For a number of years, while driving down I-65 about 75 mi. north of Lafayette, I would pass a marker on the road indicating the existence of an intermodal terminal ahead. Indeed, I could see the terminal off to the east (towards Logansport). It appeared to be an intermodal terminal with the mailing address probably Wolcott, Indiana. The exit no. is no. 201.
The past couple of months I’ve driven by there twice and haven’t seen the Interstate sign telling of the intermodal facilitiy. Domestic security, or is the terminal no longer functioning? I can still see that huge orange crane (hoister) while looking to the east.
This is the old TP&W main line from Peoria, IL to Logansport, IN.
I’ve never driven I-65 north of Indy, but I’m fairly familiar with driving through there east-west on US 24, and there is a big BNSF intermodal facility on the T,P,&W with the main entry gate off US 24 i Identified as REMINGTON, Indiana…so I suspect we are talking about the same one…
Haven’t been by there in about a year, but back then the place looked like a ghost town.
A Hoosier is someone native to Indiana, or who has resided there over 10 years. No one can identify the origin of the word but the joke is that it derived from the contractuion of the remark," Who’s your dad? or Hoosier Dad?"
Mitch
Director, Community Development for the Indiana Society of Chicago and former South Shore Line engineman, where that remark was common.
I have driven I-65 and other roads in Indiana so many times in the last 35 years that I may have the 10 years “time-in-state” to qualify as a Hoosier.
I just went by the Hoosierlift terminal yesterday and saw an engine with perhaps a dozen freight cars sitting there. I decided it was too hot to get off 65 and take a closer look. Ownership of the line has changed so often that I have lost track, but for anyone wanting to search, I think either Trains Magazine or Trains.com has run the history up to the very recent.
I am pretty it has been at least 5 years, maybe many more, since lift operations were shut down.
Well, so much for enriching the world of TRAINS and train-lovers everywhere by discovering a little-known lift site! [:(]
My GUESS would be that the former TP&W intermodal site would up with the UP, as I believe it has all of the TW&P, and that its railhead is no longer any where near Toledo, OH, but at Longansport, IN. Uncie Pete probably closed the facility because it was a) too small or b) of doubtful utility, if the whole idea of the terminal was to take trailers off trucks and put them on trains. Who needs an intermodal station in N. Central Indiana when Under Pressure has that great big Global III facility in Rochelle serving the same or similar purpose?
But . . . that’s just a guess and the saga continues. Great place to see a train, at least. [8)]
Well, From what I seem to recall, The T,P,&W was at one time jointly owned by PRR and Santa Fe and I think Santa Fe bought out PRR’s share about when Penn-Central went under.
And, I coulda swore that the sign at the main entry gate on US 24 said “BNSF”"soo I think we may have one railroad here that sneeky pete didn’t get their grubby mits on…[}:)]
The topo’s from USGS dated July 1971 show the trackage in Indiana under PennCentral’s name all the way west to the Illinois border, where it picks up the name TP&W.
I’ve driven alongside the line in question, all the way to Peoria, and never have seen a live train on the line…just mile after mile of rusted ribbon, interupted by an occasional derelict grain elevator.
In 1976 TP&W bought the Penn Central line to Logansport. The ATSF bought PC’s half owership in 1979 and merged the railroad in 1983. AT&SF sold the railroad in 1989 and then BN got trackage rights to serve the Remington lift terminal. BN pulled out of Remington a couple of years ago, leaving it to TP&W.
Jay,
OK, I confer you as a Hoosier by virtue of your I-65 milage. Now where do I get my seniority on the IC Suburban? I claim my milage and a student trip when C.D. “Hi Babe” Lindenberg let me run the doors on our train home. He then drove me to my house.
Mitch (Qualified on the South Chicago District only)
Mitch, as a Chicago-an and Metra supporter for more than 25 years, consider yourself granted a member of Metra (formerly IC) Electric.
AntiGates, thank you for your memory; it helped to jar mine.
I hauled out that nice BNSF system map that Mr. Rose’s Investor Relations Dept. so kindly sent me, and notice that the TP&W trackage is shown highlighted in green as an “Affiliated Shortline.” It runs from Bushnell, IL, though Peoria and on to Logansport, IN. I seem to recall that Logansport is (was?) an important interchange. Didn’t the Pennsy, in pre- or early Amtrak days, run the"James Whitcomb Riley" varnish from Indy to Chi via Logansport?
It would certainly have made sense for the Pennsy to have a connection – and it seems like part ownership – of the TP&W way back when. If nothing else, helped PC or Conrail or whatever it was called back then avoid Chicago on the way to Iowa.
Perhaps the TP&W was counting on that mainline as its highline in the same way that KCS is devoted to its Ft. Worth, Meridian MS branch??
And apparently that time has come and gone. Yet I’m not ready to declare the TP&W a “fallen flag” quite yet–
I think it was, for Pennsy, but decidely less so for Penn-Central
Just looking at my handy-dandy Rand McNally railroad map of indiana for 1921, it looks like most of the through/mainline traffic in Logansport was via the Wabash and also the PRR’s Cincinnati-Chicago line. The PRR connection with TP&W is just shown as an “other” railroad.
Strictly speculating, but looking at the map it appears that the T,P,&W may have made perfect strategic sense for PRR looking for interchange points with western lines, which may have been a plan shelved or put into the back seat when PC came about? since the NYCC’s routes from Cincinnati to Chicago look superior to PRR’s.
Or perhaps, considering the time in question, perhaps the combined penn-Central was just too preoccupied with survival to worry about growing business with Santa Fe via the TP&W connection?
I have only lived in Indiana for seven years now, so I guess I am still not a Hoosier. But, I have rail faned the TPW regularly. I have never caught any train of note. I have caught several locals and a few engine movements. I have also found several cars in sidings while rail faning it.
I often thought the TPW would be a great way to relieve some of the pressure from Chicago. But, what do I know.
But I wonder if that supposition is based upon my own “came to the parrty too late to dance” understanding of the matter?
I retrospectively see the big names of Santa Fe and PRR jointly owning the TP&W, and am immediately inspired to imagine what their joint strategy must have been…“ouuuuuu TRANSCON!!” etc.
when Perhaps nothing was ever fruther from the truth? Maybe each road just saw an economy of scale in jointly developing the line as a “feeder” into each’s respective system? Perhaps each saw the other as a figurative “end of the line”?
It would be interesting to know the decision making process for both PRR and Santa Fe when they decided to be partners on this obscure line
A big reason the PRR and the ATSF bought the TP&W was to stop the Minnesota and St.Louis from buying it. TP&W had a nasty time in the 1960s [That should read 1940s]with a big strike and the owner being assasinated. ATSF interchanged a lot of traffic with the NYC in Streator Illinois and this continued under PC and Conrail.
I have read the PRR and ATSF were asked by Catapellar and other TPW shippers to buy the railroad and end a long violent strike. The strike had been been going on for a decade.
I recomend to everyone on this list a book published by Kalmbach by George Drury called The Historical Guide to N. American Railroads, 1985 (ISBN 0-89024-072-8).
It says in part about the TPW,
“In 1927 George P. McNear, Jr. purchased the road at foreclosure. He saw the road’s potental as a bridge route bypassing the congestion of Chicago and St. Louis, and he began to improve the physical plant. In 1941 McNear refused to go along with an industry-wide pay increase, proposing instead hourly wages and the elimination of inefficient practices. A bitter strike ensued, followed by government operation fo the road during World War II and the 1947 murder of McNear. That year new management took over and the railroad resumed operation after a 19-month work stoppage.
The modern Toledo, Peoria & Western was incorporated in 1952, succeeding at least three previous roads with the same name. In 1960 the Santa Fe purchased the railroad and sold half to the Pennsylvania…”
My Rand-Mc Nally Atlas shows the AT&SF used to own the track east to Logansport.So did anyone ever see the AT&SF operate in Indiana ? What types of Diesels did they use here ? I live in east Indiana.