#mitchellindiana

East End Georgia Here's a westbound fast freight on the Baltimore & Ohio on southern Indiana. This line was originally the Ohio & Mississippi which was built as broad gauge. It is approaching a siding called Georgia, which is west of Mitchell, Indiana, by five or ten miles.

The lead locomotive is a B&O GP35 in Chessie System colors while the following two units are Southern Pacific—perhaps an SP run-through train.

This is one of my favorite pictures made along the line, with code line, silo, and FORD truck all present.

Northbound Local

Here’s a local job working at Mitchell, Indiana.

The Louisville & Nashville had absorbed the regional Monon (which existed completely within the state of Indiana, with access to Chicago and Louisville) about six years prior to this photo being made. Looks like two GP7s make up the power for this train. The Monon crossed over the Baltimore & Ohio at this location (within the frame, but it’s difficult to see).

Something just struck me: these things (first generation diesel locomotives) are akin to a manual exposure, manual focus film cameras—like I was using at the time.

Ohio & Mississippi (1 of 3)

The Baltimore & Ohio is one of the oldest railroads in the country; in southern Indiana, it was formerly a broad-gauge line called the Ohio & Mississippi (Cincinnati to St. Louis). Some of the distinctive color position lights are still in operation to this day, but going fast.

This shot, of a westbound job, was taken in Mitchell, Indiana. This negative happened to have lots of degradation that had to be digitally repaired.

Ohio & Mississippi (2 of 3)

The Baltimore & Ohio is one of the oldest railroads in the country; in southern Indiana, it was formerly a broad-gauge line called the Ohio & Mississippi (Cincinnati to St. Louis).

This shot, of a westbound job, was taken at Georgia siding west of Mitchell, Indiana.

Local Job

Here we see an eastbound local Baltimore & Ohio job in Mitchell, Indiana. In the first image it rumbles over a crossing with the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon. In the next two we see it roll by the yard office just to the east.

The B&O in Southern Indiana—Part One

Over the next three posts I will show some images I took along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Southern Indiana back in 1976. This is a line that stretches between Cincinnati and St. Louis; at this point the line is rarely used, perhaps for local service, at best.

The line began as the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad (running between those rivers). In 1893 it was merged into the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railway.

The first two images in this post were made east of Michell, Indiana—near the tiny town of Tunnelton, and then a bit further west off Mill Creek Road. While these two were made with color transparency film, I must have run out and switched to black & white negative film for the remainder.

I caught up with the train in Mitchell and was able to shoot it at the west end of the siding from the N. Teke Burton Drive Overpass. The penultimate image was made with the train approaching Georgia Siding, west of Mitchell, while the final picture was taken a mile and a half east of Loogootee, Indiana, from the Highway 150 Overpass.

The lead unit, in the colorful Chessie System scheme, B&O 3546, is an EMD GP35 that was built in July of 1964. The following units are of the Southern Pacific run-through power: an SD40 and a GE U-boat.

They’re Called Critters

This is a small diesel switching locomotive—it may be a General Electric 45-ton unit, but this is not my specialty. This Lehigh Cement plant is in Mitchell, Indiana, along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Hoopin’ Up Orders

Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate a rather antiquated way of providing information to the crew on a moving train: hooping up flimsies (train orders). All kinds of things can go wrong here—from personal injury to dropping the orders and being forced to stop the train, walk back, and pick them up off the ground. The engineer gets the orders on the head end, and the conductor does the same from the caboose.

Despite the handsome Southern Pacific power (led by a big GE U33C), this eastbound train is on the Baltimore & Ohio in southern Indiana (a run-through train no doubt). This is the B&O line that stretches between Cincinnati and St. Louis—Indiana Division, Washington Subdivision—and was built as the Ohio & Mississippi. This particular location is at Mitchell, Indiana, where the B&O crossed over and interchanged with the former Monon.