Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Will Become the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY WILL SELL THE WEST END of the former Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern to short line holding company Genesee & Wyoming Industries for $210 million. The new railroad will be named the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern and includes approximately 660 miles of former Chicago & North Western track between Tracy, Minn., and Rapid City, S.D.; from Rapid City to Colony, Wyo.; from Rapid City to Dakota Junction, Neb.; and connecting branch lines, as well as trackage from Dakota Junction to Crawford, Neb., which is cur- rently leased to the Nebraska Northwestern Railroad (NNW). RCPE will also have trackage rights over CPR between Tracy and Mankato, Minn., and over BNSF Railway between Yale and Watertown, Neb.; and between Wolsey and Aberdeen, Neb.
Montréal, Maine & Atlantic
RAILROAD IS SOLD: On January 22, 2014, Railroad Acquisitions Holdings agreed to pay $14.25 million for the bankrupt Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway and its Canadian link, MMA of Canada, for $14.25 million. At press time, the deal had yet to be approved by courts in Maine and Québec. RAH is an affili- ate of Fortress Investment Group, which owns the Florida East Coast and owned the Rail- America short line holding company until 2012. RAH had submitted the stalking horse bid last December. MMA bankruptcy trustee Robert Keach said more than a dozen compa- nies had expressed interest in all or part of the railroad. A consortium of J.D. Irving’s Eastern Maine Railway and Springfield Ter- minal Railway (Pan Am) was said to have bid on MMA’s Maine routes, and the Vermont Rail System was thought to have been inter- ested in a branch running from Newport, Vt., to Brookport, Québec. MMA declared bank- ruptcy in 2013 after a runaway unit oil train derailed and exploded in downtown Lac- Megantic, Québec, on July 6, destroying the town’s business district and killing 47 people.
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RAILFAN.COM
The line handles approximately 52,000 carloads annually of grain, bentonite clay, ethanol, fertilizer and other products. The new railroad will not be captive to CPR interchange, also exchanging freight with Union Pacific, BNSF Railway and the NNW.
The sale is expected to close by the middle of the year and the deal is
subject to approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. G&W expects to hire approximately 180 employees and anticipates that they will come primarily from those currently working on the line, which was acquired by CPR from Cedar American Holdings in 2008. CPR will continue to operate about 1900 miles of former DME trackage. Bob Jordan caught a trio of SD40-2s (above) eastbound with a CPR Rapid City — Huron, S.D. freight at Capo, S.D. on September 26, 2013.
Norfolk Southern
WHAT? SELL THE RATHOLE??? In early January Charlie Winburn, Finance Chair of the Cincinnati, Ohio, City Council, proposed selling the Cincinnati Southern Railway in order to bail out the city’s unfunded pension obligations. Also known as the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific and popularly referred to as the Rathole Division, the 337- mile CSR is leased by Norfolk Southern and runs between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn. NS pays the city about $20 million a year which goes into the city's capital budget. The lease expires in 2026 with an option to renew for another 25 years.
The idea failed to gain traction, however, as
Mayor John Cranley and other council mem- bers questioned the wisdom of selling a steady source of revenue for a short-term gain. On January 21, Winburn tabled his proposal to sell the railroad.
N.C. Transportation Museum
12 STREAMLINERS TO SPENCER: The North Carolina Transportation Museum says
a dozen diesel cab units are lined up for its May 29-June 1, 2014 Streamliners at Spencer event. They include Wabash F7A No. 1189 and Canadian National FPA4 No. 6789 from the Monticello (Ill.) Railway Museum; “Lack- awanna” F3A units Nos. 663 and 664 from the Tri-State Railway Historical Society and the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society; New Haven FL9 No. 2019 from the Railroad Museum of New England; Juniata Terminal Co.’s Pennsylvania Railroad E8s Nos. 5711 and 5809; Norfolk Southern executive F’s, and the muse- um’s own Atlantic Coast Line E3 No. 501 and Southern Railway FP7 No. 6133 and E8 No. 6900. Additional locomotives are expected to be added.
Reading & Northern
SUES RAIL AUTHORITY: Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern has sued the Pennsyl- vania Northeast Rail Authority for awarding a no-bid five-year contract extension to oper- ate its lines around Scranton, Penn., to Gene- see Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lack- awanna Railroad. RBMN says the authority refused to consider its request to submit a bid
ROBERT W. JORDAN
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