New Ohio South Central Railroad

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kwh
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by kwh »

The brush cutter was working in Jackson today. It did cross RT93 but not sure how much further south it worked. I'm assuming routine maintenance?

Keith

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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by OSRR »

To my knowledge everything south of Jackson has been out of service for atleast a couple years.

I thought the RT93 crossings had been paved? Or was that just the one in Oak Hill? I haven't been up that was in a couple years.

I did read a while back somewhere (here or Train orders) that Melvin Stone had bought a quarry just north of Oak Hill. Wonder if anything became of that? Though, i'm not sure if they would ship by rail or not.

Lassie24
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by Lassie24 »

They have cleared the track to Camba Rd. for storage.

heypal6878
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by heypal6878 »

What is the route for this railroad? How far south does it go. How many miles will they run and who do they hand it off to at the end of the line?

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CG Tower
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by CG Tower »

heypal6878 wrote:What is the route for this railroad? How far south does it go. How many miles will they run and who do they hand it off to at the end of the line?
First off this is not a "NEW" railroad, the thread started back in 2014, this railroad has been in operation for quite a while, but, before it was the Ohio South Central, it has been operated by several different shortline operators, including the Indiana & Ohio and the Great Miami. The last operator before Ohio South Central was US Rail.

The line is technically owned by the City of Jackson, Ohio, who purchased the former B&O Portsmouth Subdivision and Parkersburg Subdivision from CSX. The line runs from a CSX connection at Vauces (near Chillicothe) to end of track south of Oak Hill, Ohio. Currently, the line is out of service south of Jackson.

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midland sub
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

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Line is basically in the shape of the letter "T" with the lines CG eluded to in his post. The top half heads west to east from around Richmondale off of the former C&O main as part of the old B&O Renick Sub for several miles and then becomes the former B&O main from St Louis-Cumberland. Line ends around an area called Red Diamond where the Austin Powders plant is located. About halfway or so is Hamden where the former B&O Portsmouth Sub heads south to Jackson and beyond. Great Miami built the engine house at Hamden in the late 1990s and is the base for operations. There's 5 old GP7/9s used on the line. One in Illinois Terminal bright green, 2 in I assume OSCR official scheme of dark green and then a former Great Walton and Midsouth. The OSCR is part of the Indiana Eastern and I believe they are no longer affiliated with Respondek.

Last train south of Jackson was 2013 when US Rail pulled 100 or so DEEX coal gons that had been stored for 8 or 9 months. Last train to Oak Hill was 2010 when the last of the Great Miami boxcars and the cylindrical hopper went to the scrap dealer there to be cut up. Cedar Heights spur just south of Oak Hill loaded a handful of CSX open hoppers with clay spring of 2010. Last train south of Oak Hill to Nock & Son was in 2009. ODOT worked out a deal to remove the 3 grade crossings around Oak Hill area a couple of years ago. They will go back in and when the need arises. The line is the poster child to the challenges of the short line deals of the 1980s. I&O gave it 6 years before walking away to focus on their new Springfield area lines in early 1994. Great Miami did a good job keeping traffic levels up and developing a couple of new sources, but a damaging flood in 1997 plus years of deferred maintenance started popping up. US Rail took over 2004 or '05 and everything went downhill from there. Autoparts plant in Jackson shutdown plus Koppers stopped using rail. Elaborate plans to ship trash to the stone quarry and coal mine around Oak Hill never happened. The state of Ohio has poured millions of dollars into the property over the last 20 plus years.

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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

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Koppers?

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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by CG Tower »

Here is a map of the line(s) in question. Click on image for a larger view.

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midland sub
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by midland sub »

Koppers used to load raw railroad ties at Hamden. Ended sometime 2006 or 2007. There also was a company that loaded pulpwood down around the first SR 93 crossing that's removed just north of Oak Hill. That ended about the same time.

heypal6878
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by heypal6878 »

Thanks for the map. I was up in that neck of the state a few weeks ago and noticed that rail was pretty rusty looks like the east end of the Peavine like nothing has been on that rail for a few years. The tracks look reasonably good but was wondering what businesses would use rail out that way.

midland sub
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Re: New Ohio South Central Railroad

Unread post by midland sub »

South of Jackson other than were they recently cleared several miles for future car storage the tracks for the most part have disappeared in the weeds and undergrowth.

Since CSX pulled Q310/311 from the Northern Sub a month ago it's been hit or miss with OSCR having anything at Vauces from CSX. Now that CSX has a turn around out of Russell to Vauces things have improved. In the past 4 to 5 years minus any storage cars the line averages 20-25 carloads a week at best. The state along with OSCR have poured a lot of money into the line in the past 2 years just catching up with the 8 years of US Rail operations. OSCR is supposed to have some sort of transload set up in Jackson on the old Merdian auto part factory site but I'm not aware of anything happening with it yet. There's a new natural gas electric generating plant going in around east of Hamden that might generate some inbound traffic for its construction.

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