Fort Wayne Line
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The Fort Wayne Line and Fort Wayne Secondary is a
rail line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS),
Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad The Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad is a short line railroad offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio, United States over the former Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It began operations in 2004 as a div ...
(CFE), and CSX Transportation in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. The line runs from
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, west via
Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
, to
Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...
, along what was once the Pennsylvania Railroad's
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
to
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
main line. From downtown Pittsburgh, at the west end of the
Pittsburgh Line The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combin ...
, west to the junction with CSX's Greenwich Subdivision at
Crestline, Ohio Crestline is a village in Crawford and Richland Counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. Crestline's population was 4,630 at the 2010 census. It is the third largest municipality in Crawford County. The Crawford County portion of Crestline is part ...
, NS owns the line. Major junctions include the
Conemaugh Line The Conemaugh Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Conpit Junction, Pennsylvania (west of New Florence) northwest and southwest to Pittsburgh, following the ...
in northern Pittsburgh, the Cleveland Line at
Rochester, Pennsylvania Rochester is a borough in central Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located northwest of Pittsburgh, it is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 3,480 at the 2020 census. Like many places around Pittsburgh, ...
, the Youngstown Line at
New Brighton, Pennsylvania New Brighton is a borough in north-central Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Beaver River northwest of Pittsburgh. The population was 5,719 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Histor ...
, the Lordstown Secondary east of Alliance, Ohio, and the Cleveland Line again at Alliance. From Crestline west to Adams junction in Allen County, Indiana, (Fort Wayne Line) and beyond to the Gary, Indiana, neighborhood of Tolleston (Fort Wayne Secondary), the line is owned by CSX. Since 2004 this section has been leased to and operated by
RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it ...
's
Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad The Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad is a short line railroad offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio, United States over the former Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It began operations in 2004 as a div ...
(CFE), with NS retaining
trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
. The final piece, from CSX's Porter Subdivision at Tolleston northwest to NS's Chicago Line, the former LS&MS in far northwestern
Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...
, at Buffington, is owned by CSX with NS trackage rights, junctioning CSX's Barr Subdivision at Clarke Junction (also in northwestern Gary).
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
's ''
Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 197 ...
'' operates over the line east of Alliance (OH). The Fort Wayne Line is also home to the second biggest rail yard in America,
Conway Yard Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major rail yard located in the boroughs of Conway and Freedom, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River. It was the largest freight yard in the world from 1956 until 1980.Edwin K ...
.


History

The Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad opened the line from Allegheny (Pittsburgh) west to Crestline in 1851, 1852, and 1853; the
Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge The Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge, listed as the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge on the National Register of Historic Places, is a double-deck steel truss railroad bridge spanning the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The upper deck carrie ...
connected it to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line in downtown Pittsburgh in 1857. From Crestline west to Fort Wayne, the Ohio and Indiana Railroad opened the line in 1853 and 1854. The Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad extended the line west to Columbia City in 1856, on July 26 the three companies merged to form the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Rail Road. The line was completed to
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in 1856 and 1858. The Pennsylvania Railroad began operating the line under lease on July 1, 1869. The line was subleased to the Pennsylvania Company on April 1, 1871, which operated it until January 1, 1918, when the lease was reassigned to the PRR. It passed to
Penn Central Transportation The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...
in 1968 and Conrail in 1976. The line from Fort Wayne east to Alliance was not as favored in the Conrail system as the duplicate New York Central lines, and, during rationalization efforts that took place in the early 1980s, this section of the Fort Wayne line changed in importance. Traffic heading from Pittsburgh to Chicago was routed onto the Cleveland Line at Alliance, while traffic towards Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis was routed onto the former New York Central Big Four line at Crestline. The remainder of the line west of Crestline was reduced to a single track with passing sidings. The route's automatic block signals were downgraded to an absolute permissive block system with home signals at passing sidings and diamonds. This route was used by Amtrak's Capitol Limited until the early 1990s, when the train was rerouted via the CSX Chicago line and then eventually rerouted again onto the eastern half of the Fort Wayne line to Alliance. After the end of Amtrak service on the western end of the Fort Wayne line, all intermediate signals west of Crestline were taken out of service, and the route transitioned into being run by
track warrant control A track warrant is a set of instructions issued to a train crew authorizing specific train movements. The system is widely used in North America. The warrant is issued by the train dispatcher and delivered to the train crew via radio. The train cr ...
. Conrail built a RoadRailer facility just west of Crestline, taking advantage of the light traffic on the Fort Wayne line, and Crestline's proximity to U.S. Routes 23 and 30. This facility was closed during the Conrail split. After the breakup of Conrail in 1999, CSX acquired Conrail's portion of the line from Crestline to Fort Wayne and NS's portion of the line west of Fort Wayne, giving CSX a second route to Chicago. NS kept trackage rights and acquired the line east of Crestline. The decision to give CSX the Fort Wayne line west of Crestline required the construction of a new interchange track in the northwest corner of the crossing with the Big Four line that CSX acquired. As part of the trackage rights agreement, Norfolk Southern is allowed to run up to 8 trains per day between Crestline and Bucyrus, where they have connections to their former N&W mainline from Sandusky to Portsmouth, and up to 6 trains a day into Fort Wayne. Norfolk Southern utilized their trackage rights heavily during the first year or so after the Conrail split; however, as infrastructure improved on the former New York Central and former Nickel Plate Road Chicago lines, the need for trackage rights decreased. In 2014, Norfolk Southern began running low-priority extra segments of regularly-scheduled trains via the western end of the Fort Wayne line to alleviate congestion on the very busy former New York Central Chicago line. In the potential future, an Amtrak route running from Chicago to Fort Wayne up to 4 round trips daily has grown exponentially in support in recent years.


See also

*
List of CSX Transportation lines CSX Transportation owns and operates a vast network of rail lines in the United States east of the Mississippi River. In addition to the major systems which merged to form CSX – the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, L ...
* List of Norfolk Southern Railway lines


References

{{Reflist Norfolk Southern Railway lines CSX Transportation lines Pennsylvania Railroad lines west of Pittsburgh Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania Rail infrastructure in Ohio Rail infrastructure in Indiana Rail infrastructure in Illinois Transportation in Pittsburgh