While Bluffton experiences one daily short and slow round trip freight train every day - things are different in Ada.
Ada's rail traffic is now more frequent, with longer trains and traveling at higher speeds than residents are used to. A rebirth of the line through Ada for freight happened this winter.
WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY.
Norfolk Southern (NS) track resurfacing crews labored between Ft. Wayne and Bucyrus last fall and into the early winter. The reason: A race to relieve rail traffic congestion on other lines.
NS is experiencing serious freight traffic congestion on its Chicago Line between Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago where up to 110 trains a day travel.
or the first time in 30-40 years since freight train traffic was consolidated onto the Chicago Line from the Fort Wayne Line and other lines, some traffic is being moved back. Thus the increased rail traffic through Ada.
The consolidations date back to a different era when railroads were in survival mode. Now the railroads are in a growth mode.
NS turned its capacity-enhancing attention to the Fort Wayne Line – the only underutilized rail corridor remaining east from Chicago into Indiana and Ohio.
Once upon a time, this route was the pride of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), the “Standard Railroad of the World.” The double-tracked mainline hosted more than 20 passenger trains per day, some at 100 mph (until the federal 79-mph limit went into effect in 1947), mixed in with twice as many freight trains.
But later owners Penn Central (1968-76) and especially Conrail (1976-99) moved freight traffic to the route of PRR’s former rival, the former NYC via Cleveland and Toledo.
Conrail downgraded the Fort Wayne Line. It was single-tracked west of Crestline in 1984. Conrail rerouted Amtrak trains to more northerly routes in 1990. Its signaling system was removed soon thereafter while track maintenance was deferred, dropping train speeds from 70 mph to 10 mph in places.
As part of the 1999 split of Conrail’s assets among CSX and NS, NS gained trackage rights over the Fort Wayne Line (up to 8 daily trains Crestline-Bucyrus; up to 6 dailies Bucyrus-Ft. Wayne).
CSX got the Fort Wayne Line west of Crestline from Conrail, but NS dispatches it. NS got the Fort Wayne Line east of Crestline, detoured rail traffic from it and single-tracked much of it.
In 2004, the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern (CFE) signed a 20-year lease to generate shipments from CSX’s Tolleston-Crestline tracks.
Today, CFE handles a daily average of about 80-100 carloads of freight traffic. This is the line that passes through Ada.
In recent years, CFE resurfaced the tracks – notably between Ft. Wayne and Bucyrus – with new ties and ballast to operate more consistently at 25 mph although some 10 mph sections remain.
However, NS’s crews began working in November to improve the line further with a resurfacing program, including new ties, track hardware, ballast and tamping. This allows trains to routinely operate through Ada at 40 mph.
The first NS trains began showing up on the Fort Wayne Line in early November. Next came an army of NS track surfacing crews working at a rapid pace. Then news filtered out that NS was transferring engineers and conductors to crew bases in Mansfield and Fort Wayne to open a crew district between the two cities effective Jan. 15.
The line through Ada is called Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad (CFE). It is a short line offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio. The CFE operates approximately 315 miles of rail between Indiana and Ohio.
Over 39,000 freight cars now pass through Ada each year.
Major commodities included in this business are lumber, paper, chemicals, steel beams, shelled corn, and other hazardous materials. Major customers for these commodities enjoy the transportation service that the CFE provides on a daily basis.
