Sometimes a photo brings a smile. Here is R.J. Corman GP9 No. 9003 heading south on Conrail at CP Mace in Massillon in mid-1997. The 9003 and its train are stretched out in such a way that most if not all of the train is visible which adds to the photo’s interest. The train will be on Conrail for a short time before switching back to its own rails. The 9003 is a former Baltimore & Ohio locomotive.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
A northbound R.J. Corman train crosses the mainline of the Wheeling & Lake Erie near Brewster on May 19, 2021. The Corman train is on a former Baltimore & Ohio line that once went to Wheeling, West Virginia, and served the southeast Ohio coal fields.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
A northbound R.J. Corman train crosses the Wheeling & Lake Erie at Justus just east of Brewster. The image was made on May 19, 2021. The Corman train is on a former Baltimore & Ohio secondary route.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
This series of images focuses on R.J. Corman EMD MP15AC No. 1410 workings train, Z613, to Warwick and return on May 7, 2021.
In sequence we see the 1410 northbound as it approaches the CSX yard in Warwick. Also on hand is CSX GP40-2 No. 6415 on the D750, which is bringing a covered hopper to be added to Z613.
Then we see the 1410 southbound after leaving CSX’s yard. In short order it passes Warwick Tower and then cruises through Canal Fulton on the Corman’s Cleveland Subdivision.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
You probably know Bob Farkas for his oldies but goodies photographs of railroads in the 1960s and 1970s.
But Bob also photographs contemporary action although due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues it has been more than a year since he has been trackside.
That ended on April 27, 2021, when he chased the southbound R.J. Corman train out of Clinton, where it interchanged with CSX at Warwick.
He caught the train at Butterbridge Road south of Canal Fulton and at Warwick. He acknowledged there are weeds in the top image, made at Warwick, but when he made this image with a telephoto lens he did not see the weeds in the viewfinder.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
R.J. Corman GP9 No. 9003 is working in Warwick in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Corman comes into town on a former Baltimore & Ohio line.
The derailment of an R.J. Corman train in Pennsylvania this week collapsed a bridge that led to the closing of a state highway.
There were no injuries reported in the derailment.
The derailment occurred in Indiana County near Starford and resulted in the closing of Pennsylvania Route 1014.
The derailment left a hopper car dangling over a roadway where the bridge collapsed, Several other hopper cars were overturned.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission announced this week four grants to an equal number of railroads that will provide the state’s share of matching funds for federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program grants.
The grants and projects include:
• Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad: $462,000 to match $4,358,547 of CFER funding and a $4,530,546 CRISI grant to assist with upgrades in the Lima Yard and on 11 miles of track from Lima to north-central Indiana.
• Napoleon, Defiance and Western Railroad: $250,000 to match $3,862,452 of NDW funding and a $4,112,452 CRISI grant to assist with significant track upgrades and eliminating speed, train length and height restrictions along the line between Defiance and Woodburn, Indiana.
• R. J. Corman Western Ohio & Cleveland Lines: $489,300 to match $709,485 of RJC funding and a $2,226,315 CRISI grant to assist with the installation of more than 20,000 ties of track in and around Massillon, Wooster, Celina and Lima.
• Youngstown & Southeastern Railroad: $350,025 to match $350,025 of YSRR funding and a $700,050 CRISI grant to assist with the installation of more than 10,000 ties and perform surfacing along the line between Struthers and Signal in Mahoning and Columbiana counties. Also, five grade crossing surfaces will be repaired.
R.J. Corman has asked the U.S. Surface Transportation board not to intervene in a dispute it is having with the Reading & Northern over the use of a wye.
Corman told the STB in a letter that its dispute with R&N is purely a contract matter with which the board should not get involved.
The dispute began when Corman moved to begin operating short line Luzerne & Susquehanna and subsequently revoked R&N’s permission to use all three legs of a wye in Pittston, Pennsylvania, that connects the two railroads.
R&N earlier this week asked the STB to grant it access to the wye as part of the agency’s approval of the acquisition approval process of the L&S.
Corman contended that R&N is seeking to changes the terms of R&N’s use of the agreement giving it use of the wye rather than to maintain the status quo.
It also argued that R&N’s petition to the board was an effort “to obtain an advantage in its contract dispute.”
The changes that R&N is seeking, Corman said, would significantly change the termination clause of the agreement.
Two regional railroads operating in Pennsylvania may be headed to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board in an effort to resolve a dispute over a connection.
Reading & Northern wants the STB to ntervene after it failed to reach agreement with R.J. Corman over use of a connection in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
The two sides are at odds over use of the Pittston Wye at the connection between R&N and the Luzerne & Susquehanna, which Corman is in the process of acquiring.
Corman has argued that its assumption of ownership of the L&S terminates a 1994 agreement that allowed R&N to use all three legs of the wye.
The track on the wye had been maintained and dispatched by the R&N.
In a letter to the STB, R&N officials said the talks with Corman over the matter have stalled.
R&N wants federal regulators to require Corman to grant it rights to use the wye as part of the approval process of Coman’s acquisition of the L&S.
