Northbound

In these images, we see a northbound train, on the Louisville & Nashville, at two locations on either side of McDoel Yard—which is located on the south side of Bloomington, Indiana.

In the first photograph the train is seen south of the yard meeting a train headed southward. This line is the former Monon and we see their distinctive semaphore signals here (with a so-called doll arm in this case).

In the second shot the same northbound trains is seen north of the yard approaching the center of Bloomington. I recall that there was a former Monon U23B in the consist that day.

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.

Alco on Point

Here’s a southbound train at the south end of McDoel Yard, in Bloomington, Indiana. The line is former Monon, but Louisville & Nashville at the time. The lead unit is an Alco C420 that was built in June of 1964.

The Local Works Clear Creek

Here we see a local departing the south end of McDoel Yard (Bloomington, Indiana) and then working just a few miles south, in the tiny burg of Clear Creek. We are on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, formerly the Monon. The local can be seen pulling a gondola from a limestone mill there.

And something interesting about the final image—this was made looking northward along the old main line, which ran from this spot in a southeasterly direction and then down to Harrodsburg, Indiana. At some point it was relegated to a branch line (serving limestone quarries) and a new main was built from here in a southwesterly direction and than back east to where Harrodsburg is located. I’ll include a map above to illustrate.

McDoel Yard

Here’s a shot of McDoel Yard in Bloomington, Indiana; we're looking south at the Grimes Lane crossing. The line was still the Monon just six years earlier, and things seem quite active yet.

This yard is now completely gone, with a park in its place with a bike path radiating both northward and southward.

McDoel Yard, Near the End

Here are a couple of photographs taken in Bloomington, Indiana, at McDoel Yard. This line was the former Monon, but by the time of the photograph it’s a part of CSX. Judging from the images, it seems that the yard is near the end of its usefulness. When I took most of my images of this subject fifteen years earlier, the line and yard was owned by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

In the first image, we see a yard engine set that includes a slug which was rebuilt from a B&O GP9; the control unit on the pair is a GP38-2, formerly of the Seaboard Coast Line. The second shot was taken down at the south end of the yard where a pair of semaphores stand silent sentinel to the empty yard. Track was removed fairly soon thereafter.

Snow or Stars

At first I thought this negative was covered with dust. Later I came to believe it was snowing (and I’m sticking with this story). One viewer suggested it could be a night sky with stars, which I like, but don’t believe.

In any case, this EMD GP9 is sitting at McDoel Yard in Bloomington, Indiana. This is along the former Monon of course, which the L&N acquired in 1971.

Northbound on the Monon

This is a northbound L&N train on the former Monon. The first two images were made in Clear Creek, Indiana, where the train is passing by the small depot there. One may notice the semaphore dropping after the passing of the lead unit. The last picture was taken just a few miles up the line at McDoel Yard in Bloomington, Indiana.

The locomotives in the consist give us some nice examples of EMD first and second generation power here. There are two GP9s: number 545 was built in 1956 (former MP/C&EI) while number 516, which sports torpedo tubes, was built in 1957. There is one GP18: number 900 was built in 1960. And finally there is a GP30: number 1022 was built in 1962. That last model, the GP30, is when we move from first to second generation diesel power.