The Cincinnati Railroad Club organized a bus trip to the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana on October 30, 2010. Eleven club members and their guests departed Cincinnati early in the morning, riding in comfort on a Crown Transport 34-seat coach. On the way to the museum, they stopped at the Monon Restaurant in Greencastle, Indiana for brunch. The restaurant sits just south of the former Monon station site and has a large collection of railroadiana including maps, pictures, timetables, etc. displayed throughout. There’s also an ex-C&O wide-vision caboose, owned by the proprietors of the restaurant, sitting on a nearby siding.
At the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum there are two preserved towers:
- Haley Tower which was at the crossing of the north-south C&EI and the east-west New York Central mainlines. The tower’s 1926 vintage GRS interlocking machine has been restored to full functionality
- Spring Hill Tower which controlled the 3-way interlocking between the C&EI, Milwaukee Road, and New York Central railroads in southern Vigo county. Spring Hill’s Saxby & Farmer interlocking machine has been also been restored to operation.
We were shown how to throw switches, set signals, and activate crossing bells just as if the tower was still in service.
Other items restored at the museum are a 1914 vintage Pennsylvania Railroad N6b caboose PRR 981741 and Turner Depot, the freight agency and depot from Turner, Indiana on the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. A viewing platform has been made so that visitors can do railfanning of present-day trains while reliving the train history of the past.
