Decatur, IN: Erie's DA Tower: Erie vs. Pennsy/GR&I

Tim Shanahan shared Mark Egebrecht's photo

Michael Dye shared ten photos. Tim Shanahan also shared.

Mark's comment:

EL Tower at Decatur, Indiana. This guarded the crossing of the EL and PRR GR&I line. 1983.

 Christopher Allen Howe DA Tower

Phil Bell Isn't this one of the small remaining EL segments? As I recall, the CF&E comes down the GR&I from Adams to get a customer on the EL.

Comments confirm Phil is correct and that the segments are back in service because a plastic company went back to rail service. The plastic company would be Dolco Packaging. According to the Google image, which tends to be 1-2 years old, they have torn up the tracks inside their fence.

Google

But according to a Bing image, which tends to be over 7 years ago, they had track and cars on their property.

Bing.

If I ever go to Decatur to take pictures of the soybean processing plant, I need to remember to swing over to the west side to check out the tracks in this plant

Satellite

On the Google image, there were three covered hoppers on the Erie where the diamond used to be. They look special because they are long and have a "notch" in the middle. These are probably collecting storage fees for the CF&E.

In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I avoided "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. Specifically, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. I hope you can access posts in Private Groups.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"New Delivery"

Solo Erie Lackawanna SDP45 #3650 brings a westbound train past "DA" Tower in Decatur, Indiana on a sunny February, 1975 afternoon. On the head end is a string of brand new Burlington Northern coal hoppers, built at the Greenville Steel Car Company, in Greenville PA, which was also served by the railroad. EL handled many such new equipment moves out of Greenville, destined to Chicago and connections with other carriers leading toward the west. The new hoppers will join the growing BN coal fleet assigned to the rapidly developing Powder River Basin coal field in northern Wyoming. As for EL, no such dynamic new business savior would be forthcoming, and the company, bankrupt since Hurricane Agnes ravaged the railroad in 1972, would be folded into the Consolidated Rail Corporation in just over a year. Soon afterward, this western portion of EL's New York-Chicago main line would become redundant practically overnight. February, 1975 photo by Mark Hinsdale

Mark Hinsdale shared
Roger Riblett shared

Comments on Mark's post

Five photos by Michael Dye including three interior and one overview