Cloverleaf Railroad, Craigville IN, As It Appears Today

Former Cloverleaf Railroad, Nickel Plate Road, Norfolk Western, Indiana Hi-Rail and finally today; Wabash Central Railroad.

The Wabash Central Railroad (WBCR) operates part of the former Nickel Plate "Clover Leaf" line between Craigville and Van Buren, Indiana. The WBCR line is actually two separate segments which are connected to the NS New Castle District in Bluffton, Indiana. The track is still in place west of Van Buren but it is no longer in service. The interchange point is in Bluffton, Indiana with Norfolk Southern.

The Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad ("The Clover Leaf") was originally a narrow-gauge railroad when it first operated in the late 1870's and at that time was known as the Toledo, Delphos and Indianapolis Railway. The rudimental idea of this curvy line was a direct connection between Lake Erie and Mexico City and was the conception of Joseph W. Hunt, a pharmacist living in Delphos, Ohio. The line never really caught on as a through-route and eventually ended up being part of the Nickel Plate system and was basically used to serve local shippers and interchange with other railroads. Several shortlines have operated the line in recent years. The Wabash Central is the succesor to the Indiana Hi-Rail. For more information on this historical line read the book, "Railroads of Indiana" by Simons & Parker on pages 213-216. See the media section for other articles on the line as well. No depots are intact on the WBCR. There are some N&W signs scattered on the system, though.

The main yard for the Wabash Central is on the southwest side of Bluffton at the Bond St. crossing. This is also their base operations. Trains are usually put together here for delivery to shippers and interchanging. Activity on the line is sparse east of Bluffton but they operate fairly regularly west to Warren. Wabash Central operates a pair of ex-Illinois Central GP10s. WBCR #8 and MAW (Maumee & Western) #12 are currently assigned to the line. The Norfolk Southern locals L80 or L88 will deliver and pick up cars to and from WBCR typically during the weekdays. The largest shipper on the Wabash Central is Weaver Popcorn in Van Buren. Monitoring the WBCR radio frequency is sometimes helpful but only during switching operations. You can follow a train fairly easily on the line as speeds are about 10 mph, but plan on driving on a lot of dirt roads if you do. As with other area shortlines, the line is operated under restricted speed.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• locomotive
• trains

[DelayInBlock]

Nice video and great description. Thanks for the info. Now, is this line at all somehow related or managed by the same people that run Maumee & Western Railroad out of Defiance, Ohio?

[franky98765]

@DelayInBlock l don't think so, as far as l know this is a group of former railroaders that spent some capital to keep this section going.

[UPHeritage]

Awesome catch Dave

[franky98765]

@UPHeritage Yeah, get it while I can, I don't how much longer they will operate on this segment, there is only one small elevator at the end, I think it only has one grain bin. Helena at Craigville no longer uses the service at all, at least not in the last year or two now, that I have seen.

[RailfanTube]

I think that geep and one or two others just like it used to sit in CNC's yard in Connersville, IN! It used to be IC and the ones I saw had O/L on the side just like the one in your video.