Butler, IN: Railroads

(Satellite)

Terry Wisel Heintz posted
Bill Nimmo this is Butler. i have seen this photo before. it is looking west and the tracks going off to the left, belong to a railroad that had the words Eel River in it. This was their end point with a railroad yard. It became the terminus later of the Pennsylvania RR and called the "Vandalia." It went through Auburn down through Columbia City and beyond. When I first move to Buter (54-55) the tracks of the Vandalia out of town still existed. then they were soon torn up.
David Rabaduex My abandoned railroad map shows the line from Butler through Auburn to Columbia City to be the old Wabash line, later controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad. An 1886 map shows it as Wabash as well. It ran from Detroit through Butler to Logansport, on to Saint Louis and terminated at Kansas City MO. All of the route from Butler to Logansport is now abandoned. Norfolk and Southern controls what's left.
Dennis DeBruler David Rabaduex The line to Auburn was the Eel River. At one time it was leased by Wabash. I too have seen the Wabash name on this route on maps. Then it became part of Vandalia (Pennsy). I captured the corporate details of that route that Mike Snow provided in another post: https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../auburn-junction...

Of the five spokes this town used to have, it still has four of them. But it has only one railroad because Norfolk Southern got this NYC line when Conrail was split, and it already had the Wabash route.

In terms of the label names, which were the names in 1928, the two blue spokes were the NYC, the yellow and orange spokes were the Wabash and the red spoke was the Pennsy.

Satellite + Paint

In this 1880 Map from a DeKalb collection, the Wabash was yet to be built, the blue lines were the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the red line was the Eel River that went to Logansport. Of note is that the LS&MS and Eel River shared a roundhouse. When the Vandalia RR was consolidated in 1905, the red spoke was named the Logansport & Toledo RY. As implied by the image, the connection with the LS&MS was its terminus. That is, it never made it to Toledo. Abandonment of this line began in 1954 and was complete by 1977. [posting] The Pennsy bought the Vandalia probably because Pennsy and NYC were in a race to see who could snarf up the most railroads in their territory.

The LS&MS became NYC's main artery between Chicago and New York and carried the famous 20th Century Passenger Train. In continues to be a main artery for Norfolk Southern and Amtrak. Sampling some satellite images, it appears that it is still dual tracked. The Wabash line is now the Norfolk Southern artery between Detroit and Kansas City with a branch to St. Louis. The reason I used multiple colors is because my 2005 SPV Map shows that Canadian Pacific has trackage rights on the dark blue and yellow spokes.


Update:

Mike Snow posted
Working on the diamond in January is never a good job, This is where the NS Chicago Line mp 358 crosses the NS Huntington District in Butler IN, pic from Jan 31, 2005 and construction on the NW connector is just months from being started.
[Another example of the railroads still finding their little hooks are useful even though they have retired all of their big hooks.]

Craig Hensley Photo posted

A diamond view!

It was warm and sunny as these two westbound Norfolk Southern Corp manifest trains part ways at the diamond in Butler. A tough angle to shoot with sun being high in the eastern part of the sky, but I couldn't pass up the first opportunity to get the drone in the air.

Tech: DJI Mavic Air 2s

Symbol/s: Unknown

Engine/s: NS # 4125 (GE AC44C6M) NS #4073 (GE AC44C6M)

Date: the 6/5/21 915am

Location: NS Chicago Line - Butler, Indiana

Craig Hensley Photo shared

Craig Hensley Photo posted

Road Trip!

Carson and I took a road trip from Michigan down to Butler, Indiana to check out the Norfolk Southern's Chicago line. The trip took us about 2 hours, was not a terrible drive. Ironically we got stropped at the grade crossing in Edgerton, Ohio by 2 trains that were running parallel to each other. After they both cleared we were able to race across and get back on US 6 and get to Butler before they did.

Pictured below is what I see as controlled chaos, 3 trains all moving through the same diamond. It was busy for the next hour or so, as we saw 15 trains come through in that small amount of time. Carson was incredibly excited to see all the trains, especially Union Pacific because we don't see UP in Michigan too often.

I'll be posting the pictures from this adventure over the next couple of weeks, stay tuned!

Tech: DJI Mavic air 2s

Symbols: Unknown

Engine/s: Unknown

Date: 6/5/21 9am

Location: Chicago Line, Butler, Indiana

Two drone photos following a train through town