As for the noted former PRR depot, it is actually a former Freight depot that has formally sat near yard X, then later Yard A, and now it sits along Melbourne Avenue along the TP&W tracks adjacent to the “Little Turtle Waterway” walking trail mentioned before that has the Wabash River overlook. It sits on the site of the original PRR depot that was razed in the 60’s. The depot is home to the “Iron Horse Museum” and was the site of the former “Iron Horse Festival” which ran for many years before ending due to lack of a Passenger train. The city formerly owned a 2-8-0 with coaches that have been sold off and gone for over 10 or more years. The engine is currently at the Ohio Central Railroad and I believe is numbered 13. Logansport is indeed a shadow of it’s former self, as are many other towns. Railamerica, and NS keep the flame for now. As for Rusting relics, IMHO most in Logan are gone. So little left, but at least I have the memories. Take Care, Jay moderator/owner LogansportInRailHistory@Yahoo groups
Jay, Thanks for the heads up…For a town no bigger than Logansport is, you have quite a bit of rail legacy.
If I could ask you a few quick questions?
Just west of your downtown area there is a railline and bridge over the wabash, that ran south from a junction with the TP&W, down to Clymers, and beyond. I believe the old junction there was called “River”, and I think it was former PRR “Vandalia”
Here is a picture of the bridge
When I first saw this bridge I suspected it was a CSX line, for obvious reasons, but learned that wasn’t so.
A lot of that line is now the Winamac Southern, they’ve got the line down around the big grain elevators at Clymers, And they also have the old PRR between Kokomo and the yard at 18th Street in Logansport.
Are these two Winamac Southern Lines able to connect via the bridge pictured and the junction with TP&W, or does WSR have to depend on the NS to make them whole, between Clymers and 18th street?
I guess another way to ask the same question would be “is the bridge pictured still in use, or abandoned”?
Second question, west of the State hospital is some type of factory that is mining something via strip mines. What is the company name operating there? It looks almost like a gypsum plant (from terreserver)
Thanks in advance.
The bridge over the Wabash you included is a former PRR Vandalia bridge. There is a junction just North of here known as VAN that included a diamond at one time but is now simply connected with two leads for East or West on the TP&W. You can use VAN to get to Yard A and WSRY via Downtown Logan without having to use NS. The Wabash Bridge is unused for Through Traffic at this time, but VAN is used as a Wye to turn trains for TP&W or WSRY/I&O when needed. The plant you referred to is ERROC Materials/Louisville Cement and I can’t exactly tell you what they make but I know they use tank cars of waste to burn in the process of whatever they manufacture. They had a accident a few years back where one tank car blew up and landed several yards away. This is serviced off of the WSRY(PRR) line, as is the Country-Mark CO-OP, by Norfolk Southern by way of a connecting track at the Clymers, Indiana diamond. WSRY supposedly runs to Bringhurst down the old PRR line and I have seen tank cars and Hoppers in BH, but the rails are very rusty and look unused. Hard to believe this was the route of the Amtrak Floridian at one time. Running out of room this post, but ask more if needed, Jay
Zoinks! No sooner do I log off here and go to another local railfan site, do I see a post about WSRY’s GP-9 1754(ex N&W) ran 3 hoppers down to Bringhurst this past Monday and was supposedly travelling at a good clip along the way. Poster claims about 40-45MPH! Thus, I have to say they would have used their Wabash bridge! Sorry about the confusion, it was a suprize to me. You see NS power sitting on the siding just outside of Clymers on the WSRY all the time awaiting their next pickup from ERROC or Country-Mark, but the rail was always so rusty from here back to VAN. They had installed some new ties from VAN South to Clymers a couple of years back , but I haven’t seen one WSRY train since. Their was a rumor a while back that CSX was interested in leasing their I&F line from Frankfort South to Indy which is part of this old PRR line. I wonder if Railamerica would be interested in it and maybe reinstalling the portion from Frankfort to Bringhurst? Other than the bridge being out at Cutler, most of the ROW and remaining bridges were intact on my last investigating trip. Could help them bypass NS since they won’t let them have the Cloverleaf from Kokomo to Frankfort or the IMC from Kokomo to Tipton and the Indiana Southern and CIND(Both Railamerica properties)have trackage rights into CSX’s Avon yard which could build a bridge route to Cincy. Just a hopefull thought, unrealistic, but I can dream right?
On a side note, the TP&W has retied several yard tracks in Yard A and all the way out to ANOKA on the WSRY. They have fresh ballast from the NS diamond West through town to at least US 35. I don’t know how far West they went in other words. Equipment is sitting in Yard A from the tie work as well. Jay
I see, thanks much.
“Van” junction you say? OK… When I took this picture from the south end, I thought it odd that they would have the sign reading “River” right there, so I suspected it was the name of the junction with TP&W on the north side. My bad.
The rock plant west of Logansport is ESSROCK. The product I’m most familiar with is cement. They take limestone that they mine locally, cook it, crush it and some other processes that I can’t remember right now and then you get cement. (That’s the active ingrediant of concrete.)
I remember riding behind steam at the Iron Horse Festival. Sad that they sold it off. It was the biggest draw for me.
Probably a surprise to some other folk as well, considering this INDOT description:
http://www.in.gov/dot/div/multimodal/railroad/chapter_2.pdf
Where on page 23 it states: " Winamac Southern Railway (WSRY) operates 46 route miles in two line segments, between Kokomo and Logansport, and between Clymers and Bringhurst, in Howard, Cass, and Carroll counties. These former Conrail line segments are connected by trackage rights on the NS Lafayette District."
I think that it was reading this earlier, then seeing on my trip to Logansport that the bridge in question was still in place , started me to wondering if the bridge was not useable.
Ahh, so they make PORTLAND there? Thanks.
I found the trip to Lafayette interesting, especially while paralleling the NS line along Hwy 25.
Coming back, every siding was full with a waiting eastbound, and I just kept encountering westbound after westbound afterwestbound on the move.
After a while, it grew amusing, realizing just how long some of those crews were gonna have to sit on the siding waiting for each subsequent train to clear.
I thought Rail America bought the Winamac & Southern?
Gabe
WSRY is owned by the Ortmans who also own the many Kokomo Grain facilities nearby. The operator is Railamerica… TP&W has trackage rights to Kokomo from Logansport, but most trains are led by I&O engines, even a CORP unit is around. CERA is the main operator of Kokomo lines, who is also a Railamerica line. Jay