Towns and Nature: Crawfordsville, IN: Ames Junction: Mon vs. Big4/P&E vs. Pennsy and Monon Depot & Freight House

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Crawfordsville, IN: Ames Junction: Mon vs. Big4/P&E vs. Pennsy and Monon Depot & Freight House

Three of the original six spokes still exist and CSX owns them all. But NS and Amtrak also use the Northern (Monon) and Southeastern (P&E) spokes.

Montgomery County History and Folklore posted three photos with the comment:

Montgomery County had three railroads which crossed each other in Crawfordsville on the southeast side of town at a place called Ames Junction. This was north of Elmore, east of Goose Nibble and south of College Street. The tracks formed a triangle with the Big Four (Peoria and Eastern division of the New York Central) on the north side, mile post 168.5, The Monon mainline on the the west side, mile post 148.4. and the Vandalia Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, mile post 52.0, on the east side along with the Junction Hotel/Station/Depot.
These pictures show the Signal/interlocking tower at variouos times, located in the triangle and known as Ames Tower. This tower was built around 1905 and had various functions but its main purpose was to control rail traffic through the rail crossings to avoid accidents. As some of frieght trains passed the tower they would grab their train orders from a hoop sticking out from the tower known as the “hoop process” from the tower without slowing down. The tower also operated the semophores, and signals to tell a train if the way was clear to cross. A derailment in 1950 destroyed the first floor and knocked the second floor down.
Here are a few things from the October 5, 1915 Valuation engineering report about the tower.
All in accordance with blueprint #16-B-70
except brickwork 16'-6” high above concrete foundation wall instead of as marked on print.
Exterior - Brickwork of selected common brick laid up in cement lime mortar.
Lintels and sills of concrete
Partition on 1st floor runs clear to ceiling of 7/8” x 4” T. G. & B., 7-2” x 3” studs, batter door, 2- 8” T. hinges, thumb latch, part to be painted inside.
Battery table worth $15
Railing on 2nd floor worth $3.00
Sink on second floor with water and waste connection cost $4.00, paid for and installed by operators personally.
20' of 2 lines of insulated electric wiring, 3 drop cords, Lights with tin reflectors.
Cases and bench worth $3.00
25 treads to stairs, storm vestible at top worth $3.00
16”x16” brick chimney, from top of foundation footing to 1” above ridge footing 12”x24”x24” of concrete.
Exterior wood work painted 3 coats, all interior work, 2 coats.
Condition maintenance normal
age 10 years

Randy Rippy: I occasionally stopped by the one story, replacement Ames when I went to Wabash College in the seventies. I would sit with the operator, Irving Bressee, and talk trains. Loved the photos of the old Ames interlocking. It looks nothing like that today.

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Ames Tower before the derailment if 1950.

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Looking west. The train is a Big Four going east.

Larry Graham: Photo credit Claude Coram. Was a P&E trainman. Published in the NYCSHS "Central Headlight" 3rd Quarter, '84. I wrote the article and unearthed this pic in my research.

Chris Wiatt: The rail cars look like they’re loaded with wire rods . They were shipped from the steel mills and extruded into steel wire . This crossing was south Mid States Wire.

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An aerial view looking southeast. You can see the Junction hotel/station along with the tower.

Jason Jordan posted
The date is unknown, but we are looking at the Conrail to CSX interlocker known as Ames at Crawfordsville, IN. The photographer is looking east along the former Peoria & Eastern Rwy. Track to the right in the foreground is the former MONON Rwy. A Bruce Emmons photo, out of the Jason Jordan collection.
William Shapotkin: Yes, the CARDINAL/HOOSIER STATE operate over the connecting track (far left).

Looking at the 1928 RR Atlas, in addition to Monon, there was Pennsy and Big Four running through the town. So which of the two Conrail railroads are we looking at. That is, did Big Four or Pennsy buy Peoria & Eastern? I determined that it is the Big Four. I had added some comments to the posting, but now I don't see them anymore. Did Jason delete them or am I looking in the wrong place? At least my comments should remain in this posting.

The crossing was easy to find because both routes still exist through town. But the Big Four route ends on the west side of town by the RR Donnelly plant. The Pennsy came north/south through this area and the northern part still exists as an industrial spur.

CSX interactive map

CSX got the Big Four segment when Conrail was divided between it and NS. Crawfordsville is in the upper-left corner of this CSX map excerpt. I wonder if a short line handles the in-town switching or if CSX runs a local. As we have seen with Kendallville and other towns, Class I railroads generally want to handle just big trains. On the other hand there seem to be several rail-served industries in this town. And in the satellite image, I saw several cars parked in a small yard on the southeast side. So maybe CSX does run a local in this town.

William Shapotkin commented that the CARDINAL/HOOSIER STATE uses the connector from the Monon to the Big Four to get from the Chicago area to Indianapolis.

Monon Depot

Street View, Jul 2019

Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society posted 30 images with the comment:

Crawfordsville was this week’s Monon Monday. Here’s some history and multiple pictures from our archives, some Sanborn maps and a couple Google Maps for reference.
From Wikipedia:
“The city was founded in 1823 on the bank of Sugar Creek, a southern tributary of the Wabash River and named for U.S. Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford. The city is home to Wabash College, a private liberal arts men's college, and the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, a National Historic Landmark.”
Sugar Creek was only navigable by flat boat at high water. This made passage difficult to the Wabash for hauling goods to and from Crawfordsville.
In 1844, the people of Crawfordsville got a charter to build a railroad, the Crawfordsville and Wabash, to connect Crawfordsville with the Wabash River and the Wabash and Erie Canal. It was chartered again in 1846 and the line was built in 1851-1852. The company had one locomotive named Montgomery. In June of 1852, the New Albany and Salem (later, the Monon) bought the Crawfordsville and Wabash. It was not fully connected to the system until 1854.
Even though this is on the flat part of the Monon, because of the Sugar Creek valley the railroad had a series of curves. Crawfordsville had lots of industries over time, including a seed company and mill, small manufacturers, two brick companies, a power plant, lumber yards, and RR Donnelly and Sons, a printing company.
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Centennial celebration

Crawfordsville Freight House- we believe this is the original run through depot and they tore the south end of the building down, shortening the original depot, when they built the new passenger depot.

The north end you are looking at has the original run through door.

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My husband suspects the freight house is actually the remains of the northern end of the original depot in Crawfordsville. You can see the seem in the roof and on the bricks at the south end of the building. Notice how the lintels don’t match, the original depot had brick lintels, the new end on the south has limestone lintels. They tore down the southern end of the depot and built a new passenger depot in its place - Amy

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Crawfordsville Passenger Depot

Cab view of Monon Crawfordsville Passenger Depot and Freight House, just north of it. Seed bank building and elevator in the background. The brick Seed Bank building still stands today.

Dick Fontaine photographer.