The main purpose of this 3-day weekend trip was to visit my daughter at Purdue and hike the nature trails in McCormick's Creek State Park, but I also got in some railfanning.
First, we visit the Linden Railroad Museum in the little town of Linden, Ind. for a few minutes. The collection consists of a depot (R), a Plymouth critter, ...
a box car, and two cabooses. The equipment is stored on short pieces of track set at odd angles, so there's no plan for operation.
Although it was the middle of the day on Saturday, the museum was not open. And there was no indication of when it is open. Now that I'm home, though, I find they have a website with more information. But it still makes one glad to be living within driving distance of IRM!
In downtown Lafayette, there's a short stretch of railroad track in the street in front of the Lafayette Theater. Now I just need somebody to photoshop an Amtrak train into this picture. (Updated with better info from David - thanks!)
The Purdue campus still has a Railway Engineering building, although I don't know how active a program it is, if it's still going at all. The concrete letterboard at the top says "American Railway Association Building."
And finally, not railroad-related, but historic: in front of the courthouse in Greencastle, Ind. is a V-1 on a V-shaped pedestal. The only other V-1 in the US is in the Smithsonian. It's quite impressive to see one in person. As a plane, it's rather small, but as a bomb, it's huge.
Actually, that's the old Monon mainline, which went right down the middle of 5th street in Lafayette. CSX finally moved their line to a new right of way down by the river, along with the reloacated ex-Wabash line back in the 1990s. Seeing an interurban go down the street, impressive, try 3 alco C-420s pulling an 85 car freight train....
ReplyDeleteOh, and Linden, Indiana was where the Monon crossed the Nickel Plate, hence equipment from both railroads at the museum. The stone building in downtown Lafayette is the old Monon passenger depot. Sometime in the 50s, the Monon changed the stop to a spot nort of town near the now-demolished shops.
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