The Fort Wayne Railfan

Bloomington, IN, or IL. ??

Craig

This photo of an Erie & Western covered hopper rebadged as Ferdinand Railroad #4277 was taken in October 1997 in Bellevue, Ohio. That was 18 years after Erie & Western operations ended, and six years after the Ferdinand was abandoned. The FRDN reporting mark was retained by Itel Rail when it sold th...

This rusty beast was parked next to the junk yard on Old Maumee Rd. west of New Haven a month ago.

Craig

Where is the reporting mark?

Why does FRA own a locomotive that it has leased to INER for a decade?

Craig

Where do the tomato paste cars originate?

Craig

I found FEC 107 eastbound on NKP, parked along Old Maumee Rd. west of New Haven. A lot of rust and deteriorated paint. Must be the salt air near the ocean.

Craig

Nickel Plate 912 switching Weaver Popcorn c.1950. Look at the lumpy track profile. I haven't seen railcars there in the past few trips to Indy.

Craig

The attached postcard shows PRR's 1914 depot on the east side of Harrison in a different configuration than its as-built configuration west of Harrison. PRR intended to build the depot east of Harrison where it already owned real estate, but switched to the west side. I don't know the reason. This p...

The owner of the Steubenville depot, now at a farm in Pleasant Lake, wants to give it away. If you are interested, contact

John Hevel
Jhevel173@frontier.com
219-765-3478

Craig

I made one correction and updated the aerial with other industries that were in Churubusco c.1960. The correction was the freight depot, which was on the north side of the track, not south side.

Craig

A resident of Churubusco who also worked on the RR said that the last train was a locomotive and empty hopper that left for LaOtto in Aug. 1968, five years before official abandonment. Apparently the tractor business had disappeared by then. About 1.7 miles of the original Eel River RR track is stil...

The attached 1957 track map shows where the track was abandoned west of Busco.

Someone asked when the track was removed. Columbia City-Churubusco was removed in or after 1961, and Churubusco-Auburn Jct. in the 1973-1976 timeframe.

Craig

My apology. The CR-850 photo was 3 years after abandonment of C City-Busco.

I need to stop posting stuff.

The highway crossing was built and abandoned it at nearly the same time. That means PB&W (PRR) paid for the grade crossing removal? This photo is looking north on CR-850W on the west side of Churubusco in the year that the C City-Busco track was abandoned. The stop sign is at SR-205. The NAPA store ...

Columbia City-Churubusco was abandoned in 1961, 7.81 miles, MP 57.19-65.0, from .10-mile east of present-day US-30 at Columbia City, to .40-mile west of CR-850E at Churubusco. It was part of PRR subsidiary Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad. I don’t know why the endpoints were out in nowh...