The Fort Wayne Railfan

That or the pet project for whoever was the councilman for that district at the time.

I'm sure it didn't hurt, nor did the good connections the Wabash had in town with the Pennsy and the NKP. The fact that for the most part, the Wabash was straight and fast, served a lot of good sized towns and was ideally suited to automotive traffic, (particularly Ford) gave it a leg up. In many w...

I'm sure it didn't hurt, nor did the good connections the Wabash had in town with the Pennsy and the NKP. The fact that for the most part, the Wabash was straight and fast, served a lot of good sized towns and was ideally suited to automotive traffic, (particularly Ford) gave it a leg up. In many wa...

I'm sure that and other limiting factors of the line all contributed. Without being rebuilt from the ground up, there is no way the Cloverleaf could EVER compete with the Wabash as a through route. The NKP made do, because that is what they had to work with. I can't say for sure how much totally is...

I'm sure that and other limiting factors of the line all contributed. Without being rebuilt from the ground up, there is no way the Cloverleaf could EVER compete with the Wabash as a through route. I can't say for sure how much totally is that way, but several of the areas I have looked at have the ...

Boy, it would be interesting to see once of those Wabash 86' box cars go around that! How did 3 axle diesels do on that curve? Did six axle diesels EVER run on the Cloverleaf? The only six axle units the NKP had worked in Wheeling territory, and I don't think I have ever seen anything other than ge...

There's a short section of the Cloverleaf still served by the CF&E, which includes this curve. This gives a person an idea of the degree of curve, a remnant of the narrow gauge it once was. https://www.west2k.com/ohpix/delphosnkpold.jpg That curve doesn't really look that bad on Google Earth. Any c...

Back in that era, towns of EVERY size were desperate to be on a rail route or face having their town whither away. How many towns of any size in Indiana NEVER had rail service? The other thing to remember is that in a era before good roads and motor vehicles, many rail lines were promoted as little ...

I agree with your point that some of these lines were never very viable long term, but the biggest killer was common ownership. The Cloverleaf served a real purpose for the NKP, even though it was a very flawed line. It only became truly expendable when it became owned by a company with a better opt...

DARN! For once I knew the answer to one of these trivia questions, and I didn't see the thread soon enough to answer first.....

I basically agree with your first point, but I would contend that the Nickel Plate DID save the Cloverleaf, it's just that with the coming of the N&W, the Wabash made the Cloverleaf redundant. Even at that, most of it held on for what, another twenty years? The problem with FFW&W, is even DURING the...

As much as I hate what has happened to so many great downtowns, the businesses go where people live and when they move out of the heart of town, the businesses go with them, and Fort Wayne was living proof that that happens whether you have a good road system or not. Done properly, a good system pro...

I can only imagine! Get out a road atlas and try to find other cities our size that do not have an interstate that runs within five miles of downtown. You won't find many, if ANY. The social issues you mentioned were that some black neighborhoods would have been displaced and people were afraid they...

You can't help but be impressed with the Indiana Northeastern has been able to accomplish. The railroad industry needs more small operators that have to hustle for every carload and fewer monolithic corporations that view operations from "30,000 feet".

I was always told that Ferguson was supposed to tie the south side of town to the airport and then perhaps extend further westward. If they had went ahead and finished it, it still would have been in the wrong place to extend it westward, but at least it would have served SOME purpose. As it is, it'...