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  • Conrails old Streater branch.. Who operates it now?????

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.

Moderator: railohio

 #45237  by Hoosierailnut
 
Who now operates the Streater branch between Streater, Ill and Shelby, Indiana?
Does the west end of the branch still exist from Streater through Lostant to near Lasalle?
I know back in the Conrail era the line between Streater and Shelby and onto the Gary area was pretty important ( dunno 'bout the west portion of the line west of Streater) as a connector to the ATSF and to avoid the congestion of Chicago. Since the breakup whats happened to the line?

 #45664  by MR77100
 
I believe NS owns it, but UP has trackage rights all the way to the end at Wheatfield. I was there a few years ago and there is a huge powerplant there with several UP units parked behind an electric fence at the plant. You can see this plant from several miles away. How far west does this line go?

 #46436  by AmtrakFan
 
Does BNSF still use it? I know in ATSF Days they used it to get to Elkart to Interchange.

AmtrakFan

 #50334  by JustaBill
 
MR77100 wrote:I believe NS owns it, but UP has trackage rights all the way to the end at Wheatfield. I was there a few years ago and there is a huge powerplant there with several UP units parked behind an electric fence at the plant. You can see this plant from several miles away. How far west does this line go?
I'm an engineer out of Elkhart and my dad used to be in the track department out of Kankakee. The UP does NOT have trackage rights on the line. Those are just trains off of the UP using run thru power. NS crews take them to Wheatfield. They either get them out of Chicago or at Momence.

We still go as far as Streator to interchange with the BNSF. I think 1 train a day but I could be wrong. Other than that I'm not sure if we still go to Hennipen or not.

 #51224  by Hoosierailnut
 
I looked at Terraserver and it looks like there used to be a power plant online near Hennepin. But from the looks of things the plant no longer uses rail instead using coal barges off the Illinois river.
Farther south there is a huge steel mill looking place that looks to still use rail service.
But a work of caution the areial photos are from 1999.

 #52511  by jkarun
 
I was traveling towards the grade crossing in Lostant last week and caught (from a distance) a BNSF Dash9 hauling a handful of coil cards westward. I was curious about the usage on this branch myself until I saw that. I'm guessing this is not a common occurance as I pass over this line twice daily and have never seen a train on it west of Streator.
 #52657  by bn13814
 
International Steel Group restarted operations at the old LTV Steel facility at Hennepin in 2002. Most steel comes by barge but ISG does quite a bit of spot purchases so some still comes by rail. That Illinois Power Company power plant gets its coal by barge. It is dumped from railcars at Havana.

 #99733  by Engineer Spike
 
When I worked for BNSF, there was a Streator - Galesburg, and a Streator - KC train. This was the same before and after the Conrail split. The power would run through.

 #173603  by spRocket
 
I was just perusing Terraserver's aerial photos of the area from Mark, IL to the power plant, and couldn't help but notice an embankment that curved northeastward. It seems that, at one time, there was a bridge over the Illinois River just east of De Pue. The embankment continues north of the river, heads up through Seatonville, and then, just west of Ladd, it wyes into the BNSF branch that joins the main line at Zearing.

Back at De Pue, there seems to have also been a connection to the Rock Island main as well. This would explain the photos of RI power on the Kankakee Belt that I saw in my now long-lost copy of Rock Island Diesel Power.

Given that rail bridges across major rivers aren't all that common, I'm rather surprised that this one is gone.

 #180100  by route_rock
 
NSIKCK KCKNSI and GALNSI NSIGAL are still running. Pick em up there at the little office under a bridge in streator. RUmor had it we were to set up a small pool because of all the interchange traffic, however I havent seen this yet.