One Morning in Crawfordsville, Indiana

Amtrak train No. 851 approaches the Crawfordsville station in August 2011.

When I lived in Indiana between 1983 and 1991, Amtrak’s Hoosier State was a part of my life for periodic day trips from Indianapolis to Chicago.

I preferred to ride the Cardinal because it had a full-service dining car and slumbercoaches, which offered a reasonable fare for a return trip to Indy.

But the Cardinal only ran three days a week and more often than not I wound up going to Chicago on the Hoosier State.

After leaving Indiana for Pennsylvania and, later, Ohio, I rarely saw the Hoosier State again.

I followed its story from afar, including how it was discontinued in 1995 only to be brought back because operating a hospital train to and from Beech Grove shops in suburban Indianapolis didn’t work out so well.

In August 2011 I was on my way to Illinois for a visit. I stayed overnight in Indianapolis and got up early the next morning to get to Crawfordsville before No. 851 did.

The sun wasn’t yet above the tree line when the Hoosier State arrived, but there was enough light to document the coming and going of the train.

Since making these images, the Hoosier State has continued to have a rough ride with the latest development being the takeover of the train by Iowa Pacific Holdings in July 2015.

IP won high marks for its on-board service, but the Indiana Department of Transportation declined IP’s request for more money.

So IP pulled out and Amtrak has resumed operation of the Hoosier State. Actually, Amtrak was never completely out of the picture with Nos. 850 and 851 because it provided the operating crews and handled relationships with the host railroads.

So now what was the usual state of affairs in Crawfordsville is back again. Here is a look back at a morning not too long ago when the Hoosier State came calling.

A typical Amshack that is so typical in smaller cities served by Amtrak.

The old Monon station is no longer used by Amtrak.

All aboard for Chicago and all intermediate stops.

And away it goes to its next stop in Lafayette.

A ;l;ast look at the train, which has two cars being ferried from Beech Grove to Chicago.

Big Game Catch on a Late Lake Shore Limited

I got a call from fellow Akron Railroad Club member Craig Sanders that a late Amtrak No. 48 had the “Big Game Train” P42 locomotive on the lead. He, in turn, had received a heads up from ARRC member Roger Durfee who had seen No. 48 pass his work site on the west side of Cleveland.

No. 189 was originally painted with that slogan when it was used on the Heartland Flyer between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City to ferry passengers attending the Red River Rivalry football between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas.  Since then No. 189 has traveled the country.

Until Roger spotted it, it had apparently gone unreported on No. 48. The last report on Heritage Units.com had had it in Chicago a week earlier.

I had a 10 minute window to shoot the eastbound Lake Shore Limited and the “Big Game Train” unit before I would had to get to work.

I called Craig on my cell phone and he checked the Track-a-Train feature on Amtrak’s website. His updates made this photo opportunity happen.

In the top two photograph, No. 48 is shown passing under State Route 615 in Mentor. The former New York Central passenger station, which is now a restaurant, is behind me. It is really unshootable for an eastbound.

The bottom photo shows the heritage dining car on No. 48. Lately I have been shooting the dining cars knowing the heritage ones probably will disappear in the near future.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas