colsan and Upper Sandusky? Wow.

Yeah, I can. That part of the line is devoid of on-line customers.

[bnsf8000]

Atlas RR Contruction Hirail tandem axle w/boom truck is on the CFE in Van Wert. He was just west of the Fisher Ave. crossing. Had new ties on the truck. Orange paint is sprayed every so often on the north rail between west of Fisher Ave. to as far east of Burt St. that I can see. Could be all the way to Estry [former tower] at the diamond or just west of there. It may be further each way but I didn't have time to check. So it looks like they are getting ready to drop new ties in every so often. It needs it in most places.

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/24/11. WB LIFW slammin' the diamond in partly sunny Van Wert at 9:30AM. Rolling through with IORY 4034/IORY 4032/TPW 4056 and 92 cars. Among the consist were approximatley 38 grain hoppers most all for Bunge: BNGX, CSYX, AEX, CGAX including around 15 Cargill's, 12 empty steel flats for SDI, 24 box cars: TTX, CN among others, 12 loaded gons and 6 plastics hoppers bringing up the rear for CSP in VW: OMYA and NAHX the usual culprits.

Also, yesterday in VW Atlas RR Consturction tore out the switch south of Center St. and drug it approximately 200 feet or so north of where it was. It will now be put in use beside Eisenhauer MFG. eliminating 1 track across Center St. Good move for them/RA/CFE. The city said in the newspaper they were repairing broken track. Not sure that was the case? They are still working on this now. This is on the remnant of the Cincinnati Northern.

There are lots of new ties that were dropped by Atlas last Saturday. They will be put every so often from just west of Estry [old tower] to just west of Fisher Ave. This will take care of through town including what they did last year . On the FW board it was said Delphos got 1200 new ties.

If they bring the hoppers for CSP back on the FWLI thay may be able to park them just south of Center St. We'll see. At last check there were still soda ash hoppers at the VW Terminal 13 at last count several days ago. PW

[bnsf8000]

8/26/11. WB I'll call it LIVW? Came into Van Wert at 3:05PM and pulled onto the old Cincinnati Northern with CORP 4024 and 10 ballast hoppers all RMGX. Crew ran out of hours according to my friend Bill. Will dump ballast where they worked on moving the switch to the north and most likely dump the rest on the mainline where they will put in the new ties. Unless they dumped ballast in Delphos where there are new ties.

Also, is there a connection track between the NS and CFE in Lima? Was just wondering because of some of the talk about RJ Corman/NS rumors. I'm thinking again.

PW

[AARR]

Also, is there a connection track between the NS and CFE in Lima? Was just wondering because of some of the talk about RJ Corman/NS rumors.

I believe they have some sort of interchange arrangements in Lima

[midland sub]

Yes there is, but no you don't need to think about those things......

[Brakie]

Can you believe NOTHING ran for almost 2 weeks between Colsan and Upper Sandusky? Wow.

Yeah, I can. That part of the line is devoid of on-line customers.

Actually CF&E has 2 customers here in Bucyrus Bucyrus Elevator and Transco Railway Products via NS trackage rights..

I haven't seen a rail car at the elevator in North Robinson for quite some time.

As a side note I haven't seen a train on the Spore Industrial track to National Lime Stone for some time.

[bnsf8000]

Drove over to Delphos last night and they have dumped ballast on the CFE mainline where they will be putting in new ties. Very skimpy as usual. I'm sure Van Wert will get the same treatment. Including maybe some new ballast where they moved the switch to on the old Cincinnati Northern.

Was south of the Van Wert Terminal LLC and there are now 13 tank cars on one of the siding tracks. Must be filling up the BIG tank there. Still some soda ash hoppers there not sure how many.

Also, a weed sprayer hirailer tandem truck was through VW today around 9:15AM WB with a CFE hirail in front.

PW

[bnsf8000]

Wow! Atlas/CFE have dropped some new ballast from just on the east side of Middle Point all the way in the country to the very west side of the Van Wert Terminal. If they wouldn't have ran out of hours last Friday they may have gotten all the way to the eastside of Van Wert. I'm figuring now they may go west of VW also. There's someone spending money. Maybe RA maybe not. That should be good for 40mph once MOW crews go through. Heck, they already go 40mph or near it most of the time. It's about time either way. Nice to see.

Also, at the Van Terminal there are now only 2 or 3 tank cars instead of the 13 there Friday evening. There's 16 soda ash hoppers there as of early Sunday afternoon. The ballast train is still sitting just north of the diamond in VW almost sticking out to the CFE mainline.

PW

[bnsf8000]

8/30/11. WB LIFW at 11:15AM with CORP 4024 and around 22 cars give or take. All grain cars except 3 or 4 empty steel flats on the end.

This afternoon a WB ballast train stopped and worked in Van Wert. Leading was CFE 3886 and 11 or 12 ballast cars. All were HJMX except 1 RMGX. They dropped ballast from the Van Wert Terminal LLC to the signal on the eastside of VW just outside of town. Probably where they quit last year. Also, dropped ballast in VW from just west of Estry to just west of the Fisher Ave. crossing . This ballast in town is where they will be putting in the new ties every so often.

EB FWLI at around 4:20PM with CORP 4024 long hood forward and around 29 cars. In the consist were 5 empty gons, 15 grain cars including 14 Cargill [CGOC, CGEX, and SAMX] and 1 AEX. Also, 11 tanks cars from/to Bunge including 2 GATX, 5 UTLX, 2 DBUX and 2 BRCX.

They hooked the ballast train to the FWLI and headed east out of town towards Lima. Had CFE 3886/ CORP 4024 and right around 41 cars. Only going about 10 mph since they dropped the ballast. Is that required? Unless there is a slow order I'm not aware of.

PW

[CG Tower]

There is no direct interchange between NS and CF&E in Lima. Most of CF&E's traffic goes to CSX via a NW connection at NS Tower. Any traffic to go to NS via the CF&E would have to be transferred to the I&O at Sugar Street first then taken to Ford Park and eventually placed at the I&O/NS interchange at Morris. This is a healthy interchange location as daily NS delivers and picks up cars from Morris, most appear to be covered hoppers with the occasional LP tank car thrown in.

The "rumored" NS traffic returning to the Lima District and points south and west toward Celina will not likely effect Corman's operations. My guess (and I stress that guess part) is that NS will only be sending a very few trains this way and should not effect Corman's operations. Since this was a part of the Thoroughbred Shortline program that NS has, I am sure the arrangements have already been made.

CG Tower

[CG Tower]

There are a lot of rumors running around out there on the Ft. Wayne Line. It does sound like some proactive work is being done out that way, which is always a good thing...guess we'll wait and see once again.

CG Tower