The Indiana Transportation Museum

The Indiana Transportation Museum is quite similar to the Indiana Railway Museum in its goal to preserve Indiana’s railroading history. The museum is located at Noblesville, Indiana and along with its collection it also operates over 38 miles of ex-Nickel Plate Road (New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad) trackage. Below is a brief history of the NKP trackage, and railroad museum itself courtesy of the Indiana Transportation Museum:

In 1964 the Nickel Plate itself disappeared, absorbed, along with the Wabash, into the Norfolk and Western. The old Indianapolis Division was split in two. South of Peru it became the Indianapolis District of the Muncie Division of the Lake Region. Following the 1982 union of N & W and Southern into the Norfolk Southern, the line became still more fragmented when Norfolk Southern leased the Tipton-Peru section to the new Central Railroad of Indianapolis and leased the 36 miles between Peru and Argos to the Central of Indianapolis, (subleased for a time by Indiana Hi-Rail). This line is now out of service and slated for abandonment.

The Indianapolis-Tipton section was leased briefly to Indiana Rail Road, but in 1995 was sold to the Hamilton County Port Authority. Noblesville and Fishers formed the authority, which was re-named Hoosier Heritage Port Authority after Indianapolis joined in 1996. The Port Authority built the new depot and platform in Fishers, and the Indiana Transportation Museum is the designated operator for the line. Our interchange connection is with Conrail at Belt Junction in Indianapolis. The former interchange to the NS at Tipton was cut in 1997, and no physical connection exists between our line and the NS or the Tipton-Peru section operated by Central of Indianapolis.

In Indianapolis passenger trains from our line used the Indianapolis Union Station, reaching it by a track, now gone, which paralleled the Monon and then the NYC main line on the east side of the Indianapolis downtown. The Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago built a roundhouse where the tracks crossed East Washington Street at grade. This lasted until the tracks approaching Union Station were elevated in 1918. The LE & W then built a 7 stall roundhouse further north at the 22nd street yard, close to the Monon roundhouse and to Belt Junction. From the 1880s, the main roundhouse and repair facilities for the line were in Peru.

Besides the track itself, traces of our history are to be seen up and down the line. The museum displays a piece of the original Peru & Indianapolis strap rail. The old depot in Arcadia, now a library, was built for the Indianapolis Pere & Chicago in 1876. Concrete bases remain from the block signals which protected a parade of Pennsylvania, New York Central, and LE & W passenger trains during the LE & W's boom years. Lake Erie & Western 5541, built in 1918 as part of the LE & W's last and heaviest class of freight engines, was renumbered 587 by the Nickel Plate, and continues to demonstrate today what the age of steam was like when she rode these very rails hauling freight for the LE & W and the Nickel Plate.

While the Indiana Transportation Museum tries to focus its collection on NKP pieces it also showcases pieces from a number of different railroads. Along with the railroad museum’s two operation ex-NKP diesel locomotives, a GP9 and GP7, they also own a fabulous light Mikado steam locomotive, also of ex-NKP lineage numbered 567. So, if nothing else, the steam engine is definitely worth going to the museum to see!

Along with the museum’s fine collection of railroad equipment they also offer a number of different events throughout the year and even have a school programs to teach kids about not only the local area’s railroading but also railroading in general.

For more reading on Indiana's most famous railroad you might want to consider the book, Monon: The Hoosier Line from Gary Dolzall. The author gives an excellent history of the railroad in his book with over 200 pictures (all black and white). If you are a fan of the Monon and/or are interested in learning more about the railroad I am sure you will find the book very enjoyable. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing this book please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".