Oh, so short lived!!!

The Erie Western Railway began operations with seven locomotives: three Alco C420s and four Alco RS-3s.

The locomotive on the front of this post card is one of the Alco RS-3s. It is seen here in Griffith, Indiana on July 8, 1978. The Erie Western Railway was created because the former main line of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, which went bankrupt in 1972, was not included in the federal government's creation of Conrail. This prompted the Erie Western to be formed by shippers and others who wanted to retain and preserve rail service. The Erie Western was incorporated in August 1977 and began operations under an Interstate Commerce Commission car service order on September 25, 1977, to operate freight service for 158 miles on the former Erie Lackawanna Railway main line from the Indiana/Ohio state line near Wren, Ohio west to Hammond, Indiana. The railroad also operated a 27-mile branch line extending from Decatur to Portland, Indiana. The Erie Western also possessed ICC-granted rights to operate from Hammond to Chicago on trackage rights over the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad. These trackage rights enabled the ERES to interchange with many of the Windy City's major Class Is including the Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, Grand Trunk Western, Louisville & Nashville, and Norfolk & Western. Operating a railroad, even a short one like the Erie Western Railway, is expensive and the railroad soon failed and discontinued operations on June 24, 1979.

The photo was taken by Thomas J. Golden and the post card was published by Mary Jayne's Railroad Specialties. I have 243 post cards in my collection from her. This is the second largest group of post cards from one publisher in my collection.