A Keokuk Junction Railway’s FP9 locomotive leads a train in Illinois. Keokuk’s parent company is being merged with Brookhaven Rail Partners.
Steve Smedley
PEORIA, Ill. — Pioneer RailCorp, which operates a number of shortline railroads, announced in a news release Friday that the company has entered into a merger agreement with Brookhaven Rail Partners to acquire Pioneer for $18.81 per share, in cash.
“We look forward to this next chapter in Pioneer’s journey and anticipate it will have a bright future under new ownership,” says J. Michael Carr, Pioneer president and CEO.
The company, based in Peoria, was founded in 1986 by the late Guy L. Brenkman, who passed away in 2013 at age 66.
Pioneer operates 17 short lines in 12 states. Undoubtedly Pioneer’s most well known operation is the Keokuk Junction Railway, which features an A-B-A line up of former Canadian National FP9 locomotives in freight service in central and western Illinois.
Pioneer’s J. Michael Carr declined to answer questions posed by Trains regarding the sale and any operational changes that may take place in the future. He referred to the company’s Friday news release.
They corrected the original caption to the current one…the original one said something to the effect about “the typical lashup of A-B-A FP9 blah-blah…..so, my comment must have caught someone’s attention at Trains Newswire.
Oopsie…that third unit in the picture looks like some kind of geep, not an FP9.
Steven Berg,
No where in that photo caption does it state that is shows the A-B-A FP9 lashup, it just states that the FP9 is in the consist. The article mentions that they have an A-B-A FP9 set that pulls freight, what it doesn’t tell you is the other power that they KJRY owns and uses, including the Geep(s).
As a former shareholder of KJRY stock that I was forced to sell at $16.50 a share back in 1996 I am not impressed at $18.81 share price. Of course I do not know of any other insuring financials in the 23 years since then.
I am glad I fled from Pioneer employment back in 1996 as did 80% of the work force. We lived the events early that overtook many other companies since then.