Search

The newest and cleanest Indiana & Ohio locomotive, GP38-2 No. 3565, originally built as Rio Grande GP40 No. 3053 in 1966, leads an I&O / Cincinnati Railway Passenger Special for I&O employees past the former PRR interlocking tower at Rendcomb Junction in the Linwood area of Cincinnati on June 13, 2023. The trip operated with the Cincinnati Dinner Train's equipment, and ran as a lunch special over part of the normal CDT route for I&O management and employees with I&O Geeps on each end.

An empty I&O Melvin Stone Train makes a sprint across CSX trackage as train Z896-29, heading for the I&O's Midland Sub behind three SD40-2's as they cross the Mill Creek Bridge at Winton Place interlocking in Spring Grove Village.

IORY 3542 and the Blue Ash Local pull across Kemper Road while switching a customer in Brecon, as viewed from a pond at an apartment complex near the tracks. The sun angle hit the fountain just right to create a rainbow effect!

Indiana & Ohio GP38-2 No. 3525 pulls a cut of cars across Alliance Road in Blue Ash on a spur track off of the Blue Ash Subdivision.

Consecutively numbered Indiana & Ohio SD40-2's lead a loaded Melvin Stone Train over Sycamore Creek and Spooky Hollow Road in Remington on what was once the B&O's Ohio Division mainline, today's I&O Midland Subdivision.

A pair of G&W Corporate Orange I&O Geeps ease the Blue Ash Local downhill at the replica CL&N depot museum in Silverton, Ohio on a cold but sunny winter afternoon.

I&O transfer job Z880-01 is reflected in the calm waters of the Mill Creek and it rolls northbound through Winton Place interlocking just north of Cincinnati on CSX trackage with the IORY 5016 as the sole power. 5016 (ex-UTAH and Hamersley Iron 6063) is one of two Australian-built EMD SD50S units on the I&O roster, with the other being IORY 5017 (ex-UTAH and Hamersley Iron 6064).

On a rainy and very mild, almost Pacific Northwest-like summer afternoon in the Ohio Valley, the Indiana & Ohio Railway's Blue Ash Local returns to McCollugh Yard in Norwood, Ohio, after working a customer on the Blue Ash Subdivision, seen here crossing the bridge over another I&O line, the Oasis Subdivision, behind I&O GP50 No. 5013 (originally built as BN 3103). The interlocking on the Oasis Sub, as the sign notes, is known as CP RIDGE, which is still guarded by classic Pennsylvania Railroad Position Light Signals.

Fall Colors were hard to come by in the Ohio Valley in 2021, but you could find some if you looked hard enough. Here, CRC GP30 No. 902, recently restored to her factory Nickel Plate Road dress, leads an Ohio Rail Experience excursion eastbound on the CIND (ex-NYC) mainline near New Point, Indiana.

IORY 5017, one of two unique ex-Hamersley Iron Australia EMD SD50S units on the I&O roster, leads a westbound empty Honda auto rack train across the former Big Four Great Miami River Bridge in Cleves, Ohio.

Almost looking like a DT&I trackage rights train from days gone by with a non dynamic brake orange EMD Geep on the point, a rare Indiana & Ohio Railway road freight operating across Norfolk Southern's Dayton District storms up Mauds Hill at Dimmick Road in West Chester, Ohio with 11,500 EMD Horsepower lugging 83 cars up the hill that was once a helper district in New York Central days. Operating as train IORY04-02, this train was a detour move with traffic for Lima and Delta, Ohio on the former DT&I due to a washout on the I&O's Midland Subdivision. While a rare move today, the I&O had previously operated road freights to and from the former DT&I mainline in Springfield, Ohio over this line on trackage rights until the acquisition of the Midland Subdivision in 2004, which completed the link for the I&O's own route from Cincinnati to the former DT&I. The trackage rights trains from Springfield to Cincinnati were operated by Grand Trunk and predecessor DT&I prior to 1997.

After working the WestRock and H.B. Fuller facilities, a pair of I&O geeps lead the Blue Ash Local southbound on the former CL&N mainline near Milepost 44 in Blue Ash.

IORY 3488, an ex-Burlington Northern SD40-2, leads the eastbound CIND Honda Turn at Idaho Street in Sedamsville.

After finishing up their switching work at WestRock, the I&O's Blue Ash Local proceeds south through their namesake community of Blue Ash, approaching Milepost 44 on the former CL&N as they head back to their home base at McCollugh Yard (MP 50) in nearby Norwood.

Our three daughters wave to the crew of Indiana & Ohio train L202-01, the Blue Ash Local, from the platform of the depot in the suburban Cincinnati community of Silverton, Ohio. The depot here is a replica of the original Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railway structure, and houses a museum. The girls' late grandfather was a firefighter for the Deer Park - Silverton Joint Fire District for many years, so I'm sure he would've loved seeing his granddaughters greeting a train here.