Taken from the helicopter, we get a general overview of Charlottesville. Seen are the Amaco Reload facility and a few of the houses. Spring time in Indiana!
Times are changing and it won't be long til this old house on Franklin Road will make way for progress on Indy's east side! The last owner was a railfan and documented the change from Pennsylvania to the CIOR!
Midwest Metals is a large shipper for a small operations. Normally they get 2 or 3 switches per day, depending on the market. Today is no different, we see the nearly have the NS coil car unloaded already!
Busy should be the name, another truck taking out smaller rolled steel for processing. Its a steady traffic base for the CIOR and truckers!
Signal maintainer O.D. Smith is climbing the big signal at Thorne, the signals days are numbered, as rumor has it a new modern cantilever signal might replace it! I imagine maintainer Smith wouldn't mind that one bit!
CIOR #3503 leads train 389 east at Greenfield, Indiana. Train 389 is a old Cotton Belt train forwarded to Conrail at Pittsburgh.
Train 389 heads eastbound across the farm fields between Indianapolis and Greenfield, near the town of Gem, Indiana. In roughly an hour the train will be in the state of Ohio, heading to Pittsburgh.
CIOR #3522 works the junk yard in Greenfield on a nice spring day. The conductor is spotting the 2 gons up for later on in the day.
The 3522 is almost done, time to head east!
The local is bringing a solo autorack eastbound at CP-Thorne under the I-465 underpass. The local will head east to meet the job out of Ricmond, who will get it to Bradford for another train. Yes, the piers on the bridge are leaning, its not finished yet.!
Conrail train PIIN-01 blasts across the diamonds at Dunrieth, luckily for the photographer, the train locomotive split the semis at the NKP tracks.
The other railfan catches the PIIN with a brand new GE Dash 8 leading just west of the Diamond at Dunreith.
PIIN-01 blasts upgrade just east of Henry Indiana as it works toward its destination of Avon Yard. The two engines will get a rest soon enough, but the engineer is ready to be home!
Henry County CO-OP is only open during the peak seasons and the local finally set out a hopper for them to off load. Train X46 startled the CO-OP's lone employee as he exited the building.
A arial shot of Henry, Indiana as a empty coal train is heading for the mines of Pennsylvania.
About 40 trains daily plus locals blow their horns for the little flag stop of Henry, Indiana. Today is no exception, as X46 blasts westward.
CIOR train X46 eases over the 10mph slow order on the interlocking at CP-Riley.
RWIC "Road Worker in Charge" Barry has given up his 23A Permit, but his men keep working on the ballast around CP-Riley, as X46 Charges past on its way to Indianapolis.
Here is a shot of the first creek east of Henry, Indiana. The scene isn't finished, lacking water and the final inch of scenery, but it gives you an idea of the area.
Another creek scene, this time the old PRR stone arch bridge has yet to be replaced.
The IHRC still comes down to Dunreith, Indiana to interchange cars, today we see the CIOR has left a Caboose on the line for the IHRC (Indiana HiRail) to use.
An overhead view shows the derail, this is the end of the CIOR and beginning of the IHRC to New Castle, Indiana. The derail is manual, but the signal is remote controlled from Indianapolis by the CIOR.
Conrail SD60 #6840 and sister #6842 get ready to slam an empty unit coal train across the diamond at Dunreith, Indiana. The train will be handed off to the Indiana Railroad at Indianapolis to be reloaded and headed back east. These Conrail SD60's are on long term lease for use in this unit coal service.
Here we catch the same train coming through Charlottesville, only a 20 mile journey remains for the crew.
The former NKP Rushville branch crosses the CIOR's Dunreith District at Dunreith, Indiana. In this view we see the portion of the line still owned by the Indiana HiRail. As you can see, not much in the way of maintaining goes on here. The signal marks the end of IHRC and the beginning of the CIOR's Sexton Grain spur.
CIOR's former P&LE #2028 leads eastbound freight #308 eastbound at CP-Riley. The former PLE units have stayed in their former road since the CIOR purchase.
The Amaco facility at Charlottesville is almost empty, soon a contractor will be in to rework trackage inside the facility.
Here is an overview of the Amaco facility at Charlottesville. (side note: as you can see, all of the groundwork is complete, I will be slowly adding in the transload platforms and tanks).
East of Knightstown we catch train #308 at the intermediates. From the "clear" indication on the westbound signal, another CIOR freight will be coming soon!
CIOR 4001 pulls LX40 down to the signals at CP-Riley to hold for a freight to get around on the double track. Once clear the LX40 will pull west and into Greenfield to finish some switching.
CIOR 3522 finds itself on the Charlottesville turn today, the engineer has stopped to let the conductor off at the switch. In seconds the 3522 will head into the Amaco facility and finish switching the remaining cars. Local railfans can always tell when the Amaco job starts working due to the Hotbox and Dragging Equipment detector going off multiple times.
A rarity is caught on film, former Rock Island 4310 is leading the local on the ECI at Knightstown. The RI units are on short term lease and will return to the CIOR in a matter of days.
Seconds before we see LX40 pulling west toward the crossing, breaking the silence west of Charlottesville. Its spring and the fence rows are filling with weeds and underbrush.