Indiana Railroad Work Car Variety
by Art Peterson
All photos from the Krambles-Peterson Archive
With four substantial component predecessors and an extensive interurban network from Day 1 of Indiana Railroad (IR), the work car fleet at IR offered a wide assortment of car types, each with interesting “back stories.” Here are just a few of the members of that elite club, showing the diversity of car types, etc. The cars are presented in numerical order, using their IR numbers.
Much of the car equipment data comes from the car data sheets that IR prepared for this rolling stock. This was a carry-over of the UTC practice. The extensive swapping of components between cars was not unique to IR, but the fact that these details have survived to the current day is a fortunate circumstance! As Roy Benedict observed “IR was cash poor, but component rich.”
IR 761 – East Strawn Siding – Photographer and Date Unknown
Representative of the cars coming into the IR work car roster from the Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern (THI&E), line car 177 had been built in the company shops during 1913. However, those arch windows and the doorway all speak to something significantly older having been used in the construction of this car. They look reminiscent of the details on some of the Indianapolis & Eastern or Terre Haute Electric cars, but those specifics are lost to history. The car rode on Peckham 14B trucks and was equipped with two GE 73 motors. Control equipment included one L-4 and one K-64 controller.
Renumbered to IR 761, at the time of a September 10, 1932 survey, the body was recorded as being “very loose.” Despite this, the car remained active into the late 1930s, being retired on May 23, 1938. The body was sold on July 19, 1938. East Strawn was on the Indianapolis-Richmond-Dayton Line, the old “Eastern Division” of the THI&E. The siding was located 8 miles west of Dunreith, IN.
IR 769 – Arrow Avenue, Anderson – ca. 1936 – G Krambles Photo
The handsome passenger car that eventually would become IR line car 769 was built for the Marion-Wabash line by John Stephenson in June 1905. Almost immediately after receipt, the car was involved in an overturn accident on Anderson’s west side at Arrow and Nichol. Restored to service, the car joined the UTC roster and was rebuilt into a three-compartment configuration during 1915.
Selected for rebuild to a line car in 1927, the car retained its Stephenson trucks, along with GE 73 motors and K-14 control. Under IR, the car was again rebuilt in June 1931, at which time it received the trucks from UTC car “Butler,” along with GE 205 motors from “Windsplitter” 414 and GE K-34 controllers from interurban cars 424 and 425.
During the time when George Krambles was working for IR at Anderson Shops, he caught the car at work doing some serious tree-trimming on Arrow Avenue. In addition, the car and the photographer have collected an audience. IR retired the 769 in March 1938; the car was burned at Anderson on March 9, 1938.
IR 1152 – Columbus Shop – 1936 – GW Niceley Photo
This 1908 Jewett-built car had one of those interesting, complex paths finding its way into the IR work car roster. Glenn Niceley shot this fine down-on view of the car during the period when it was assigned as the tool/wreck car at the Columbus Shops on the former Interstate Public Service (IPS) Louisville Line.
Originally built for the Western Ohio Railway & Power (WOR&P), the car was initially assigned to the joint WOR&P-Lake Shore Electric Cleveland-Lima through car service. By August 1912, WOR&P had sold the car to IPS, where it was renumbered 149. By the time of the 1932 IR equipment survey, the car was equipped with Standard trucks (likely C80P's), GE 205B motors, K-64 control and a D2-EG compressor. IR retired this car during 1939.
IR 1162 – Anderson – 1933 – GW Niceley Photo
Although IR had city operations in a dozen cities from “Day 1,” there were no active cars dating back to the turn of the century, at least not in the revenue city car roster. The “why and wherefore” of UTC’s purchase of this 1903 Brill-built car from Cleveland is another of those lost, historic details.
The roster in CERA B-102 indicated that UTC had bought car 198 from Cleveland in 1919, but that conflicts with the roster data in CERA B-108, which lists the 198 as having become Cleveland Railway’s welding car 0695, which remained active in Cleveland until 1954. Regardless, UTC 1162 continued to function as a welding car on the IR roster.
On April 6, 1931, the 1162 received the WH 93 motors from car 195. However, by the time of the November 30, 1932 car survey, the car was stored at Anderson, where Glenn Niceley later caught it. IR both retired and sold this car on December 15, 1933.
IR 1186 – Anderson – January 1, 1939 – JF Cook Photo
There were a couple of crane or hoist cars on the IR roster, but only one could trace its lineage back to the Muncie & Portland Traction Company (M&P). The M&P had been leased by UTC from October 25, 1912, at which time this then-six-year-old car became UTC 1167.
Eventually renumbered to 1186 on the IR roster, as the 1930s progressed the hoist cars were frequently engaged in ripping up abandoned rail routes. For example, the “Grays” and “Jackson” station signs adorning the 1186 were both stops on the Indianapolis-Kokomo-Peru line, which last had rail service on September 11, 1938.
The hoist on the 1186 (removed for salvage in this view) was powered by a WH 93 motor and controlled through a K-10 controller. IR had shopped this car in June 1931, at which time the Westinghouse motor replaced the GE 1000 motor previously used.
IR 1193 – Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis – ca. 1939 – RH George Photo
IR did find occasions to add to the work car roster; weed cutter 1193 is an example of this. Built on a St. Louis 72 truck, and equipped with two GE 75 motors and a K-10 controller, Anderson Shops completed the weed cutter car in June 1939. Here, it’s traversing the Kentucky Avenue freight house lead track. The tracks in the street belong to the Indianapolis-Terre Haute line.
Acknowledgements: Many books were consulted in the preparation of this piece including numerous CERA Bulletins. In addition, this piece would not have been possible had not many of the Indiana fans ensured that the IR Car Data sheets were preserved.
4 comments:
I always wondered if there ever was a preservation attempt on the Indiana RR as it was in the state of demise (other than IRM's purchase). Even if someone got a body just to keep it like it was, with seats intact etc. I gather the parlor, box motor and suburban cars that got relocated were just practical purchases. O. Anderson
The closest car I can think of is the Parlor Car #600 that was featured in an article in Traction & Models magazine. It seems the car was purchased by some Automobile Club or something and was even re-lettered for them.
My impression is that in the 1930s-1940s, traction fans didn’t think of rail preservation in terms of artifacts as much as we do today. When they thought about preserving a line like IR, they thought of photos and written histories, not an interurban car sitting on a farm. Nobody had yet built an operating traction museum. You see an example of this with CERA and a few other clubs that were given cars and ended up disposing of them; it’s not that they didn’t want to preserve the history, but they didn’t think of acquiring rolling stock as the way to do that. It was a major change in a lot of people’s mindsets, largely during the 1950s and 1960s, that led to the creation of operating museums like Seashore, Branford, ORM, and of course IRM. Odinius was really ahead of his time!
Exactly, when the Boston Fans chartered Biddeford & Saco #31 that July day in 1939 nobody was initially thinking on saving a car. But as the story goes someone reportedly H. Lincoln Harrison proposed saving #31 from destruction. This was a novel if not risky proposition but it was met with enthusiasm just the same. So they passed the hat and raised the $150.00 to purchase the car. I believe my Grandfather Charlie Duncan contributed to the cause but did not initially join his friends formally until it proved the effort was successful. This I always felt was why there were ten founders of the fledgling Seashore Electric Railway but my Grandfathers Membership # was 11. This # was later passed on to me
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