Part 1: CSX Storage Car Train in Trenton, IL on out-of-service CSX Illinois Subdivision - 3/15/19

1st attempt by CSX J900 storage car recovery train to pass through Trenton, IL on March 15th, 2019 with 200+ railcars. Apologies for the camera shake due to the strong winds that day.

CSX J900 was tied down near Trenton during the previous night; having made it’s way westbound from Shattuc on Thursday, March 14th with the all railcars previously stored there in toe. On the morning of Friday, March 15th, the train backed up eastbound towards Aviston to retrieve the stored flatcars in the Aviston siding. CSX safety officers and local law enforcement blocked grade crossings in Aviston to allow for the the flatcars to be coupled onto the rear of the train.

Upon it’s return back west to Trenton, the single SD40-2 (CSX #8817) proved to be insufficient power to pull the 210 car train. The single unit struggled mightily to move through Trenton (as can be seen in this video) and nearly stalled out a few times as it reached both grade crossings in town.

A decision was made by CSX to drop a cut of the flatcars from the rear of the train; in an effort to help the single SD40-2 unit pull the rest of the train west. The train was shoved back eastbound to near Aviston and cut loose around 50 flatcars from the rear. The train then headed back west and eventually made it through Trenton at speeds of around 10 MPH.

This is the CSX Illinois Subdivision railroad line, stretching from East St. Louis to Vincennes, Indiana. This is the former Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) St. Louis mainline controlled by CSX railroad since the early 1980's. The line was taken out of service by CSX in July 2015. In April 2017, CSX ran a one-off train to store railcars on the line in both Aviston and Shattuc. These March 2019 trains were dispatched out onto the line by CSX to remove the stored railcars due to complaints from the local communities. Because all crossing signals have been disabled since the line was officially taken out of service in 2015, CSX requested and was granted a special waiver by the FRA to run these trains out onto the line. CSX railroad police manually flagged each grade crossing along the line from Shattuc to East St. Louis during these train movements.

All together, this operation lasted a total of 6 days across a 2 week period; beginning on March 13th, 2019 and concluding on March 29th, 2019. These are also likely to be the final CSX trains that we will see on the Illinois Sub for the indefinite future, as plans for the line are unknown at the present moment.

For more information on the history of this line visit https://ilsubdivisionrailroad.wordpre...

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