Indian Head, MD, Navy rail line becoming a trail

The buyer of one of the locomotives at IH has stated two personnel from his company are driving up on Sunday (4/15) and he's flying in Monday night (4/16). Monday and Tuesday will be spent preparing the locomotives for movement on Wednesday (4/18). Naval public affairs recently said no date was set for the movement, so this should prove interesting.

The naval public affairs office has confirmed the two locomotives are departing on Wednesday, April 18, time TBD. There is no provision for members of the media or private civilians to go on base to take pictures, but once they're out the gate and on the road, they'll be available for photography to anyone who catches them between the base and the Benning yard.

Today's loco move is delayed until tomorrow. Loading by crane should take place early on Thursday, April 19.

The SW8's move didn't take place yesterday, and it won't take place today, either. There are some "issues" with transportation (i.e., the truck for the SW8 is too small, etc.), so the move is off for now. At this point the buyer is looking at dismantling the SW8 to some extent to make transportation easier.

If things go as planned, Indian Head's GE 80-ton (USN 65-00397) should be loaded and trucked to Las Vegas, NV, on Tuesday, April 24. The SW8 will be dismantled for shipping to GA via truck, date TBA.

I find it surprising that the distance these two locomotives are being hauled that they weren't trucked to the nearest railhead and loaded on to a flatcar for the major portion of their move, and offloaded locally near destination onto another lowboy truck for delivery to final destination. Oh well, it isn't my money!

Trucking includes arranging for special flatcars on which to load the locomotives, cranes at the point where they're picked up (IH) and where they're loaded, as well as at the delivery site, assuming there's no ramp on the flat car. Crane time is very expensive, and logistically it's much easier and faster to use a truck from one point to another. Delays are also incurred when tying down a locomotive to a flatbed, untying it at a railhead, then tying it down again on a flatcar. An inspector from the railroad is also going to have to find time to come out and inspect your work before it rides over his railroad. Simply tying it down once on a flatbed and untying it once at the delivery site is much easier. I don't know how the total costs of trucking vs rail work out in this situation, but it's hard to imagine rail transport, to include the required cranes, being faster and less expensive. Moving the SW8 is even more complicated because it's heavier. That means bigger cranes and trucks, or dismantling the locomotive for reassembly back at the buyer's shop. Trucking the parts from IH to a loading point next to some tracks and then attempting to put it back together for rail shipment is a non-starter.

Both locomotives have departed Indian Head, which is now entirely locomotive-free. The GE 80-ton is reportedly stuck at a truck stop in VA for unknown reasons. The SW8 did indeed, after all, get trucked to Chalk Point for reassembly and rail shipment to GA, rather than being trucked all the way.

The final word on the SW8 this week appears to be that it will not go to the buyer's shop in GA after all, but will instead go to a power company, location TBA.

Both locomotives recently departed IH. The GE 80-ton, purchased by Pan Western, was trucked out to Las Vegas, NV, while the SW8, instead of being shipped to the buyer's shop in GA, was moved to the power plant at Chalk Point, MD, for test and evaluation for in-plant switching service.

http://www.somdnews.com/stories/091207/ ... 2122.shtml

Indian Head Rail Trail Proposal Revived

After an eight-month delay, the Charles County commissioners restarted the effort Tuesday (9/12) to convert the old Navy railroad running between White Plains and Indian Head into a public hiking and biking trail.

The commissioners directed the county’s parks staff to award a bid to a county contractor to remove the steel rails and wooden ties from the railroad and recycle the materials. The recycling is expected to raise $549,000 for the rail project.

The recycling money, along with $402,000 in county construction funds and $1.4 million in state Program Open Space money, is what the county expects to use to pave the rail bed with crushed stone and open it to the public.

If the state money comes through, parks director Tom Roland said he hopes to begin construction by July of next year for completion in 2009.
The commissioners also gave Roland permission to begin coordinating a plan for the trail with the state’s Rail-to-Trail Conservancy and hold a public meeting on the project in January.

Roland’s plan for the project includes additional phases, which would later add restrooms, asphalt paving and signs interpreting the natural environment and historical significance of the trail.

The county acquired the railroad from the Indian Head naval base in 2005 after the Navy deemed the line a surplus property. In December 2006, the county was prepared to approve a bid to tear up the railroad in preparation for a trail.

The bid was put on hold when Alcoa announced its intentions to construct a power plant in Indian Head. The commissioners waited to hear whether Alcoa would need the railroad to transport coal to the new plant. However, according to Roland, Alcoa recently told the county ‘‘that is something they are not going to need.”

Once completed, the rail trail would be ‘‘the most popular and most used park in our system,” Roland predicted. He said the trail has the potential to draw more than 200,000 visitors a year, a figure that raised the eyebrows of Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D).

Hodge noted the Calvert Marine Museum and Historic St. Mary’s City, the region’s two most popular tourism destinations, draw a combined total of 100,000 visitors a year.

‘‘It is a big number,” Roland said, but added that some projects for the trail put the number of visitors at 300,000. Roland said the trail would likely be used by 53 percent of the county’s population, as opposed to the White Plains Golf Course, which is used by 5 percent.

‘‘It’s very inclusive,” Roland said.

The commissioners stopped short of setting a date to begin construction on the trail.

They asked Roland to finish recycling the old railroad, secure the state funding and hold a public meeting before returning to them for construction approval.

Jay Fries
Southern Maryland News, September 12, 2007

Dismantling of the Indian Head line has reportedly begun, with rails being lifted about midway on the line between Indian Head and White Plains (MD) just west of Route 229 (Bensville Road).

I can confirm that dismantling of the line is well underway. Earlier in the week a fellow enthusiast reported some trucks bearing the corporate name "Railroad Resources & Recovery, Inc." out of Bethlehem, PA at the Bensville Road crossing. I went out yesterday (Saturday, Jan. 12th) morning, and while there was no activity, found the rails west of the Bensville Crossing on either side of the roadbed and ties in piles.

There are small signs at each crossing announcing a meeting, to be held at 7:00PM on Tuesday, Jan. 22nd at the Charles County Government Building in La Plata, to discuss the future of the "rail trail" that is slated to open sometime this year.

Warning! Dormant topic being revived!

In the event anyone is interested, the U. S. Navy's Indian Head Railroad has been totally dismantled and portions have already been paved for the hiking/biking/equestrian trail, Both ends (White Plains and Indian Head) have been paved for the distance of a couple of miles as has a portion of the center section. The construction is slated to be completed this (2009) summer or fall, depending on the finances of the Charles County (MD) treasuer's office.

I made a couple of recent trips to what remains of the 3 track yard in White Plains. The 6 remaining ex-LIRR coaches have been scrapped with just the wheelsets remaining in a pile awaiting a truck to carry them away to a purchaser. A lot of deris remains, including things like filters, window and door gaskets, spare windows (still with a protective coating on them) and other parts I'm not familiar with, some still in boxes labelled "Long Island Railroad".

The connection with CSX at Indian Head Junction (called "NAV" on CSX employee timetables) has yet to be severed. The track at the US Route 301 crossing is still in place as is the lead and switches into what is left of the yard. The scrapping of the line itself is to be completed by a contractor for Charles County, with the proceeds from the sale of the scrap being used to fund the trail construction.

The land that the yard occupied has been turned over to Charles County-it remains to be seen when the remnants of the scrapping will be removed.