JRCC 3001 and RJ Corman 4119 are leading a Corman southbound train on March 18, 2022, southbound train. This is the first time I have seen JRCC 3001. Two of the images show the train leaving Clinton. A third photo shows it north of Canal Fulton. We believe the reporting marks are in error and that someone transposed the letters “R” and “J.”
Photographs by Robert Farkas
R.J. Corman 9003 is awaiting Conrail’s permission to cross over at CP Mace in Massillon on Sept. 30, 1996, on the Fort Wayne Line.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here are two with some fall color taken on Nov. 1, 2021, in Massillon. An R.J. Corman GP20 is entering a short stretch of Norfolk Southern at CP Mace as it heads south. In the other image, the 4119 has left the NS Fort Wayne Line and is branching back to Corman rails.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
R.J. Corman plans to acquire or lease 154 miles of Norfolk Southern branch lines in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.
The acquisitions will be operated by Corman’s Knoxville & Cumberland Gap Railroad.
They include the Jellico Line from Clinton, Tennessee, to Lot, Kentucky, and from Hyde, Tennessee, , to Clairfield, Tennessee. The deal also includes the Middlesboro Line from Beverly, Tennessee, to Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.
Corman will seek trackage rights on NS and CSX lines to connect these branches.
It also is seeking to lease from CSX the Harbell, Bennett’s Fork, and Stony Fork branches radiating from Middlesboro, Tennessee.
In a filing with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Corman said the transactions could become effective as early as Feb. 25.
R.J. Corman GP20E No. 4119 is southbound in Canal Fulton on July 6, 2021. As I understand it, the grassy area in front of the train was once the location of the Baltimore & Ohio passenger station. The 4119 is a former Southern Pacific locomotive.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It is Oct. 19, 2021, in Orrville. R.J. Corman’s Wooster Local is rolling westbound on the Fort Wayne of Norfolk Southern, which the Corman uses to reach Wooster.
In the county seat of Wayne County the Corman will serve shippers located on the remnants of a Baltimore & Ohio line that is mostly abandoned elsewhere.
GP16 No. 1804 is on the east end of the train while GP20E No. 4119 is on the west end.
The heritage of these locomotives is Seaboard Air Line and Southern Pacific respectively.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Having completed picking up and dropping off cars for CSX at its Warwick Yard in Clinton, R.J. Corman SD40-2 No. 7107 is leaving town, passing Warwick Tower on the way. The tower is now used by CSX maintenance of way personnel. The image was made on Oct. 13, 2021.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
R.J. Corman GP16 No. 1804 passes the former Warwick Tower as its train is about to enter the CSX yard. The 1804 was built in June 1950 for the Seaboard Air Line.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
R.J. Corman GP 20E No. 4119 rolls a train southbound after interchanging cars with CSX in Warwick Yard on Oct. 6, 2021. A few days later Corman SD40-2 No. 7107 leads a northbound awaiting permission to enter the yard.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Lake State Railway of Michigan has been named the 2021 regional railroad of the year by Railway Age magazine.
An Ohio short line, the Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, was awarded honorable mention in the short line of the year competition, which was won by the Memphis Line of R.J. Corman.
Lake State is a 373-mile Class II carrier serving primarily the northern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
It became a regional carrier in 2019 by acquiring the CSX Saginaw Subdivision between its namesake city and Plymouth.
This year Lake State is expected to handle 65,000 carloads, up from the 30,000 carloads of 2018.
It has won an American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association award for marketing initiatives in three of the past four years.
The 48-mile Class III BIPR is located in far southern Ohio and interchanges with CSX in Parkersburg, West Viginia.
It serves industries in metals, plastics and petrochemicals in the Ohio River Valley.
A relatively new operation, BIPR has upgraded 21 miles of track from excepted to Federal Railroad Administration Class 2 standards.
In its 12 months of operation the railroad has had zero reportable injuries and increased total revenue movements 84 percent compared with the three-year average of the line in previous years.
Other projects undertaken by BIPR have included converting several barge and truck movements to rail for existing customers (coal, residual fuel, asphalt); initiating new product movements for existing customers (ferroalloys, carbon, plastics); adding three new storage-in-transit customers supporting regional industry; and investing more than $2 million into equipment, rail refurbishment and upgrades, and new sidings.
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