C&I

 Cambria & Indiana Railroad

The Cambria & Indiana Railroad was a railroad stretching roughly 60 miles in Cambria and Indiana Counties. Incorporated in 1904 and ceased operations in 1994, the railroad started as a lumber railroad and eventually moved away from lumber and onto coal. The railroad started out as the Blacklick and Yellow Creek railroad and in 1910 was renamed to Cambria & Indiana Railroad. It was named after the counties it served. The railroad had two major connections, one with the New York Central in Manver, the PRR in Vintondale and the PRR in Ebensburg later Conrail. I could go on and on with the history of the C&I but this post is about the C&I Roster on the Blairsville Cutoff.

There will be a small portion along the Blairsville Cutoff where the C&I will have a connection to the mainline so there can be interchange done with loaded hopper cars and empty hopper cars. The C&I will bring loaded hopper cars out to the mainline where a set of Conrail engines will drop a string of empties off and pick up the loads and head to cresson where the cars will be sent west later on. 

C&I Locomotives

There is a total of 6 C&I engines on the roster for the short section that is dedicated to the railroad. For each train there will be at least a total of four engines with two at the front and two at the rear unless the train is heavier than expected and then all 6 engines will be added. The engines will have their own "engine facility" which will be located in the staging area not seen on camera. You may see from time to time though C&I engines heading to blairsville or cresson for some light or heavy servicing. Anyways, the roster will vary from SW7's, SW9's to SW1500's but mostly the SW9 locomotives.

C&I Hopper Cars

The C&I had a good roster of these 2 Bay 55 Ton Hopper Cars. They weren't the only hoppers on the roster as there were 3 Bay 75 Ton and 4 Bay 85 and 90 Ton Hopper Cars until the AAR revised the axel's and changed them to 100 Ton Hopper Cars. Most of the hoppers you will see on the C&I portion will be 2 Bay Hopper Cars with the occasional 3 & 4 Bay Hopper Cars. 

C&I Cabooses

The Cambria & Inidiana had a small roster of Cabooses. Although there really isn't much history on their Caboose roster, I do know that there were at least three ( numbers 54, 55, & 56 ) that were on the roster. By the end of operations #56 was the only caboose being used as the disposition of the other cabooses aren't really known. You will see Cabooses #54, #55, & #56 being used at any given time on the railroad. When the hopper trains are interchanged with conrail, the caboose that was on the previous train will be added to the end of the inbound empties while the caboose that came out on with the loaded hoppers will be set off and wait for another inbound empty train. Seems a little confusing but it will all make sense when operations do finally get started on the railroad.