Coffeen and Western Railroad

Coffeen and Western Railroad Company, abbreviated CWRC, was a Class III short line railroad that the utility holding company Ameren Corporation was forming in 2004 to serve the Coffeen power plant in Illinois. In April 2004 the company filed a notice with the Surface Transportation Board to lease from Ameren Energy Generating Company and operate about 0.2 miles of rail line near Coffeen, starting off the power plant's main lead track. That track had been private, and the filing states that common carrier operations would be established on it so that any existing or new shipper could request service. Ameren filed separately to acquire control of CWRC once it became a carrier, certifying that its projected revenues would not exceed five million dollars. The trade press of the time also reported a plan to build a 13-mile line between Coffeen and Walshville that would link the plant with the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainlines to receive coal, operated by CWRC. Ameren already controlled the short lines Joppa and Eastern Railroad and Missouri Central Railroad, neither of which connected to CWRC.