B&O Saint Louis Line Decline

[frankgaron2]

Hi All:

Looking for some info on the Cumberland-Cincy-St Louis Line.

Can anybody fill me in on:

* Why Chessie System got rid of Grafton-Parkersburg? What was the specific reasoning?

* Ditto Parkersburg-Cincy? The line always appreared to be in great shape, I know from railfanning the east end that there was (seemingly) enough traffic (through traffic, anyway) on the line at least into the 1980's.

* What is current status Cincy-Washington IN - St Louis? last time I railfanned the line, CSX was still running through freights on it, and places like Milan IN still had Operators in them. Now I hear tell of freight cars being stored on the main track(s) and the line out of service?

Any and all info greatly appreciated. I rode the Chessie Steam Special from Cumberland to Terra Alta and back and was blown away by how scenic and how rugged the line was.

Thanks,

Frank

[gbbari]

Hi All:

Looking for some info on the Cumberland-Cincy-St Louis Line.

Can anybody fill me in on:
* Why Chessie System got rid of Grafton-Parkersburg? What was the specific reasoning?
* Ditto Parkersburg-Cincy? The line always appreared to be in great shape, I know from railfanning the east end that there was (seemingly) enough traffic (through traffic, anyway) on the line at least into the 1980's.
* What is current status Cincy-Washington IN - St Louis? last time I railfanned the line, CSX was still running through freights on it, and places like Milan IN still had Operators in them. Now I hear tell of freight cars being stored on the main track(s) and the line out of service?
Any and all info greatly appreciated. I rode the Chessie Steam Special from Cumberland to Terra Alta and back and was blown away by how scenic and how rugged the line was.
Thanks,
Frank

Can only speculate that the quantity of old tunnels and topography lead the brilliant minds at CSX to think they could not invest in modernization of and then operate the WV section of track profitably. According to this author however, they apparently acted a bit prematurely in tearing up the track west of Clarksburg and missed out on some juicy intermodal traffic from UP. Read this: http://www.wvrail.railfan.net/bridgeportsub.html