The Indiana & Ohio will upgrade grade crossing signals at a crossing in Hamilton County.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the project in which I&O will install flashing lights and a new surface at the Highland Avenue crossing in Silverton
The work is to be completed by Dec. 22. Federal funds will pay $290,761 of the project cost while the I&O will pay $64,387.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved grade crossing projects involving two regional railroads.
The Indiana & Ohio will install flashing lights and gates and reconstruct surfaces at the U.S. 68/Broadway Street crossing in Midland and the T.R. 1497/Wilson’s Lane crossing in Berne Township.
The Midland project is fully funded by federal grants totaling $497,009, while the Berne Township project is partly funded by a federal grant of $408,836.
I&O will pay the remaining $65,689 of the project. Both projects are to be completed by Oct. 11, 2023.
Ohio South Central Railroad will install flashing lights at two crossings on Ohio Route 93 in Jackson County by Jan. 11, 2024.
PUCO is providing a grant of $7,500 for the project from the state’s Grade Crossing Protection Fund. The railroad will pay any remaining costs.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission this week announced it is awarding five grants totaling $2 million for rail development projects.
The Indiana & Ohio will receive $614,456 to rehabilitate its Midland Subdivision. The work will involve installing a crossover near Oakley Yard in Cincinnati and making improvements to Midland Yard in Clinton County.
The Oakley Yard project involves installing a crossover to be used to pick up staged cars on the mainline without moving the entire consist.
At Midland the work involves removing out-of-service tracks and switches and replacing them with new tracks and switches. The short line is matching the grant dollar-for-dollar for a total of $1,228,912.
The Ashland Railway will receive $613,898 to rebuild and replace five turnouts. Other work includes tie replacement, ballast installation and surfacing work. The Ashland is matching the grant dollar-for-dollar for a total investment of $1,227,796.
P&G Manufacturing will get $400,000 to expand its Bath Township manufacturing facility where it plans to invest more than $500 million and hire 135 new employees after the project is completed. P&G is a customer of the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad and needs additional on-site rail infrastructure to serve the new facility, ORDC officials said.
The Wheeling & Lake Erie will receive $250,000 for a project to rehabilitate a swing bridge over the Maumee River in Toledo.
The 19th-century bridge’s mechanical system has outlived its useful life and railroad officials said it would become unusable if the end lift and braking systems are not upgraded.
The W&LE is matching the grant dollar-for-dollar for a total investment of $500,000.
Behr Process Corporation will receive $100,000 to improve on-site rail infrastructure ahead of a new 50-acre planned facility in Heath.
ORDC officials said the new facility comprises an investment of $80 million and the creation of 90 new jobs over the next three years for the manufacturing and distribution of paint products. The rail infrastructure is currently not in the proper condition to service the facility, ORDC officials said.
Behr is a subsidiary of Masco Corp. and is one of the largest North American manufacturers of paints, primers, stains and other surface products.
Genesee & Wyoming said this week in a news release that its shippers had invested $1.5 billion in industrial development along its 103 U.S. railroads last year.
Those investments involved 69 projects that G&W said will generate more than 1,000 new jobs.
One of those projects is located in Delta, Ohio, which will receive from the Indiana & Ohio Railway inbound coils to make pipe.
G&W said it is the fourth steel customer to expand business along the I&O since 2015.
Another project includes a wind-turbine trans-loading site in Remington, Indiana, served by Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway.
G&W said it maintains a database of more than 600 potential industrial development properties across its U.S. railroads.
The Indiana & Ohio Railway will receive a $525,768 grant from the Ohio Rail Development Commission to improve a siding in western Ohio.
The siding is located in Tremont City and the work also includes replacing switches at each end of the siding.
IORY will provide $283,106 in matching funds to bring the project investment to $808,974.
In a news release, ORDC said the project will reduce the time need for trains to enter and exit the siding, which now has manual switches. The process of moving in and out of the siding, which includes returning the switches to their original positions, can take up to a half hour. The new switches will be electronic.
ORDC also announced that it has awarded a $100,000 grant to Nova Tube & Steel for track rebuilding.
The $1.8 million project being undertaken near Delta is part of a $105 million new facility that will expand the Canadian company’s Midwest operations serving the automotive, rail, agriculture and construction industries.
APackaging Group will receive a $100,000 ORDC grant to build rail infrastructure at a 80,000-square foot plant under construction in Defiance.
A maker of customized packaging products for the cosmetics and skincare industries, APackaging is building its first U.S. manufacturing facility.
Short line holding company Genesee & Wyoming plans to build a new dispatching center in St. Albans, Vermont.
The 10,000-square foot facility will be located in vacant site and replace an existing dispatching office located in St. Albans.
G&W will lease the space to be occupied by the dispatching office. The company had considered moving its dispatchers elsewhere but the City of St. Albans responded with an economic development package.
G&W dispatches its properties from St. Albans, including the Indiana & Ohio.
Short line holding company Genesee & Wyoming plans two major capital projects in Ohio this year, Trains magazine reported on its website.
G&W has received a $7.8 million grant that will be used to make improvements in Delta on the Indiana & Ohio.
The work includes installing 40,000 feet of rail, 1,5000 ties, 10 miles of surfacing, 10 turnouts, and a 7,450-foot siding.
In Lima on the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern, G&W will undertake a $9 million project to install 10.85 miles of welded rail at eight locations, and reconfigure a yard.
In all, G&W plans to spend $375 million in North America this year for capital projects, which railroad officials said is the highest capital spending figure in any of the past six years.
Much of that work will involve ties and rail for 900,000 ties and 336 miles of rail.
Most rail lines in Ohio are oriented east-west and are dispatched as such. But even some rail lines that physically operate on a north-south orientation are dispatched as east and west rather than north and south.
This can be seen in Marion where former Chesapeake & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad routes come through town on a north-south orientation but are dispatched as east-west routes.
In western Ohio, a couple of rail lines are dispatched north and south. Shown above are some images made on the CSX Toledo Subdivision (former Baltimore & Ohio) and the Indiana & Ohio (former Detroit, Toledo & Ironton).
In the top image a southbound CSX auto rack train, the Q203, is approaching Hook-Watz Road north of Cairo, Ohio. It has just passed beneath a signal bridge visible in the distance that still holds a B&O color position light signal.
Next up is southbound steel train K596, which is moving from the north end of a lap siding at Cairo to the main.
Moving farther south, we find southbound manifest freight Q509 rolling along south of Wapakoneta. Note the B&O position signals in the distance. These are still several of them on the Toledo Sub.
Skipping even further south, we find the Q561 in Hamilton, Ohio, on the joint track used by CSX and Norfolk Southern.
Now let’s check out some I&O trains starting with a southbound that has just left the yard in Lima. It is crossing the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Fort Wayne Line at Sugar Street.
We head back north to Ottawa where we find an I&O train getting off its own rails and onto the CSX Toledo Sub. The former DT&I is abandoned between here and Lima.
Not far down the road that same I&O train is passing the grain elevator complex in Columbus Grove. At one time, the Akron, Canton & Youngstown crossed the B&O here although the crossing was farther south from the grain elevator.
Finally, we end the series with an oldie. This southbound I&O train was captured on its own tracks south of Hamler on July 19, 2009, and was scanned from a slide.
You wouldn’t know this was the I&O from the motive power being used. In fact you might not think you were even in Ohio.
All the other images in this series were made this past April.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
The Ohio Rail Development Commission this week awarded a $10,240 grant to be used to rehabilitate a connecting track between the Indiana & Ohio Railway and Hocking Valley Scenic Railway.
The track is currently out of service and once reopened will be used to receive new or rebuilt passenger cars.
I&O workers will repair the track while the HVSR will supply materials.
ORDC said in a news release that the interchange track is the tourist railroad’s only connection to the country’s rail network.
The Indiana & Ohio Railway has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
The pact will now go to the union membership by mail for a vote. In 2003, 78 percent of the union members ratified the first contract that the union reached with the I&O.
Details of the latest agreement were not released, but the voting will conclude by May 31.
The union said in a news release that the contract would set wages and work rules for 50 engineers, conductors and trainees.
BLET completed organizing I&O employees in August 2001.
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 