Can any of my Indiana buddies out there tell me WHERE this depot is? The photo was in the Bedford Times-Mail, but I don’ think the Milwaukee Road ever had passenger service into Bedford, Indiana…or did they?
www.tmnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=43
They must have had passenger service on that line, but that service was gone before 1960. The depot seems to be in this view, east of the connection with the old Monon. The Bedford to Seymour line to the east was abandoned during 1978.
The depot that is pictured is indeed a Milwaukee Road lineage depot- it was built by the Chicago, Terre Haute and Southeastern which was an independant road bought by the MILW in 1922.
Milwaukee did run passenger trains on the Southeastern, but they were some of the first runs MILW cut back on, maily because they did not serve the main population centers of the state, like the competing passenger runs of NYC, PRR and the Monon. The trackage in front of the depot I believe survived for the sole purpose of reaching a large industry on the north side of town, while the remainder of the original CTH&SE main to Seymour was abandoned. About 10 years ago the City of Bedford put the old depot up for sale publicly for the grand total of $1- looks like someone decided to take them up on the offer!