NS Urbana Local

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had information about the NS local job that serves urbana. This train seems to come through once a week. Also, I was wondering about the line that comes through urbana. Any info would be welcome.

Thanks,
Nate

I graduated from U of I in December, so I have alot of knowledge of the railroads in the area. The line that NS runs on in Urbana is the old Peoria & Eastern, a subsidiary of the Big Four, which became the NYC. The P&E and Wabash ran side-by-side as they crossed the IC main south of Bradley Ave. In the later years, the P&E and Wabash actually merged their trackage together. Where the tracks cross University Ave, the line dogbones off the Wabash ROW and back onto the P&E. Near the east side of Urbana, the Wabash swung southeast to Sidney, where it joined up with the mainline. A piece of this track still remains to that Solo cup factory, one of the customers that NS still serves. The P&E then ran east to Danville, then Indianapolis, and eventually to Springfield, OH. NS tore up the Danville-Urbana segment in 1996 after they had bought it from Conrail. They had bought the line in order to obtain business from the Anderson grain elevator in Mahamot. West of Mansfield, the P&E is out of service and might be up for abandonment.
Hope this helps.

THanks for the info...
I heard the Urbana local come through today at about 11:00am. I might just be missing it, but it seems to me that this train has an irregular schedule.

Norfolk Southern's "Urbana Local" is train D40D and can be seen Monday's or Tuesday's but consistently on Friday's. I've caught it twice working the line on Friday afternoons. It probably arrives in late morning. One date was June 17 and the other was July 8.

As to the former, I caught the train at Rising working The Anderson's grain terminal. From rear to front, it had ten empty tank cars from Emulsicoat, one empty centerbeam flat car (from CN interchange?) and picked up 50 grain loads at The Anderson's. A two-locomotive 61-car freight for Decatur ain't bad!

As to the latter, D40D's single locomotive did some switching at Elmusicoat, pulling seven empty tank cars but tying up for the weekend.

Thanks for the info!

Does this train come out Decatur-Monticello-Mansfield-Urbana?

It comes out of Decatur but I'm not sure if it performs any switching other than on the Urbana line. I know D40D in the past has made it to Good Yard in Normal, Illinois so on some days it may work the Urbana line and other days it works the rest of the territory.

Is there still any interchange switching done in Tuscola, IL among the IC/CN, UP or CSX?

NS and CN do interchange at Tuscola but that's further east than D40D's territory.

I don’t know if the UP and IC interchange there or not. One usually sees plenty of covered hoppers, but I’m sure those are all bound for the grain elevator. Besides which, the UP runs so many trains through there, one wonders if they could afford to stop and setout....

As for the CSX, I know that as of a couple years ago, they still were. Because I photographed IC power as they setout. But in thinking about it, the last few times I haven’t seen any cars on the interchange track. Maybe that was just bad timing, as I don’t get up there too much.

Who drills the USI/Cabot chemical plants? and do those cars interchange at Tuscola....or elsewhere?

Last time I was down there, I saw a CSX unit working the chemical plants.
But that was awhile ago, soit may have changed.

Just a not on this trains customers in Urbana, Emulsicoat is planning to move its storage facilities out by the CNIC tracks north of town. Besides solo cup, Emulsicoat was the only NS customer in Urbana. The days of trains in Urbana may be numbered...

Hello,

I'm new to this site but have lived in Urbana from early 2006 to late 2007.

I've crossed over the tracks via Lincoln Ave. and never saw evidence of trains going over them. Does anyone know if this line is still active?

Also, does anyone know where I can find a map detailing when the various rail lines in IL were abandoned? I did find a map like that for Iowa.

Thanks!

Elmusicoat/Champaign Asphalt built a new facility north of town that is served by CN. Apparently, the older plant is still served by NS. NS also serves Solo Cup. Trains may operate as little as once or twice a week, though.

If you can find some Illinois Rail Plans at local libraries, these detail abandonments.