Historic Railroad Photos, Page 6

Clerk Sam (Bud) R. Childs and agent C. Ross Lee pose at the new 3-I depot in Hamlet, Indiana. This depot was built in 1911, replacing one destroyed by fire earlier in the year. Looking north, HA tower is on the right at the PFtW&C crossing. Photo from Almy Awald collection.

It’s a rainy day at the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern depot at LaPorte, Indiana. This depot was probably built about 1853 at the same time the railroad was built though LaPorte. The depot also had a hotel on the second floor. The building was destroyed by fire in 1907 and was replaced with the present depot. Photo is from an unknown contributor.

Nickel Plate train 86 climbs out of the Wabash River valley north of Peru, Indiana. Engineer C. V. Gross certainly had his work cut out for him, as this train has just left the yard at the bottom of this 1.6 per cent grade. The railroad has been removed between Rochester and Kokomo. This photo appeared on the cover of the Nickel Plate employee magazine’s May/June 1960 issue. NKP photo.

A tower operator hard at work. J. J. (Romey) Gearhart was the operator on the day this photo was taken, probably in the 1920s. HA tower was located at Hamlet, Indiana at the crossing of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads. Take a look around the office, wouldn’t it be great to be able visit this place. Photo from Almy Awald collection.

It’s not often you get to see the old and new side by side, but we have that here. In 1910 the B&O built a new brick depot in Nappanee, Indiana to replace the frame depot, which is behind the new one in the picture. The new depot is nearing completion and is still standing after ninety years. Amtrak served the depot until Nappanee ceased being an Amtrak stop about a year ago. Postcard from the Bob Albert collection.

Kokomo, Indiana was located on the Pennsylvania’s Panhandle line between Logansport and Cincinnati. The Pennsy passenger and freight depot is shown as it appeared on October 10, 1934. The depot was built between 1925 and 1928 to replace a depot that was built in 1878. The depot was freight only after April 30, 1971. The depot was partially destroyed by fire on June 4, 1980 and was demolished during the week of January 19-23, 1981. Photo from the Bob Albert collection.

This is a new Nickel Plate bridge on the IMC Division south of Noblesville, Indiana looking north along Allisonville Road (old SR 37). The area looks much different today. The white building on the upper right was a new car dealer and you can see a road bridge over a small creek just beyond the viaduct. The photo was taken by the Indiana Department of Conservation, apparently in the 1940s. Photo from the Bob Albert collection.

The Nickel Plate Road and the Pere Marquette interchanged at Belfast, Indiana. In earlier times a two-story depot stood at the diamond, but on this day in the 1940s only a small maintainers shed stands. PM 2-8-2 1004 has cut away from it’s train and is crossing the diamond, probably to pick up cars from the NKP. The crossing was gate protected until the PM was abandoned, you can see the gate to the left of 1004’s headlight. The 1004 was built by Baldwin in 1913 and was retired in June 1948, never being renumbered as a C&O engine. Photo is courtesy of M. D. McCarter Photographs Photographs, please check our links page for his catalog.

On August 24, 1942 a Pennsy westbound train cleared the Plymouth, Indiana interlocking plant and stopped in the westward passing track. The tower operator lined up a northbound Nickel Plate train, as the NKP train approached the crossing, the PRR train decided to shove back. No one was properly protecting the back-up move and they shoved through the derail and onto the diamond where a gondola car derailed. Photo from the Bob Albert collection.

The Nickel Plate train, running about 18 mph, hit the gondola near center and shoved it about 120 feet north of the diamond. The remains of the gondola, which was reportedly carrying steel plates, is shown here. Two PRR brakeman and the NKP engineer were injured in this wreck. Photo from the Bob Albert collection.

OM tower was located 2.1 miles west of Plymouth, Indiana at a location called Morrison. I don’t believe there was ever any town, but it was the west end of two 249 car-passing tracks. OM was made remote control from Plymouth about 1930. Morrison became known as West Plymouth by the Pennsy and Penn Central, Conrail renamed it Rock (as in Plymouth Rock). Photo from Almy Awald collection.

The freight house at Winamac, Indiana was built by Pennsylvania predecessor Chicago and Great Eastern in 1862. This building is the oldest surviving Pennsy structure in the state of Indiana. The man standing in front of “Shaw’s Shack” is probably Shaw himself. This building is now used by the local historical society and houses a model railroad layout and other displays with an Erie caboose outside. Photo is from the Emory Kinney collection.

This picture shows the original Vandalia depot at Grass Creek, Indiana. The photo is dated about 1903-04 and later burned. The people in the picture are (l-r) Burt Hizer, Elmer Hizer, Tom Waddups, Jack Waddups, Charles Edgerton (agent) and Joe Loofborough. An old box car is used as a freight room. Photo provided by the Grass Creek Lions Club.

During 1915-1916 Robert Grace Contracting Company made a sizable cut at Palmer, Indiana for the Erie’ realignment project. Most people have never heard of “MS” tower, which is shown behind the steam shovels. This was when the Erie was doing a grade reduction and realignment project. Photo from HVRM collection.

West of Hulbert, Indiana the Erie’s contractors constructed a large trestle to reduce grades in the area. The trestle later had fill dumped around it. This realignment project was between Kouts and Crown Point and also eliminated an old sinking bridge near Palmer. Also, some bridges were rebuilt east of Kouts. Photo from Bob Albert collection.