Heartland Corridor- Peavine alternate

[NW Mailing List]

At the moment, the double stack trains will reach Cincinnati by coming 
southwest on the ex-PRR/Big Four tracks down to Dayton , thence down to 
Cincinnati.  This is an under utilized route at the moment with spare 
capacity and clearnces for doublestacks created over the last year.

The Peavine is currently inactive except for the T51 local working out 
of Sharon yard in Sharonville (ex-Big Four/PC/CR) which goes no father 
than the east end of Peebles siding.  It runs out to Peebles, if there 
is business, on Monday and Wednesday evening and comes back on Tuesday 
and Thursday.   The Peavine is dark territory.

If doublestacks were to be run over this line:

The bridges over the Scioto River and Scoito Brush Creek (nearby) would 
have to be replaced.
All signals would need to be replaced -too much rust on the old masts.
Clearances at Nixon Avenue underpass in Peebles would have to be increased.
Clearances under State Route 74 at Afton/Maywood would have to be increased.
Track and ballast from White Oak to Mt. Oreb would have to be upgraded- 
this has been slow order territory since about 1995.

I am not aware of any other clearnce issues west of Clare along the ex- 
PRR/CR Cincinnati & Richmond up to the old passenger connection at 
"Oakley" and over to East Norwood (GK) nor any on the ex-B&O Ohio 
Division through Norwood and Bond Hill.

The ex-B&O Ohio Division tracks are leased by the Railtex/indiana & Ohio 
from CSX at the moment.   They use the Ohio Division tracks west of GK 
as their yard and transfer tracks to CSX.

There are no crews trained for over the line trains on the Peavine and 
haven't been any since 2003.   As far as I know other than the T51 crew, 
no other crew has any seniority for the Peavine.

Operating over the Peavine usually meant shorter trains with more 
engines due to the grades encountered compares with the flatter Columbus 
District and Dayton District.  the Peavine approximates mountain 
railroading while the other tow districts have easy grades.

While a Peavine routing would save around fifty miles for a trip, th 
capital investment in reopening the line would be difficult to pay for 
unless a lot of trains crossed this line.  When the line shut as a 
trhough route only the NS 217/218 and a few unit grain trains crossed 
the Pevine.  the unit trains crossed maybe two-three times a week at 
best.  Only 217/218 were daily trains 6 days a week.

Gary Rolih
Cincinnati