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.

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[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.