Wabash Valley

Company History: This line represents a group of doomed shortlines that were launched between the 1976 creation of Conrail and the deregulation of the railroads nearly five years later. The Wabash Valley was launched in 1977 to operate 74 miles of former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage from Decatur to Paris, Illinois. They knew from the outset that it would lose money so operation was contingent on a subsidy from the state. The WVRC diesel fleet consisted of a pair of SW1’s, a C420 of Long Island Rail Road ancestry and three GP7’s of Pittsburgh & Lake Erie ancestry. Thanks to their previous owners, all four road switchers were set up to run long hood forward. When the Rock Island shut down in 1980, Wabash Valley stepped in to operate nearly 200 miles of RI line in Kansas. That lasted about 3 months. At the end of 1981, the subsidy for the Decatur to Paris line ended and the Wabash Valley closed up for good. The Prairie Central took over the Illinois line and tried to run it without the subsidy but failed. The track was subsequently pulled up.

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