The Elkhart & Western Railroad Co. , a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Pioneer Railcorp Pioneer Lines (formerly Pioneer Railcorp) is a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offer locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning. Pio ...

, is a Class III short-line

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

operating three unconnected lines in northern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. The first, the Elkhart Branch, is in and around the city of Elkhart in

Elkhart County Elkhart County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. , the county's population was 207,047. The county seat is Goshen. Elkhart County is part of the Elkhart- Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South ...

, the second, the Argos Branch, radiates from

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, in Marshall County, and the third, the Monon Branch, operating from Monon to

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

, in White County. Pioneer Railcorp created the Elkhart & Western Railroad, on May 1, 2001, from a stretch of the Michigan Southern Railroad. The Elkhart Branch begins at its junction with the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

near the center of Elkhart, then crosses the St. Joseph River, which it follows westward, and finally ends on the northeast side of

Mishawaka Mishawaka is a city on the St. Joseph River, in Penn Township, St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Mishawaka is a principal city of the South Be ...

, in neighboring St. Joseph County. Freight hauled on the EWR Elkhart Line consists mainly of

plastic flakes Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

and

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

. Freight hauled on the EWR Argos Line consists of mainly scrap iron, paper, plastic pellets, and lime, with the addition of storage car holding. In January 2018,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

sold of track running from Monon to Monticello, to ETW. Operations began in August, serving the only customer on the line, Monticello Farm Service, Inc.

Power

The EWR received its two locomotives from Pioneer Railcorp, and although the units no longer have the Pioneer reporting marks, the units are still owned by EWR's parent.

References

External links

Elkhart and Western Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkhart Western Railroad Indiana railroads Companies based in Elkhart County, Indiana St. Joseph County, Indiana American companies established in 2001 Pioneer Lines Transportation in Elkhart, Indiana