INRD: Indiana Rail Road Overview

(Shortlines (source))

System Map, This is obsolete. See below for a 2019 update.

It is interesting that their route map does not show the complete routes. It seems to focus on it customers in it core area. IRND started in 1986 by buying the IC route between Newton and Indianapolis when ICG management was so aggressively getting rid of everything except their north/south mainline. "INRD has invested more than $200 million of private capital into the railroad, transforming a broken-down railroad into a state-of-the-art, heavy-haul transportation system." (About)

The Trains Magazine has mentioned more than once how progressive the railroad has been. They have been using single-person crews in through trains for a while. They have a deal with CN to run intermodal trains from CN's west coast ports to Indianapolis to provide the least complicated, and I would assume cheapest, route from Asia ports to Indianapolis.

When CN charged a lot for the final 6 miles needed to run coal trains from Indiana mines to the Newton Power Plant, they built a parallel track to avoid CN's charges. (I see from the Google Map that Newton Power Plant is now Anderson Electric.) My 2005 SPV Map shows the former Milw/CTH&SE route from Chicago to Southern Indiana being owned by CP. Sometime since 2005, INRD must have bought that route from CP because they show it on their system map.

I notice that the Louisville & Indianapolis (LIRC) route is also in red on their system map. Perhaps they bought trackage rights. It is a shame that the Milwaukee route does not still go to Bedford and that the Monon route from Bedford to Louisville has also been abandoned. If Class I railroads had not been so quick to tear up track, INRD could have had their own, more direct, route from Chicago to Louisville.

Their operating hub is the Hiawatha Yard, which was Milwaukee's Latta Yard.

The following load shows INRD is willing to think far out of the box (clearence plate) to serve their customers.

John W. Coke posted
Indiana Rail Road transporting dragline coal buckets from the Blackhawk mine to the Bear Run mine.

Update:

Jim Matuska posted
INRD 9008 - 2012 / 2019

A few years ago I read an article that quoted an Indiana Rail Road honcho bragging about using Tier 4 engines. (I researched how they beat the Class I railroads to Tier 4. The answer is that they used Cummins engines that use DEF. ) That engine looks worse than Tier 0.

I noticed the location is in Wisconsin. Whose tracks is this train running on?

An article about INRD receiving a marketing award describes the CN/INRD intermodal service. This new service is growing.

A photo of train SAHW - Indianapolis to Hiawatha Yard - with two SD9043MACs crossing the Shuffle Creek Trestle.

Bob Lalich Flickr 2011 Photo, what route did INRD use to get to BRC to get petroleum coke from KCBX Terminal? (2019 Update: The "Shortlines" link that I added to the top indicates INRD has track rights over CSX's former C&EI route from Terre Haute to Chicago.)

System Map

Richard Koenig posted three photos with the comment:

Special Move—New Lebanon, Indiana
It looks like a special move is taking place this dreary day in the late-70s. This occurred on the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad between Palestine, Illinois, and New Lebanon, Indiana. I believe these large girders were bound for a nearby power plant but have no reason to think this. Does anyone have a recollection of what was going on here?
Three images by Richard Koenig; taken early in 1979.

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