Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad: Roster, History, Photos

Last revised: October 18, 2026

The Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad is a Class III short line at Parkersburg, West Virginia. The Board’s notices abbreviate the company BIP. It leases and operates CSX Transportation track across the Ohio River - part of the B&O's former St. Louis main line - and north through Marietta to Relief, Ohio along the B&O's former Ohio and Little Kanawha line (O&LK Subdivision). Service began on May 2, 2020. CSX still owns the rail. The piece in service is the Baltimore & Ohio bridge, the stub west to Belpre, and the Marietta Subdivision. The deeper history of this trackage is the Marietta and Cincinnati. Five GP38-3s work the line.

Belpre Industrial Parkersburg GP38-3 No. 378 leading Job 1 eastbound off the Ohio River bridge into High Yard at Parkersburg on May 31, 2024

GP38-3 No. 378 leads Job 1 eastbound off the Ohio River bridge into the old Baltimore & Ohio High Yard at Parkersburg, West Virginia, on May 31, 2024. The span was part of the St. Louis main line. It is abandoned west of Belpre, Ohio, and east of the old yard. Doug Kroll photograph.

On this page: At a glance · The lease · Parkersburg and the Baltimore & Ohio · On the railroad · Diesel roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, LLC. The Board’s notices use BIP
Track	Owned by CSX Transportation. Operated under lease
Lease	Surface Transportation Board Docket FD 36388, decided March 30, 2020. Initial term of fifteen years, with an automatic five-year extension if the conditions in the agreement are met
Service began	May 2, 2020
Mileage	About 46.9 miles. Marietta Subdivision, 38 miles. Parkersburg Running Track, 5.29 miles. High Yard Main Track, 3.61 miles. High Yard’s other tracks are in the same lease
Ends	Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Belpre, Ohio, and Belpre north to Relief, Ohio
Locomotives	Five GP38-3s, Nos. 178, 278, 378, 478, and 578. On this page
Connection	CSX at Parkersburg
Status	In service

The lease

On February 29, 2020, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported that CSX had told local employees of a transaction that would let the Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad operate CSX’s Marietta Subdivision. CSX had asked for bids on that subdivision in June 2018, one of six segments the railroad put out that month. The notice reached the Surface Transportation Board as a lease. Docket FD 36388 was decided on March 30, 2020, and published on April 3. Belpre Industrial Parkersburg, then a noncarrier, filed under 49 CFR 1150.31 to lease and operate about 46.9 miles of CSX rail and yard property. The earliest the exemption could be consummated was April 18, 2020. Trains started on May 2.

The notice describes four pieces. The Marietta Subdivision runs from Belpre, Ohio, at or near milepost BUS 0.0, to Relief, Ohio, at or near milepost BUS 38.0, about 38 miles. The Parkersburg Running Track runs from Parkersburg, at or near milepost BB 194.59, to Belpre, at or near milepost BB 189.3, about 5.29 miles, and that piece includes the bridge. High Yard lies in Parkersburg at or near milepost BA 383.04, with the support, ancillary, and other tracks that form the yard. The High Yard Main Track runs through the yard from at or near milepost BA 384.8, through the east end, to the end of track at or near milepost BA 381.19, about 3.61 miles. Those three measured pieces are the 46.9 miles. The yard tracks sit inside the same lease. A later Board footnote classes the yard as excepted track under 49 U.S.C. 10906 and keeps its length out of the main-line total. High Yard is on Depot Street.

The agreement, B.A. No. 1524, has an initial term of fifteen years and an automatic five-year extension if the conditions in it are met. The filing certified that interchange with another connecting carrier stayed open, and that projected revenue would stay within Class III and within $5 million.

Casey Cathcart, president, described the company to the Railroad Retirement Board in a determination of December 11, 2020. Cathcart, Inc. was the sole member-manager of Cathcart Rail, LLC, and Cathcart Rail was the sole member-manager of the Belpre company. Casey Cathcart and his father, Thomas, each owned half of Cathcart, Inc. The same family included Bucyrus Railcar Repair and Utica Tank Cleaning. Cathcart told the Board the railroad would be a small switching line, about 5,000 interchanged carloads for eight customers, with CSX the only connecting carrier and about 90 percent of the revenue. Nine employees were first paid on April 20, 2020. The letter CSX employees saw on February 29 had listed eight jobs in Parkersburg.

On May 16, 2025, the Board published a separate notice, Docket FD 36853. Star America Rail Holdco, LLC, had agreed to buy a controlling interest in Cathcart Rail Holdco, LLC, from Cathcart, Inc. Cathcart Rail Holdco owns Cathcart Rail, LLC, which owns Cathcart Rail Services, LLC, and that company controls the Belpre railroad together with the Bucyrus Industrial Railroad and the Cornhusker Railroad. The notice set June 1, 2025, as the earliest day control of the holding company could pass. The track stayed with CSX.

On April 24, 2026, the Belpre company filed to amend the lease, Docket FD 36388 (Sub-No. 1). The notice describes the same 46.9 miles and the same four pieces, and it says the company was already operating them. The parties had agreed to change the terms of the lease. The published notice keeps the same description of the lines. The amendment could be consummated on or after May 10, 2026. Projected revenue was again certified under $5 million, and the filing again left interchange open.

Parkersburg and the Baltimore & Ohio

The bridge in the photograph is the Baltimore & Ohio’s. It opened on January 7, 1871. Historic American Engineering Record WV-12 gives the length as 7,140 feet. The railroad that reached the Ohio bank, and the later line north from Harmar through Marietta, is the Marietta and Cincinnati. High Yard was the Baltimore & Ohio’s Parkersburg yard, on the St. Louis main line. Passenger trains used the bridge into the Amtrak years. The Shenandoah, Washington to Cincinnati, returned to the route in October 1976 and last ran on September 30, 1981. The Capitol Limited kept the Washington–Cumberland portion.

In 1985 CSX moved to take up the Parkersburg Branch, from Clarksburg to Parkersburg, and much of the old Ohio Division. East of High Yard, and west of Belpre, that main line is gone. What the lease covers is the bridge, the yard, the stub to Belpre at milepost BB 189.3, and the Marietta Subdivision north to Relief.

Relief is near Beverly. Coal to American Electric Power’s Muskingum River plant at Beverly was the traffic that had kept the north end busy. The Marietta Times reported on July 12, 2013, that the company would close the plant by the end of 2015. The plant closed in 2015. The milepost at Relief is still the north end of the lease.

Belpre Industrial Parkersburg GP38-3s Nos. 478 and 378 switching the Eveready Battery plant in Marietta, Ohio, on May 31, 2024

GP38-3s Nos. 478 and 378 switching the Eveready Battery plant in Marietta, Ohio, on May 31, 2024. Doug Kroll photograph.

On the railroad

The west end of the old Ohio Division, inside this lease, stops at Belpre. Trains, in a profile of January 20, 2023, names Kraton Polymers as the plant at that end of the line. The same profile places Cathcart’s Bucyrus Railcar Repair and Utica Tank Cleaning in High Yard. The Marietta photograph of May 31, 2024, shows Nos. 478 and 378 at the Eveready Battery plant. The pair was at Constitution later that day, headed back to Parkersburg. Interchange is with CSX at Parkersburg. In the 2020 account CSX was the only connecting carrier.

In July 2020 the railroad had three GP38-3s on the property and expected a fourth. The roster since then is the five locomotives below. Nos. 378 and 478 are the engines in the photographs of May 31, 2024.

Belpre Industrial Parkersburg GP38-3s Nos. 378 and 478 at Constitution, Ohio, on May 31, 2024

GP38-3s Nos. 378 and 478 at Constitution, Ohio, headed back to Parkersburg on May 31, 2024. Doug Kroll photograph.

Diesel roster

Each of the five locomotives was rebuilt and lettered GP38-3. The table gives the Electro-Motive serial, the builder order, and the railroad that bought the unit new. Nos. 178 and 478 were built as GP38s. Nos. 278 and 378 were built as Louisville & Nashville GP38ACs. No. 578 was built as a Baltimore & Ohio GP40.

Number	Model	Builder	Serial	Order	Built	Notes
178	GP38-3	EMD	36069	7240	March 1970	Built as Southern GP38 2821. Order 7240, Southern 2778–2822, serials 36026–36070, January–March 1970
278	GP38-3	EMD	37631	7305	May–June 1971	Built as Louisville & Nashville GP38AC 4042. The 4040–4049 group, serials 37629–37638
378	GP38-3	EMD	35977	7234	May 1971	Built as Louisville & Nashville GP38AC 4023. The 4020–4029 group, serials 35974–35983. The engine in the May 31, 2024 photographs
478	GP38-3	EMD	35451	7202	November 1969	Built as Penn Central GP38 7822. Order 7202, Penn Central 7815–7824, serials 35444–35453. The second engine in the May 31, 2024 photographs
578	GP38-3	EMD	38541	7356	November 1971	Built as Baltimore & Ohio GP40 4061. Order 7356, Baltimore & Ohio 4055–4064, serials 38535–38544

Sources

Federal Register, April 3, 2020, 85 FR 19053, Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, LLC, lease and operation exemption, Docket No. FD 36388, decided March 30, 2020. The four pieces, the 46.9 miles, the fifteen-year term, and April 18, 2020.
Federal Register, April 24, 2026, 91 FR 22214, amendment to the lease and operation exemption, Docket No. FD 36388 (Sub-No. 1). The same lines. High Yard as excepted track. May 10, 2026.
Federal Register, May 16, 2025, 90 FR 21101, Star America Fund II GP, LLC, and Star America Rail Holdco, LLC, control exemption, Docket No. FD 36853. The holding-company chain, and June 1, 2025.
Railroad Retirement Board, BCD 21-08, Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, LLC, December 11, 2020. Cathcart, Inc., and Cathcart Rail. Lease B.A. No. 1524. Operations on May 2, 2020. Nine employees first compensated April 20, 2020. The company’s statement of about 5,000 carloads, eight customers, and CSX as the connecting carrier.
Evan Bevins, Parkersburg News and Sentinel, February 29, 2020, “CSX leasing rail line from Parkersburg to Marietta.” The June 2018 bid request, the CSX statement, High Yard on Depot Street, and the eight positions.
Lucas Iverson, Trains, “Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad profile,” January 20, 2023. Kraton Polymers at the west end in Belpre. Bucyrus Railcar Repair and Utica Tank Cleaning in High Yard. The start of operation on May 2, 2020.
Akron Railroad Club, July 18, 2020. Three GP38-3s on the property, and a fourth expected.
Marietta Times, July 12, 2013, “AEP to close Beverly power plant in 2015.” The Muskingum River plant at Beverly.
Historic American Engineering Record, WV-12, for the bridge length of 7,140 feet. The opening on January 7, 1871, and the 1985 taking-up of the Parkersburg Branch, are the account on the Marietta and Cincinnati page.
American-Rails, the Shenandoah page, for the October 1976 return and the last run on September 30, 1981.
Electro-Motive production, as compiled on the Louisville & Nashville diesel roster and the Baltimore & Ohio diesel roster. Southern 2778–2822, order 7240, serials 36026–36070, January–March 1970. Penn Central 7815–7824, order 7202, serials 35444–35453, November 1969. Louisville & Nashville GP38AC 4020–4029, serials 35974–35983, order 7234, May 1971, and 4040–4049, serials 37629–37638, order 7305, May–June 1971. Baltimore & Ohio GP40 4055–4064, serials 38535–38544, order 7356, November 1971.

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger