Eastern Railroad Discussion > A day with the Indiana Northeastern

The heart of the Indiana Northeastern Railroad is only about forty-five minutes from my house, and I do cross its path from time to time, but have never had ANY luck just randomly coming across any train movements, so I decided to devote an entire vacation day (Friday September 11TH) to following an INER train.

After checking with their very friendly and helpful staff via telephone, I found out the only scheduled movement of note was a train scheduled to run between roughly Steubenvbille IN and Coldwater Michigan on Friday. The crew was called for 6:30 AM, but had to drive from headquarters at Hillsdale MI down to the train, so actual departure time would be somewhat later. Not wanting to miss an early start, I left Fort Wayne at 5:30 AM and got to Steubenville well before sunrise.  The first thing you need to know is that Steubenville isn't a Ville at all, or much of anything else.  It's nothing but a horseshoe shaped road in the country with some houses on it, and is about as pitch black as an underground mine at night. I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to even FIND the train until the sun started coming up.

As the first light began to fill the sky, I scouted the immediate area and realized the train was NOT there, so I headed towards Ashley, a couple miles away.  I quickly found the train pointed west just east of I-69, but the engines were dark, and there was nobody around.  About that time I heard some chatter on the scanner and scouted further west, near the INER locomotive maintenance facility west of town.  It too was dark, but when I crossed the former Wabash RR Chicago line, I saw a FRED flashing in the distance. Thinking it was a parked train, I drove that way hoping to get some photos, but quickly realized the train was MOVING, and at a good 20-25 MPH at that. I ran further ahead and was able to get a couple of poor shots of GP30 #2230 and GP9 #1073 leading a string of covered hoppers and tank cars out to the end of the line at South Milford IN.

After the train disappeared into the woods behind the grain elevator at South Milford, I returned to Ashley just in time to see my train become to life.  Know knowing that the train would have to back up east on the line to Steubenville so they could proceed north, I headed back to the Ville.  Steubenville was at on time where the Toledo to Chicago Wabash line crossed the former NYC (Fort Wayne & Jackson), and boasted a depot and other facilities, but today has only a connecting track in the NE quadrant, as the NYC is abandoned south of that point.  Within minutes, the train had backed up until the power (US DOT GP 40-2 #2000 (leased), GP30 #2185 and recently acquired SD40-2 #3084 (all running LHF) was clear of the switch, and then proceeded north.

This is the very first time I have devoted an entire day to just one train, but I felt it was worth the effort.  I arrived home 11 hours and twenty minutes after I left, a FULL day.    Thanks again to the INER staff for helping me make this possible, and I thoroughly  enjoyed watching this first class operation in action. Another short line that is out there just flat out getting it done every day.

1) First train in early morning haze running between Ashley and South Milford Indiana.

2) Going away shot looking towards South Milford.

3) 2ND train backing east down the ex-Wabash to Steubenville.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/20 23:03 by junctiontower.

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4) The power pushes back past my position at Steubenville.

5) Past the FW&J depot at Pleasant Lake IN.

6) Ducking under Fox lake Road, Angola IN.

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7) Someone else showed up to wait for the train with me.

8) Coming out of the woods at CR E 400N at Fremont IN.

9) Cresting the hill at Ray on the Indiana-Michigan line.

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10) Passing the FW&J depot at Montgomery MI.

11) Rolling past the elevator at Reading MI.

12) Switching cars into the sidings at Reading MI.

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13) Through the woods at Quackenbush Road near Bankers MI.

14) Crossing over Hallett Street, Hillsdale MI.

15) #3084 and #2185, now pulled off the train, get refueled at Hillsdale MI.

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16) The rebuilt train in the Hillsdale Yard, now with GP 7 #1601 on the point waits to go west.

17) The LS&MS freight station in Hillsdale, now a feed store.

18) The LS&MS passenger station in Hillsdale, now a church.

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19) The INER office building in Hillsdale.

20) Found this old shed by the tracks in Hillsdale near the tracks and grabbed a quick shot.  It was only after I looked at the pictures that I realized it was indeed a speeder shed with the rails still intact!

21)  #1601 leads the train past the LS&MS depot at Jonesville MI, now a fancy little hotel.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/20 23:08 by junctiontower.

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22) Approaching Hog Creek Road, Allen MI.

23) Approaching Hog Creek Road, Allen MI.

24) Rolling past Star of the West Milling CO, Quincy MI.

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25) Past the LS&MS depot at Coldwater.

26) The end of the run.  #1601 is seperated from the train and pulled up out of the way,

27) Whille #2000 will pull the train forward where switching awaits.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/20 23:01 by junctiontower.

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28) A portrait of GP 7 #1601.

29) Reproduction builder's plate.  The date on this does not match the rosters I have for INER.  Shows as ex-Reading #606, but according to rosters, build date for that unit should be 8/52.  Anyone have some insight?

30) The Little River Railroad tourist line maintenence building.

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An excellent mini documentary of a very interesting shortline.
Thanks for your posting.
ALLEN

Great coverage of their operations, thanks for posting.

Very excellent coverage of an interesting operation.  I appreciate your efforts.  I too live in the Fort Wayne area but have had very little dedicated effort toward this cool operation.  I have heard about the friendliness of the headquarter's staff regarding operations but have never used it yet.  I am puzzled that they did not mention the move to South Milford that you randomly caught, but it seems it all worked out well for you.  Thanks again for sharing your work.

Thanks.  For the most part, I just have pretty much lost interest in the class ones, so I plan on doing more of this type of railfanning, and absorbing an actual day of operation, instead of just random trains wizzing by me on the main, and then waiting hours for the next one, only to seem the same old models and paint schemes.  How many head-on views of NS GE's can a guy use?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/20 05:58 by junctiontower.

That freighthouse in photo 17 looks a lot like a Walther’s kit I built for my N scale layout.

Great coverage!
Dan

Posted from iPhone

Really enjoiyed this narrative of an interesting short line. Thanks for sharing.

Glad you had a good day out there Bob. A line I've never done anything wtih, so I appreciate your efforts. My grandparents had a lake cottage on Adams Lake north of Kendallville. We passed through South Milford on our way to the cottage and often went to Wolcottville where the line crossed the former PRR Grand Rapids and Indiana line. I remember seeing N&W trains on the ex-Wabash line a couple of times when I was a kid.

Kim Heusel

Fantastic series!

Thanks for the pics...

Here is a little video from Pleasant lake.

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