Of Semaphores and Streets

Decades ago, it was a time when a large and powerful few were still a small and local many.  These would consolidate, merge, and slip away until what is found today are huge and encompassing.  In communication they are the AT&T and Verizons.  In retail they are the Amazons and Walmarts, the Lowes and the Home Depots.  In railroads, the Norfolk Southern and CSXT in the east, Union Pacific and BNSF in the west.  

A few others exist in and around these behemoths as well, like Kansas City Southern, Iowa Interstate and numerous short lines, although KCS has grown aggressively in and out of country.  Even now it looks to a merger with CN and has already assimilated the Meridian Speedway and works closely with Norfolk Southern moving containers across the I20 corridor between Shreveport and Atlanta.  

The bigness of what we see about us today hide the stories of the smaller and unique things that came before them.  Indiana was known for an impressive network of interurban lines and was a vast collection of railroad's biggest names from the 20th century.  The Big Four (NYC), Pennsy, Erie, Wabash, and Nickel Plate to name a few.  It was also home to unique smaller roads like the Monon that connected Chicago to Louisville and Indianapolis.


I have written of the Monon before, and remarked on their upper quadrant semaphore signals that stood so tall along the right of way.  Even through the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, one could find them in use where CSX yet used the tracks.  They stood outside swift moving Cardinals of the day, flipping by the windows in the early morning darkness as little pools of light unlike any of the more modern signals that we've come to know.  

The story of the Monon matches many other things.  At one time, unique and small, known for its own selection of passenger trains and unique street running through different Indiana towns.  In 1971 it was purchased by the Louisville and Nashville, giving the L&N access to Chicago.  From there it became "Family Lines" and then part of CSXT.  It has been paired down relentlessly with only a few sections remaining in place and in use.  Semaphores that remained active into the 2000s have been removed, but can still be found if you visit the museum in Linden, IN (above).


In Greencastle (above) the rails are in place, but stop not far south.  The evidence of an important rail corridor, however, can not be hidden.  Bits and pieces of continuous weld mark the right of way, and the old sentries put in place more than 100 years before still watch the path.  The glistening silver paint is gone, the blades themselves removed and yet there is no mistaking these for what they are.  No more Thoroughbreds pass this way on their sprint to Louisville, but it is not hard to imagine them in a scene with relics like this.  

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