#clearcreek

Southbound Floridian

Later this spring, on May 2nd, I'll be presenting to the Blackhawk Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Lockport, Illinois: On the Eve of Staggers: Some Midwest Roads in the late-1970s. Here's one image from the talk—a southbound Amtrak Floridian is seen here at Clear Creek, Indiana. The line was the Louisville & Nashville at the time, but only six years earlier was still Indiana's own railroad, the Monon.

The locomotive in charge today is E9A number 408 (built in 1956, formerly of the Milwaukee Road, numbered 201C and later 31C). And I had to look it up, but apparently that's a 1967 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck.

Clear Creek

This is a northbound Floridian just south of Clear Creek on the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon, in southern Indiana. The curve in the line seen here is just south of Church Lane; the hand car shed was located right there as well.

Class Unit

Louisville & Nashville number 3000, the GP40 class unit, leads a train north on the former Monon, the Hoosier Line, at Clear Creek. It was built for the road in October of 1966.

This is late winter/early spring, which provides back-lighting that illuminates the colored lenses of the semaphores here. The numbers on the signal mast says we’re 224.3 miles from Chicago; the small frame depot is out-of-service by this time, the order board having been removed. The train will soon be at McDoel yard just south of Bloomington, Indiana.

Mystery Locale, Solved

It took me a long time, but I finally locked down a mystery locale that had thwarted me for the better part of a year.

This is a northbound Louisville & Nashville train on the former Monon. The location is just south of Clear Creek (which is south of Bloomington). I was unaware of this unnamed siding until I found it on a track chart. While there’s not much to go on here, what is left (the street to the left, along with the low-slung power line there) confirms my vague memory that it was down that way.

Happy Halloween

Coming up on forty-six years ago now: a southbound Amtrak Floridian is seen on the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon. Clear Creek is a tiny burg just south of McDoel Yard which was on the south side of Bloomington, Indiana. The station sign is still on the small depot, but it looks like the order board is down by this time.

Clear Creek Forty-Five Years Apart

Here’s another time comparison done in the tiny burg of Clear Creek, Indiana. The first has a local train, of the Louisville & Nashville, working a limestone mill there. The second was taken of the same building, with the railroad long gone. The line here originally was the Monon Railroad.