Veedersburg, IN: Junction Tower: NKP(Cloverleaf) vs. Big4/P&E vs. CA&S/C&EI

We have seen the Cloverleaf and Peoria & Eastern before. And I have seen mention of  Chicago, Attica & Southern (CA&S) before. But what amazes me is that the SPV Map indicates the CA&S was originally the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. It turns out the C&EI had considerable trackage in northern Indiana, not all of which was connected with its main route out of Chicago.

Andy Zachary posted
Story about the closing of the tower in Veedersburg, courtesy of Steve Krueger.
Arthur Shale Loaded cars delivered by NKP to NYC in 1943 10; received 97. Loaded cars delivered by NKP to NYC in 1953 114, received 320.
Jim Sinclair I'm guessing there was much more interchange traffic going on when the CA&S was still in business? Arthur Shale gives some interesting statistics from 1943 and 1953 above, which is heavier than I thought it would be!

Mark Egebrecht When we're the other 2 lines abandoned? I believe the P&E was filed for abandonment by Conrail in March, 1982, but the diamond was still in place and the signals still lit in 1983. Clover Leaf was filed for abandonment from Linden to Cowden in March, 1987.

Andy Zachary Thank you Jim. The thing that's always been curious to me was, Veedersburg's only real claim-to-fame is that they provided a significant portion of the bricks used to build the track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now, from what I've been told, the majority of Vburg's bricks for that project came from the brick plant south of town that the Clover Leaf and the CA&S had access to - not the one on the west side of town that the P&E served. This makes no sense to me. The P&E literally ran right beside the Speedway. Heck, they even ran passenger specials to the track on race day! So what routing would take the bricks from Veedersburg to Indy via the Clover Leaf? The only logical one was that they went up to Frankfort, then interchanged with either the Monon or the Pennsy down to Indy.

Andy Zachary Apparently you CAN find everything on the internet. On the website www.firstsuperspeedway.com, there's a link to the September 19th, 1909 copy of the Indianapolis Star. In it, it states "Two car loads of bricks arrived yesterday over the Big Four on special trains." It states later on in the article that, "The bricks will be shipped hereafter at the rate of twenty cars every day. The Veedersburg plant has increased its working force in order to supply the demand at once."

The CA&S was abandoned ca. 1945. The NKP acquired the Clover Leaf in 1922 and N&W merged the NKP in 1964. "The NW abandoned the section of the line between Frankfort, Indiana and Metcalf, Illinois in the 1960s." [AbandonedRails] Below I used yellow for the CA&S, blue for the NKP/Cloverleaf, and green for the Big Four/Peoria and Eastern. I added a red rectangle around the Big Four Depot.

Satellite