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:

This picture is looking north and at the east side of the bridge, where there was a bend in the bridge that it made it even more interesting to go over:

 

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

Train Nut Central

Information Train Station

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]



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