Created in the 1950s by the Monon Railroad and featuring the Purdue Glee Club and hosted by a “Hoosier”, this vintage film shows the Monon Railroad at the height of its operations. The Monon Railroad, also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway operated from 1897–1956, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1971, and much of the former Monon right of way is operated today by CSX Transportation. In 1970 it operated 540 miles (870 km) of road on 792 miles (1,275 km) of track; that year it reported 1320 million ton-miles of revenue freight and zero passenger-miles.
The railroad got the name Monon from the convergence of its main routes in Monon, Indiana. From Monon, the mainlines reached out to Chicago, Louisville, Indianapolis and Michigan City, Indiana. In Chicago the Monon’s passenger trains served Dearborn Station. Branches connected the Louisville mainline to Victoria, Indiana and French Lick, Indiana.
A map of the Monon trackage would show it in the form of an “X”, laid out over the state of Indiana. One leg ran from Dearborn Station in Chicago, Illinois to Union Station in Indianapolis, Indiana, the first Union Station in the United States. The second leg ran from Michigan City, Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky. The “X” crossed at its namesake city of Monon, Indiana. The main line ran down the middle of streets in several cities, notably Lafayette, New Albany and Bedford. It Monon had seven sections. Beginning in the north, Section One was from the Indiana line to Lafayette, passing through the Monon switch in Monon. As a primary passenger route, it connected to Section Four running between Lafayette and Bloomington. This route reached the Ohio River over Section Five from Bloomington to New Albany. From this southern route, Sections Six and Seven were spurs to the west. Section Six served the Coal Fields between Midland and Clay City connecting to the main line at Wallace Jct, just south of Cloverdale. Section Seven provided passenger service to the resort hotels in West Baden and French Lick, through a connection at Orleans.
The other primary line, mainly a freight line, included Section Two from Michigan City on Lake Michigan to Monon and then Section three from Monon to Indianapolis. Although each route had its primary traffic, freight and passengers were carried over all parts of the line.
The Monon served five major Universities in Indiana, Purdue University (West Lafayette), Wabash College (Crawfordsville), DePauw University (Greencastle), Indiana University (Bloomington), and Butler University (Indianapolis). The state’s decision to put Purdue University at Lafayette in 1869 had partly to do with Monon service, there since 1852. So important was the college traffic that the road painted its passenger rolling stock the red and gray of Indiana University, and painted its freight engines black and gold of Purdue University. In 1959, after the Indianapolis to Chicago trains were discontinued, it didn’t make sense to continue with two color schemes, and to economize, the red and gray passenger scheme was slowly converted to black and gold.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
