The C&O of Indiana

Classic Trains General Discussion
1

I believe that I have finally found my answer as to how the C&O passenger trains made their way through Indiana from Cincinnati Ohio to Hammond Indiana.

I found the following map and that led me to the route.

Indiana History
Indiana History500×739 74.8 KB

Source: Official Railroad Map of Indiana - Maps in the Indiana Historical Society Collections - Indiana Historical Society Digital Images

I found this discussion, which I am summarizing, on the following website. It details a whole bunch of smaller railroads, created and merged, into what became known as the C&O of Indiana.

The two biggest railroads in Indiana were the Pennsylvania and the New York Central. Other eastern railroads would come to the state, in smaller proportions. One of these was the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O). What would become the C&O of Indiana was a relative late comer to the state.

• The original plan for the railroad company, chartered as the Chicago & Cincinnati on 22 January 1902, was to create a direct connection between the two title cities, Chicago and Cincinnati.

• Another railroad, the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie (CR&M), was chartered on 23 March 1900. These two companies were merged into a second Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie Railroad on 20 May 1902.

• The first CR&M did actually build a great deal of track. In 1901, the company connected Cottage Grove to Muncie. This route came out of Cottage Grove due north, connecting to Richmond and Muncie.

• The second piece of track built by the first CR&M was completed in 1902 from Muncie to North Judson. This connected Muncie to Marion and Peru on its way to North Judson.

• The second CR&M company would connect North Judson to Beatrice, a span of 26.7 miles, in 1902.

• Another company that would build part of the completed route from Cincinnati to Chicago would be formed on 7 March 1902 in Ohio as the Cincinnati & Indiana Western.

• This company, however, would not complete this construction before it was consolidated, on 1 June 1903, with the second Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie to become the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad (CC&L).

• This company complete the line that the Cincinnati & Indiana Western started on 7 February 1904. On the same day, the company opened trackage from Beatrice, in Porter County, to Griffith, in Lake County. Completion of the tracks would connect Cincinnati to Griffith.

• The line would end at Griffith until trackage was completed, in October 1907, to the Illinois-Indiana State Line by the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville.

• On 2 July 1910, a new company was chartered in Indiana, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company of Indiana (C&O-I). This company was formed after the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville was sold at foreclosure on 23 June 1910.

• The new C&O-I, commonly known as the C&O of Indiana acquired the CC&L property three days after it was formed.

So, it is the Chicago Cincinnati & Louisville (C.C. & L.) that I am looking for. This made so much sense because it is the route mentioned in part in several other sites that I found with the C&O bypassing the larger towns in Indiana, namely, Bloomington, Indianapolis, Ft, Wayne, South Bend and Gary.

So, the eventual route became Cincinnati to Richmond to Muncie to Marion to Peru to North Judson to Griffith to Hammond.

I traced the exact route on the previous map from Cincinnati to Hammond.

Rich

Route of the C&O Indiana
Route of the C&O Indiana1920×2560 353 KB

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2

I read a story written in 2010 by a gentleman named Fred Klein about the C&O’s George Washington passenger train.

http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/C&OGW50.htm

Here is an excerpt:

In 1946, the C&O ordered 284 passenger cars from Pullman Standard, making a commitment to launch a fleet of streamlined passenger trains, though many cars in this order were later cancelled. Also ordered were cars from the Budd Company to be part of a train called the Chessie, which never ran because the falling passenger demand and financial pressures could not fund it. The Budd cars were delivered in 1948 and the PS cars appeared in 1950. New diesel locomotives were ordered in 1949, and the re-equipped 1950 George Washington never ran with steam.

The George Washington, first started as a heavyweight train in 1932, was C&O’s premier passenger train with the best service and sleepers. It ran from Washington to Cincinnati, with sections splitting off at Charlottesville to Newport News Virginia in the east, and at Ashland NC to Louisville Kentucky in the west. Through service was offered to Chicago west of Cincinnati via New York Central.

The George Washington was completely upgraded with new cars in 1950. The Pere Marquette railroad merged into the C&O in 1947, and the C&O took control of the B&O in the 1960s (and eventually merged it in 1976), hence the presence of B&O cars in C&O trains toward the end of the George Washington’s streamlined era.

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3

I have been wondering if the C&O simply wasn’t interested in passenger operations and then I came across this article.

https://streamlinermemories.info/?p=20527

Here is an excerpt from that article.

The Chesapeake & Ohio was not big on passenger trains. Most railroads were still optimistic about the passenger business in 1949, but this timetable (omitted in this excerpt) is so sparse it could be from the late 1960s.

Most importantly, a map in the timetable shows the C&O’s main line went from Washington to Chicago via Cincinnati, but its passenger trains only went as far west as Cincinnati. A few cars went on to Chicago on the New York Central but most passengers had to change to a New York Central train.

The George Washington was the premiere train and the only one to have through sleeping cars from Washington to Chicago — but not from Chicago to Washington. Coach passengers on the George Washington going through to Chicago would have crossed the platform in Cincinnati to the New York Central’s James Whitcomb Riley, which was scheduled to depart the same moment the George Washington was supposed to arrive.

This didn’t allow enough time to switch a sleeping car from the George Washington to the Riley, so sleeping car passengers went on the Chicago Special, which departed 50 minutes after the Riley and arrived in Chicago almost two hours after the Riley. Returning, both coach and sleeping car passengers would have taken the Cincinnati Special to Cincinnati before connecting with the George Washington after a 55-minute layover.

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As of the Summer of 1966 - the Riley was the only NYC train from/to Chicago out of Cincinnati. I worked the B&O Operators position at Storrs Jct. off the extra board that Summer - Storrs Jct. was the location where NYC trains coming out of Cincinnati Union Terminal crossed over the B&O to reach the Big Four tracks and continue West.

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Thanks for that info, BaltACD. When I first started the earlier thread about passenger trains crossing Indiana to reach Chicago, I couldn’t help but wonder, what about the C&O. If I knew then what i know now, I wouldn’t have wondered.

Rich

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C&O also offered connections to Chicago via Toledo on the “Sportsman”. C&O and Delaware & Hudson through cars were the only Pullman car lines on the NYC after 1957.

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I recall a story on the Chessie in Trains a few decades ago.

There arose at some point the perception (or perhaps delusion) that there would be a tremendous market for fast and luxurious trains to Cincinnati. Robert R. Young at C&O (he of “a hog can cross America but you can’t”) ordered an enormous number of cars for his version of a grand train, complete with live fish in tanks, a nursery for kids, and foot-pedal sinks and washbasins. These were the trains the M-1 turbines were built to take fast over the mountains, and the ‘yellowbelly’ Hudsons on the flats. (I have long been suspicious that the roller-rod As on N&W were intended for that railroad’s ‘fast over the mountains to Cincinnati’ effort…)

Of course as we know the grand traffic boom did not materialize, and there was C&O with a great many expensive cars on order that it had little use for. That was still in the era railroads thought they could compete for travel with the ‘new’ streamlined cars, so many railroads jumped at the chance to get the cars C&O no longer wanted.

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The C&O of Indiana had a fair sized yard and shops complex in Peru, tucked along the North side of the Wabash River. The station was referbished and was used for community events. Until about 2010, the yard and shops area was still abandoned and unused.

Around 1999, I was working on a project and had to run three storm sewer lines across that property. We found a lot of tie plates and spikes and other unidentified steel objects. We also found (the hard way) a 4" water main that was used to supply water for passenger trains. The Amtrak Cardinal ran via this route until re-routed via Indianapolis and up the ex Monon.

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I wonder how long it took that train to get from Toledo to Chicago. I used to drive to Toledo quite a bit on business. I could make it in exactly 4 hours. There were flights from Midway, but it was faster to just get in my car and drive there.

Rich

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Hmm, doesn’t say much for the management of the C&O.

Rich

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11

Now, that’s an interesting re-route.

Rich

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Is that so they could close the original route?

David

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Good question! Without a route of its own, the C&O seemed to always have to rely on others. Seems that it was no different for Amtrak when it came to former C&O trains.

Rich

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Here in the U.K. when the Powers that Be wanted to close a line they diverted the traffic away. The Somerset & Dorset line was a classic. Heavy freight trains and passenger trains with 11,12, even 16 carriages long.

Divert the traffic (which they did) then said the line was underused. Line closed.

David

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When it came to passenger trains, it seems as though the C&O was like an orphan.

Rich

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Actually, as much or more common sense than the other companies providing expensively-attractive service to Cincinnati… the problem was the failure of the traffic for even one luxury supertrain. Any Young recognized that while many of his ordered cars could still be peddled as ‘new’ or even be modified to order.

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I hope someone loved it though. :slightly_smiling_face:

David

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Apparently not!

Rich

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Yes, so it seems.

Rich

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I understand that. Being an orphan is tough.

David