One industry away from abandonment CNUR 8 scrapes trees Wabash Central Railroad Operation Lifesaver

CNUR 8, an ex Illinois Central GP11 and still in IC Operation Lifesaver livery works on the Wabash Central railroad. The reporting mark CNUR stands for Connersville and New Castle, a sister railroad that uses the same crew. The first time I filmed old #8 she was assigned to another sister railroad, the Maumee and Western (MAW). When the MAW was sold off to Pioneer Railcorp, the locomotives were not included in the sale so #8 was transferred here.

The Wabash Central Railroad's yard is in Bluffton Indiana, right off their class 1 interchange partner Norfolk Southern. From Bluffton the line extends east to Craigville and west to Van Buren Indiana. The line was once part of NKP's Cloverleaf Division, running from Toledo Ohio to Marion Indiana and eventually St Louis Missouri. Most is abandoned, bits and pieces remain buried in the weeds between Van Buren and Marion. East of Craigville the line is completely gone until Landeck Ohio. From there the CF&E Railroad operates a small branch that connects with their former PRR main. North of the PRR to Grand Rapids Ohio. At GR is the TLEW scenic line which basically is embargoed track with historical equipment on it.

I start off the video showing scenes of the Wabash Central's furthest west track at Van Buren Indiana. Here the #8 waits tied down while the Weaver Popcorn plant unloads 5 BNSF hoppers. I would make 2 more trips out here before finally catching the crew leaving town. Weaver is an infrequent shipper, mostly using intermodal containers on trucks. Once/If they stop using rail, trains will no longer come to Van Buren Indiana. I followed them east, some places the cut through the woods barely allows the train to pass! On the west side of Warren Indiana they cross over the Salomonie River bridge. In town they pass Salomonie Grain which last used rail in 2016. The site of a canning plant is to the north of the rails but that business no longer uses rail either.

The crew cuts away from the BNSF hoppers at the east end of town. The have had ethanol tank cars stored on every spur along the line. They can only move 5 out at a time per FRA regulations. They had 3 near the east but another on the west side of Warren so they shoved out to pull them all to the east end of the siding. Once they had 5 hooked on behind the hoppers they departed east. I filmed them once more, yet again by another business that had kissed rail service goodbye!

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Видео One industry away from abandonment CNUR 8 scrapes trees Wabash Central Railroad Operation Lifesaver канала Scott Taipale