View source for Central Railroad of Indiana

{{Short description|Class III railroad}}
{{distinguish|Central Railroad of Indianapolis}}
{{Infobox rail | gauge={{Track gauge|ussg|allk=on}}
|railroad_name=Central Railroad Company of Indiana
|logo_filename=Central Railroad of Indiana logo.png
|old_gauge=
|marks=CIND
|locale=[[Indiana]], [[Ohio]], U.S.
|start_year=1992{{sfn|Trains Magazine|2010}}
|end_year=present
|hq_city=[[Cincinnati]], Ohio, U.S.
|length={{convert|92|mi|km}}
|map={{Central Railroad of Indiana}}
}}
The '''Central Railroad Company of Indiana''' {{reporting mark|CIND}} is a [[Class III railroad|Class III]] [[short-line railroad|short-line]] [[railroad]] that owns {{convert|92|mi|km}} of track between [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, and [[Shelbyville, Indiana]], with trackage rights on [[CSX]] to [[Indianapolis]], Indiana. CIND interchanges with CSX, [[Indiana & Ohio Railway]], and [[Norfolk Southern]] in Cincinnati, and in [[North Bend, Ohio|North Bend]], Ohio, with CSX; an Indiana & Ohio branchline splits from the CIND line at Valley Junction, a railroad location near [[Hooven, Ohio|Hooven]], Ohio.{{sfn|Trains Magazine|2010}}{{sfn|CENTRAL RAILROAD OF INDIANA (CIND)|2023}}

The line is owned and operated by [[Genesee & Wyoming]]. It was originally part of the [[Big Four Railroad]], a long-time property of the [[New York Central Railroad]], and was sold by [[Conrail]] in 1992. The CIND and its sister railroad, the [[Central Railroad of Indianapolis]], were acquired by [[RailTex|RailTex's]] [[Indiana & Ohio Railway]] in 1998, which became a [[RailAmerica]] holding in 2000; Genesee & Wyoming acquired RailAmerica in 2012.{{sfn|Trains Magazine|2010}}{{sfn|Central Railroad of Indiana}} 

The majority of the railroad's traffic comes from finished Honda automobiles, produced by [[Honda Manufacturing of Indiana]] near [[Greensburg, Indiana]], but grain, chemical products, steel, and other miscellaneous freight are also handled between Greensburg and Cincinnati; the Greensburg-Shelbyville portion has been out of service since 2006.{{sfn|IDOT}} The CIND hauled around 8,500 carloads in 2008, and can handle freight cars weighing up to [[Loading gauge|286,000 pounds (143 short tons/129.7 tonnes).]]{{sfn|Trains Magazine|2010}}{{sfn|CENTRAL RAILROAD OF INDIANA (CIND)|2023}}

== History ==
The earliest predecessor of the Central of Indiana is the Lawrenceburg & Indianapolis, chartered in 1832 to connect those cities by way of [[Greensburg, Indiana|Greensburg]] and Shelbyville.{{sfn|Harlow|1947}} One and a quarter miles ({{cvt|1.25|mi|disp=out}}) of wooden rails were laid by July 1834, making this horse powered track the first railroad in Indiana.{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|p=106}} No further construction occurred until the Rushville & Lawrenceburg, chartered in 1848, and begun in 1849, at [[Lawrenceburg, Indiana|Lawrenceburg]], Indiana, reached [[Shelbyville, Indiana|Shelbyville]], Indiana, in 1850. The road was renamed the Lawrenceburg & Upper Mississippi that year, and was completed to [[Indianapolis]], in 1853, changing its name again to the Indianapolis & Cincinnati (I&C).{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|p=12}} On November 1, 1853, the first train ran from Indianapolis to Lawrenceburg, and to Cincinnati by [[steamboat|steamer]] on the [[Ohio River]].{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|p=106}}

The similarly named Cincinnati & Indiana Railroad (C&I) was chartered that same year, for a line between Cincinnati and the Indiana state line near [[Harrison, Ohio|Harrison]], Ohio. This line, as well as a connection to the I&C via Valley Junction, was complete by 1863, and [[Henry C. Lord]], the force behind the C&I's construction, became president of both companies. After acquiring the Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad (L&I) in 1867, Lord changed the name of the combined L&I-I&C system to the Indianapolis, Cincinnati, & Lafayette (IC&L) on February 14, 1867;{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|p=106}} the C&I remained leased to the larger parent company. Further expansion put the company deeper into debt, and after a legal battle between Lord and the IC&L's shareholders, the railroad was [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|declared bankrupt]] in 1870, and Lord was ousted as president.{{sfn|Harlow|1947}} [[Melville E. Ingalls|Melville Ingalls]] was appointed as a receiver of the company, and became its president when it was taken out of receivership in 1873.

Ingalls made several improvements to the line, including construction of a bypass around Lawrenceburg, in 1875. The bypass eliminated {{convert|6|mi}} of circuitous railroad, and is the route trains take today, the original lines to Lawrenceburg, having been abandoned. In 1880, Ingalls incorporated the [[Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway|Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railroad]] (CIStL&C) to take over the IC&L, the C&I, and a third road added during Lord's tenure, the Cincinnati, Lafayette, & Chicago. This company's unwieldy name made it difficult to add to schedule boards, and thus it was nicknamed the "Big Four".{{sfn|Harlow|1947}} 

When the [[Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway]], controlled by the [[Vanderbilt family]] and nicknamed the "Bee Line", was merged with the CIStL&C in 1889, the new company, the [[Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway]], was similarly lengthy, and so the "Big Four" moniker stuck. The Big Four was controlled by the Vanderbilts' [[New York Central Railroad|New York Central System]], and would remain a New York Central (NYC) subsidiary until the [[Penn Central]] merger.{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|pp=105-106}}

The Indianapolis-Cincinnati line was the Big Four's main line between the two cities, and thus hosted all NYC traffic between Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Chicago. There was enough traffic that a second main track was added between Greensburg and Cincinnati, in 1909, and [[Automatic block signaling|Automatic Block Signalling]] (ABS) was installed all the way to Shelbyville, in 1941. That same year, the ''[[James Whitcomb Riley (train)|James Whitcomb Riley]]'', a streamlined all-coach passenger train, made its inaugural run over the line, connecting Chicago to Cincinnati, on a 5-and-a-half hour schedule. The train proved popular enough to be included in the initial [[Amtrak]] system in 1971. However, the Penn Central merger in 1968, and subsequent bankruptcy in 1970, led to a sharp decline in track conditions, and by 1973, all trains, including the ''Riley'', were limited to {{convert|10|mph}} for fear of derailment. After a ''[[60 Minutes]]'' exposé revealing the abysmal track conditions aired that year, public outcry forced Amtrak to move all its passenger trains off Penn Central trackage in 1974, but passenger numbers would never recover and the ''Riley'' was cancelled in 1977.{{CN|date=October 2023}}

The second main was removed beginning in 1962, as [[Centralized traffic control|Centralized Traffic Control]] (CTC) installation—completed between Greensburg and Cincinnati, in 1967, made the extra capacity redundant. A washout in the mid-1970s closed the line between [[Sunman, Indiana|Sunman]], Indiana, and Thatcher (the railroad's name for [[Greendale, Indiana|Greendale]]), Indiana, forcing all through traffic onto alternate routes. Under [[Conrail]] ownership, local service along the northern part of the line was gradually reduced, trains from Shelbyville, only going as far as [[Batesville, Indiana|Batesville]], Indiana, in the early 1980s, then just to Greensburg, by 1983. In 1985, realizing the line's importance to the region's economy, the State of Indiana funded a reconstruction of the entire line, and in October, Conrail began operating 2 trains a week in each direction between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, on what it called the "Shelbyville Secondary".{{sfn|Conrail|1985}}

The customer base remained small and in 1990, Conrail abolished the trains, expressing its intention to abandon the line between Shelbyville and Thatcher. Kokomo Grain Company, which had organized the [[Central Railroad of Indianapolis]] (CERA) in 1989, under its Central Properties, Inc., holding company, reached an agreement to acquire the Shelbyville Secondary from Shelbyville to Cincinnati, from Conrail, in December 1991, and the new Central Railroad of Indiana (CIND) began operations on December 31, over the {{convert|85|mi}} of track,{{sfn|Lewis|1996|pp=71-72}} with connection to Indianapolis through trackage rights on Conrail.{{sfn|Simons|Parker|1997|p=189}}

In 1997, after heavy rains the year before, the CIND decided to embargo the line between Sunman and Thatcher,{{sfn|IDOT}}{{sfn|Decatur County|2002}} just as Conrail had done years earlier. CIND management also instituted surcharges of up to $1000/carload on cars interchanged at the railroad's western interchange points of Shelbyville and [[Frankfort, Indiana|Frankfort]], Indiana, prompting a lawsuit by shippers on the line.{{snf|Decatur County|2002}} The railroad filed an official request to abandon the embargoed segment in 1998, but was denied.{{CN|date= October 2023}}

The same year, both the CIND and the CERA were purchased by RailTex-owned Indiana & Ohio Railway (IORY), though they continued to operate as separate entities.{{snf|Burns|2023}} Under RailTex ownership, the CIND decided to restore the Sunman-Thatcher section instead of abandoning it, and the shippers' lawsuit, asking for the courts to penalize the railroad for the embargo and surcharges, was denied.{{snf|Decatur County|2002}} In 2000, RailTex was itself acquired by RailAmerica, another large [[Shortline railroad|shortline]] holding company, but traffic remained slim, and the line between Greensburg and Shelbyville, was placed out of service in 2006.{{sfn|IDOT}} The fortunes of the CIND greatly improved when [[Honda Manufacturing of Indiana]] opened their Greensburg, Indiana, plant in 2008. The plant is exclusively served by the CIND, and has a capacity of 250,000 vehicles annually, which necessitates a daily train, a frequency not seen on the line since the 1970s. RailAmerica was sold to [[Genessee & Wyoming]] in 2012, but operations have continued relatively unchanged as of 2023.{{CN|date= October 2023}}

== Route description ==
Beginning in [[Shelby County, Indiana]], the line runs generally southeast from Shelbyville through the towns of [[Prescott, Indiana|Prescott]], [[Waldron, Indiana|Waldron]] and [[Saint Paul, Indiana|Saint Paul]], then the [[Decatur County, Indiana|Decatur County]] towns of [[Adams, Decatur County, Indiana|Adams]], [[Greensburg, Indiana|Greensburg]] and [[New Point, Indiana|New Point]].  At this point a short stretch of the line passes east through the extreme southwestern corner of [[Franklin County, Indiana|Franklin County]], then heads southeast through the [[Ripley County, Indiana|Ripley County]] communities of [[Batesville, Indiana|Batesville]], [[Morris, Indiana|Morris]], [[Spades, Indiana|Spades]] and [[Sunman, Indiana|Sunman]], and the [[Dearborn County, Indiana|Dearborn County]] towns of [[Weisburg, Indiana|Weisburg]], [[Kennedy, Indiana|Kennedy]], [[Guilford, Indiana|Guilford]] and [[Greendale, Indiana|Greendale]]. The line runs adjacent to [[CSX Transportation]]'s former [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] [[Indiana Subdivision|Cincinnati to St. Louis main line]] from CIND MP 2.5 (Storrs) to MP 17.7 (Valley Junction). The line between the Honda plant in Batesville (approx. MP 63) and the CSX connection in Shelbyville is out-of-service, though the track is still largely intact.

== Mileposts ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| 2.5
| Storrs
|-
| 2.9
| CP West Oak
|-
| 4.5
| CP Wade
|-
| 10.6
| Delhi
|-
| 12.0
| Fernbank
|-
| 13.2
| Addyston
|-
| 15.3
| North Bend
|-
| 16.1
| Cleves
|-
| 17.7
| Valley
|-
| 19.5
| Elizabethtown
|-
| 20.5
| State Line (IN/OH)
|-
| 22.3
| CP 22
|-
| 27.9
| Guilford
|-
| 30.4
| Ross
|-
| 36.8
| Weisburg
|-
| 39.9
| Sunman
|-
| 45.3
| Morris
|-
| 46.2
| Hyde
|-
| 47.8
| Batesville
|-
| 54.0
| New Point
|-
| 62.8
| Greensburg
|-
| 67.8
| Adams
|-
| 72.7
| St. Paul
|-
| 75.3
| Waldron
|-
| 82.8
| Shelbyville (begin CSX trackage rights)
|-
|}

== Locomotive roster ==
The CIND shares power with the IORY primarily, and G&W more broadly, and thus owns few locomotives of its own. Locomotives with CIND reporting marks and/or operating on the CIND as of 2023 include:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Reporting Mark
!Number
!Type
!Build Date
!Note
|-
|rowspan="3"|CIND
|2001
|rowspan="2"|[[Railpower RP20BD|RB20BD]]
|rowspan="2"|2012
|rowspan="2"|Rebuilt from [[Railpower GG20B|GG20B]]
|-
|2002
|-
|2342
|[[EMD SW1500|SW1500]]
|1970
|ex-[[Pittsburgh Industrial Railroad]], exx-[[Norfolk Southern Railway|NS]], née-[[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern]]
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway|TP&W]]
|5008
|rowspan="5"|[[EMD GP50|GP50]]
|rowspan="5"|1980
|ex-CIND 5008, née-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]]
|-
|5010
|ex-CIND 5000, exx-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]], née-[[St. Louis–San Francisco Railway|SLSF]]
|-
|rowspan="6"|[[Indiana and Ohio Railway|IORY]]
|5012
|ex-[[Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway|CBNS]] 5002, née-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]]
|-
|5013
|ex-CIND 5003, née-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]]
|-
|5014
|ex-[[Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway|CBNS]] 5004, née-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]]
|-
|3222
|rowspan="2"|[[EMD SD40-2|SD40-2]]
|1973
|ex-[[Union Pacific Railroad|UP]], née-[[Chicago and North Western Transportation Company|C&NW]]
|-
|3313
|1980
|ex-[[Ohio Central Railroad (1988)|OHCR]] 3313, exx-NS 3561, née-[[Burlington Northern Railroad|BN]] 8142
|-
|3527
|[[EMD GP38-2|GP38-2]]
|1972
|ex-[[Union Pacific Railroad|UP]] 321, née-[[Missouri Pacific Railroad|MP]] 907
|-
|rowspan="4"|LTEX
|2400
|rowspan="3"|[[EMD SD60|SD60M]]
|1990
|ex-[[Union Pacific Railroad|UP]] 6264
|-
|2411
|1990
|ex-[[Union Pacific Railroad|UP]] 6257; "Triclops"
|-
|2446
|1991
|ex-[[Union Pacific Railroad|UP]] 6291
|-
|8641
|[[EMD SD50|SD50-2]]
|1985
|ex-[[CSX Transportation|CSX]], née-[[Chesapeake and Ohio Railway|C&O]] ([[Chessie System]])
|}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite magazine
  |publication-date= June 2010
  |title= RailAmerica's Empire
  |magazine= Trains Magazine
  |publisher= Kalmbach Publishing
  |page=
  |access-date= 20 October 2023
  |url= https://www.trains.com/trn/magazine/archive-access/trains-june-2010/ 
  |url-access= subscription
  |ref= {{harvid|Trains Magazine|2010}}
  }}
* {{cite book
  |last1= Simons
  |first1= Richard S.
  |last2= Parker
  |first2= Francis H.
  |title= Railroads of Indiana
  |date= 1997
  |publisher= Indiana University Press
  |isbn= 0-253-33351-2
  }}
* {{cite web 
  |url= https://www.gwrr.com/cind/
  |title= CENTRAL RAILROAD OF INDIANA (CIND)
  |date= 2023
  |access-date= 20 October 2023
  |ref= {{harvid|CENTRAL RAILROAD OF INDIANA (CIND)|2023}}
  }}
* {{cite web
  |title= Consolidated Rail Corporation - Freight Schedules 
  |url= https://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/CR/CR%20Freight%20Schedules/CR%20Freight%20Schedule%2010-1-1985.pdf
  |date= 1 October 1985
  |access-date= 21 October 2023
  |ref= {{harvid|Conrail|1985}}
  }}
* {{Cite book
  |last= Harlow
  |first= Alvin F.
  |title= The Road of the Century
  |chapter= 16
  |date= 1947
  |publisher= Creative Age Press, Inc.
  |location= New York
  |url= https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/HARROC/16*.html 
  |access-date= 25 September 2023
  }}
* {{Cite web
  |title= Central Railroad of Indiana 
  |url= http://cincyrails.com/iocind.htm
  |access-date= 25 September 2023
  |website= cincyrails.com
  |ref= {{harvid|Central Railroad of Indiana}} 
  }} 
* {{Cite book
  |last= Lewis
  |first= Edward A.
  |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3i6K_Nf9e2EC&pg=PA72
  |title= American Shortline Railway Guide
  |publisher= Kalmbach Publishing Co.
  |year= 1996 
  |isbn= 978-0-89024-290-2
  |pages= 71–72
  }}
* {{Cite web 
  |title= Indiana Railroad Abandonments 
  |url= https://www.in.gov/indot/files/Rail_STBFilings.pdf
  |access-date= 21 October 2023
  |website=I ndiana Department of Transportation
  |ref= {{harvid|IDOT}}
  }}
* {{cite web
  |title= DECATUR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS v. SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD (2002)
  |url= https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-7th-circuit/1160726.html
  |date= 15 October 2002
  |ref= {{harvid|Decatur County|2002}}
  }}
* {{Cite web 
  |last= Burns
  |first= Adam
  |title= Indiana And Ohio Railway
  |url= https://www.american-rails.com/iory.html
  |date= 10 October 2023
  |access-date= 21 October 2023
  |website= American-Rails.com
  }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Portal|Railways}}
*[https://www.gwrr.com/cind/ Central Railroad of Indiana official webpage - Genesee & Wyoming website]

{{Indiana railroads}}
{{Ohio railroads}}
{{Genesee & Wyoming}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Railroad Indiana}}
[[Category:Ohio railroads]]
[[Category:Indiana railroads]]
[[Category:Transportation in Dearborn County, Indiana]]
[[Category:Transportation in Decatur County, Indiana]]
[[Category:Transportation in Franklin County, Indiana]]
[[Category:Transportation in Ripley County, Indiana]]
[[Category:Transportation in Shelby County, Indiana]]
[[Category:RailAmerica]]
[[Category:Spin-offs of Conrail]]