Iowa Interstate has filed with the Surface Transportation Board for permission to acquire 100% ownership of the Lincoln & Southern Railroad. The L&S is a railroad on paper only – it was created by BF Goodrich to save the portion of the Peoria line from Henry, IL, as a second connection to their Henry chemical plant in order to avoid being locked into CSXT for their shipping needs. The L&S has never owned equipment nor had an employee. It’s currently owned by PolyOne Corporation, the owners of the old BF Goodrich plant at Henry. Shortly after the L&S’s creation in 1985, Iowa Interstate was chosen as an operator, and the route has been operated as part of IAIS since 1987. Today, it’s a vital piece of the Second Subdivision.
On 4-Feb-2006, IAIS signed a lease for the Bureau-Henry portion of the line from CSXT, giving them direct control of the northern half of the Second Sub. The stated purpose for acquiring the southernmost portion is to upgrade it to handle 286,000 pound railcars – something L&S’s current owners are not interested in doing. It would seem that this southern gateway for Iowa Interstate is the next on the upgrade list to start handling heavier trains, now that the east-west mainline has been significantly improved to 286k standards. My guess would be to look for significant amounts of trackwork down that way next summer.
The STB filing paperwork is mirrored on IAISRailfans [here], and it can obviously also be found on the Surface Transportation Board’s site [here].
– NDH