The Elkhart & Western Railroad Co. , a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

Pioneer Railcorp Pioneer Lines (formerly Pioneer Railcorp) was a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offered locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning ...

, is a Class III short-line

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

operating three unconnected lines in northern

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, United States. The first, the Elkhart Branch, is in and around the city of Elkhart in Elkhart County, the second, the Argos Branch, radiates from

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, in Marshall County, and the third, the Monon Branch, operating from Monon to

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

, in White County. Pioneer Railcorp created the Elkhart & Western Railroad, on May 1, 2001, from a stretch of the Michigan Southern Railroad. The Elkhart Branch begins at its junction with the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

near the center of Elkhart, then crosses the St. Joseph River, which it follows westward, and finally ends on the northeast side of

Mishawaka Mishawaka () is a city on the St. Joseph River, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Mishawaka is a principal city of the South Bend-Mishawaka, Indi ...

, in neighboring St. Joseph County. Freight hauled on the EWR Elkhart Line consists mainly of plastic flakes,

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

and

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

. Freight hauled on the EWR Argos Line consists of mainly scrap iron, paper, plastic pellets, and lime, with the addition of storage car holding. In January 2018,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

sold of track running from Monon to Monticello, to ETW. Operations began in August, serving the only customer on the line, Monticello Farm Service, Inc.

Power

The EWR received its two locomotives from Pioneer Railcorp, and although the units no longer have the Pioneer reporting marks, the units are still owned by EWR's parent.

References

External links

Elkhart and Western Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkhart Western Railroad Indiana railroads Companies based in Elkhart County, Indiana St. Joseph County, Indiana American companies established in 2001 Pioneer Lines Transportation in Elkhart, Indiana