Indiana Museum Moves Old Boxcar

An Indiana railroad museum successfully moved on Tuesday a vintage boxcar from CSX property.

The Wabash Valley Railroad Museum completed the move of a 1922 New York Central boxcar from Greencastle, Indiana, to the museum’s site in Terre Haute.

The car will be unloaded from the truck trailer on which it was moved at a later time this week because of the length of time needed for the move.

Photos and video of the move are posted on the museum Facebook page.

The museum is seeking donations to offset the cost of $15,000 cost of the project. Donations can be made at the museum website or by mail to the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society, P.O. Box 10291, Terre Haute, IN 47801.

Emery Trust Makes Awards, NYC Box Car Saved

The John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust has announced its 2020 grant awards.

Although no grants were awarded to any organizations based in Ohio, the Kentucky Railway Museum received $43,000 for firebox and boiler work on Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 No. 2716.

The Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society received a $25,000 award for restoring diner 469/470.

In an unrelated development, The Wabash Valley Railroad Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, said it will work with CSX to preserve a 98-year-old New York Central boxcar.

CSX will move the car, weather permitting, from Greencastle, Indiana, to the museum site next to CSX tracks in Terre Haute on March 31.

NYC No. 155524 was built by American Car & Foundry in 1922, rebuilt with steel sides in 1939, and placed near the NYC depot in Greencastle for storage use in 1965.

It had been ticketed to be scrapped until the Hailey Tower Historical & Technical Society, which owns the museum, was able to save it.

The Society is seeking donations to offset the $15,000 cost of moving the car and building a display track.

Donations can be made at the museum website or by mail to the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society, P.O. Box 10291, Terre Haute, IN 47801.

Big Four on the Floor

The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway has been gone for several decades.

Also known as the Big Four, it was acquired by the New York Central in 1906, but continued to operate as an autonomous entity through 1930.

There are few tangible relics of the Big Four left because its rolling stock has long since been relegated to the scrap yard.

Therefore, I found this relic in the collection of the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, to be quite interesting. It’s also quite rare.

This Big Four herald was part of a tile floor of the former passenger station in Terre Haute.

The museum was able to rescue it but not before it had been largely broken up when the station was razed in 1986 to make way for a parking lot for Indiana State University.

The last passenger train to use the station was Amtrak’s National Limited between New York and Kansas City. It began its final trips on Sept. 30, 1979.

For now the tile Big Four herald sits in a wood box on the first floor of the former Haley Tower on the museum grounds.

Haley Tower once controlled the junction of the Big Four and Chicago & Eastern Illinois in Terre Haute.

A long-term project of the museum is to piece it back together. That is going to take a lot of patience and time.

Gonna Make That Caboose Shine

A volunteer at the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, works to clean a former Conrail caboose.

This N21 caboose was one of 113 cars that Conrail purchased new from Virginia Fruit Growers Express.

The museum bought it from CSX and moved it to Terre Haute from Paris, Illinois, in September 2018.

During its service with Conrail No. 21264 operated between Indianapolis and Peoria, Illinois. In its final years of service it was assigned to local service in Paris.

The caboose sat in the weeds for a decade before being “rescued” by the museum.

Indiana Museum Gets Switcher

A museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, has received a switcher that was donated by Harbor Rail Services of Pasadena, California, but most recently used in Indiana.

The Wabash Valley Railroad Museum received a 1947 General Electric 45-ton, side-rod driven locomotive that was once owned by Public Service Indiana (now Duke Energy).

When it worked in Indiana, it moved hopper cars around a power generating plant.

The unit was built in Erie, Pennsylvania, and may have been used at a military installation for a while before being sold to the utility company.

It was most recently used at a rail car repair facility owned by Harbor Rail Services in Clinton, Indiana.

The locomotive, known as a little critter, is 29 feet in length and was trucked to the museum.