Reactivated branch line southeast of Terre Haute

Last Saturday (1/17) I watched a very long train of tank cars marked propylene cross a back road southeast of Terre Haute, Indiana. Not normally unusual; there are a lot of long trains around here. But I thought this line was abandoned: it had been covered in weeds and shrubs and -- so I thought, at least -- trees for several years, and some time last year they'd taken down the crossbucks and yellow warning signs. My dad, not usually a railfan but a transportation engineer, took a picture because you so rarely see a train crossing a street without crossbucks. The line runs from Springhill southeast to Riely and eventually to an abandoned coal mine east of Terre Haute. It was a CSX line, but the the train had INRD power.

We actually saw the train twice, once in each direction, so we know that it took cars east onto the branch and brought cars back west off the branch.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

Probably being stored given the state of the economy.

I was in Terre Haute last summer & I think I know the track you speak of. I passed it more than once as I tried to make my way to Bloomington from TH, but ran into detours. I assume you meant the town of Riley, not Riely, which is southeast of Terre Haute, however I'm not sure what Springhill has to do with it as that town is practically on the other side of the state, albeit nearly straight east of Riley. Unless it did indeed go that far - none of maps go back far enough to see abandoned lines.

There is in deed a town of Riley [note spelling] SE of Terre Haute. INRD got as part of the deal, when they bought the old Milwaukee line from CSX several years ago. The line makes the eastward turn at Springhill Junction [not far from Joe’s Hobby Barn]. INRD has been doing a lot of improvements along there the last couple years
Here’s link to the map for that area
http://www.inrd.com/images/pdf/Terre_Ha ... al_map.pdf
If that link doesn’t work I sure this one will. Maps are listed on the left
http://www.inrd.com/

inch

Yes, I was describing the line from Springhill Junction (CSX and INRD diamond, with a couple branch lines coming in, just south of Terre Haute, near Joes Hobby Barn, as you noted) to Riley and beyond. I thought INRD had gotten it from CSX when they bought the MILW Latta sub from CP, but I wasn't sure; thanks. The rail is in place beyond Riley at least as far as where it crosses IN 46 on its way east to an abandoned coal mine (I think). The former mayor of Terre Haute wanted to make an "inland port" (intermodal center) at the ex coal mine, with this rather winding line as the RR access. That hasn't happened. An abandoned line continued SE to Cory and maybe beyond.

I'm pretty sure the cars weren't going to or coming from storage. We saw tank cars moving in both directions on the same day. There was room to stop the entire train between the crossing where we saw it and the next crossing to the NW, so if they were just storing cars on an idle line, they had no need to go any further SE.

But I can't think of any other reason to take cars there; I don't know of any factories.

The only reason I can think of for INRD to go down the coal spur. Would be if Van yard was full and they needed the room to interchange those UP coal drags with CSX.
I remember the old mayor in Terre Haute and all his grandiose ideas.
inch

On 2/15 I saw a string of tanks and open hoppers stored on this line, west of the crossing where I saw the train a few weeks ago. East of the crossing trees appeared to have been trimmed. So maybe it is just storage, and they go further or not so far depending how much space they need.

On 3/7 I saw a string of tank cars stored on the same branch closer to Riley. Definitely storage.
There's a big string of box cars stored in Spencer, Ind., too.