The (
AAR Reporting Mark s '''CIL''', '''MON'''), also known as the '''Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway''' from 1897-1956, operated almost entirely within the state of
Indiana . The Monon was merged into the
Louisville And Nashville Railroad in
1971 , and much of the former Monon right of way is operated today by
CSX Transportation .
The railroad earned the name ''Monon'' due to the convergence of its four main routes in
Monon, IN . From Monon, the mainlines reached out to
Chicago ,
Michigan City, Indiana ,
Indianapolis and
Louisville . In Chicago, the Monon's passenger trains served
Dearborn Station . Smaller branches connected points on the Louisville mainline to
Victoria, Indiana and
French Lick, Indiana .
The Monon directly served five colleges and universities along its line:
The university traffic was important enough to the Monon, that the railroad used the schools' colors on its rolling stock as the railroad's official paint schemes. The red and gray of
Wabash College (and very similar to the colors of
Indiana University ) was used on the railroad's passenger equipment, and the black and gold used by both
DePauw University and
Purdue University adorned the railroad's diesel freight locomotives.
The Monon line was unusual in that its main line ran down the middle of streets in several cities, most notably Lafayette, New Albany and Bedford. It also installed an unusual "home grown" warning signal at many
Grade Crossing s; these utilized a green signal light (similar to and adapted from a standard
Highway Traffic Signal ) that stayed lit at all times, except when a train was approaching. A sign below or to the side of the signal read, "STOP When Signal Is Out." This design had an inherent
Fail-safe mechanism, in that when the signal bulb was burned out, an approaching vehicle driver would assume a train was coming — and, it must be assumed, that same driver would eventually realize there was no train and just a burned-out signal after a sufficient time.
- 1847 : The New Albany & Salem Railroad is organized with James Brooks as president.
- 1854 : The NA&S trackage stretches from the Ohio River (at New Albany) to the Great Lakes (at Michigan City).
- 1859 : The overextended and struggling NA&S is reorganized as the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad.
- 's funeral train, from Lafayette, Indiana to Michigan City, Indiana .
- 1881 : The LNA&C consolidates with the Indianapolis & Chicago Air Line, and the trackage of the new division is soon extended to reach into its namesake cities.
- July 1 1897 : The LNA&C is reorganized as the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co.
- is first presented as the trophy of the annual Football matchup between DePauw University and Wabash College .
- becomes President of the Monon, bringing aggressive plans for modernization.
CIL 1620 at the Linden Railroad Museum, Linden, Indiana . The former Monon mainline is in the background.]]
- June 29 1949 : Final day of steam locomotive service, as the Monon becomes one of the first Class I railroads to fully convert to diesel motive power.
- January 11 1956 : The CI&L officially adopts its longtime nickname, Monon, as corporate title.
- and Indianapolis, Indiana is discontinued.
- September 30 1967 : Final day of regularly-scheduled passenger train service on the Monon.
- .
- to a bicycle and pedestrian trail known as the Monon Trail .
The remains of the line are operated by and
Bedford (this segment was abandoned largely due to a washout). A portion of the French Lick branch is now home to a railroad museum, with part of the line wired for
Trolley service.
Between Bedford and
Mitchell , CSX owns the line but does not operate any of its own trains. The only service comes from trains of the
Canadian Pacific Railway , whose Latta Subdivision connects with the former Monon at Bedford. CPR operates over the old Monon from Bedford to Louisville through
Trackage Rights negotiated by the Latta Sub's original owner, The
Milwaukee Road , when the L&N took over the Monon. Those trackage rights went from the Milwaukee Road to its buyer, The
Soo Line ; "The Soo" was later merged into the CPR. (As of early
2006 , CPR is negotiating the sale of the Latta Sub to the
Indiana Rail Road ; this sale is expected to be consummated in June 2006, with the CPR trackage rights being transferred to INRD.) CSX does operate trains between Louisville and
St. Louis, Missouri over the Louisville-Mitchell segment; these trains have to make an unusual reverse movement to go from the Monon to the former
Baltimore And Ohio Railroad line to St. Louis, owing to an unfavorable track arrangement at the crosing of the lines in Mitchell.
The Monon's original
Semaphore signals are still in operation between
Salem and Mitchell, and also from Crawfordsville to near Lafayette. These are some of the last semaphore signals remaining in mainline operation in the United States.
Amtrak 's combined ''
Cardinal And Hoosier State '' trains traverse the former Monon from Crawfordsville to the Indiana state line near Chicago, with one train in each direction daily. Station stops along the former Monon include Lafayette, Rensselaer and Dyer.
The line through Lafayette was relocated in
2000 to an alignment along the Wabash River, parallel to the similarly-relocated
Norfolk Southern Railroad line. Previously, the Monon line ran down the middle of Fifth Street, with a hotel serving as its passenger station well into the Amtrak era.
All of the Monon's street-running segments remain, except for the relocated Lafayette trackage. The last of the Monon's green-light grade crossing signals was apparently removed from service at a crossing a few miles north of New Albany in
2004 , though this cannot be confirmed as the last such installation — many of those signals were installed on lightly-traveled roads, out of notice of all but the most dedicated
Railfan .
- Dolzall, Gary W., and Dolzall, Stephen F. ''Monon: The Hoosier Line'', Interurban Press (1987).
- Hilton, George. ''Monon Route'', Howell-North Books (1978).
