Prototype News

The Cincinnati Scenic Railway, operator of the LM&M Railroad and Ohio Rail Experience, recently acquired a former Nickel Plate Road express car.

The car, former NKP 8505, was built in 1947 and used on the railroad’s passenger trains between Buffalo and Chicago. It later ended up on the Norfolk & Western and Norfolk Southern. The car eventually ended up in Kansas. The car was purchased from American Heritage Railways and moved with assistance from the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad in Kansas and Case Towing in Lebanon, Ohio.

The car is presently painted for the N&W and numbered 410. Cincinnati Scenic plans on restoring it to its NKP appearance and using it as a power car. The car is part of an effort by Cincinnati Scenic to restore NKP equipment important to Ohio; the group is also working to restore NKP GP9 532. Both pieces of equipment will be used on Cincinnati Scenic’s Ohio Rail Experience excursion operation around Ohio and the LM&M out of Warren County.

—Railfan & Railroad Staff

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The owner of California’s Trona Railway, the mineral-hauling short line known best among railfans for its fleet of vintage six-axle EMD locomotives, filed for bankruptcy on June 15. 

In a press release, Searles Valley Minerals blamed its struggles on a changing mineral market. The company said it will continue operations during bankruptcy proceedings and that its ultimate goal is to sell all of its assets, including the railroad.

“For more than 150 years, Searles Valley Minerals has produced critical minerals from one of the world’s few water-soluble borate deposits,” said Dennis Cruise, president of Searles Valley Minerals. “As the soda ash market changed, we repositioned the business around borates — a mineral with no synthetic substitute and growing strategic importance. A court-supervised sale is the most orderly and transparent way to place this rare resource base, and the people who run it, with an owner who can invest in its next chapter.”

Even before the bankruptcy, Trona’s future seemed uncertain. Earlier this year, Searles Valley Minerals announced it was laying off employees at its mine, resulting in a sharp decline in traffic on the railroad.

—Justin Franz 

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