The Vermilion Valley Railroad is a

short-line 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 ...

that operates across the

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 ...

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 ...

state line, connecting the

Flex-N-Gate Corporation Shahid Rafiq Khan ( ur, ; born July 18, 1950)"Sha ...

facility west of

Covington, Indiana Covington is a city in, and the county seat of, Fountain County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,645 at the 2010 census. History Fountain County was formed on April 1, 1826. Later that year, the county seat was established at Coving ...

with

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. ...

Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 33,027. As of 2019, the population was an estimated 30,479. History The area that is now Danville was once home to the Miami, K ...

. Operations by the VVRR began in 2003 after CSX abandoned the ex-

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

line. On May 12, 2023, VVRR was acquired by Gulf & Atlantic Railways.

History

The line was completed in 1869 by the Indianapolis, Crawfordsville and Danville Railroad, and later became part of the Pekin-

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

line of the

Peoria and Eastern Railway The Peoria and Eastern Railway was incorporated on February 21, 1890, for the purpose of constructing or acquiring a railway between Pekin, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capita ...

, a

subsidiary. Successor

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

abandoned the portion between

Olin Olin may refer to: People Organizations * OLIN, American landscape architecture firm * Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis * Olin College, an undergraduate engineering college in Massachusetts * Olin Corporation, a chemical ...

and Crawfordsville by 1985, and in 1999 the remaining pieces were conveyed to

New York Central Lines LLC New York Central Lines LLC was a limited liability company that owned railroad lines in the United States that are owned and operated by CSX Transportation. The company was formed in 1998 to own Conrail lines assigned to CSX in the split of Conrai ...

for operation by CSX. CSX filed with the

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is a federal, bipartisan, independent adjudicatory board. The STB was established on January 1, 1996, to assume some of the regulatory functions that had been administered by the Intersta ...

for abandonment between Danville and Olin in 2001, since there had been no traffic for the past three years.

Flex-N-Gate Corporation Shahid Rafiq Khan ( ur, ; born July 18, 1950)"Sha ...

is an Illinois-based auto parts manufacturer that has submitted an offer of financial assistance and bought the line through newly created FNG Logistics Corporation in December 2002. The Vermilion Valley Railroad began operating the line in April 2003. After being run by Indiana Boxcar Corporation until 2019 and Midwest and Bluegrass until 2023, VVRR operations have transitioned to Gulf & Atlantic Railways.

Locomotive roster

Loco roster
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vermilion Valley Railroad Illinois railroads Indiana railroads Transportation in Vermilion County, Illinois Transportation in Vermillion County, Indiana Transportation in Warren County, Indiana Switching and terminal railroads Railway companies established in 2003 2003 establishments in Illinois 2003 establishments in Indiana Spin-offs of CSX Transportation 2023 mergers and acquisitions