Re: PC: St. Louis Line (PRR)

[Charles S Streetman <cstre1@xxxxxxxx>]

>From my 1969 Penn Central Through Freight Schedules book, the 
>following
>trains originated or terminated in E. St. Louis:

To add my 2 cents:  PC and later Conrail had a policy of routing
most westbound trains between Terre Haute and St. Louis via
the NYC main through Mattoon, and most eastbound trains over
the PRR through Effingham.  According to the article in CTC 
Board about 3 years ago, this lasted until 1978.  The reasons
for this were simple:  westbound trains on the NYC could be 
easily delivered intact to A&S at Mitchell, IL and to TRRA at WR
Tower in Granite City, IL (after all, they were supposedly 
preblocked at Avon Yard).  Eastbound trains ran on the PRR
because they either originated at Rose Lake Yard or were received
intact from A&S or TRRA at HN Cabin or Willows, respectively.
Exceptions to this included the Amtrak trains and piggyback
trains, which used the PRR in both directions.  Rose Lake was
the piggyback yard for both PC and CR.

Between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, I think they maintained
this same pattern, but eventually wound up running most 
trains via the NYC.  Certain trains undoubtedly used the PRR
right up until Conrail closed the line, but these were probably
few in number.  

So in other words, they could route trains via either mainline
regardless of whether it was a NYC-area destination such as
Cleveland or a PRR destination like Pittsburgh.  The 
Freight Schedules books would be really great if they include
intermediate points such as Mattoon or Paris, IL to clear 
things up.

Charles Streetman (yes, I enjoy this really trivial stuff)
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