The Warren and Saline River Railroad is an

short-line railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

connecting Cloquet, Arkansas to the Arkansas Midland Railroad at

Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...

. It has always been independent of larger carriers, and was previously owned by the Potlatch Corporation, a

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). ...

company, until January 2010. WSR is currently operated by the Arkansas Midland Railroad and was sold by Pinsly Railroad Company to sold to

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia. ...

Industries in 2014. WSR traffic generally consists of outbound

and other

forest products A forest product is any material derived from forestry for direct consumption or commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or fodder for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant product of forests, is used for many purposes, such as wood fuel (e.g. in fo ...

.Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide, 5th Edition,

Kalmbach Publishing Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) was an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. History The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...

, 1996, p. 326

History

The Warren, Johnsville and Saline River Railroad was incorporated in August 1905 to serve

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksBradley County. It opened a line from Warren south to Fullerton that year, and completed extensions from Fullerton to the

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

near Hermitage in 1909 and to Goepel (Mt. Olive) in 1910.

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

, 119 I.C.C. 68 (1926): Valuation Docket No. 646, Warren, Johnsville & Saline River Railroad Company A new Warren and Saline River Railroad was incorporated in March 1920 and took over the property.

Warren and Saline River Railroad 73 at the Fox River Trolley Museum

The branch to Gospel was abandoned at some point, and in 1985 the mainline to Hermitage was cut back to Cloquet. The WSR also operates about five miles of the former Warren and Ouachita Valley Railroad, a connecting shortline which operated to the west from Warren. On December 5, 2014,

filed a Notice of Exemption with the

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is an independent federal agency that serves as an adjudicatory board. The board was created in 1996 following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and absorbed regula ...

to acquire WSR along with AKMD and another affiliate Prescott & Northwestern Railroad (PNW) from Pinsly.dot.gov

References

External links

Warren and Saline River Railroad official webpage - Genesee and Wyoming website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren Saline River Railroad Arkansas railroads Railway companies established in 1920 1905 establishments in Arkansas Genesee & Wyoming Transportation in Bradley County, Arkansas Warren, Arkansas Railway lines opened in 1905