JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — The Louisville & Indiana Railroad (LIRC), a 106-mile-long regional carrier connecting Indianapolis with Louisville, Ky., has acquired a Louisville-area short line, the defunct 5.5-mile-long Southern Indiana Railway (SIND).
One of several railroads owned by the Chicago-based Anacostia Rail Holdings Co., LIRC operates from a yard and maintenance shop here. It will convert the former SIND enginehouse to a maintenance-of-way facility and store track material on surrounding property.
In addition, the railroad will use the short line’s assets to explore expanding service to industrial sites.
“We see this as a way to grow our footprint,” says John Goldman, LIRC president, in a press release. “The existing track is maintained to FRA Class 1 standards, and we will consider upgrades and rehabilitation dependent on commercial opportunities we can create.”
Based in Sellersburg, Ind., the short line connected with CSX Transportation at Watson, Ind., until ending operations in 2020. Its motive-power roster consisted of two re-engined Alco S2 switchers.
SI operated over a former interurban right-of-way. According to LIRC, the short line “traced its history to the 1905 expansion of the Louisville & Northern Electric Traction Co., an interurban line owned by Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull, and the subsequent 1939 sale of a portion of the line to form Southern Indiana Railway.”
According to LIRC, “the federal Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition on April 5, noting that with SIND out of service, no current employees are affected by the action.”
Louisville & Indiana connections include CSX, Norfolk Southern, Indiana Rail Road, and Paducah & Louisville Railway. Formerly the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line to Louisville, the route once carried such name passenger trains as the Chicago-Louisville Kentuckian and PRR’s segment of the South Wind, a through Chicago-Miami train operated in conjunction with the Louisville & Nashville, Atlantic Coast Line, and Florida East Coast railroads. Built in the 1860s, it was part of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, a major component of PRR’s Lines West territory.
Anacostia Rail Holdings Co. is a railroad holding company operating six lines in seven states. Besides LIRC, the others are Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (South Shore Freight), Gulf Coast Switching Co., New York & Atlantic Railway Co., Northern Lines Railway, and Pacific Harbor Line.
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