Humrick, IL: Junction Tower: Aban/Milw/CTHSE vs Aban/NS/NKP(Cloverleaf)

(see below for satellite)

Eric Berg posted
Looking north at Humrick tower, with the stub and interchange tracks at left. 1935, John W. Barriger photo.
Dennis DeBruler A farmer has done a good job of erasing the southwest quadrant interchange track east of today's county road. So we are looking north along Milwaukee's CTHSE and have crossed the NKP's Cloverleaf. (John generally took his photos from the rear observatory car.)

Satellite

Hebron, IL: Hebron Tower: WSOR/Milw vs. Aban/C&NW and Lost/C&NW Depot

Tower: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite, the florist building uses the land of the depot and the tracks.)

NorthAmericanInterlockings: William's three photos are below.
William Shapotkin posted three photos with the comment:

Located near Hebron, IL was Hebron Tower. This was the location where the MILW "J Line" x/o the C&NW "KD Line." What few pix that have been seen in railfan circles shows the xing with smash boards. Normally set against the C&NW, a approaching C&NW crew turn on a timer, then after so many minutes, the MILW would get a red signal and the crew would move the smash boards across the MILW trks. Well, at one time there actually was a tower at that xing and (as of Nov 15, 1998) the building still existed -- moved to a nursery several miles away. I would like to thank Paul Behrens (who wrote THE KD LINE book) for telling me where to find the structure.

Dennis DeBruler Now I understand, the KD Line was the C&NW route between Kenosha and Rockford. Opened in 1861 and abandoned in 1937. [OldNorthwestTerritory, "The KD Line" section]

1

2

3

William Shapotkin posted three photos with the comment: "Here are three pix of the one-time Hebron (IL) Tower (the building still exists (off site)) -- which once protected the crossing of the MILW J Line and the C&NW KD Line. Ritzman photos."

1

2

3

Raymond Storey posted
HEBRON ILL...THE C&NW
Raymond Storey posted
HEBRON ILL,,,SOURCE MC HENRY COUNTY HIST SOC

Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's post
In this 1939 aerial photo, the rectangle that is a little east of Main Street and between the tracks and Maple Avenue is consistent with the historical photo.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's post
The route to the west was already abandoned by 1958.
1944/1958 McHenry Quad @ 62,500

Logansport, IN: (Pennsy) Railroad Hub

(Update: Sep 26, 1855 was the opening of the first railroad from Logansport (source). Remember, it was a Wabash and Erie Canal town. It went to Kokomo, and the plan was that it would be part of a route between Cincinnati and Chicago.
TP&W now owns the two remaining WSRY routes.)

Indiana has the motto "The Crossroads of America." Logansport was the crossroads of Pennsy. It built the Panhandle route through Logansport. It bought the Vandalia, which had also built through Logansport. And Pennsy also had a branch that went West to Effner, IL where it met the Toledo, Peoria & Western (TP&W). The mainline of the Wabash that then branched to St. Louis and Kansas City in Illinois also went through Logansport.

To understand the evolution of railroad service in Logansport, I start with a satellite image marked up to reflect the 1928 status. The yellow route was the Wabash. The light-blue route was the Pennsy Panhandle. The purple route on the left is the Pennsy branch that went to Effner to join the TP&W. The orange route between Logansport and Butler was the Eel River, and it became part of the complete orange route as the Pennsy Vandalia System in 1905.

Satellite plus Paint

The north-south part of the Vandalia was the Terre Haute & Logansport Railway. It built beyond its name (Logansport) to tap the industries in South Bend. On the other hand, the Vandalia route to the east built short of its name, Logansport & Toledo Railway, because it terminated at Butler, IN.

Satellite plus Paint

You can still see some treelines southwest of Butler. The 2005 SPV Map indicates Vandalia bought the route to Butler from the Wabash. (Actually, this route was the Eel River Railroad that was leased for 99 years by the Wabash in 1879.) Because of legal battles with Peru, the Wabash lease was annulled in 1902 [IndianaRailroads1]. But seven years later, the Pennsy bought it.

So of the nine railroad spokes radiating from Logansport in 1928, two of them were Wabash and the rest were Pennsy. I used the following map, the 2005 SPV Map, the 1928 Rand McNally RR Atlas, and a Vandalia map to create the above colored routes map.

INDOT

Wikipedia and revolvy have the exact same content. I finally found an acknowledgement on revolvy's page that Wikepedia is the source.

As the Pennsylvania Railroad assembled its system in northern Indiana, Logansport became a major hub, with seven lines radiating in all directions (the only other service to the city was a line of the Wabash Railroad, now Norfolk Southern Railway).[3] Conrail took over four of these in 1976,[4] and abandoned the line to Marion in the 1980s.[5][6] The remaining lines to Winamac, Kokomo, and Bringhurst, known as the "Logansport Cluster", were spun off to the Winamac Southern, which began operations in March 1993.[7] [Wikipedia]

So in 1976, Conrail accepted all three Panhandle spokes and the Vandalia spoke to the south. The Pennsy branch to the West and the Pennsy route through town and across the Wabash River to 18th Street Yard became part of the TP&W. RailAmerica was the operator of Winamac Southern when the line to its namesake town was abandoned. US Rail now operates the remaining two Winamac Southern spokes to the south and trackage rights on a 3.3-mile TP&W line in Logansport that connects the two spokes. [IndianaRailroads2] It evidently also shares the 18th Street Yard with TP&W. As Murphy's Law would have it, the 18th Street Bridge was closed when I visited Logansport, so I did not see the 18th Street Yard. US Rail's web page is the first one I have seen for a shortline that does not include a map of the route. The only map I found that marks WSRY is for the Central Railroad Company of Indianapolis.

Part of the "Butler spoke" had already been abandoned: Auburn-Butler in 1953 and Columbia City to Churbusco in 1961. [AbandonedRails] The rest of it was pretty well gone by 1973. [ManchesterHistory]  The Logansport end of the spoke to South Bend must have become the Logansport & Eel River to run steam railroad excursions and to serve the Logansport Generating Plant, which had their coal pile on the north side of the river.

Facebook
[More photos of the steam engine   The steam excursions ended in 1991 because NS also ran excursions between Logansport and Peru. [KokomoTribune]]

20180828 4558

I was taking a photo of an interesting industrial building (Matthew Warren Spring) and caught that the Logansport & Eel River track looks in good shape and that they have crossing signals for Michigan Avenue. But if you look at a satellite image, the track restoration ends about 30' east of the road.

Satellite

It sounds like the 2006 plans were not realized. In fact, I'll bet a dozen donuts the generating plant is shutdown. I have read and written about the Peru plant shutting down.

I just wanted to let you all know that the L. & E. R. is in the process of reorganizing. The railroads people have been out cleaning and repainting road crossing signals this fall. Sometime around the first of the new year they are suppose to start cutting brush back at some of the road crossings. And maybe by next spring they might start putting in some ties to fix thier track back up. The F. R. A. and I. N. D. O. T. was up to look at the railroad back in November. There is still a chance that the L. & E. R. may get a coal contract to haul coal for the city of Logansport, In. From what I have heard from their people is that the city of Peru, In. would also like to haul coal back in by rail. Unfortunatly Peru lost its rail service, due to CSX pulling up its track back in the late 80's and early 90's. Besides that the right of way going back to the powerplant on the C & O has since been built on. I was told was that I. N .D. O. T. has been looking at ways to get some of these coal trucks off of the road. Especially down in southern Indiana. The coal companies are starting to build some new coal mines and are going to need some rail lines to service them. And the people in southwestern Indiana are getting very tired of the truck traffic. Lets keep our fingures crossed that this little railroad can be brought back from the brink. [fwarailfan]

The Wabash used the Butler branch and trackage rights with the Erie for a Detroit-Chicago service until it built its own Chicago-Montpelier line around 1893. [ManchesterHistory] (I have wondered when the Wabash line to Chicago was built. I've since read they built it for the 1893 Colombian Exposition.)

Ethan Hopper posted
Here's a very interesting part of the PRR in Indiana that I've never been able to find a single piece of information about. It crosses the Butler Branch in Logansport here where I circled it and continues north, curving around before paralleling US 35 North to Winamac. Does anybody have ANY information regarding this line? It seems as though it was ripped out in favor of the Kenneth connection west of town by 1960.
Ben Harleman There was a diamond on LER!?
Jason Jordan There was no diamond there guys. There was an overpass. The south abutment is still there in the woods. Next to the former Kain Trucking company.
Lewis Mann This was the original PB&W main line and it crossed the Vandalia on an overhead bridge. The south abutment can still be seen. It became a problem with freight pulling the grade being so short & steep. A second route between Kenneth(Trimmer) and Boone curve at Royal Center was built in the 20's. The old RoW was sold to the State for building U.S. 35 in 1935. From MP C198(0), behind D&R, to Kenneth was numbered for the Effner Branch as L1,L2, etc to L6. From that point it was T1, T2, etc to T6 at Boone. There was about a 300' between T6 and the continuation of the original mile post at C207.
Ethan Hopper Lewis Mann Wow, thanks! What’s PB&W?
Lewis Mann Pittsburgh, Baltimore, & Western. Part of the Panhandle system.
Mark Thomas This shortcut was basically used by passenger trains, as it had steep grades. When you go up the hill on 35, you can see the roadbed in the woods on the east side.

John Troxler posted
NS 253 westbound through Logansport, IN, probably 1988.

David Jordan posted a description of the railroad customers in the area.

Muncie, IN: Big Four Freight House

(3D Satellite)
I think I have written about this building before, but the search function breaking last April 3, 2018 is not letting me find it. After spending some time trying to find it, it is quicker to write it again.

20140830 0036c

Big Four is the nickname for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway

Fort Wayne, IN: Camp Scott: WWII railroad training and then prison camp

(Satellite)  Moeller Road is further east. The road is called Oxford Street here.

Ray Gruber shared

Hoosier News by Brian Thornton

January 29, 2012

By: Brian Thornton, Publisher

My brain is still fried over this. I still don't understand why they never taught this to us in school. was this such a hush, hush thing? Many in Fort Wayne know that Baer Field airport began as a World War II air base. But northeast of McMillen Park, just east of Wayne Trace and between the old Pennsylvania Railroad tracks on the north and Moeller Road on the south, a new stand of young woods is all that remains of an important World War II facility.

Here stood Camp Thomas A. Scott, originally a training center for the Army's Railroad Operating Battalions. But at the end of the war, it was the detention center for more than 600 German prisoners of war, mostly from Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps.

Fort Wayne had been a railroad hub of the Midwest, especially for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here began the Pennsy "Lines West," a point from which powerful steam locomotives, many of which were designed and built in Fort Wayne, were tested for speed. Since the 1860s, the Pennsy Shops had been one of the most important design, construction and repair centers of the nation. It was only natural when World War II broke out that Fort Wayne was chosen by the U.S. Army as a place where men would be trained to operate the Army's railroads overseas. The camp was named for the first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Thomas A. Scott, who had organized and operated the first military railroad during the Civil War.

Seven railroad operating battalions were trained in Fort Wayne between 1942 and 1944. So good was their training here that one of these, the 730th R.O.B., boasted after it was shipped overseas that by 1945 it had moved more than 5 million tons of war materials through the "Persian Corridor" with no casualties.

Open houses were given in Fort Wayne when new battalions arrived for training. The city also enthusiastically supported the Fort Wayne Service Men's Club on Washington Boulevard. With its canteen, library, music room, billiards room and dance floor, the club was a home away from home for hundreds of servicemen.

The training facility closed in mid-1944, when the last battalion was shipped overseas. By September, ominous machine-gun towers and barbed-wire fencing appeared along Moeller Road and Wayne Trace. Soon after, more than 600 prisoners arrived to live in the camp's frame and tar paper houses. Prisoners of war had been housed in the county for some time, having been transported from the large camp in Defiance, Ohio. But this was the first time prisoners were actually billeted in Fort Wayne.

There seems to have been no connection between the arrival of the German prisoners of war and Fort Wayne's proud German heritage. There simply was a manpower shortage in the Allen County area, in both industry and agriculture, as well as an overcrowding of prisoners in the older camps.

German immigrants had been settling in Fort Wayne and the surrounding region since the 1830s, in the days of the Wabash and Erie Canal. The Germans had established churches and had taken their places in political, social and economic life.

By the 1890s, the Chicago Tribune typically characterized Fort Wayne as "a most German town" whenever it reported the news here. Three daily German-language newspapers were hawked in Fort Wayne; the mayor, Charles Zollinger, was a German immigrant, as were most City Council members; and German breweries such as the Berghoff offered some of the finest beer in the Midwest. German was the language commonly used in church sermons and classroom lessons, and it was the most often-heard tongue on the streets. German clubs of every type and description, from the brotherhoods of veterans of the Kaiser's army to the sports clubs and singing fraternities, were the staple of Fort Wayne social life. There even was a Germania Park on the east bank of the St. Joe River. (Today it is a housing development).

The German-American Bank (now Lincoln National Bank and Trust) was one of the most prominent institutions in town. The Lincoln Tower, built in 1929-30 as Indiana's first skyscraper, was the very symbol of German immigration: The designer, A.M. Strauss, and the builder, William Hagermann, were immigrants. The president of the bank, Charles Buesching, was the son of immigrants. But all this revelry in German heritage and culture began to unravel during World War I, when Germany became the nation's enemy. U.S. government propaganda against all that was German began to take its toll. Good citizens - even the sheriff of Allen County - who had not finished the details of becoming U.S. citizens found themselves having to register as "enemy aliens." Eavesdroppers spied on German Lutheran and German Catholic sermons, and a movement began to forbid the use of German language in the classrooms. The German-language newspapers began to disappear. Bigots and super-patriots harassed German families to give more than their neighbors did to the war's fund drives - to prove their loyalty. Some Allen County residents were beaten because of their heritage.

In the wake of all this, during the 1920s and 1930s, the German texture of Fort Wayne changed, and the community gradually became increasingly like other Indiana communities. The German-American Bank changed its name to the most American thing it could think of - the Lincoln National Bank - and the English language became more popular. By the outbreak of World War II, there was little to distinguish Fort Wayne as a German community.

Still, the appearance of the prisoner-of-war camp - a German one - rankled many. The camp's commander, Capt. Frank Bodenhorn, himself the descendant of German immigrants, was a Fort Wayne man. Soon after the camp opened, he stated in area newspapers that he understood that the prisoners were "not welcome visitors in our midst," but that they were "a byproduct of war that can be used to advantage."

Sure enough, these proud veterans of Rommel's corps performed a variety of tasks around town, but never were they abused or degraded. They worked in fields harvesting crops and in local industries. One Fort Wayne resident remembers POWs being used to set pins in the Lions Club Bowling alley on Calhoun Street, and they were a frequent sight shoveling snow on Fort Wayne streets.

But they also were paid the competitive rate that other workers were paid; their earnings were put into savings accounts, to be withdrawn at the end of the war. With the money they were able to keep - about 80 cents an hour - they could buy things in their own canteen. Unauthorized local women visiting the camp after hours seems to have been an occasional problem.

The camp had its own library and game room. Movies were shown four nights a week, and the prisoners could listen to WOWO at night on their private radios. The pingpong tables left behind by the Railroad Battalions were a hit, but the pool tables mystified the Germans.

Not everyone in Fort Wayne was pleased with these comfortable arrangements. This was the time of the Battle of the Bulge, and the war continued in the air and at sea at a deadly pace.

In newspapers, letters to the editor complained bitterly of the good treatment given to the German prisoners. Especially irksome was the daily allotment of two packs of cigarettes to prisoners, while rationing prevented locals from buying more than one pack.

Among the prisoners, there was little discontent. One escape attempt ended in a quick capture, and a riot that broke out ended in the 100 or so culprits being shipped out to Texas. Only one man committed suicide - for reasons unknown.

The prison camp guards were regular servicemen assigned to the task. After a guard in Texas, newly returned from the Battle of the Bulge, went berserk and killed a number of prisoners, psychiatric tests started being given to guards regularly. A number of Fort Wayne guards were removed from duty. Local reactions to the prisoners were varied and curious.

One prominent Fort Wayne insurance executive, Ed Rice, remembers as a 12- or 13-year-old going with his friends out to the camp and shouting insults at the prisoners - the thing to do in wartime, the youngsters thought - and then taking the prisoners' nickels to the local store, buying them candy and pop, and handing it through the barbed-wire fence to the prisoners.

Another Fort Wayne executive remembers riding with the sheriff on his nightly rounds only to find a suspicious car parked next to a machine-gun tower at the camp. Upon investigation, the sheriff was embarrassed to find the guard and a local woman in a compromising position. After much begging not to be turned in to his commander, the sheriff sternly admonished the woman to go home and the soldier to get back to his duty.

Six months after the surrender of Germany, Camp Scott was closed, on Nov. 16, 1945. The prisoners were returned to Germany, and the camp was considered as a prospective site for postwar housing for returning GIs, at a time when housing was scarce.

In the first years after the war, the barracks and mess hall of the German prisoner-of-war camp were transformed by the Housing Authority into a temporary shelter. Residents there paid $22.50 per month, excluding water and sewage).

With the expansion of the city in the postwar years, housing opportunities greatly improved, but the deplorable conditions of the temporary housing at old Camp Scott continued until as late as 1977. Only then was the last of the old prisoner-of-war housing torn down.

I doubt that the Fort Wayne Pennsylvania shops were as significant as he states. But they did have a large engine servicing facility. I remember my Dad taking me and parking along Wayne Trace so that we could watch the skip hoist go up and down the side of the coaling tower. Pennsylvania's main shops were in Altoona, PA.

Howard Pletcher commented on a post
Camp Scott was actually on Wayne Trace where Midwest Supply sets today. The wetland on Oxford is close enough to be called Camp Scott now, but that was just woods, perhaps it was a part of the government property. The aerial photo shows Wayne Trace on the left with the PRR yards at the top.

Another description of Camp Scott.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

I found this story about 12 years ago and posted it on my Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Ind. Facebook page that I used to have. Best story that I have ever posted.

"Here stood Camp Thomas A. Scott, originally a training center for the Army's Railroad Operating Battalions. But at the end of the war, it was the detention center for more than 600 German prisoners of war, mostly from Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps."

"The training facility closed in mid-1944, when the last battalion was shipped overseas. By September, ominous machine-gun towers and barbed-wire fencing appeared along Moeller Road and Wayne Trace. Soon after, more than 600 prisoners arrived to live in the camp's frame and tar paper houses. Prisoners of war had been housed in the county for some time, having been transported from the large camp in Defiance, Ohio. But this was the first time prisoners were actually billeted in Fort Wayne."

"Still, the appearance of the prisoner-of-war camp - a German one - rankled many. The camp's commander, Capt. Frank Bodenhorn, himself the descendant of German immigrants, was a Fort Wayne man. Soon after the camp opened, he stated in area newspapers that he understood that the prisoners were "not welcome visitors in our midst," but that they were "a byproduct of war that can be used to advantage."

Sure enough, these proud veterans of Rommel's corps performed a variety of tasks around town, but never were they abused or degraded. They worked in fields harvesting crops and in local industries. One Fort Wayne resident remembers POWs being used to set pins in the Lions Club Bowling alley on Calhoun Street, and they were a frequent sight shoveling snow on Fort Wayne streets.

But they also were paid the competitive rate that other workers were paid; their earnings were put into savings accounts, to be withdrawn at the end of the war. With the money they were able to keep - about 80 cents an hour - they could buy things in their own canteen. Unauthorized local women visiting the camp after hours seems to have been an occasional problem.

The camp had its own library and game room. Movies were shown four nights a week, and the prisoners could listen to WOWO at night on their private radios. The pingpong tables left behind by the Railroad Battalions were a hit, but the pool tables mystified the Germans.

Not everyone in Fort Wayne was pleased with these comfortable arrangements. This was the time of the Battle of the Bulge, and the war continued in the air and at sea at a deadly pace.

In newspapers, letters to the editor complained bitterly of the good treatment given to the German prisoners. Especially irksome was the daily allotment of two packs of cigarettes to prisoners, while rationing prevented locals from buying more than one pack.

Among the prisoners, there was little discontent. One escape attempt ended in a quick capture, and a riot that broke out ended in the 100 or so culprits being shipped out to Texas. Only one man committed suicide - for reasons unknown.

The prison camp guards were regular servicemen assigned to the task. After a guard in Texas, newly returned from the Battle of the Bulge, went berserk and killed a number of prisoners, psychiatric tests started being given to guards regularly. A number of Fort Wayne guards were removed from duty. Local reactions to the prisoners were varied and curious.

One prominent Fort Wayne insurance executive, Ed Rice, remembers as a 12- or 13-year-old going with his friends out to the camp and shouting insults at the prisoners - the thing to do in wartime, the youngsters thought - and then taking the prisoners' nickels to the local store, buying them candy and pop, and handing it through the barbed-wire fence to the prisoners.

Another Fort Wayne executive remembers riding with the sheriff on his nightly rounds only to find a suspicious car parked next to a machine-gun tower at the camp. Upon investigation, the sheriff was embarrassed to find the guard and a local woman in a compromising position. After much begging not to be turned in to his commander, the sheriff sternly admonished the woman to go home and the soldier to get back to his duty.

Six months after the surrender of Germany, Camp Scott was closed, on Nov. 16, 1945. The prisoners were returned to Germany, and the camp was considered as a prospective site for postwar housing for returning GIs, at a time when housing was scarce."

By, Michael Hawfield

Howard Pletcher commented on Tommy's post
One error in the sign. The Camp was not where the sign is located, rather it was nearby on Wayne Trace. Here is a 1940s aerial view showing the camp;Wayne Trace is on the left and Moeller Rd/Oxford St is off the bottom. The area where the sign stands shows only woods and fields.
Herb Berg I was lucky enough to work on the survey crew the city hired prior to turning it into a flood control area.
There were camping areas occupied by who knows who in a couple of the clearings.
Connie Brewer I have mentioned this before but I lived there in 1947 after my dad got out of the navy. First we lived in a one room house with no bathroom and a pump for water but then moved into a two room officer’s place with a bathroom. We went to New Haven schools. I was in the second grade at Wayne Haven and my brother was in 6th at New Haven. Kids on the other side of the street went to Fort Wayne schools!

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted two photos with the comment:

[A lot of this is a repeat of a comment above.]

So Casad Depot was a POW Camp at the same time as Camp Scott?

An estimated 12,000-15,000 of these wartime captives landed in Indiana, where they would live and work at one of nine POW camps across the state. Camp Atterbury, located near Edinburgh, Indiana, served as the primary center for POW internment operations, with branch camps operating at Austin, Windfall, Vincennes, Morristown, Eaton, and Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. Camp Thomas A. Scott (along with the Casad Ordnance Depot), located just outside Fort Wayne, operated under the command of Camp Perry, Ohio.

"Here stood Camp Thomas A. Scott, originally a training center for the Army's Railroad Operating Battalions. But at the end of the war, it was the detention center for more than 600 German prisoners of war, mostly from Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps."

"The training facility closed in mid-1944, when the last battalion was shipped overseas. By September, ominous machine-gun towers and barbed-wire fencing appeared along Moeller Road and Wayne Trace. Soon after, more than 600 prisoners arrived to live in the camp's frame and tar paper houses. Prisoners of war had been housed in the county for some time, having been transported from the large camp in Defiance, Ohio. But this was the first time prisoners were actually billeted in Fort Wayne."

"Still, the appearance of the prisoner-of-war camp - a German one - rankled many. The camp's commander, Capt. Frank Bodenhorn, himself the descendant of German immigrants, was a Fort Wayne man. Soon after the camp opened, he stated in area newspapers that he understood that the prisoners were "not welcome visitors in our midst," but that they were "a byproduct of war that can be used to advantage."

Sure enough, these proud veterans of Rommel's corps performed a variety of tasks around town, but never were they abused or degraded. They worked in fields harvesting crops and in local industries. One Fort Wayne resident remembers POWs being used to set pins in the Lions Club Bowling alley on Calhoun Street, and they were a frequent sight shoveling snow on Fort Wayne streets.

But they also were paid the competitive rate that other workers were paid; their earnings were put into savings accounts, to be withdrawn at the end of the war. With the money they were able to keep - about 80 cents an hour - they could buy things in their own canteen. Unauthorized local women visiting the camp after hours seems to have been an occasional problem.

The camp had its own library and game room. Movies were shown four nights a week, and the prisoners could listen to WOWO at night on their private radios. The pingpong tables left behind by the Railroad Battalions were a hit, but the pool tables mystified the Germans.

Not everyone in Fort Wayne was pleased with these comfortable arrangements. This was the time of the Battle of the Bulge, and the war continued in the air and at sea at a deadly pace.

In newspapers, letters to the editor complained bitterly of the good treatment given to the German prisoners. Especially irksome was the daily allotment of two packs of cigarettes to prisoners, while rationing prevented locals from buying more than one pack.

Among the prisoners, there was little discontent. One escape attempt ended in a quick capture, and a riot that broke out ended in the 100 or so culprits being shipped out to Texas. Only one man committed suicide - for reasons unknown.

The prison camp guards were regular servicemen assigned to the task. After a guard in Texas, newly returned from the Battle of the Bulge, went berserk and killed a number of prisoners, psychiatric tests started being given to guards regularly. A number of Fort Wayne guards were removed from duty. Local reactions to the prisoners were varied and curious.

One prominent Fort Wayne insurance executive, Ed Rice, remembers as a 12- or 13-year-old going with his friends out to the camp and shouting insults at the prisoners - the thing to do in wartime, the youngsters thought - and then taking the prisoners' nickels to the local store, buying them candy and pop, and handing it through the barbed-wire fence to the prisoners.

Another Fort Wayne executive remembers riding with the sheriff on his nightly rounds only to find a suspicious car parked next to a machine-gun tower at the camp. Upon investigation, the sheriff was embarrassed to find the guard and a local woman in a compromising position. After much begging not to be turned in to his commander, the sheriff sternly admonished the woman to go home and the soldier to get back to his duty.

Six months after the surrender of Germany, Camp Scott was closed, on Nov. 16, 1945. The prisoners were returned to Germany, and the camp was considered as a prospective site for postwar housing for returning GIs, at a time when housing was scarce."

[The comments debate if the Casad Ordnance Depot every had PoWs, even as workers.]

Holly 'Finkhouse' Glick: I don't know if it's a true story but I heard quite a few of the pows chose to stay in Ft Wayne and send for their families.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater




    http://www.indianalegalarchive.com/journal/ww2pows 

1

2

Johannott, IL: Junction: Aban/C&EI Branch vs. KB&S/Milwaukee/CTH&SE

KB&S = Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad
CTH&SE = Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway

Unlike the branch from south of Milford, IL that did not make it to the 1955 System Map, this C&EI branch south of Roseville, IL made it into the 1970s. [posting: Doug 'Spike' Sowers early 70's I think I work @ Stewart Grain on that row.  Kevin Keifer Doug 'Spike' Sowers some history of that branch is that in the 30s there was a plan to extend it from Judyville to Winthrop to interchange coal loads with the Chicago Attica and Southern, it never happened and by 1946 the CAS was abandoned]  It still has some tree lines that make it easy to locate on a satellite map (red line). I highlighted the KB&S with a blue line to make the location of the junction more obvious.

Satellite plus Paint

Eric Berg posted three images with the comment:

JOHANNOTT, ILLINOIS--At MP 109.56 on Milwaukee Roads Terre Haute sub was the crossing of the C&EI's Judyville branch. There were no interchanges, sidings or switches. The tower had a Saxby & Farmer machine, with 18 working levers and 2 spares. The tower was built March 1st, 1907 and put into operation on July 27, 1911 with it being automatic between the hours of 4 pm to 8 am daily and all day on Sunday. Tower was automated by 1930.

1
Looking north at Johannott tower, 1936. John W. Barriger photo.

2
1942 track chart at Johannott.

3
C&EI diagram of Johannott.

Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society shared Eric's post. I finished my research and started writing some notes. But I felt a strong sense of dejavu, so I searched again. Fortunately, I did find these notes before I posted a redundant set.

Eric Berg posted again
[In addition to the above three images, he added this one.]
Milwaukee Roads (nee-CTH&SE, nee-C&S) Johannott tower, located at MP 116 on the Terre Haute sub. Situated in the N/W quadrant at the crossing of C&EI's Judyville Subdivision. This tower was originally called Rowland, and was built March 1st, 1907. The tower was put into service on July 27th, 1911 with a 16 lever mechanical machine which was replaced on July 30th, 1919 with a newer Saxby and Farmer 18 lever machine for $6,145. On June 9th, 1921, the Illinois Warehouse Commission gives authority to allow no levermen from 4 pm to 8 am each week day, also all day Sunday, leaving home signals to green. As of September 8th, 1930, the plant was automatic. By 1942, it shows on the track chart as "Johannot" and by 1953, it wasn't showing as a station, just as an automatic interlocking. This location had many spellings, Johannot, Johannett, and Johannott. "Johannott" was the correct spelling, pronounced "Jo-hann-it". Station call sign was "CM".

Stockland, IL: Junction: Aban/C&EI Branch vs. KB&S/Milwaukee/CTH&SE

KB&S = Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad
CTH&SE = Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway

My 1928 RR Atlas shows the CE&I branch ran straight west from Freeland Park to Milford Junction. The only trace of it today is some rather arbitrary boundaries between farm fields.

Satellite plus Paint
The CTH&SE still exists as the KB&S

Eric Berg posted six photos with the comment:

STOCKLAND, ILLINOIS--After Webster tower came Stockland Tower at MP 92, where the Milwaukee Road crossed the C&EI's Freeland Park Branch. Here are some older photos, each labeled. 3 Photos from 1936 are taken by John W. Barriger.

1
John Karn at Stockland tower (1906)

2
Stockland tower, 1936. 

3
Stockland tower, 1936.

4
Stockland tower, 1936.

5
C&EI info.

6
Track Chart, 1942.

 The town's grain elevator was built along the C&EI branch. It appears they have built a train loading facility along the KB&S and truck grain toit from their main facility.

Satellite

Google Map does not label the grain elevator, but it is obviously active because a truck is parked at the scale house.

The branch still appeared on a 1940 system map:

r2parks

But it is not on a 1955 System Map.