Eastern Railroad Discussion > was just visiting . .

. . final few from my visit to your neighborhood. Thanks for allowing me to visit your board and all the great info provided me during this outing. Arrived back in my neighborhood (Palmer Lake, CO) last night and it's good to be home but had a great time back east even though the sun was a little stingy saw lots of great stuff;
top: INDR's empty IPL train was tied down at Switz City while the crew headed down to Elnora to pick up an empty coal from the Indiana Southern for loading at the new Bear Run facility.
middle: coal empty EPEBR interchanged from the Indiana Southern Railroad with an Indiana Railroad crew onboard has just made the connection from the exCP main at Linton to the Indianapolis Sub and will make another connection to the Midland Sub to head into the Bear Run facility a few miles ahead.
bottom: Louisville and Indiana's Columbus Avon turn is waiting for a bridge inspection in downtown Indianapolis while a CSX local runs around at a junction just west of downtown Indianapolis. I am assuming this is exNYC track? What is the name of this junction and who crossed then and crossed now? Thanks for any info.
JB

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Your last photo is at CP WOODS, a PRR Vandalia route interlocking on their former PGH-STL route via Columbus and Indy. The LIRC train is on the main, and theY133 (I think that's the symbol) is on the Kraft Runner East (there is a Kraft runner west, it's on the other side of CP HOLT, which is underneath that bridge that carries (wait for it) Holt Road over the tracks. The diamond in the foreground, immediately after the crossovers, is the Indianapolis Union (Belt) Railroad. It is now wholly operated by CSX. The Belt, as everyone on the railroad called it, ties in to the PRR mains using a wye switch to the left of your photo called Van Junction. Van for Vandalia, I presume. there was a PRR tower located here, and the NYC signals at this interlocking were a Conrail addition.
SO, in a way, you have a PRR "Heritage" locomotive operating on "Home" rails, since it's former PRR trackage! All of the out of service yard tracks are the site of the former TRANSFER YARD. an uninspired name, to be sure, but it was mainly a support yard for the GM truck & Bus chassis plant which was abandoned in the GM restructuring a few years ago. the yard was removed from service by CSX and is now being used as a storage yard for M of W and retired HBO freightcars.
Nice photos--you did a good job checking off all of the "must see" things in the Hoosier state!

A good friend of mine maintains a website devoted to interlocking towers, here's a link to his website, as well as links to woods tower in it's heyday.
http://northamericaninterlockings.com/
Woods tower:
http://northamericaninterlockings.com/images/woods.jpg?38
model board:
http://northamericaninterlockings.com/images/woodsModel.jpg?38

Thanks Doc, that's a lot of great info.
JB

No worries, you just happened to be railfanning in territory I'm qualified on!