News Coverage

From WTVB:

COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Indiana Northeastern Railroad Company celebrated the completion of the Branch County Rail Users Association Project with their partners on Thursday.

They showed off the upgrading over the last year of nearly 10 miles of railroad right of way from Coldwater to east of Quincy to a group which included members of Coldwater city government and partners in the project.

The project addressed the deteriorating conditions of the rail line and the need to increase the weight capacity of rail cars serving local companies.

The R.U.A. was awarded a grant from the Rail Division of the Michigan Department of Transportation for 50 percent of the project cost which came out to $625,000.

The Coldwater City Council and the Indiana Northeastern Railroad both approved $312,500.

The Railroad’s investment included a provision to become a full voting board member of the R.U.A..

The I.N.R. later made an additional investment of over $233,000 to cover cost over-runs which brought the total amount of money spent on the project up to over $1-point-4 million.

As for the repairs that were made, The R.U.A. was created for the purpose of purchasing the old Conrail Railroad line that served two counties and local industries.

Besides the railroad, the R.U.A. board is comprised of representatives from Sekisui Voltek, Panel Processing, Star of the West Milling, the City of Coldwater and Branch County Economic Growth Alliance.

The Indiana Northeastern’s effort to upgrade a 1960s-era diesel locomotive was recently featured in Trains Magazine:

Tractive-effort upgrade, other improvements to EMD product

HUDSON, Ind. — Mechanical staff of the Indiana Northeaster Railroad is in the process of completing upgrades and repainting of ex-Reading Lines locomotive No. 2185, one of the two GP30s on the 105-mile system which operates in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

Travis Bloom, chief mechanical officer for the railroad, leads a staff of four mechanical employees at the railroad’s state-of-the-art locomotive shop in Hudson. The locomotive has received new power assemblies and an electrical upgrade, Bloom says, including the installation of a BOA (Bolt-on Adhesion) tractive effort system from ZTR Control Systems, which designs upgrades for older locomotives. This addresses a common complaint about the storied GP30s, that they are prone to slipping while starting a heavy train.

“The system takes the wheel-slip control and load regulator that was factory-installed by EMD and removes that,” Bloom says. “It is all microprocessor controlled now. Instead of using current sensors, it uses other methods to determine wheel slips and how much it can load before it slips. It helped it a lot; they were very slippery. I would compare it to a good-pulling GP9 now, but with a little more horsepower.”

Says engineer Jeff James, “As slippery as the old GP30s are, this new hardware is a great improvement. It has made a noticeable difference on dry rail.”

The locomotive awaits lettering and numbers as part of the repainting process. The railroad has repainted six units at its two-stall shop in the eastern Indiana town, which replaced a one-stall engine shed in Hillsdale, Mich.

“When we repaint a locomotive, we strip the cab, replace the flooring, repaint the cab, put everything back together then go over the engine compartment.,” Bloom said. “We are just finishing the (car body) striping.’’

EMD’s GP30, introduced in 1961, is the only locomotive that features styling from GM automotive designers, the source of its unique “skyline casing” along the cab and carbody.

As featured in KPC News:

Do you drive over a section of railroad track and wonder when the last time it was used?

While some of tracks in northeast Indiana no longer have the connections they once did, the shortline railroads that use them provide important links in a larger chain.

The longest, the Indiana Northeastern Railroad, measures nearly 105 miles in total length, across northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio and southern lower Michigan. Forty-five miles are in LaGrange and Steuben counties.

It operates with 13 employees and serves 22 customers, including 12 in Indiana, according to Andrew Hershman, director of marketing and sales for the railroad.

In LaGrange County, the railroad serves the South Milford Grain Co. and Edd’s Supplies, a fertilizer location. The railroad also maintains administration and offices in South Milford.

The railroad serves several companies in Ashley: Carper Farm Supply, Klink Trucking, K-Tech Specialty Coatings and Stoy Farms. In addition, there are two locations where transload customers — who do not have access to a rail spur — can drive trucks to ship products.

In Fremont, the railroad serves New Horizons Bakery, Padnos and Berry Global. Two more Steuben County customers could be added soon.

“The Indiana Northeastern is very eager to handle the traffic needs of industry in northeast Indiana,” Hershman said. “We are always looking to work with our local business to see how rail can benefit their operations.”

The railroad handles between 5,000-6,500 carloads a year, he added. A carload reflects one loaded trip, but not the return trip back to the origin or destination.

“A week could see anywhere between 50 to 300 cars depending on traffic ebbs and flows,” Hershman said. The railroad handles a variety of commodities, including flour, plastic resins, liquid and dry fertilizers, steel, lumber, scrap, limestone, asphalt, rendering by-products, coal, coke, salt, corn, soybeans, wheat, corn oil, and large equipment such as overweight and oversize transformers.

As a handling line for Norfolk Southern, Indiana Northeastern’s share is combined with that railroad so a customer pays only one freight invoice, Hershman explained. Indiana Northeastern is paid for the traffic it handles directly from Norfolk Southern.

In Hudson, the railroad operates a mechanical shop where locomotives are inspected, repaired and overhauled. Hershman said the railroad maintains 10 locomotives at the Hudson facility.

In Indiana and northwest Ohio, the east-west line was once part of the Wabash Railroad’s Fourth District, that ran between Toledo, Ohio and Chicago, passing through Hamilton, Steubenville, Stroh, Topeka and Wolcottville.

The line also operates on portions of the former New York Central’s Fort Wayne & Jackson line, running through Steubenville, Pleasant Lake, Angola and Fremont before crossing into Michigan.

…

“The shortline railroad story is usually a very unique one,” Hershman said. “Often formed out of the dust of a larger railroad on the verge of abandonment, desperate shippers and communities, knowing they would be at a disadvantage without rail access, would often save these lines from being forever torn up.

“They are usually the most robust, creative and determined railroads to survive against the odds.”