Walt Fles's ERIE LACKAWANNA Home Page
The Erie Lackawanna Right-of-Way was 99ft wide. I am told this
way primarily ROWs were multiples of 16.5 feet, which was a
measurement called a ROD. A ROD is an old surveying measurement.
In fact, an old map I have of the Hammond Yard area verifies this
99ft measurement, and so do some old Lake County maps. This
generous size right-of-way was in keeping with the ERIE railroad's
ability to haul any and all "High and Wide" load. So if
you pick up a copy of the Lake County Indiana map, there is this
HUGE gap running SE down the middle of it where the EL was. But
at least it is put to good use. To read more about the sites
along the Erie walk trail, click here to
enter my Erie Walk Trail Summary Page.
Are you a member of the Official Erie Lackawanna Historical
Society?
But in the mean time, you can enjoy the Cyberspace version. Here's a link to George
Elwood's Erie Lackawanna Historical Society Web Site.
A little info as to where the EL ran in Lake County. Lets start
from the west:
EThe bike trail is along the old right of
way
EThe EL crossed Hohman avenue in Hammond
under where the bridge is now
E Between the 2 EL tracks, the 2 N-W and
the 1 Monon tracks crossing the 3 IHB/Michigan Central Tracks,
there were 15 diamonds at Hohman Avenue and State Street.
EThe EL had a HUGE switching yard that ran
from Douglas and Sohl south to Highland and Sohl. The actual Yard
Limit was at 165th street where the HY ( Hammond Yard ) tower was.
Yard limit is where the yard tracks split off from the mainline
for the arrival and yard-job tracks. There were 5 tracks that
crossed highland avenue : 2 main line and 3 yard tracks.
EThe EL along with the EJE and the Grand
Trunk formed a huge 12 diamong crossing in Griffith, 3 of which
were IN THE MIDDLE OF BROADSTREET!
EThe EL is the RR that went over 73rd (
Joliet ) street in the west side of Merrillville. It was fun
watching that flood every year and seeing at least one School Bus
attempt to cross under and get stuck!
EThe EL went under the fun bridges along
Whitcomb and 91 streets, both of which are gone. Whitcomb had an
arch shaped one lane bridge ( honk before crossing - cross at
your own risk ) and 91st street had
a one lane truss shaped bridge.
There used to be a "sweet one-laner" in porter country
between Wheeler and Valparaiso in Indiana, but it was closed
laster summer to be replaced by a "BORING" modern one.
But, I have a few pics of it taken fall of 1998:
This picture is looking at the bridge north:
This picture is looking at the west side of the bridge:
There was also a bridge just east of County Line Road and 725south
in Porter County. I don"t know if it is still standing, but
fortunately my friend Mark Stanek was
able to get a picture of it.
ERIE LACKAWANNA
In Griffith
Click
here to enter the Griffith Historical Society Web site ( I am
member #57! )
Click here to see the switch panel
inside the Griffith Tower If you look closely, you can see
where the lights were for the switches when the Erie Lackawanna
and the Chesapeake and Ohio ran through Griffith. Also, running
parallel to the Elgin Joliet and Eastern Railway you can see
where the Michigan Central's indicator lights were before that
track was removed.
Note, the following photos were taken by a nice guy named Jeff
Glinka, on Memorial Day ( May 27th), 1974.
I kind of get a lump in my throat every time I go down broad
street and regret never seeing first hand what it all looked like.
But I do rememeber seeing an EL train crossing Broadway in Crown
point once, when I was really young. At that time my only
interest in trains was counting the number of cars.
Here is an east bound headed by an EL GP-35
# 2576.
Here is another east bound headed by an EL
E8 # 820.
Here is another bound headed by an EL SD45
and EL RS-3 # 1642.
Here is a west bound headed by an EL SD45.
The following photos are by John Strombeck
Here is a two engine cut running lite in
Griffith, Indiana with EL GP-35s 2565 and 2566 on March 17, 1976.
Here is an eastbound headed by Erie
Lackawanna GP-35 # 2556 on March 23, 1976.BR>
Here is Caboose C899 on the end of an EL
Westbound on August 12, 1976.
Here is Bay Window Caboose C354 painted in
the "Spirit of 1976" colors on the end of an eastbound
on March 17, 1976.
ERIE LACKAWANNA
In Hammond
The following pictures were taken by a nice guy
named Gary Wilson in the late 60's early 70's time frame.
This is a picture of an EL Alco # 513 hard
at work at the old Hammond Switching Yard.
This is a picture of an EL freight train
off of Douglas Street heading west out of the switching yard.
This is a picture looking south of the
switching yard. On the right hand ( west ) side of the picture is
the main line curving off to meet the rest of the tracks at the
north end of the yard.
This isn't the best photo, but click
here to see the Hammond Hohman Avenue Tower Panel. They still
have the markings for the EL and if you look closely, you can see
the 15 diamonds that were in Hammond!
This is a picture of the tower
where the panel resides. It is just below the new Hohman Avenue
Bridge, on September 30th 1995, the morning before the bridge
opened.
Link to the Hoosier Valley
Railroad Museum Web Site.
This is a photo of the newly acquired caboose that after a fair
amount of research, turned out to be originally an Erie ( Later
EL ) caboose! So, the museum re-painted it in original Erie
Lackawanna Colors. This photo is also by Mark Stanek!
This photo taken by Mark Stanek is
looking north at a south bound Hammond Local crossing Douglas
street. This picture also shows the abandoned EL Right-of-way
before it was taken up. This picture, taken on June 16th 1983
also shows a box car on the siding where the old Monon railroad
serviced the Hammond Times Newspaper. In the background one can
see the Nickel Plate snaking through the streets of Hammond
towards the double gauntlet bridge ( shared with the EL ) to
cross the Grand Calumet River before passing State Line Tower.
This picture is a good indication of the multitude of railroads
that crossed through this part of Northwest Indiana.
ERIE LACKAWANNA TAKE-UP PHOTOS
Some people wanted to see pictures of the EL being sadly being
taken up by L.B. Foster through Indiana. So, here are a couple
from Mark Stanek
This one was taken East of I-65 (
looking towards I-65) in Crown Point, Indiana in the Winter of
1983.
This one was taken off of the
Whitcomb Street bridge looking towards US 30 in Schererville,
Indiana. This was looking Westbound
. OTHER INTERESTING RAILROAD SITES in Griffith,
Indiana
The next time you go north down Broad Street 2
blocks south of main and are caught by a train, look over to your
right. You will see one set of tracks snaking off to the east
into trees. Actually, if you look closely on the photo above this
track is shown leading off into the left ( east ) of the picture.
This is what the track used to look like. The EJE railroad just
replaced this track with on that had a more gentler curve to it.
The two diamonds on the right of the picture were used by the
Erie Lackawanna. The one on the left was used by the Chesapeake
and Ohio. Between the road and this track there was a switch that
the C&O used to cut over to there own mainline. This picture
is facing what was the EastBound EL.
This is a picture of the new track in the foreground with the old
track in the background.
The "J" still uses this track to go through the old C&O
interchange yard that is buried behind the trees towards Colfax
street to switch tank cars at American Chemical Service there in
Griffith. Occasionally while traveling down Colfax you may get
caught by an engine moving a cut of tank cars in and out of ACS.
That is where the C&O used to switch hopper cars on 3 sidings
that the J use now.
Click here to see a photo of the siding
snaking off behind the trees and curving to run parallel to the
old C&O mainline. You can see the diamond of where was
the C&O mainline. If you look in the center left of the photo,
you can see where the frog was where this siding switched to the
Grand Trunk.
What else is interesting about this is that there used to be an
Engine 'Y' that Steamers ( because they don't run well backwards
or at least its hard to see then ) would run 'turns' ( go
somewhere, switch it, and turn around and go the opposite way you
came ) and would have to 'turn' around somehow and go back east
from which came. So the 'Y' would allow the engine to back in
facing one direction and head out going the other.
Pictures I took on December 28th, 1995 of the old C&O sidings
the the 'J' use to store tank cars on now!
This picture has the interchange track
on the left and the remnants of the main-line on the right.
This is just past the Griffith Tower.
This picture is looking west, just past
the curve that was in the background of the first picture.
The main-line is on the left and the interchange track is on the
right.
This picture was taken looking east,
just east of Colfax street where the sidings and the main-line
would ladder together. Note how the main-line was cut off
once the C&O sold these tracks to the EJE.
This picture was taken looking west,
near the end of where the C&O was cut off. In the
background is American Chemical Service, which is the was EJE
switches using these tracks.
If you'd like your link
mentioned on this page, mention mine on yours and send me E-mail!
If you are a least bit curious about the seemingly strategic
location of lumber yards relative to former or existing railroad
tracks in the Calumet ( Da Region, home of the Region Rats), click on my Railroad/Lumber Yard page
Link to Jeff Sumberg's
Erie Lackawanna home page
eriefan's
home page
Charles Woolever's
list of still existing New York railroad stations.
This includes a lot of Erie/DLW stations.
Don
Shorock's Erie Lackawanna Index Page
Catawissa Railroad Home
Page
Is Cabeese plural for
Caboose?
Adam Breisch's
Train Page
Scott Lupia's former
route of the Phoebe Snow Page
Rod's
Railroad Page
The Conrail Southern
Tier/Middletown & New Jersey
Railway Historical societies' joint website
The Blue Comet
Tom Kepshire's Bygone Places Along The Monon:
Model Railroader Magazine
Back to my home page
I can be reached at [email protected]