Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Coffeen and Western Railroad: Difference between revisions

Coffeen and Western Railroad (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)

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I cannot find any evidence that this is an actual operating railroad, or ever was. It does not appear on the Illinois DOT railroad map. There is an utter lack of any secondary sourcing of this company. The most I can figure out is that it’s a 0.2 mile long spur serving an Ameren facility. Reporting marks “CAEG” clearly imply Ameren Energy Generating Company. A Branford Steam Railroad this is not. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:18, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Transportation and Illinois. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:18, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep. OpenCorporates confirms that the company exists this link, and Amaren’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirm that Coffeen and Western Railroad was a subsidiary of Ameren Energy Generating Company on December 31, 2008. It is unclear whether the railroad’s ownership changed when Ameren sold Coffeen Power Station to Dynegy in 2013. Dynergy was later acquired by Vistra Corp., which closed the power station in 2019. On the basis of “once notable, always notable”, I think the article should be kept, even though I can’t tell who owns the company and whether it still operates trains. I don’t know whether its fleet of hoppers were sold or are leased to some other company, but at least I was able to find some relevant information. Addresses shown on OpenCorporates are often those of an agent rather than a company’s real headquarters. https://renewillinoispower.com/community-scorecard-energy/coffeen/ says that Coffeen Power Station has been replaced by a solar energy facility, but I can’t tell whether it uses the rail facilities. Dun & Bradstreet has a listing for Coffeen and Western Railroad under D-U-N-S number 623794992. Eastmain (talk • contribs) 06:02, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  I’m not disputing that an entity by this name exists or did exist, I’m disputing that it was ever an operating railroad and that it has been the subject of any secondary coverage. Your sources which are exclusively primary just prove my point further. You just want the article kept because you want everything kept, policies and guidelines be damned. WP:N doesn’t cease to govern just because you don’t like it. You really want to argue with the guy who writes all day about long since gone railroads that “once notable, always notable” is a policy? You know I wrote a FA about a railroad that shut down in 1947, right? This is a sad response to the deletion nomination and makes it hard to even take your vote seriously.

  Let’s go source by source and refute everything in your response:

  • OpenCorporates is a glorified database, and there’s nothing at the link you provided that gives even the slightest amount of detail on the subject. Obviously not a source meeting GNG.
  • Dun and Bradstreet is the same sort of thing as OpenCorporates. There’s no significant coverage, or even anything close. Clear GNG fail.
  • You’re speculating about the fleet of hoppers and if the facility was replaced with solar. I don’t care, and neither does GNG. We need coverage of the supposed railroad and you have failed to find anything usable. Don’t you think I checked before making this nomination? Railroads are my bread and butter. I looked in all the usual places. Any operating or formerly operating common carrier railroad will meet GNG 99% of the time, easily. I can’t find anything even close to meeting GNG and I looked extensively. This is not notable, it never has been notable, you made no effort to even try and prove it is notable, and it’s exhausting to spend so much more time refuting your policy-ignorant arguments than it takes for you to generate them.

  Eastmain, do you even know what GNG is? How about WP:N? Your response is so extremely out of line with community consensus it makes me wonder if you should be allowed to participate in AfD at all. “I think the article should be kept, even though there’s basically zero verifiable information about any aspect of it, because I don’t want anything to ever be deleted” would at least be honest and let me respect you a bit more. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:54, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Companies-related deletion discussions. WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 06:44, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep. Article now has multiple citations to establish notability. JoeNMLC (talk) 13:52, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  If you think source #2 establishes notability, your understanding of notability is entirely at odds with the Wikipedia community to the point I question your competence to participate in AfD. At least look at the two sources before voting. Both are WP:PRIMARY, but source 2 is egregious because in its entirety it is just a list of subsidiaries which confirms an entity by the name Coffeen and Western Railroad exists. It says zero about the subject. Not a single sentence. I’m losing my mind here. Has AfD always had everyone just ignore policies, guidelines, and reality, or is this a recent development? Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:59, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• If there’s anything worth keeping in this article, merge it to either Amren (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) or Coffeen Power Station (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views). There’s not enough reference material on the Web or on Newspapers.com to indicate notability of this railroad, other than discussion in some railfan forums. —Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 21:22, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  I assume you mean Ameren (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) ~Kvng (talk) 16:52, 9 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Delete: Company exists but too many WP:PRIMARY sources, searching it up yields no secondary/independent sources, making a it WP:SIRS/WP:ORGIND fail and notability fail. Its a company only on paper. x2step (lets talk 💌) 06:42, 28 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]