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Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42374		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Peter Nicholson [ Sun Aug 19, 2018 7:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Thomas Centennial Park (formerly "Railroad Park") in Chesterton, IN is being enhanced with new restrooms and a warming/cooling house made from a boxcar and caboose, respectively. The boxcar, described as a 50-foot bunkerless refrigerator car built in 1962, was imported from Orrville, OH and has been painted in Monon colors. The caboose, of unspecified origin, has been painted bright red with NS markings (photos attached).

They used crowdfunding for the project, via patronicity.com. Link to the project page is here: https://www.patronicity.com/project/thomas_centennial_park_restrooms#!/

For those curious, the ex-South Shore Line cars (17, 26, 100 and 104) remain at the site opposite Thomas Park, across the NS mainline. Over time, they've lost their CSS&SB paint and pantographs, as the attached photo shows.

Attachments:
File comment: 28-aug-2018 50-ft. plug door boxcar Chesterton, IN
Thomas Park Boxcar.jpg
Thomas Park Boxcar.jpg [ 252.06 KiB | Viewed 10140 times ]
File comment: 28-aug-2018 Thomas Park Caboose Chesterton, IN
Thomas Park Caboose.jpg
Thomas Park Caboose.jpg [ 279.27 KiB | Viewed 10140 times ]
File comment: 28-aug-2018 ex-CSS&SB car Chesterton, IN
Chesterton CSSB Car.jpg
Chesterton CSSB Car.jpg [ 267.3 KiB | Viewed 10140 times ]
Author:  jayrod [ Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
For those that may keep track if these type of things, the reefer is ex-D&RGW #60608. We still have some of the DF loader beams and jacks from this car if anyone has an interest.
Author:  Peter Nicholson [ Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
jayrod wrote:
For those that may keep track if these type of things, the reefer is ex-D&RGW #60608.


Thanks for filling in that detail. The east truck, an ASF Ride Control, had "D&RGW" cast into the sideframe, which made me wonder. The west truck is a Barber S-2 with no road identification.

Attachments:
File comment: ASF Ride Control truck under "Monon" boxcar
ASF Truck under boxcar.jpg
ASF Truck under boxcar.jpg [ 32.73 KiB | Viewed 9945 times ]
Author:  jayrod [ Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
The S2 came from B&O #474725 which made figuring out the car's heritage a little difficult. Our assumption is that Art Davis swapped out that truck from the B&O car that may have been scrapped at DABO.
Author:  NS 3322 [ Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Is that an old South Shore caboose?
Author:  Steve A W [ Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Is that a correct paint scheme for a Monon box car?

Author:  Dennis Storzek [ Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Steve A W wrote:
Is that a correct paint scheme for a Monon box car?



Fantasy scheme... But it looks nice. Keep in mind, this isn't a museum, and it's not a Monon car.
Author:  Les Beckman [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
NS 3322 wrote:
Is that an old South Shore caboose?


NS3322 -

Not sure for certain, however in Peter Nicholson's initial entry for this thread, he mentions a Link to the placement of the box car and caboose. In that link are some interior photos of the placed caboose, a couple of which show a number over the door; 006. This is one of the numbers given to the 8 ex-AT&SF cabooses that the South Shore purchased a number of years ago. The Santa Fe numbers of the cars were: 999008; 999024; 999061; 999096; 999149; 999196; 999257 and 999486. Not sure if the South Shore renumbered them in order.

Also in that Link that Peter mentioned are a couple of proposed drawings of the caboose and boxcar and how they would look in Chesterton. Those drawings show a caboose lettered for the Rio Grande (!) and the box car lettered for the ORIGINAL Norfolk Southern (!!). Sure would have been neat if those particular paint schemes had actually been put on those two pieces of equipment! Not sure if any equipment exists in preservation that is lettered for the original NS. The choice of using the Monon for the boxcar is a bit surprising in itself since the old Monon never serviced Chesterton.


Les
Author:  NS 3322 [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Les Beckman wrote:
NS 3322 wrote:
Is that an old South Shore caboose?


NS3322 -

Not sure for certain, however in Peter Nicholson's initial entry for this thread, he mentions a Link to the placement of the box car and caboose. In that link are some interior photos of the placed caboose, a couple of which show a number over the door; 006. This is one of the numbers given to the 8 ex-AT&SF cabooses that the South Shore purchased a number of years ago. The Santa Fe numbers of the cars were: 999008; 999024; 999061; 999096; 999149; 999196; 999257 and 999486. Not sure if the South Shore renumbered them in order.

Also in that Link that Peter mentioned are a couple of proposed drawings of the caboose and boxcar and how they would look in Chesterton. Those drawings show a caboose lettered for the Rio Grande (!) and the box car lettered for the ORIGINAL Norfolk Southern (!!). Sure would have been neat if those particular paint schemes had actually been put on those two pieces of equipment! Not sure if any equipment exists in preservation that is lettered for the original NS. The choice of using the Monon for the boxcar is a bit surprising in itself since the old Monon never serviced Chesterton.


Les


Thanks Les for providing those details!
In the RR Picture Archives profile for this caboose it states #006 or #6 is "alternate numbering for CSS 10006, ex-ATSF."
I am going to assume for now that the caboose is ex-CSS.
This is how the caboose looked in 2016:
Image

Glad to see it has been "preserved."
There is another South Shore caboose in Chesterton (CSS 10004) at Riley's Railhouse.
Author:  Peter Nicholson [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Les Beckman wrote:
The choice of using the Monon for the boxcar is a bit surprising in itself since the old Monon never serviced Chesterton.


True, though they did serve nearby Michigan City. The colors, similar to the scheme used on the Monon's freight diesels, are those of Purdue University in West Lafayette (gold and black); the Monon's passenger diesels wore the red and white of Indiana University in Bloomington (and you'll notice red and white were the colors selected by Chesterton for the AT&SF/SSL caboose).

Thanks to all who replied to my initial posting; I hoped it would elicit the history of the two cars, and it did. I'll take some project completion photos next time I'm in NW Indiana.
Author:  Les Beckman [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
From the photo of CSS # 006 submitted by NS 3322, its obvious that whoever restored the caboose did an excellent job.

In addition to the second CSS/AT&SF caboose in Chesterton (at the nearby Riley's Railhouse) there is a third CSS/AT&SF caboose in Springville, Indiana which is just north of La Porte, located off of U.S. 20 and a bit west of Indiana state route 39. This one was restored as Santa Fe # 999061, with just a bit of additional advertising info:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4541030

I believe that at least one of the original 8 cabooses purchased by South Shore Freight, is still owned by the railroad.

Les
Author:  NS 3322 [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Les Beckman wrote:
From the photo of CSS # 006 submitted by NS 3322, its obvious that whoever restored the caboose did an excellent job.

In addition to the second CSS/AT&SF caboose in Chesterton (at the nearby Riley's Railhouse) there is a third CSS/AT&SF caboose in Springville, Indiana which is just north of La Porte, located off of U.S. 20 and a bit west of Indiana state route 39. This one was restored as Santa Fe # 999061, with just a bit of additional advertising info:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4541030

I believe that at least one of the original 8 cabooses purchased by South Shore Freight, is still owned by the railroad.

Les


Haha, my photo again. Forgot about the caboose in Springville...
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the "Wabash" caboose on the Black River & Western Railroad is also a former CSS caboose, #999096/#10003.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... ?id=568418
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... ?id=145615
Author:  Les Beckman [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Peter Nicholson wrote:
Les Beckman wrote:
The choice of using the Monon for the boxcar is a bit surprising in itself since the old Monon never serviced Chesterton.


True, though they did serve nearby Michigan City. The colors, similar to the scheme used on the Monon's freight diesels, are those of Purdue University in West Lafayette (gold and black); the Monon's passenger diesels wore the red and white of Indiana University in Bloomington (and you'll notice red and white were the colors selected by Chesterton for the AT&SF/SSL caboose).

Thanks to all who replied to my initial posting; I hoped it would elicit the history of the two cars, and it did. I'll take some project completion photos next time I'm in NW Indiana.


Peter -

I guess the Purdue (black and gold) and Indiana University (red and white) makes as much sense as anything. I notice that there is a number (or...?) up between the cupola windows on the caboose there in Chesterton. My computer screen isn't big enough for me to see the number. The next time you are up in NW Indiana to take some additional photos of the project, perhaps you can get a better shot of that number.

Les
Author:  NS 3322 [ Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Chesterton, IN enhances Railroad Park
Les Beckman wrote:
Peter Nicholson wrote:
Les Beckman wrote:
The choice of using the Monon for the boxcar is a bit surprising in itself since the old Monon never serviced Chesterton.


True, though they did serve nearby Michigan City. The colors, similar to the scheme used on the Monon's freight diesels, are those of Purdue University in West Lafayette (gold and black); the Monon's passenger diesels wore the red and white of Indiana University in Bloomington (and you'll notice red and white were the colors selected by Chesterton for the AT&SF/SSL caboose).

Thanks to all who replied to my initial posting; I hoped it would elicit the history of the two cars, and it did. I'll take some project completion photos next time I'm in NW Indiana.


Peter -

I guess the Purdue (black and gold) and Indiana University (red and white) makes as much sense as anything. I notice that there is a number (or...?) up between the cupola windows on the caboose there in Chesterton. My computer screen isn't big enough for me to see the number. The next time you are up in NW Indiana to take some additional photos of the project, perhaps you can get a better shot of that number.

Les


It just says "06-2018" on both sides of the cupola.
Author:  Robert J [ Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:29 am ]
Post subject: 
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