Post by MC6853 on Dec 24, 2008 23:59:57 GMT -5
The Rochester Western Railway got its start on May 1, 1976, one month after the formation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation, better known as ConRail. RW was formed from speculation that the newly-formed Conrail might need a small but viable competitor, on the hope that if CR did turn profitable someday, it wouldn't evolve into an oversized monopoly. To be sure that this competitor would stay afloat, the State of New York would be pumping in subsidy money, with some coming from the federal government.
At startup, RW owned a hodgepodge of former Penn Central power in various states of disrepair, including ten EMD F7As numbered 1600-1609, three EMD NW2s numbered 9250-9252, five GP40s, formerly Penn Central 3083-3087, plus all ten ex-New York Central GP30s, numbers 2190-2199. All engines were given “RW” lettering on their cabs and all engines were given a quick patch job covering their PC or NYC markings. RW's routes consisted of the former “Falls Road” between Rochester and Niagara Falls, the old Canada Southern trackage across the north shore of Lake Erie to Windsor with a branch to Toronto, the Seneca Branch on the west shore of the Genesee River from downtown Rochester to Charlotte, NY, and the old “Hojack” between Charlotte over to Mexico, NY. The road had a small shop facility set up in Lockport, NY, and also had contract and paint work done by GMD at London, Ontario and Conrail at DeWitt, NY (east of Syracuse). RW was blessed early on with government subsidies from the State of New York, so finances were strong enough for new power, something RW desperately needed right from startup.
Just five days into the road's existence, RW placed its first order for new motive power, interestingly enough, in the form of twenty new Montreal Locomotive Works wide-nose M420s numbered 2000-2019. The engines introduced RW's drab black dip paint, which consisted of nothing more than a black engine with white ROCHESTER WESTERN lettering on the hood, with RW's initials in a white circle on the nose. RW would continue painting locomotives in this paint for well over the next thirty years. The unusual and unexpected choice of MLW power was due to Canadian influence, since at startup, over half of RW's track was in that country, and most of the old Canada Southern crews had become used to Alco-built power. The engines performed well, and were exactly what the upstart company needed. RW ran mostly locals over their lines, which is where the M420s and RW's GP30s worked, while RW's few road freights were generally hauled by GP40s, with F7s trailing them. The M420s performed well, but RW took a liking to its EMD power instead, so RW subsequently chose to stick with four-motor EMD power of lower horsepower levels. Traffic levels picked up almost immediately, so RW made a move to buy more power in early 1977 with an order for fifteen MP15DC locomotives from EMD at La Grange, Illinois, numbered 1400-1414, and these were delivered in April of that year. The MP15s worked in yard and local service, which allowed more M420s and GP30s to haul road freights.
In June of 1977, under the order of the State of New York, RW assumed operation of Conrail's former Montreal Secondary, between Syracuse and Montreal, Canada. To cover the new operation, RW placed an order for 15 General Motors Diesel GP39-2s, numbered 7000-7014. The engines were delivered by GMD at London, Ontario, EMD's Canadian subsidiary, and were exactly identical to Canadian Pacific's EMD power being delivered at the time, equipped with red, green, and white class lights and nose headlights. Over the next several years, all EMD road switchers that RW purchased would be delivered from London with this Canadian-style look to them, while switchers would be built at La Grange to American standards.
In August 1977, the State of New York and the Federal Government allocated several hundred miles of ex-Rutland and Maine Central trackage to RW. This basically provided RW with a new line from Massena, NY to the Atlantic at Portland, Maine. This included trackage over Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, which has a 2.0% ruling grade in either direction. With this reasoning and with traffic still on the rise, RW was able to purchase additional power beginning in 1978. First in May came six additional GP39-2s numbered 7015-7020. In September of that year came fifteen new GMD GP40-2s, numbered 7100-7114, followed almost immediately by 20 GP38-2s numbered 7600-7619. These new four-motor road units appeared in numerous advertisements promoting RW freight service, and though the country was entering a recession, traffic still slowly rose. RW's finances slowly climbed out of the red, as an additional 15 units, MP15AC switchers numbered 1415-1429, were delivered in 1979 from EMD at La Grange.
Little changed on RW until May of 1980, when the road was finally relinquished from government control. The 'new' RW appeared as an aggressive, profitable line that was bound and determined to succeed. Immediately after privatization, RW purchased the Detroit to Cincinnati ex-Detroit Toledo & Ironton line from Grand Trunk, who had just recently purchased DT&I earlier that year and had no interest in the line to Cincinnati. Up north, RW began work on its first of many expansion projects- a new cut-off between Oswego and Syracuse. The line was completely low-grade, CTC-signaled, and with space for two tracks (only one was laid to start with). This line eliminated the need for the Oswego-Mexico portion of the Hojack route, and this was soon downgraded, and abandoned by 1987. The new line gave RW access to DeWitt Yard, which eventually became jointly-owned with Conrail. Impressed with the benefits of CTC, RW set to work at equipping their entire system with the technology, a task that was complete by 1983; all lines except for the lightly-trafficked Crawford Notch route had CTC signals. RW went shopping for more power for their new lines in late 1980, beginning first with 20 GMD SD40-2s numbered 6000-6019, with the last arriving on the property in February 1981. These engines were the road's first ever six-motor motive power. In two successive orders of twenty and ten each, GP38-2s 7620-7649 came onto the system by the end of the year. Increased train traffic and more motive power caused RW to purchase the recently-closed DeWitt shops from Conrail, and soon it became the main maintenance facility on RW, with the small Lockport facility sold to other interests. DeWitt was no longer equipped to paint locomotives, though, since CR had demolished the old paint building. For the next couple of years, RW would continue to send locos that needed paint, even their MLW-built M420s, to GMD at London.
In January of 1982, RW began to notice that trains routed between the ex-DT&I line and points east of Niagara Falls had to stop for customs stops twice as they cut across the southern edge of Canada, while competing Conrail cut along the south shore of Lake Erie without stopping. It was with this mentality, RW received a government grant to have a route around Lake Erie's south shore. RW first purchased the ex-PRR trackage from Chicago to Crestline, Ohio, and acquired trackage rights over the old PRR between Crestline and Alliance. East of Alliance, things became complex, and RW chose to put this segment off until later, intending to focus instead on their new line to Chicago. To handle the new traffic, RW placed an order for 25 GMD GP50s numbered 7200-7224, which arrived on the property by April 1982. These engines were the only GP50s built at the London plant, and also were the only “Canadian Style” GP50s, so they looked like all of RW's other Canadian-built GMD products in their fleet at the time. RW began running autorack and auto parts trains between Detroit, Cincinnati, and Chicago behind sets of GP50s and GP40-2s, as well as new manifests and some limited piggyback services, but RW soon realized a classification terminal was needed between Chicago and Lima, where trains split off for Detroit and Cincinnati.
Beginning in July 1982, RW began building a colossal yard facility to the west of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The yard was built five times larger than was needed, but RW felt strongly that this additional capacity would someday become very crucial. This was said to be one of RW's gifts- uncanny foresight. Between 1984, the year Fort Wayne yard opened, and 1986, the entire Chicago-Alliance main was upgraded to CTC-equipped double-track. As with all other RW lines, this line was equipped with Type G tricolor lights, RW standard.
Also at Fort Wayne, a gigantic shop facility was built on the yard's north side. This huge facility would be able to carry out anything from annual 92-day inspections to minor maintenance to paint work to heavy overhauls and rebuilds. Also included was a car repair facility on the yard's south side, set up to repair RW's freight car fleet, which by this point consisted of mostly auto parts boxes, grain hoppers, 50-foot general service boxcars, and cabooses, although the shops would see less and less of the latter car type as the 1980s drew to a close. The first engine repaired at the shop was M420 2010 in August 1985, which had suffered a turbocharger fire. The engine received an all new prime mover, plus all new RW Black paint. Thanks to Fort Wayne Shops, the need to send locomotives out on contract work was eliminated, and repair work and inspections could now be split between Fort Wayne and DeWitt.
Realizing the need for low-speed yard power for its new Fort Wayne Yard, RW placed an order for twenty GMD GP15s in mid-1982, numbers 1000-1019, followed by sixteen GMD SD39-2s, the only examples of that model to be built, delivered in April 1983 as RW 6900-6915. The SD39-2s helped to replace the original ten EMD F7A diesels that by this time had been demoted to local service, where their cab-unit bodies were very troublesome to crews. Very unimpressed by the performance of its GP50s, RW reverted back to the older GP40-2 and placed an order for 10 more of them, arriving as numbers 7115-7124 in June. The GP50s proved to be maintenance headaches and their early microprocessor controls were troublesome, and as a result, RW would never again order an EMD 50-series diesel engine. Switchers were badly needed by 1984, so RW ordered 47 EMD MP15Ts from the La Grange plant, numbered 1430-1476. These MP15Ts were fairly large switchers, and could be commonly seen on road trains when they weren't needed on switching chores.
In 1983, RW had received the opportunity from Bombardier, the new owner of what was the Montreal Locomotive Works, to test two of the HR616 full-cowl diesels that they had recently delivered to CN. The engines that RW tested were BDR 7003 and 7004, and the test trials were for one month. RW ran the units on its Canadian lines for the first two weeks, after which the engines crossed the border for a run to Portland, Maine and back over Crawford Notch, and they ended their demonstration period on RW working on the ex-DT&I to Cincinnati. RW was impressed enough to order its own HR616s, and the road placed an order for 15 of them, which were delivered as RW 2100-2115. Many thought it was ironic that RW's took the same number class as CN's, the only other HR616s built, but RW had wanted to group them with their M420s in the 2000 class, so 2100s they became. The engines were soon nicknamed “Canada Cowls”, and they saw service almost exclusively in Canada working with the older M420 fleet, in an attempt to keep the safety-cab Alco 251 power together. These 35 Montreal-built units would end up being the only 251-powered engines in RW's fleet, since RW had realized that the HR616s really weren't as reliable as the builder originally claimed, and by 1985, RW had placed another GMD order, for 20 GMD SD40-2s numbered 6020-6039, the same year that Bombardier closed down the old Montreal Locomotive Works plant for good.
In 1985, RW bought a controlling interest in the Iowa Interstate Railroad, owner of the ex-Rock Island main between Chicago and Omaha, but due to union regulations, did not seek to merge. IAIS stretched RW's reach to Omaha, giving the road a connection to the Union Pacific system. To the north, the Chicago & North Western Railway was resting on its laurels after recently forcing competitor Rock Island into bankruptcy and liquidation. The small and frail IAIS couldn't ever hope to compete with C&NW, but RW's acquisition of the IAIS changed the situation, and C&NW saw RW's intrusion as a threat to the valuable UP traffic that C&NW now received the lion's share of at Omaha. C&NW was historically a railroad that outperformed its competitors to extinction and purchased their sad remains, as it had done with famous roads like Rock Island, Chicago Great Western, and Minneapolis & St. Louis, but RW, also a ruthless competitor, was a new force to be reckoned with, and RW didn't like the idea of C&NW hogging all of the Omaha traffic. Competition with the C&NW for this traffic off of UP was fierce, but relentless as always, RW fought C&NW for UP's intermodal and coal traffic, and traffic grew on the old IAIS as a result, with C&NW citing traffic losses as early as 1987, in a period when every railroad was flourishing with ever-increasing traffic. RW didn't just take traffic from UP, it gave UP interchange traffic in the form of mainly autos and automobile components from Detroit, something C&NW couldn't give.
On the topic of mergers, 1985 also brought up a new proposition between CSX's Chessie System and RW, with Chessie intending to integrate RW into their operations. This idea arose after NS's intent to acquire all of Conrail became known to the public. However, RW's aggressive management strongly refused, and turned down all of Chessie's proposals, until the deal was finally dropped. RW simply would not settle for any kind of acquisition. It wasn't long after this that ideas concerning the NS-CR combination were also nixed.
Beginning in 1984, RW began grading for a new low-grade, double-track, CTC-equipped main line between Alliance, OH and Meadville, PA, with the goal of keeping curves to a minimum and max speed up. With the use of several tunnels, cuts, fills, and viaducts, RW kept the curves down and the grade down to a ruling grade of 0.9%. Once at Meadville, RW built tracks northward to Ripley, NY, where the mainline flew over the NS ex-NKP on a new concrete viaduct. From Ripley all the way until the outskirts of Buffalo, RW spiked down new track between the Conrail and Norfolk Southern mainlines, adding to the heavy traffic in the area, and at times, making it look like one big four-to-six-track mainline! East of Ripley, space constraints made the line essentially double-track with a few single-track gaps. Using track rights through Buffalo to Niagara Falls, RW had successfully built its mainline around the south shore of Lake Erie by 1988.
But the expansion didn't stop there. East of Syracuse in 1984, RW began spiking down new single-track CTC mainline on the old New York, West Shore, & Buffalo towards Albany, with the goal of reaching Guilford and Selkirk, a goal that was met by 1987. With this connection, RW broke Conrail's control of traffic bound for New England, and thanks to a connection with Guilford, this became the preferred route for New England-bound traffic, instead of the lengthy route north from Syracuse via Crawford Notch.
By 1986, RW was ready for additional SD40-2s, planning on an additional 25 numbered 6040-6064. However, GM had since dropped the model from its catalog, replacing it with the microprocessor-controlled 3800-horsepower SD60 and GP60, plus the 3000-horsepower GP59. RW convinced GM that they were in the market for more 3000-horsepower six-axle units, and this led to the creation of another RW one-of-a-kind-- the SD59. Externally the same as an SD60 (there was one key difference- SD60s have 8 tall engine hood doors while SD59s have only 6), RW's were delivered in 1986 numbered 6100-6124, the only ones ever built, and featured winterization hatches on their front radiator fans, a detail specified after several RW GP50s had frozen up on Crawford Notch in winter time. Winterization hatches would be ordered on all RW EMD power right up to 2003, when a new EMD radiator design obviated the need for one. The locomotives also were the first “American Style” RW EMD road switchers, as they came delivered from the La Grange, Illinois plant, and came without the usual Canadian class lights, and had cab headlights, a look that would be applied to the rest of RW's new standard-cab GMD products. The SD59 had a 12-cylinder turbocharged engine and was rated equal to an SD40-2, and despite the fuel and maintenance savings that the 12-cylinder engine provided, the SD59 wasn't quite as reliable. The engines were plagued the same reliability problems that most early EMD 60-series diesels had, and RW felt their pulling power left a lot to be desired. After the SD59s had spent plenty of time at Fort Wayne and La Grange for various repairs, RW began shopping for new power elsewhere that same year as a power shortage set in. It wasn't until early 1988 that RW and EMD had finally worked the last of the bugs out of the SD59s, and they went on to live successful service lives.
RW's traffic more than doubled in the year of 1986 alone, and the road needed new power fast. So, RW went with a new builder shortly after the SD59's arrival, turning to General Electric for another rather curious choice of power. RW's first GE power was an order for 30 cabless B30-7AB diesel locomotives, exact copies of the later units in Burlington Northern's 120-unit fleet. RW chose to experiment with GE power after being less-than-satisfied with its EMD SD59s, and went with cabless power since it was cheaper and quicker to build at the time. The engines came numbered 3000-3029, and were delivered in June of 1986; these engines were some of the last domestic GE Dash-7 diesels built. The boosters went into less demanding services, mostly auto parts, autorack, piggyback, and general merchandise services alongside RW's EMD units on the roster, most commonly SD40-2s, GP50s, and GP40-2s. The units did help to slow a mounting power shortage, but they didn't satisfy RW's desire for a reliable locomotive, as these were less reliable than the SD59s that led RW to buy the GE's in the first place. RW gave GE another try in December with a ten-unit order for GE C39-8 diesels, numbered 3900-3909. A tad more successful than the B30s, these units were virtual clones of the Norfolk Southern C39-8s that GE had just completed delivery on, and RW's went into heavier services, hauling such cargoes as coal and grain.
In 1986, RW realized that the city of Chicago was rapidly becoming busier every day, and that it wouldn't take long for the city to become jammed with trains that had no place to go. That year, RW began an ambitious project that would not only benefit itself, but every other railroad that served the city, embarking on what it called the Chicago Outer Loop. Work on the bypass began east of Valparaiso, Indiana. Branching off from the ex-PRR to the southwest was a new triple-track mainline, with the assumption that other railroad's trains would soon possibly make use out of the line. The line curved toward Kankakee, where a new yard facility was built, then the line continued west to a point on Joliet's west side, where the bypass ended at the IAIS mainline. Every place the line had to cross another company's tracks, a flyover was built, and if needed, connecting wyes. CTC signaling was installed, and the line was complete by 1989.
In 1987, under order from the States of New York and Pennsylvania, RW had assumed ownership and operation of the ex-B&O line from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, giving the road access to a completely new market. The BP Sub, as it was officially known under RW, met with RW's own lines in Buffalo, and also crossed the ex-Erie Meadville-Binghamton line that RW would also own by that year (as is described below). This called for new power to operate the local freight out of the area, which came in the form of yet another unique RW locomotive, the EMD 2500 horsepower GP58. The road was actually after the GP38-2, but the model was out of production by this time, so instead, RW asked EMD to construct a 16-cylinder roots-blown four-motor locomotive using the EMD 710 prime mover. The GP58 looks exactly like a GP60, except that the GP58 has only two radiator fans instead of three as on the GP60. RW's fleet of 15 GP58s was numbered 7700-7714, and went into local service out of Pittsburgh. RW didn't expect it at the time, but the addition of this line soon saw Monongahela coal flowing north in unit trains out of the coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania, bound for Northeastern power plants. The motive power department estimated that an additional 40-50 six-motor road units would be enough to cover this, but RW chose not to order new power, and made an interesting purchase that year, by purchasing 17 former Union Pacific DDA40X Centennials, former UP numbers 6902, 6905, 6907-6912, 6914, 6921, 6923, 6927, and 6931-6935, which were renumbered RW 6600-6616. The 6600-horsepower beasts were rebuilt at Fort Wayne and put into RW Black paint. They went into coal service out of Pittsburgh, with two units assigned to each train. Despite their size and age, they performed well, and put in some awe-inspiring performances on the hilly ex-B&O in Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York.
Still trying to best C&NW between Omaha and Chicago, in 1987 RW announced a new hotshot intermodal series which RW had named Meteorites, intended to provide expedited service between the UP at Omaha and the Susquehanna Railroad at Binghamton, effectively capturing New York-West Coast piggyback and doublestack traffic. RW's existing route sent trains northeast into Buffalo, NY, through Rochester to NYSW at Syracuse, where trains ran back south from there. This route was long and slow, and the road quickly look for an alternate shorter route, and found it in Conrail's ex-Erie mainline between Binghamton and Meadville, which RW quickly purchased and upgraded. RW placed an order for more GE's to handle this traffic- Fifteen GE B32-8E diesels numbered 5000-5014. These units proved to be a bit more reliable than RW's older C39-8s and B30-7ABs, but still weren't quite what RW was after. Nevertheless, the new GE's put in some stellar performances, most often mixed with older RW B30-7ABs, GP50s, GP40-2s, GP39-2s, and even GP38-2s. In addition, UP run-through power was common, most often SD40-2s, plus NYSW Yellow Jacket motive power, ranging from SD45s to Alco C430s to NYSW's B40-8 fleet. Power for the Meteorites was always three to five of these units. These trains had one strong advantage over C&NW's Falcons- RW's trains did not stop at Chicago, instead rounding the new Chicago Outer Loop and racing on to the east while C&NW's trains lagged far behind, lost in Chicago's congestion. The ability to take a train east from Omaha and keep it on the same company's tracks without stopping for interchange or congestion in Chicago played to RW's strength and C&NW's weakness. Talk of a UP-RW merger even surfaced in 1988, but wild opposition from C&NW, as well as BN, Santa Fe, SP, and Conrail, soon derailed the plan. RW apparently would have supported a merger with UP at the current time, but never voiced those opinions. Such a merger would have instantly completed RW's coast-to-coast dream with UP's superb routes.
One acquisition did occur in this period, though. In 1987, RW made a move to purchase the Delaware-Ostego Corporation, which at the time owned NYSW and Delaware & Hudson. The merger was between RW and Delaware-Ostego, which made NYSW and D&H as wholly-owned subsidiaries of RW. NYSW gave RW access to New York City, but D&H did not offer RW much more than it had. D&H gave RW another route from Binghamton to Montreal, only this time via Albany and not Syracuse, and RW now also had D&H's route into Pennsylvania, and quickly acquired trackage rights from Allentown, the south end of the D&H territory, to Reading and Philadelphia over Conrail, giving RW access to a new east coast market. D&H's route north of Binghamton was losing traffic under RW, since RW already had rails to the important places that the D&H line went, namely Albany and Montreal, so by 1991, RW had offered the entire D&H north of Binghamton for sale, with trackage rights over the rest of the former D&H system as part of the deal. Canadian Pacific was the high bidder, and they assumed operation over the Montreal-Binghamton segment as well as rights to the D&H name and reporting marks, just as RW formally merged their segment of the D&H into their own operations, with NYSW remaining a separate subsidiary similar to RW's Iowa Interstate.
Despite all of RW's successes in this period, a thorny problem soon reared its ugly head- traffic was increasing on RW faster than the road was ordering power, and soon lease units from leasing firms such as GATX Capital Corporation and Helm Leasing Company began appearing by 1986, and RW began borrowing units from its subsidiaries, as well as Union Pacific, Conrail, and Canadian National. RW management at the time was rather frugal in the motive power department, and managed to place an order for 10 GE C40-8 diesels in 1988. These units, numbered 5110-5119, however, didn't really help much with the power crisis at hand. When the engines were delivered, their unusual numbering raised a few eyebrows, but everything made sense later that year, when RW renumbered its 10 C39-8 diesels, giving them new numbers 5100-5109, numbering them just below the new C40-8s.
By 1988, RW's fleet of Montreal-built HR616s and M420s was still hard at work on the old Canada Southern trackage between Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario, by now more commonly known as RW's Canada Division, which also included the ex-Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo route into Toronto from Hamilton. The primary commodities of the line all had to do with traffic from Windsor and Sarnia, and was most commonly related to the automobile business (Windsor) or the petrochemical business (Sarnia). This traffic was slowly starting to increase, and the 251-engined locomotives were going to need some help. RW's “American” EMDs were making regular appearances, and soon, B30-7ABs became staples in Canada, creating some wild consists mixed with M420s and HR616s. RW liked the Draper Taper full-cowl design on its HR616s, and asked GM for more new cowls. The builder suggested a fleet of 10 SD60F diesels, but RW was skeptical about the EMD 60-series, especially with the less-than-stellar performance the road's SD59s were displaying. That same year, however, Canadian Pacific had placed an order for 25 SD40-2s in cowl unit bodies, classed as SD40-2Fs, and RW jumped at this opportunity. The road placed an order for five of them, numbered 6040-6044, above the road's standard SD40-2s. However, just like CPR's, RW's had a disastrous debut. New units would fail out on the road, and soon, RW had the five units out of service at Fort Wayne, before they ended up back at GMD in London alongside CP's 25 units. Eventually, problems traced to supplier issues were resolved, and the five units returned to the Canada Division to work alongside RW's M420s and HR616s. System-wide power shortages soon saw many of the cowls and M420s heading south of the border to help power trains in the States, much to the dismay of the Canadian crews. Lease units had managed to stay off of RW's Canadian lines until 1988, when HLCX and GATX SD40-2s began appearing regularly, signs of RW's growing power problem.
At startup, RW owned a hodgepodge of former Penn Central power in various states of disrepair, including ten EMD F7As numbered 1600-1609, three EMD NW2s numbered 9250-9252, five GP40s, formerly Penn Central 3083-3087, plus all ten ex-New York Central GP30s, numbers 2190-2199. All engines were given “RW” lettering on their cabs and all engines were given a quick patch job covering their PC or NYC markings. RW's routes consisted of the former “Falls Road” between Rochester and Niagara Falls, the old Canada Southern trackage across the north shore of Lake Erie to Windsor with a branch to Toronto, the Seneca Branch on the west shore of the Genesee River from downtown Rochester to Charlotte, NY, and the old “Hojack” between Charlotte over to Mexico, NY. The road had a small shop facility set up in Lockport, NY, and also had contract and paint work done by GMD at London, Ontario and Conrail at DeWitt, NY (east of Syracuse). RW was blessed early on with government subsidies from the State of New York, so finances were strong enough for new power, something RW desperately needed right from startup.
Just five days into the road's existence, RW placed its first order for new motive power, interestingly enough, in the form of twenty new Montreal Locomotive Works wide-nose M420s numbered 2000-2019. The engines introduced RW's drab black dip paint, which consisted of nothing more than a black engine with white ROCHESTER WESTERN lettering on the hood, with RW's initials in a white circle on the nose. RW would continue painting locomotives in this paint for well over the next thirty years. The unusual and unexpected choice of MLW power was due to Canadian influence, since at startup, over half of RW's track was in that country, and most of the old Canada Southern crews had become used to Alco-built power. The engines performed well, and were exactly what the upstart company needed. RW ran mostly locals over their lines, which is where the M420s and RW's GP30s worked, while RW's few road freights were generally hauled by GP40s, with F7s trailing them. The M420s performed well, but RW took a liking to its EMD power instead, so RW subsequently chose to stick with four-motor EMD power of lower horsepower levels. Traffic levels picked up almost immediately, so RW made a move to buy more power in early 1977 with an order for fifteen MP15DC locomotives from EMD at La Grange, Illinois, numbered 1400-1414, and these were delivered in April of that year. The MP15s worked in yard and local service, which allowed more M420s and GP30s to haul road freights.
In June of 1977, under the order of the State of New York, RW assumed operation of Conrail's former Montreal Secondary, between Syracuse and Montreal, Canada. To cover the new operation, RW placed an order for 15 General Motors Diesel GP39-2s, numbered 7000-7014. The engines were delivered by GMD at London, Ontario, EMD's Canadian subsidiary, and were exactly identical to Canadian Pacific's EMD power being delivered at the time, equipped with red, green, and white class lights and nose headlights. Over the next several years, all EMD road switchers that RW purchased would be delivered from London with this Canadian-style look to them, while switchers would be built at La Grange to American standards.
In August 1977, the State of New York and the Federal Government allocated several hundred miles of ex-Rutland and Maine Central trackage to RW. This basically provided RW with a new line from Massena, NY to the Atlantic at Portland, Maine. This included trackage over Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, which has a 2.0% ruling grade in either direction. With this reasoning and with traffic still on the rise, RW was able to purchase additional power beginning in 1978. First in May came six additional GP39-2s numbered 7015-7020. In September of that year came fifteen new GMD GP40-2s, numbered 7100-7114, followed almost immediately by 20 GP38-2s numbered 7600-7619. These new four-motor road units appeared in numerous advertisements promoting RW freight service, and though the country was entering a recession, traffic still slowly rose. RW's finances slowly climbed out of the red, as an additional 15 units, MP15AC switchers numbered 1415-1429, were delivered in 1979 from EMD at La Grange.
Little changed on RW until May of 1980, when the road was finally relinquished from government control. The 'new' RW appeared as an aggressive, profitable line that was bound and determined to succeed. Immediately after privatization, RW purchased the Detroit to Cincinnati ex-Detroit Toledo & Ironton line from Grand Trunk, who had just recently purchased DT&I earlier that year and had no interest in the line to Cincinnati. Up north, RW began work on its first of many expansion projects- a new cut-off between Oswego and Syracuse. The line was completely low-grade, CTC-signaled, and with space for two tracks (only one was laid to start with). This line eliminated the need for the Oswego-Mexico portion of the Hojack route, and this was soon downgraded, and abandoned by 1987. The new line gave RW access to DeWitt Yard, which eventually became jointly-owned with Conrail. Impressed with the benefits of CTC, RW set to work at equipping their entire system with the technology, a task that was complete by 1983; all lines except for the lightly-trafficked Crawford Notch route had CTC signals. RW went shopping for more power for their new lines in late 1980, beginning first with 20 GMD SD40-2s numbered 6000-6019, with the last arriving on the property in February 1981. These engines were the road's first ever six-motor motive power. In two successive orders of twenty and ten each, GP38-2s 7620-7649 came onto the system by the end of the year. Increased train traffic and more motive power caused RW to purchase the recently-closed DeWitt shops from Conrail, and soon it became the main maintenance facility on RW, with the small Lockport facility sold to other interests. DeWitt was no longer equipped to paint locomotives, though, since CR had demolished the old paint building. For the next couple of years, RW would continue to send locos that needed paint, even their MLW-built M420s, to GMD at London.
In January of 1982, RW began to notice that trains routed between the ex-DT&I line and points east of Niagara Falls had to stop for customs stops twice as they cut across the southern edge of Canada, while competing Conrail cut along the south shore of Lake Erie without stopping. It was with this mentality, RW received a government grant to have a route around Lake Erie's south shore. RW first purchased the ex-PRR trackage from Chicago to Crestline, Ohio, and acquired trackage rights over the old PRR between Crestline and Alliance. East of Alliance, things became complex, and RW chose to put this segment off until later, intending to focus instead on their new line to Chicago. To handle the new traffic, RW placed an order for 25 GMD GP50s numbered 7200-7224, which arrived on the property by April 1982. These engines were the only GP50s built at the London plant, and also were the only “Canadian Style” GP50s, so they looked like all of RW's other Canadian-built GMD products in their fleet at the time. RW began running autorack and auto parts trains between Detroit, Cincinnati, and Chicago behind sets of GP50s and GP40-2s, as well as new manifests and some limited piggyback services, but RW soon realized a classification terminal was needed between Chicago and Lima, where trains split off for Detroit and Cincinnati.
Beginning in July 1982, RW began building a colossal yard facility to the west of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The yard was built five times larger than was needed, but RW felt strongly that this additional capacity would someday become very crucial. This was said to be one of RW's gifts- uncanny foresight. Between 1984, the year Fort Wayne yard opened, and 1986, the entire Chicago-Alliance main was upgraded to CTC-equipped double-track. As with all other RW lines, this line was equipped with Type G tricolor lights, RW standard.
Also at Fort Wayne, a gigantic shop facility was built on the yard's north side. This huge facility would be able to carry out anything from annual 92-day inspections to minor maintenance to paint work to heavy overhauls and rebuilds. Also included was a car repair facility on the yard's south side, set up to repair RW's freight car fleet, which by this point consisted of mostly auto parts boxes, grain hoppers, 50-foot general service boxcars, and cabooses, although the shops would see less and less of the latter car type as the 1980s drew to a close. The first engine repaired at the shop was M420 2010 in August 1985, which had suffered a turbocharger fire. The engine received an all new prime mover, plus all new RW Black paint. Thanks to Fort Wayne Shops, the need to send locomotives out on contract work was eliminated, and repair work and inspections could now be split between Fort Wayne and DeWitt.
Realizing the need for low-speed yard power for its new Fort Wayne Yard, RW placed an order for twenty GMD GP15s in mid-1982, numbers 1000-1019, followed by sixteen GMD SD39-2s, the only examples of that model to be built, delivered in April 1983 as RW 6900-6915. The SD39-2s helped to replace the original ten EMD F7A diesels that by this time had been demoted to local service, where their cab-unit bodies were very troublesome to crews. Very unimpressed by the performance of its GP50s, RW reverted back to the older GP40-2 and placed an order for 10 more of them, arriving as numbers 7115-7124 in June. The GP50s proved to be maintenance headaches and their early microprocessor controls were troublesome, and as a result, RW would never again order an EMD 50-series diesel engine. Switchers were badly needed by 1984, so RW ordered 47 EMD MP15Ts from the La Grange plant, numbered 1430-1476. These MP15Ts were fairly large switchers, and could be commonly seen on road trains when they weren't needed on switching chores.
In 1983, RW had received the opportunity from Bombardier, the new owner of what was the Montreal Locomotive Works, to test two of the HR616 full-cowl diesels that they had recently delivered to CN. The engines that RW tested were BDR 7003 and 7004, and the test trials were for one month. RW ran the units on its Canadian lines for the first two weeks, after which the engines crossed the border for a run to Portland, Maine and back over Crawford Notch, and they ended their demonstration period on RW working on the ex-DT&I to Cincinnati. RW was impressed enough to order its own HR616s, and the road placed an order for 15 of them, which were delivered as RW 2100-2115. Many thought it was ironic that RW's took the same number class as CN's, the only other HR616s built, but RW had wanted to group them with their M420s in the 2000 class, so 2100s they became. The engines were soon nicknamed “Canada Cowls”, and they saw service almost exclusively in Canada working with the older M420 fleet, in an attempt to keep the safety-cab Alco 251 power together. These 35 Montreal-built units would end up being the only 251-powered engines in RW's fleet, since RW had realized that the HR616s really weren't as reliable as the builder originally claimed, and by 1985, RW had placed another GMD order, for 20 GMD SD40-2s numbered 6020-6039, the same year that Bombardier closed down the old Montreal Locomotive Works plant for good.
In 1985, RW bought a controlling interest in the Iowa Interstate Railroad, owner of the ex-Rock Island main between Chicago and Omaha, but due to union regulations, did not seek to merge. IAIS stretched RW's reach to Omaha, giving the road a connection to the Union Pacific system. To the north, the Chicago & North Western Railway was resting on its laurels after recently forcing competitor Rock Island into bankruptcy and liquidation. The small and frail IAIS couldn't ever hope to compete with C&NW, but RW's acquisition of the IAIS changed the situation, and C&NW saw RW's intrusion as a threat to the valuable UP traffic that C&NW now received the lion's share of at Omaha. C&NW was historically a railroad that outperformed its competitors to extinction and purchased their sad remains, as it had done with famous roads like Rock Island, Chicago Great Western, and Minneapolis & St. Louis, but RW, also a ruthless competitor, was a new force to be reckoned with, and RW didn't like the idea of C&NW hogging all of the Omaha traffic. Competition with the C&NW for this traffic off of UP was fierce, but relentless as always, RW fought C&NW for UP's intermodal and coal traffic, and traffic grew on the old IAIS as a result, with C&NW citing traffic losses as early as 1987, in a period when every railroad was flourishing with ever-increasing traffic. RW didn't just take traffic from UP, it gave UP interchange traffic in the form of mainly autos and automobile components from Detroit, something C&NW couldn't give.
On the topic of mergers, 1985 also brought up a new proposition between CSX's Chessie System and RW, with Chessie intending to integrate RW into their operations. This idea arose after NS's intent to acquire all of Conrail became known to the public. However, RW's aggressive management strongly refused, and turned down all of Chessie's proposals, until the deal was finally dropped. RW simply would not settle for any kind of acquisition. It wasn't long after this that ideas concerning the NS-CR combination were also nixed.
Beginning in 1984, RW began grading for a new low-grade, double-track, CTC-equipped main line between Alliance, OH and Meadville, PA, with the goal of keeping curves to a minimum and max speed up. With the use of several tunnels, cuts, fills, and viaducts, RW kept the curves down and the grade down to a ruling grade of 0.9%. Once at Meadville, RW built tracks northward to Ripley, NY, where the mainline flew over the NS ex-NKP on a new concrete viaduct. From Ripley all the way until the outskirts of Buffalo, RW spiked down new track between the Conrail and Norfolk Southern mainlines, adding to the heavy traffic in the area, and at times, making it look like one big four-to-six-track mainline! East of Ripley, space constraints made the line essentially double-track with a few single-track gaps. Using track rights through Buffalo to Niagara Falls, RW had successfully built its mainline around the south shore of Lake Erie by 1988.
But the expansion didn't stop there. East of Syracuse in 1984, RW began spiking down new single-track CTC mainline on the old New York, West Shore, & Buffalo towards Albany, with the goal of reaching Guilford and Selkirk, a goal that was met by 1987. With this connection, RW broke Conrail's control of traffic bound for New England, and thanks to a connection with Guilford, this became the preferred route for New England-bound traffic, instead of the lengthy route north from Syracuse via Crawford Notch.
By 1986, RW was ready for additional SD40-2s, planning on an additional 25 numbered 6040-6064. However, GM had since dropped the model from its catalog, replacing it with the microprocessor-controlled 3800-horsepower SD60 and GP60, plus the 3000-horsepower GP59. RW convinced GM that they were in the market for more 3000-horsepower six-axle units, and this led to the creation of another RW one-of-a-kind-- the SD59. Externally the same as an SD60 (there was one key difference- SD60s have 8 tall engine hood doors while SD59s have only 6), RW's were delivered in 1986 numbered 6100-6124, the only ones ever built, and featured winterization hatches on their front radiator fans, a detail specified after several RW GP50s had frozen up on Crawford Notch in winter time. Winterization hatches would be ordered on all RW EMD power right up to 2003, when a new EMD radiator design obviated the need for one. The locomotives also were the first “American Style” RW EMD road switchers, as they came delivered from the La Grange, Illinois plant, and came without the usual Canadian class lights, and had cab headlights, a look that would be applied to the rest of RW's new standard-cab GMD products. The SD59 had a 12-cylinder turbocharged engine and was rated equal to an SD40-2, and despite the fuel and maintenance savings that the 12-cylinder engine provided, the SD59 wasn't quite as reliable. The engines were plagued the same reliability problems that most early EMD 60-series diesels had, and RW felt their pulling power left a lot to be desired. After the SD59s had spent plenty of time at Fort Wayne and La Grange for various repairs, RW began shopping for new power elsewhere that same year as a power shortage set in. It wasn't until early 1988 that RW and EMD had finally worked the last of the bugs out of the SD59s, and they went on to live successful service lives.
RW's traffic more than doubled in the year of 1986 alone, and the road needed new power fast. So, RW went with a new builder shortly after the SD59's arrival, turning to General Electric for another rather curious choice of power. RW's first GE power was an order for 30 cabless B30-7AB diesel locomotives, exact copies of the later units in Burlington Northern's 120-unit fleet. RW chose to experiment with GE power after being less-than-satisfied with its EMD SD59s, and went with cabless power since it was cheaper and quicker to build at the time. The engines came numbered 3000-3029, and were delivered in June of 1986; these engines were some of the last domestic GE Dash-7 diesels built. The boosters went into less demanding services, mostly auto parts, autorack, piggyback, and general merchandise services alongside RW's EMD units on the roster, most commonly SD40-2s, GP50s, and GP40-2s. The units did help to slow a mounting power shortage, but they didn't satisfy RW's desire for a reliable locomotive, as these were less reliable than the SD59s that led RW to buy the GE's in the first place. RW gave GE another try in December with a ten-unit order for GE C39-8 diesels, numbered 3900-3909. A tad more successful than the B30s, these units were virtual clones of the Norfolk Southern C39-8s that GE had just completed delivery on, and RW's went into heavier services, hauling such cargoes as coal and grain.
In 1986, RW realized that the city of Chicago was rapidly becoming busier every day, and that it wouldn't take long for the city to become jammed with trains that had no place to go. That year, RW began an ambitious project that would not only benefit itself, but every other railroad that served the city, embarking on what it called the Chicago Outer Loop. Work on the bypass began east of Valparaiso, Indiana. Branching off from the ex-PRR to the southwest was a new triple-track mainline, with the assumption that other railroad's trains would soon possibly make use out of the line. The line curved toward Kankakee, where a new yard facility was built, then the line continued west to a point on Joliet's west side, where the bypass ended at the IAIS mainline. Every place the line had to cross another company's tracks, a flyover was built, and if needed, connecting wyes. CTC signaling was installed, and the line was complete by 1989.
In 1987, under order from the States of New York and Pennsylvania, RW had assumed ownership and operation of the ex-B&O line from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, giving the road access to a completely new market. The BP Sub, as it was officially known under RW, met with RW's own lines in Buffalo, and also crossed the ex-Erie Meadville-Binghamton line that RW would also own by that year (as is described below). This called for new power to operate the local freight out of the area, which came in the form of yet another unique RW locomotive, the EMD 2500 horsepower GP58. The road was actually after the GP38-2, but the model was out of production by this time, so instead, RW asked EMD to construct a 16-cylinder roots-blown four-motor locomotive using the EMD 710 prime mover. The GP58 looks exactly like a GP60, except that the GP58 has only two radiator fans instead of three as on the GP60. RW's fleet of 15 GP58s was numbered 7700-7714, and went into local service out of Pittsburgh. RW didn't expect it at the time, but the addition of this line soon saw Monongahela coal flowing north in unit trains out of the coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania, bound for Northeastern power plants. The motive power department estimated that an additional 40-50 six-motor road units would be enough to cover this, but RW chose not to order new power, and made an interesting purchase that year, by purchasing 17 former Union Pacific DDA40X Centennials, former UP numbers 6902, 6905, 6907-6912, 6914, 6921, 6923, 6927, and 6931-6935, which were renumbered RW 6600-6616. The 6600-horsepower beasts were rebuilt at Fort Wayne and put into RW Black paint. They went into coal service out of Pittsburgh, with two units assigned to each train. Despite their size and age, they performed well, and put in some awe-inspiring performances on the hilly ex-B&O in Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York.
Still trying to best C&NW between Omaha and Chicago, in 1987 RW announced a new hotshot intermodal series which RW had named Meteorites, intended to provide expedited service between the UP at Omaha and the Susquehanna Railroad at Binghamton, effectively capturing New York-West Coast piggyback and doublestack traffic. RW's existing route sent trains northeast into Buffalo, NY, through Rochester to NYSW at Syracuse, where trains ran back south from there. This route was long and slow, and the road quickly look for an alternate shorter route, and found it in Conrail's ex-Erie mainline between Binghamton and Meadville, which RW quickly purchased and upgraded. RW placed an order for more GE's to handle this traffic- Fifteen GE B32-8E diesels numbered 5000-5014. These units proved to be a bit more reliable than RW's older C39-8s and B30-7ABs, but still weren't quite what RW was after. Nevertheless, the new GE's put in some stellar performances, most often mixed with older RW B30-7ABs, GP50s, GP40-2s, GP39-2s, and even GP38-2s. In addition, UP run-through power was common, most often SD40-2s, plus NYSW Yellow Jacket motive power, ranging from SD45s to Alco C430s to NYSW's B40-8 fleet. Power for the Meteorites was always three to five of these units. These trains had one strong advantage over C&NW's Falcons- RW's trains did not stop at Chicago, instead rounding the new Chicago Outer Loop and racing on to the east while C&NW's trains lagged far behind, lost in Chicago's congestion. The ability to take a train east from Omaha and keep it on the same company's tracks without stopping for interchange or congestion in Chicago played to RW's strength and C&NW's weakness. Talk of a UP-RW merger even surfaced in 1988, but wild opposition from C&NW, as well as BN, Santa Fe, SP, and Conrail, soon derailed the plan. RW apparently would have supported a merger with UP at the current time, but never voiced those opinions. Such a merger would have instantly completed RW's coast-to-coast dream with UP's superb routes.
One acquisition did occur in this period, though. In 1987, RW made a move to purchase the Delaware-Ostego Corporation, which at the time owned NYSW and Delaware & Hudson. The merger was between RW and Delaware-Ostego, which made NYSW and D&H as wholly-owned subsidiaries of RW. NYSW gave RW access to New York City, but D&H did not offer RW much more than it had. D&H gave RW another route from Binghamton to Montreal, only this time via Albany and not Syracuse, and RW now also had D&H's route into Pennsylvania, and quickly acquired trackage rights from Allentown, the south end of the D&H territory, to Reading and Philadelphia over Conrail, giving RW access to a new east coast market. D&H's route north of Binghamton was losing traffic under RW, since RW already had rails to the important places that the D&H line went, namely Albany and Montreal, so by 1991, RW had offered the entire D&H north of Binghamton for sale, with trackage rights over the rest of the former D&H system as part of the deal. Canadian Pacific was the high bidder, and they assumed operation over the Montreal-Binghamton segment as well as rights to the D&H name and reporting marks, just as RW formally merged their segment of the D&H into their own operations, with NYSW remaining a separate subsidiary similar to RW's Iowa Interstate.
Despite all of RW's successes in this period, a thorny problem soon reared its ugly head- traffic was increasing on RW faster than the road was ordering power, and soon lease units from leasing firms such as GATX Capital Corporation and Helm Leasing Company began appearing by 1986, and RW began borrowing units from its subsidiaries, as well as Union Pacific, Conrail, and Canadian National. RW management at the time was rather frugal in the motive power department, and managed to place an order for 10 GE C40-8 diesels in 1988. These units, numbered 5110-5119, however, didn't really help much with the power crisis at hand. When the engines were delivered, their unusual numbering raised a few eyebrows, but everything made sense later that year, when RW renumbered its 10 C39-8 diesels, giving them new numbers 5100-5109, numbering them just below the new C40-8s.
By 1988, RW's fleet of Montreal-built HR616s and M420s was still hard at work on the old Canada Southern trackage between Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario, by now more commonly known as RW's Canada Division, which also included the ex-Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo route into Toronto from Hamilton. The primary commodities of the line all had to do with traffic from Windsor and Sarnia, and was most commonly related to the automobile business (Windsor) or the petrochemical business (Sarnia). This traffic was slowly starting to increase, and the 251-engined locomotives were going to need some help. RW's “American” EMDs were making regular appearances, and soon, B30-7ABs became staples in Canada, creating some wild consists mixed with M420s and HR616s. RW liked the Draper Taper full-cowl design on its HR616s, and asked GM for more new cowls. The builder suggested a fleet of 10 SD60F diesels, but RW was skeptical about the EMD 60-series, especially with the less-than-stellar performance the road's SD59s were displaying. That same year, however, Canadian Pacific had placed an order for 25 SD40-2s in cowl unit bodies, classed as SD40-2Fs, and RW jumped at this opportunity. The road placed an order for five of them, numbered 6040-6044, above the road's standard SD40-2s. However, just like CPR's, RW's had a disastrous debut. New units would fail out on the road, and soon, RW had the five units out of service at Fort Wayne, before they ended up back at GMD in London alongside CP's 25 units. Eventually, problems traced to supplier issues were resolved, and the five units returned to the Canada Division to work alongside RW's M420s and HR616s. System-wide power shortages soon saw many of the cowls and M420s heading south of the border to help power trains in the States, much to the dismay of the Canadian crews. Lease units had managed to stay off of RW's Canadian lines until 1988, when HLCX and GATX SD40-2s began appearing regularly, signs of RW's growing power problem.