WI&I River Subdivision Redux

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Y@
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WI&I River Subdivision Redux

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I'm not real big into paper railroads anymore, but I've had some down time lately and with the mostly crappy weather I've had time to toy around with this. Down the road, I plan to model a freelance early CSX (ex-B&O) line, but if I don't end up doing that, I would probably model this.

The River Subdivision is the WI&I (Western Illinois & Iowa RR) mainline connecting Evansville, IN, and Louisville, KY. Louisville is the furthest east the WI&I reaches, thanks to the acquisition of this route in 1990 from the BGS Railway. End to end, the River Sub is 122.7 miles between the control point at Riverview (outside of Louisville) and EV Tower in Evansville.

East of Riverview, the ex-Bowling Green Southern Ry. trackage is the Louisville Terminal Subdivision, which encircles most of Louisville. CSX, NS and the LIRC all use WI&I rails at some point on the Louisville Terminal, mostly for interchange and transfer runs. The terminal splits at LU Tower, with the "south side" going towards the west end of Brook Park Yard on the southeast side of town, and the "north side" running around the city before swinging around into the east end of Brook Park.

EV Tower in Evansville is the point where the River Subdivision ends, and the Southern Subdivision begins, and is also where the WI&I crosses the ex-C&EI (now CSX) mainline at grade.

Louisville Yard dispatches the terminal, and the SD Dispatcher controls the River Sub, as well as the branchlines connecting to the River Sub. The line is CTC, single track with passing sidings, and sees around 12-18 trains per day. Automotive and general freight are the two biggest commodities hauled on the line, but grain traffic is heavy during the harvest, and a fair amount of ethanol and coal/coke is also hauled. A pair of intermodal trains also originate/terminate in Louisville. More detail on each train will be provided in a later post.

Prior to becoming a through route, the River Sub was dark-territory the entire way. Signals and CTC were first installed by the Bowling Green Southern in the late 1950's/early 60's. The BGS installed searchlights religiously on all it's vital routes, and the Evansville District (as it was formerly known) was no exception. When the BGS went bankrupt in 1988 and subsequently shut-down and sold off in pieces in 1990, the WI&I jumped on the St. Louis to Louisville line, and profited from it immediately. Although the days of Southern Pacific and Burlington Northern run-thru trains are gone, the direct connection to both CSX and NS has proven to be the lines most vital attribute, especially since it avoids Chicago entirely. Other railroads connecting to the WI&I via the River Sub include the Louisville & Indiana RR, the Evansville & Western RR, and the Indiana RR. A detailed track chart will be added later.
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