The Fort Wayne Railfan

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...

The first photo shows eastbound PRR 2-8-0 #1648 alongside Snyder Grain in Churubusco in 1947. The 1957 photo was looking west from Main St. / US-33. In the c.1975 photo, taken 2 years after abandonment of the line through Busco, dirt Mulberry St. crosses left-right in front of the granary. The 2016 ...

Too bad. It's an impressive structure. Put a house on top.

Craig

Another view.

Craig

It's PRR southbound on the GR&I crossing the NYC Air Line at UK Tower in Kendallville?

Craig

Yes, it's the line from Ft. Wayne to Garrett, where it split into lines to Kendallville and Waterloo. The line was sold to new owners in 1913, and they photographed all track-highway crossings later that year. I found the photos in various places over the years; three recently, including this one. S...

This is looking north on Lima Rd. at Geller Ditch, just north of Irene Byron, in late-1913. The road was raised sometime later, putting the track in a dip where automobiles bottomed their suspensions. This track was in service until May 1945 and taken up later that summer.

Craig

What do the terms Mother and Slug mean?

Craig