Indiana Branch Buffalo and Pittsburg RR

Now that the Homer City Generating station has closed down, what is left on the branch? Is it in danger of abandonment? It looks there have been some random boxcars and an empty flat car in Lucerne, as of a month ago. Anything happening down there?

I have not been keeping up on things down that way, didn't know the power plant had shut down. The "War On coal" sure creates a lot of collateral damage.

I have no official info, just my own speculation. But it takes a lot of $$ to maintain rail lines over time. I'm not aware of any significant sources of traffic down there but maybe there is. It will take more than a random car of lumber and an occasional tank of propane, though.

Even without the war on coal, from what I,ve heard, with the success of fracking, gas fired plants are cheaper than coal, and a lot simpler to run

Thanks for your responses. I grew up near this line in the 1950's when they were still using steam power and there was a steady stream of long coal trains passing through town. Then when that died out in the 1970's, all that was left were a few industries that received several carloads apiece..about one train a a week... gradually traffic dwindled down to about three trains a month until 1994 when the line was rail banked... then in 2005 the line was brought back to life when the generating plant began to receive coal..... now that that is over with, it once again seems to look bleak for the line.

Hi.I was back through Indiana last weekend... Thes ROW looks well maintained and the rails were relatively shiny... looks like there still must be some activity on that line despite the power plant closing over a year ago.... are there still movements on this line? Thanks

Kovalchick still ships a few gons of scrap here and there, I think the last run was in early August.