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Eastern Railroad Discussion > A Follow Up to the Cat is Out of the Bag and Some HistoryDate: 11/17/19 14:49 A Follow Up to the Cat is Out of the Bag and Some History Author: wabash2800 I am posting this here as didn’t want it to get buried in my last post. I promise I won’t bring it up again unless I catch someone red-handed. I am trying to come up with a motive for illegal entry in my home. I am convinced someone is looking for something and it may have something to do with my book.
Some time ago I put it out there that the property where the former New York Central Fourth Street Yards at Fort Wayne, Indiana was located (and a proposal for location for the current Headwaters Junction Railroad Theme Park) has been in contention for years. It all started back in the late 1860s when the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw Railroad started building here. And it has been in contention recently too. (More on that later.) The property was a part of a city park granted to the FWJ&S for its yards on the premise that shops and other infrastructure would create jobs. (Yeah, they did it then too.) At the time, and a few years after that, there were major grumblings in the city about this deal. For one, it turns out a FWJ&S Board member voted on the City Council that approved the deal. And two, there were some that felt the convenant had never been fulfilled. But understand that the FWJ&S built an active yard there with roundhouse and turntable, and its tenant, the Fort Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati, built a car shop here and had its own stalls in an attached roundhouse. The FWM&C paid the FWJ&S for use of the yard and grounds and a portion of the property taxes. (The relationship btw the two RRs was not a good one and often these payments were disputed, but this is not important here.) In 1880, after reorganization, the new railroad entity became the Fort Wayne & Jackson and a few years later the owners (mostly bondholders) looked at leasing or selling the RR as the rate of return was not as had been hoped. At the time, the FW&J officials were also worried that the ugly city land deal would rear its head again and spoil a promising lease to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. They were sure the Lake Shore could get wind of it. I have quoted the superintendent in a letter to the president that the matter would be referred to "Judge so and so" and it would be taken care of. The individual was an attorney for the railroad and not a judge, though he could have been a judge at one time, thus his moniker. (The Lake Shore obtained the lease and held it until the lease was passed onto the New York Central and successor Penn Central.) In the 1890s when the Lake Shore is operating the railroad, the land deal rears its ugly head AGAIN. In this scenario, the city wants to build a street called Fourth Street to enter property (also originally part of the old park) for a new ward, but the street will cut across the yard tracks. Of course, no railroad wants a street across its yards if it can help it. Things went to court with all the old dirty laundry brought up again, but the Lake Shore won. But guess what? Somehow Fourth Street was built across the yard anyway. Perhaps there was more to the history of this property going on that I don't know about. In the late Penn Central era the 29 acres of land was purchased by Superior Iron & Metal for about $195,000 but sold to the city recently by the family that owned Superior Iron & Metal and its successor Omni Source for millions. And with the property polluted, the city (taxpayer) is cleaning it up on its own dime. Needless to say, the most recent contention is what the city paid and the fact that the city took on the clean-up at additional cost. But the sale was pushed through by the owners as a take it or leave it. Yes, I know there are statutes of limitations and the land deal should have been put to rest years ago. I have NO SMOKING GUN to report in the book. I do not have any documents or photos that have not been obtained (or copied) by me legally or documents not available to the public. I understand there is at least one individual who has been to the city building looking for information on this without success (not me). I have shared maps with the Rails-to-Trails folks. Honestly, I have not been sharing much with the Headwaters Junction Project since I was taken advantage by the other party who is doing research and history for the principal (and once accused me of stealing a photo, perhaps to discredit me among our peers.). Perhaps since there is a lot of money involved here, someone in city government, a consultant or lawyer is looking for something? Would the stakes be high enough to get into my home without my permission and go through my work? Was someone trying to find something to badmouth the incumbent mayor in the recent mayoral race? Victor A. Baird http://www.erstwhilepublications.com Edited 14 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/19 16:28 by wabash2800. Date: 11/18/19 09:19 Re: A Follow Up to the Cat is Out of the Bag and Some History Author: AndyBrown Well thanks for the back story as your previous post really had me curious as to what it was about. Definitely a strange scenario; keep us posted!
Andy Date: 11/18/19 10:29 Re: A Follow Up to the Cat is Out of the Bag and Some History Author: bioyans Sorry, but this story is really starting to cross into paranoia, and is a real stretch as being appropriate for a rail-related forum.
If you truly suspect you are the target of some far-fetched conspiracy, there are other forums other than Trainorders to share them. Posted from Android |