NS Northern Ohio and Indiana Lines Question

Since the CR breakup, NS has had two lines across Northern Ohio and Indiana between Cleveland and Chicago - the NKP line through Bellevue and Fort Wayne, and the CR line through Toledo and Elkhart. What is the "point" of having two lines between two points? Do they do directional running on these lines, or do certain types of freight only travel on one line or the other?

CSX had two lines between Northern Ohio and Chicago - their B&O line out of Willard, and the PRR line from Crestline that they got in the CR split. They sold off the PRR line to CF&E, giving them only one route to deal with. Why hasn't NS done the same? It seems like a lot of redundant trackage for such a small width of land.

The ex CR line through Toledo and Elkhart is much busier, but its a good idea to have the ex NKP also for slower freights, when derailments happen, and when trackwork is being done on that busy piece of railroad formerly known as the New York Central's Water Level Route.

slower drag freights on the NKP? Some freights like 15E, 145, 10E, 146, and 17R have higher priority than one might think. other trains like 16K, and 306 are pretty important too. meanwhile trains 14E, 307, 17k, and 13J are the low guys on the totem pole between Bellevue and Fort Wayne.

Having lived on the former NYC line in South Bend, I can tell you that it's a very busy line. It's no surprise that the NKP is a safety valve in addition to the traffic it originally carried pre-breakup. Further, the former NYC is busier due to the CP obtaining trackage rights a few years ago. This is in comparison to the former PRR line across Indiana, which was a quiet line under Conrail, while the former B&O was a fairly busy line under CSX pre-breakup.

To recap:
NKP had viable traffic under NS pre-breakup, especially after the Wabash in parallel was abandoned.
NYC was VERY busy pre-breakup, and is busier now with CPR trains.
B&O was busy pre-breakup
PRR was quiet after the 1992 downgrade where Amtrak 29/30 was shifted to the former NYC.

I think the NKP line between Ft Wayne and Chicago also hosts a fair # of trains from Atlanta and the south in general. IIRC, this single track line pre-Conrail breakup was sufficiently close to saturation that in 1994, NS acquired access to the parallel ex-PRR mainline between Ft Wayne and Chicago.

East of Ft Wayne, the NKP line has the large Bellevue classification yard and the Fostoria auto mixing yard.

I think the only stretch of potentially unnecessary track is the NKP between Cleveland and Vermillion, which NS has already deprecated.

Net: NS traffic levels likely warrant keeping both ex-NYC and ex-NKP routes at least west of Vermillion.

Toss in several 200 series Triple Crown roadrailers, and this line certainly holds its own when it comes to traffic.

IIRC...

I thought it was odd the break-up of Conrail literally "broke up" the ex-NYC Conrail Chicago Line and gave NS and CSX each "half" of it. Then I remember reading...

One of the objectives of the Conrail sale was to ensure both CSX and NS had a double track mainline to Chicago.

The NS had the single track ex-NKP, and got the ex-CR double track.

The CSX had the double track ex-B&O, and got the ex-CR single track.

I have a question here How bussy is the NS line from Chicago to Toledo or mainly (Elkhard IN to Toledo OH) ? since there is only one railway direct line still in operation between the two cities currently ( the NS if im right) which dips low and goes through Waterloo. How many trains a day does this line carry in the day time? Any space for Amtrak to place daylight run from Chicago to Toledo and/or points further east ? I just had to wonder about Amtrak trains that transverse that line as both make Night time and early AM appearances only. Was this due to routing on Amtrak's part or congestion on the NS line in this area. I know the Toledo area is well saturated with NS traffic branching off in all different directions.

Anybody know what almost straight ROW existed between the current NS line and Wauseon OH and Millersburg IN. ? its still visible in Google Maps and partial parts of it still exist ( such as in Montpelier OH to South Milford IN).

Former Wabash ran from Montpelier, OH to Gary, IN. That was a branch operation. IIRC, had one local freight and one through freight per day.

As an aside, while the B&O today does serve as the western end of CSX's Chicago-East mainline, a large portion of it had been single tracked by B&O/Chessie/CSX starting in the 1960's. Prior to the Conrail split, CSX re-installed all the 'missing' double track (and even added a 3rd main around Garrett IN & Willard OH), and upgraded the signalling so the entire line would be "2 main tracks" (bidirectional signaling) instead of current of traffic on the existing double track.

As for the Amtrak scheduling, it's more of Amtrak's insistence of "timing to the endpoints convienence " (Chicago & Washington/New York) than traffic congestion. Even when Amtrak used the former PRR across Ohio & Indiana (and they were basically the only user west of Crestline OH) the trains ran at night.

The other line in question was the Wabash "peavine" across northern Indiana & Ohio. It lost it's importance with the NKP/Wabash/N&W merger in 1964. The NKP main west of Ft. Wayne had enough capacity to handle the business from Montpelier OH westward (it was just routed down the Wabash from Montpelier to Ft. Wayne and over to Chicago. East of Ft. Wayne, the line survived longer due to it being a key link in Auto parts traffic from Michigan (via the DT&I to Delta OH) to western assembly plants. When Delta stopped being an interchange point (along with the demise of west coast assembly plants) the line became redundant. The largest segment of the line that exists today is used by the Indiana Northeastern Shortline to gain access to NS for interchange at Montpelier (predecessor Hillsdale County Railroad did not want to be dependent on Conrail for interchange and acquired the line from Stubenville Indiana to Montpelier to get that non-Conrail access). As well as a portion from Stubenville IN west to South Milford Indiana (now operated by Indiana Northeastern, prior to this it was the Pigeon River Railroad) to provide rail access to a grain elevator there. The portion east of Montpelier was torn up in the late 1980's, with the right of way serving as a majority of the Wabash Cannonball hike/bike trail.