Looking for information concerning a defunct railroad
The Hammond Belt Line Railroad (1906-1925)
This railroad was connected with or was part of the C&O Railroad, intersecting the Monon Railroad at Kenwood Ave in Hammond, Indiana, proceeding northwest through Calumet City, Illinois, and connecting up with the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad at about 146th Street and Torrence Avenue in Calumet City/Burnham, Illinois, at a place called Louisville Junction. The line was dismantled by January 1926.
Looking for the titles of any books that mention this 3.0 mile railroad bypass that was in use from 1906 through 1925. Looking for any photos of the line in use. Any help or information greatly appreciated. Thanks.
C&O Historical Society may have some info on the line. I remember how surprised I was to tumble on to its existence. When I did, there was very little evidence of its right-of-way left anywhere. Thanks to expanded housing in Burnham or Cal City, there’s now even less–if any!
The east end of this line was at HY Tower in Hammond, which was the west end of what later became the joint C&O-Erie trackage between there and Griffith. After reaching the IHB at Louisville Junction, the C&O trains would move via a now-long-gone connection from the IHB to the Illinois Central at Dolton.
Believe it or not, you can still see a faint remnant of what I believe to be The Hammond Belt Line Railroad on google earth.
Look at the unimproved area North to South between 154th Street (Pulaski Road) and 147th Street (Sibley Blvd) and East to West from Superior Street to Exchange Street. The old line can be seen to go across the unimproved area at about a 45-50 degree angle to the northwest; the line in the sand then intersects the old Pennsylvania RR line (Amtrak) which is now a bike trail and just east of Exchange Street. This line in the sand seems to line up to the southeast with a small street called Calumet Way, which we believe to be part of the old line.
Thanks for the reply and the suggestion. I will let you know what I dig up.
I have found a few good maps with this line on it.
A former co-worker says that some years ago he found what he thought was a railroad roadbed in the forest about where this line would be. I know these forests well and I went and looked but could not find it. I am going to have him show me where. Have been able to trace most of the line using Easement maps.
Thanks, Tony. Good luck with your trip to the Archives. Have you ever done any railroad research there before ? I often find it useful to inquire in advance as to what they have. Somewhere I have a guide to that kind of thing, written by the NRHS or RL&HS folks specifically for railroad matters. I believe it’s also available by Auto-phone-fax (or whatever they call it) - just call and it is faxed to you.
I have never done railroad research at the Archive. I am primarily an aviation historian. Yeah, I will probably call ahead before I show up. I find that to be useful and time saving. The guide you mention sounds like a valuable piece to have before showing up. Thanks for the great tip.
Somehow we went from C&O Historical to National Archives 2 at College Park…If you are going to Archives 2 at College Park, get a hold of me offline (Its part of what I do on a regular basis.)…
The Archives is an unusual place. Things do not always go the way you would like, especially since one disgraced political hack tried to steal some paperwork by stuffing them in his boots. You will start out with an hours worth of security card application busywork. What Paul N is talking about is RIP-91 and David Pfieffers’ excellent explanation of what Archives 2 has. The thing is just barely still in print and available . The guide is on the web here: http://www.rlhs.org/research.htm (The book works better for me than the electronic media as a research tool)
Thanks, I’ll get in contact with you when I do go. Won’t be for a couple years because I have to finish the two books I am writing right now. I do have to go there eventually to hunt up WWII photos for some backburner projects. I am also doing preliminary research for a Railroad accident book. Probably going to narrow the focus to the Great Lakes region. The Hammond Belt Line RR is at the back of the line right now but I hope to do the field work for this project this spring.