The Evansville Western Railway is a Class III common carrier

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

operating in the southern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

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 ...

region. It is one of three regional railroad subsidiaries owned and operated by P&L Transportation.

Overview

Founded in August 2005, the railroad commenced its first operations on January 1, 2006, when P&L Transportation, formerly Four Rivers Transportation, the parent company of both the Evansville Western and Paducah & Louisville railroads, leased of mainline track, ties and track equipment between CSX's Howell Yard in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, and the end-of-track at

Okawville, Illinois Okawville is a village in Washington County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2010 census. History Okawville was originally known simply as "Okaw," from an early name of the Kaskaskia River that derived from the Mississip ...

, from

CSX Transportation 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. ...

. This line was once part of the Louisville & Nashville's former Saint Louis Subdivision route that previously terminated in the metro-area of

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

, before being embargoed and slightly shortened under CSX ownership during the fall of 1993. CSX Transportation retains title to the real estate comprising the right of way on which the railroad operates, but has leased it to EVWR for an initial period of 20 years. More than 55,000 to 60,000 carloads per year are shipped on the Evansville Western railway, all of which are interchanged with three different

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

carriers. These are

at Howell Yard in

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in S ...

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

at the Woodlawn, junction, and the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

. Construction has been completed on a new connection line east of Mount Vernon that permits interchange 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 ...

, a fourth Class I railroad. A new railroad line, known as the "Savatran Rail Spur", has been completed from Delafield (near McLeansboro) through Macedonia before terminating with a loading loop north of the Akin Junction on CN's existing Edgewood Cutoff line, thus giving the Evansville Western railroad interchange access to the

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

. Construction on this new line commenced during March 2009 and was originally scheduled to conclude by the following December. When the new spur connector was finished in January 2011 it allowed commodities traffic via connection with the CN and it began serving the new Sugar Camp Energy coal mine north of Akin that was developed by Williamson Energy Development, a subsidiary of West Virginia-based Cline Group, on reserves leased from Natural Resource Partners, L.P. Additionally, EVWR constructed an interconnection line approximately in length just east of Mount Vernon that enabled interchange with the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). The new line runs north from the EVWR mainline (about east of Liebengood Road) and connects with the NS across from and just southwest of the Mount Vernon Airport. EVWR also expanded its siding northwest of Opdyke to a total length of approximately from

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

to near the new connection allowing direct delivery of unit coal trains from the Sugar Camp Mine near Akin to the

Gibson Generating Station The Gibson Generating Station is a coal-burning power plant located at the northernmost end of Montgomery Township, Gibson County, Indiana, United States. It is close to the Wabash River, southeast of Mount Carmel, Illinois, south of the mout ...

in Indiana across the

Wabash River The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...

from

Mount Carmel, Illinois Mount Carmel is a city in and the county seat of Wabash County, Illinois, United States. At the time of the 2010 census, the population was 7,284, and it is the largest city in the county. The next largest town in Wabash County is Allendale, po ...

. Most of the railroad's revenue freight services come from rail-

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

transfer facilities, merchandise freight from bulk terminals, unit coal trains from coal mines and a riverside coal terminal, and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

and agricultural products from numerous

grain elevator A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits ...

shippers.

Equipment

The Evansville Western Railway's locomotive fleet primarily consists of rebuilt EMD

hood unit A hood unit, in North American railroad terminology, is a body style for diesel and electric locomotives where the body is less than full-width for most of its length and walkways are on the outside. In contrast, a cab unit has a full-width car ...

s purchased from other railroads. They are all painted to match its parent company P&L Transportation's traditional green, white, & black color scheme with the classic diamond herald. In addition to the company-owned roster, the railroad is also leasing a few more units from

GATX Corporation GATX Corporation is a railcar lessor that owns fleets in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, jointly with Rolls-Royce Limited, it owns one of the largest aircraft spare engine lease portfolios. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ...

Company power

Leased power

References

External links

Evansville Western Railway
– official website
Evansville Western Railroad Inc Photographic Roster
''Railroad Picture Archives'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Evansville Western Railway Illinois railroads Indiana railroads Rail cooperatives Spin-offs of CSX Transportation Railway companies established in 2005