In some ways, I am just about as qualified to opine on the half-life of Francinium as such a complex rail question (3,000,000 x 0 [still] = 0). But, a few thoughts:
(1) My understanding of the whole “super railroad” was more marketing pitch than reality. Plus, when you looked at where the Monon was to where it ended up, may be that was the “super” part.
For instance, Bloomington, Indiana–which proudly hosted the Monon–could upgrade to a “super highway department” by purchasing three snow plows, and a little dispenser that throws sand onto the road to
Did he make a mistake? Don’t try to answer that from your perspective today. Try to put yourself in his place just after WWII. He had been the chief of the railroad division of the Reconstruction Finance Corp in the 30’s and through the war. He also had his fingers in the C&EI reorganization and was then at Fairbanks-Morse. What does someone with his drive and knowledge do after the war? He goes and looks for a challenge, perhaps.
This was the first railroad he "saved’ so he wasn’t the “railroad savior” yet.
He had ideas he wanted to try out. He stated at one time that the Monon would really be nothing more than a glorified division on a larger road.
I met Mr. Barriger one time at an AREA conference not long before he died. At that time his busniess card read Travel Freight Agent for the Rock Island.
The Monon has a sentimental connection for me. My father worked there just beofre I was born in Lafayette. Whether real or imagined, my first memory of being around railroads was riding the FM H10-44 #18 in Shops Yard with my father and some of his former co-workers. I would have been about 2 or 3 at the time.
Intersestingly, in spite of Mr. Barriger’s former relationship with FM, #18 was the only engine the Monon ever bought from them.
I see the problem I’m having. It’s the premise. I can’t wrap my head around the Monon being a Super Railroad. While it might have fit some of the parameters such as low grade (like you could not find that in most of Indiana!), but it never had the subgrade, terminals, track structure, train-control systems, or line-haul capacity to be anything more than a secondary (and a very secondary at that) railway that supported a very light gross tonnage. Barriger didn’t turn the Monon into a Super Railroad. Think of a Super Railroad of that era like the UP from Omaha to Ogden, or the Pennsy from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, or the NYC from New York City to Chicago, or the Santa Fe from Chicago to Los Angeles via Belen. The Monon was not only not in that game, it wasn’t even in that sport.
Barriger fixed up the property – he gave it morale, a sense of purpose, a service esprit d’corps that enabled it to compete for the small margin of traffic that had a choice, and the management structure to deliver on the potential. He didn’t try to build more railway than there was traffic to support, so I don’t see what mistake he made. He spent wisely and the Monon – so long as railways remained re
While we are on the subject of Hoosier Railroading…
Have you ever wondered why CSX doesnt dump off the Indy - Frankfort line, what is left of the Monon (Hammond - Greencastle) to Indiana Railroad? Think about it. CSX owns 85% of IR. There is lots of grain handled on the Monon now, particularly north of Crawfordsville and a nice steel mill with a base of business. Ok, perhaps CSX doesnt dump the entire Monon, but even the branch north of Monon which handles grain in 65 car lots, plus the line to Monticello. With all the talk about shortlines and what to look for, that one seems to have potential.
Have you ever made it to the Monon Connection Museum at Monon? Carl, his wife and I made a little trip there a couple of years ago. While not a big museum guy, this place was special…real special.
Gotta make the AAU trip to Martinsville this weekend. Do you have any idea what the ISRR runs? Is it coal only?
Also on the Monon…picked up Monon In Color at the estate sale. You know, those Purdue colors looked very good when clean, but the red/cream was very pleasing to the eye.
I agree with RWM’s assertion that the Monon was nowhere near a “Super-Railroad”. The main problem with the CIL when Barriger took over was that it was a railroad engineered to mid-19th specifications trying to haul 20th century freight- the Hammond- Louisville line was not the only route that Barriger spent countless dollars rebuilding- not to make it a “Super-Railroad”- but just to make it a solvent railroad! The George Hilton book on the Monon goes into excellent detail on the amount of rebuilding and rerouting that took place just to make the line workable in the 20th century rail environment. The Indianapolis line’s replacement of the old bridge at Delphi, the First Subdivision’s Cedar Lake cut-off of 1948, which also got trains off the bottomless bog and the Paisley Trestle, were just a couple of the improvements made- but even after all these things the line was still very short of what could be called a “Super-Railroad”. Given that it’s route structure and nearby competitors made it difficult for the Monon to rise above- I think Barriger saw the need to upgrade the line just to make it salient enough to survive (same thing can be said about what remains of the MKT- the good stuff remains, everything else was cast off.)
Oddly enough the thing that doomed the Monon as a through Chicago-Louisville route was the one thing that dogged it it’s entire life- the right of way engineering. Despite Barriger’s improvements to the route, it suffered major washouts on the old Fourth Subdivision in 1992 that effectively ended the Monon’s tenure as a through route by CSX- the Indianapolis line was also abandoned beyond Monticello due to the Tippecanoe River bridge there, and the Michigan City line was carved up as well. It really wasn’t a Super-Railroad- just one trying to be good enough to survive.
Since we’re talking about the Monon, I was wondering if anyone knew about what I consider to be its most interesting branch: The south-to-north Monon to Michigan City line. I count no fewer than 13 crossings of other railroads on this 60-mile branch, including all main lines east from Chicago, like the NYC, PRR, B&O, Erie, GTW, and others.
I don’t know when this line was built, but I’m guessing that this line was built after most of the east-west routes. It appears all the crossings were at grade. Since the junior line (the second to arrive at a location) was generally the one who paid for the interlocking facilities, how did Monon justify building this route? Seems to me that Monon would have had to pay for the interlocking operators at every location (I’m also guessing that given how busy these lines were in past, that an automatic interlocking wouldn’t have sufficed). Indeed, there were lots of manual interlockings in this area to guard the numerous railroad crossings.
Does anyone have an old Monon timetable showing the type of interlocking and whether the staffing of them was continuous (I would think that would be a given)? All told, looks like a lot of expense just to go to Michigan City, regardless of reason. Any insight should be appreciated.
I think Monon is to Indiana as Transcontinental Railroad is to U.S.A.
“New Albany & Salem Railroad Completed,” New Albany Tribune, June 27, 1854
“Prior to the construction of the New Albany and Salem Railroad, the country between Lafayette and Michigan City was a vast wilderness of prairie. Salem Railroad had done no other good than that of bringing these rich lands into notice and market, that of itself would be of incalculable benefit to the State of Indiana.” New Albany Daily Ledger, June 9, 1857
Interesting online book preview. See page 22 for The Barringer Renaissance. Neat idea for a 100 MPH Chicago to Indianapolis train.
The Monon opened it’s route between Michigan City and New Albany in 1853 (as the New Albany & Salem Railroad) so it actually was the senior railroad at the majority of the crossings on the Michigan City branch- it even predated the Pennsylvania’s Fort Wayne and Chicago extension by three years that having opened in 1856.
I glanced at George Hiltons Monon Route, an excellent history of the Hoosier Line. The Michigan City line was planned as early as 1850. The thought was that steamboat transportion from MC to Chicago would be cheaper than rail.
James Brooks, the founder, was a firm believer in steamship transportation and that east-west railroads could not compete with the river transportation. He felt North-South railroads would be far superior than East - West routes. Michigan City would also provide a jumping off point for Detroit, as well as Chicago. Brooks attempted to reach Chicago via the Michigan Central.
The line from Michigan City to Lafayette was completed in 1853 with trains running in October. There was a 65 mile tangent track between Westville and Brookston. The land thru the area is extremely flat.
To answer your question, I do not know who was junior or senior on those lines.
Regarding Barringer, Hilton devotes an entire chapter (ch 5, The Barringer Years) to the era. Hilton discusses Barringer’s belief in a superbly engineered railroad, ideally with grades of less than .3%, but .5% to be a “practical target.” Further Barringer wanted improved locomotives with a standard train of 6000 tons moving at 35 - 50 mph. Barringer believed in the concentration of traffic on a small number of mainlines, obviously the industry was overbuilt in his view. He believed in regional mergers of parallel lines, to maximize traffic on a concentrated lines and to not “invade the territory of friendly connections.”
He felt the ICC should be eliminated and pushed for deregulation.
Hilton states “whatever may have been the merits of this (Barringer’s) philosophy, the Monon was a singularly unlikely place for it to be implemented.” Barringer realized the line shoul
Fortunately, Barriger collected tons of paper documents. That material is still around and the way it was organized/ used gave you some insight into the man. If I get sent to the office in St. Louis, a sidetrip to the UM-StL library holding that collection gets worked-in.
(1) Yes, I have wondered that myself–I have had similar thoughts regarding the Danville Secondary and CSX’ line to Decatur . . .
(2) I have driven by it many times, but never stopped. Like you, I am not huge on museums. But, on your recommendation, I will stop next time if I have enough time.
(3) I have always wanted to learn more about ISRR traffic movements. I have rail faned it a lot, but do not know as much as I would like. For some reason, every time I have caught a train on it, the train was not moving. That is unusual, as I caught approximately 20-25 trains.
It does haul a lot of coal. But, it also runs a few short l
Here’s what I was able to find about RR crossings of the CIL’s Michigan City branch.
From CIL Timetable #6, April24, 1955
Part time telegraph offices:
PM Tower Michigan City (Roundhouse) 0700-2300, daily
Haskells (GTW) 0600-2200, daily
Wanatah (PRR) 0700-1600, xSun & Holidays
San Pierre (NYC) 0700-1600, xSun & Holidays
Medaryville (no crossing), 0700-1600, xSa Su & Holidays
Francesville (no crossing), 0700-1600, xSa Su & Holidays
Continuous telegraph office:
South Wanatah (NKP)
Interlocking plants
Otis (NYC)
Alida (B&O)
Haskells (GTW)
Wanatah (PRR)
So. Wanatah (NKP)
Wade (C&O) (automatic)
LaCrosse (PRR)
Wilders (Erie) (Semi-automatic)
San Pierre (NYC) (automatic)
Apparently, no more than four were controlled by CIL, as the others were not telegraph (train order) offices. But, since only one (So. Wanatah) was continuous, it may have been the only one controlled by CIL. The Michigan City crossing of the CSS&SB was protected by a semaphore target only.
I could not locate in the stations listing the PRR crossing at M. P. F48, which had no protection shown.
Lots of before and after photos…it will make you realize how much change there has been. The website author basically does a tour of each subdivision with photos, both current and historical. The trip down from Michigan City to Lafayette was very interesting for me.
Speaking of which, I made that trip by car today. The Monon north of Lafayette was alive and well this morning with three trains (two work trains) plus a blue Conrail unit at Monon.
The highlight of the trip, other than a Big Baby (double cheeseburger with grilled onions) and home cut fries at Pauli’s in Medaryville, was a tour of the CKIN facility in Lacrosse. You really get a sense of what a shortline is all about when you see them at work on misc work. What a neat operation. They were turning a locomotive wheel at the time with an outside service.
Check out the monon.monon.org. It will provide considerable info on The Hoosier Line.
Gabe, let me know if you are going to the museum and good luck on the labor and delivery.
Just a short note on the MONON road engines, the passenger engines wore the Indiana colors and the freights had the beautiful colors of the PURDUE BOILERMAKERS.
