Eastern Railroad Discussion > Then and Now on the B&O at Mitchell, Ind.

Here is a little then and now at Mitchell, Ind. This small town in southern Indiana was the crossing of the Baltimore & Ohio's line between Cincinnati and St. Louis with the Monon's line between Chicago and Louisville, Ky. The B&O controlled the interlocking from its passenger depot east of the crossing. The Monon had its own passenger station.

The top photograph was made in July 1992. By now, both the Monon and B&O routes are controlled by CSX, which still had an operator in the depot to operate the interlocking.

Both photographs are looking eastward from the grade crossing just west of the diamond. The local is on the siding heading eastward. It might be getting ready to work the small yard to the east of the station. Note the color position light signal mounted on a cantilever. If you look past the depot, you'll see another CPL for eastward movements. At the time, there was a sign by that signal indicating that it was the start of the Medora block. Those CPLs were once ubiquitous on B&O mainlines.

Although not obvious, major changes are coming to the ex-Monon. The last through trains between Chicago and Louisville over this route, R590 and R591, made their last trips through here in late May of 1992, although they continued to operate on the north end. In less than a year, CSX will abandon the ex-Monon between Bloomington and Bedford, thus severing the line as a through route. Local service was still being maintained to Bedford when the 1992 photograph was made. CSX also had the option of operating trains north out of Louisville across the Mitchell diamonds and then backing onto the ex-B&O to go west to St. Louis. They would indeed do this for a while.

The bottom photo was made last May. The ex-Monon tracks are still in place, yet haven't been used since 2009 when CSX ceased providing local service on what is called the Hoosier Subdivision except right around New Albany, Ind. That same year the Indiana Rail Road stopped operating trains over the ex-Monon to Louisville. Therefore, the ex-Monon tracks in Mitchell collect rust as they await disposition.

All of the B&O CPL signals are gone, replaced by what appear to be older signal heads placed on modern masts. The CPLs that once stood east of the depot have been removed.

Yet, there is much that has not changed about this scene. The ex-B&O is still double track through town and the old B&O depot is still in place. The siding on the ex-B&O looks rather rusty, suggesting it sees little use. The connection between the ex-Monon and ex-B&O is still in place.

I'm not sure what the traffic count is on the ex-B&O but bits and pieces I've seen on railfan chat lists leads me to believe that few trains use this route at this location. I wonder if any Cincinnati-St. Louis trains pass through here. I believe that much of that traffic takes the former Conrail route via Indianapolis to the north.

Whatever the case, the future of both of these rail lines seems murky as best.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 02:54 by SDP40F600.

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Thank you for the interesting narrative.
John

I grew up about 50 miles west of here in Washington, Indiana. Several family members in prior generations worked the old B&O shops in Washington. Thanks for the interesting pictures and history.

Like you said, I think the ex B&O line is down to a few trains a week. I do not think there are any trains that go from Cincinnati to St. Louis anymore, just locals. Someone with more knowledge of today's traffic could probably give us more information.

There are no Cincinnati-St Louis trains on this route. In fact, I don't believe there are any regular road trains between Seymour and Vincennes, Ind. I believe the local service in the Mitchell area is fed from the east, so there's a section of track to the west that is inactive.

There have occasionally been rumors of through traffic returning to this route, but so far those have been fallow.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> There are no Cincinnati-St Louis trains on this
> route. In fact, I don't believe there are any
> regular road trains between Seymour and Vincennes,
> Ind. I believe the local service in the Mitchell
> area is fed from the east, so there's a section of
> track to the west that is inactive.
>
> There have occasionally been rumors of through
> traffic returning to this route, but so far those
> have been fallow.

As of February the Seymour local would come over once a week if needed, they tied up(photo) to return the next day.
There was some cars around and a little customer off the main who got a gondola. There was a large unused cement plant the is rumored to start up.

Bob Jordan

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I heard that there is a Cummins engine plant in Seymour that is expanding. Is that plant served by the CSX line?

I sort of remember the area. I used to go to Spring Mill Park with some friends. That was about 50 years ago. My friend's mother couldn't make the trip with his family one time and she took the Monon from Louisville to Mitchell the next day. I don't really remember much about the station or the area and I haven't been been up there for about 15 years.

John

CSXT J780 is based in Mitchell and operates west to Washington IN and east to North Vernon IN. This is the ONLY regularly scheduled train to operate on this portion of the CSXT Indiana Sub (former B&O Cincinnati-St Louis main). Up to a few months ago, J780 was isolated from the balance of the CSXT system and was fed it's cars by the LIRC in Seymour, and the line from Loogootee IN to Washington IN saw zero traffic. Now J780 swaps it's cars with the Vincennes IN based J700 at Washington IN.

The Indiana Sub EAST of Seymour IN, while currently devoid of scheduled traffic between Aurora IN and North Vernon IN, has been receiving some fairly robust maintenance over the past couple years and is currently used as a relief valve between Cincinnati and Louisville for when problems arise on the CC Sub (ex L&N) between those cities. And with the LIRC between Louisville and Indianapolis posed to become a major CSXT corridor, the Indiana Sub between the LIRC at Seymour and Cincinnati looks to gain importance as an overflow route and pickup some regular traffic. WEST of Seymour, CSXT has done some work, but nothing to the extent they've done to the east, and it looks like they are content to keep it a 25 MPH branch line for local traffic for now.

Signals at Mitchell by the way where casualties of a collision and subsequent fire at the diamond on August 13 1995. Eastbound CSXT R374-12 on the B&O from St Louis to Cincinnati ran a stop indication at the interlocking and crossed the path of Q686-12 northbound from Louisville for St Louis, with the 686 striking the 2nd or 3rd unit of the 374.

For a time in the mid 90's, Mitchell was a good place to watch trains. Decent amount of traffic and good spots to photograph from. Bad enough the Monon fell into disuse, but the B&O mainline is an even more sad story.

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