Reporting mark CAMY Dates of operation 1994– Headquarters Connersville, Indiana | Locale Ohio Length 14 miles | |
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Track gauge 4 ft 8 ⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | ||
The Camp Chase Railway (reporting mark CAMY) is a short-line switching and terminal railroad in and near Columbus, Ohio, United States, running past the former Camp Chase. Currently owned by Indiana Boxcar Corporation as of 2015. It was previously known as Camp Chase Railroad and was owned by Carload Express, Inc. when it acquired a former New York Central Railroad line between Columbus and Lilly Chapel from Conrail in 1994. Through trackage rights, the CCRA interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway at Buckeye Yard.
CCRA owns three EMD GP9 engines, numbers 7042, 7076, and 7225, which are painted orange and black, with white "Camp Chase" lettering, and an older orange and white engine, number 752 with orange "Camp Chase Railway" lettering.
History
The Columbus, Springfield and Cincinnati Railroad opened the line between Columbus and London in 1872, and it became part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway's (Big Four's) main line west from Columbus to St. Louis and later part of the New York Central Railroad. The Penn Central Transportation Company shifted traffic to the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad line between Columbus and London, and the portion of the old Big Four line west of Lilly Chapel was not included in Conrail in 1976. The remainder was kept as a minor branch line, the Camp Chase Industrial Track. On October 11, 1994, the new Camp Chase Industrial Railroad bought the line from Conrail.
The Camp Chase Industrial Railroad has been marketed under the name Camp Chase Railroad beginning around 2009. On September 30, 2015, Carload Express, Inc. announced that its Camp Chase Railroad Company has sold its line of railroad to Camp Chase Railway Company, LLC; a wholly owned subsidiary of Indiana Boxcar Corporation. Camp Chase Railway (“CAMY”) assumed operations of the 14-mile rail line, which runs from Columbus to Lilly Chapel, Ohio, beginning on Thursday October 1, 2015. Most of CAMY freight revenue comes from grain being transported along the rails going either to some of the grain elevators along the track, or to be interchanged with NS at the Buckeye Yard.