Thought I'd post a bit of good news concerning the Erie Railroad and its history. Two of the railroads original depots here in Indiana were recently in extremely serious danger of being destroyed. Fortunately, there has been some good news concerning their preservation. A short story of each follows.

The first depot is located in Monterey, Indiana. This frame, board and batten sided combination depot was built in 1883 and is particularly interesting because of its terra-cotta roof ridge flashing, most of which still exists. The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum acquired ownership of the structure along with the 16 miles of ex-Erie right-of-way between its museum in North Judson and Monterey. Unfortunately, there is no track on about 15 miles of that right-of-way. The museum now operates on a short section of the old Erie in North Judson and runs its trains down the old Chesapeake & Ohio in the opposite direction from Monterey. With no need for the depot (the museum has its own depot at its museum site), various efforts to give away the building to folks in Monterey or to sell it, went nowhere. With demolition, or a fire department training exercise, on the horizon, one of the HVRM members stood up and made an offer for the structure and a bit of surrounding land. The purchase was approved, and things now look good for the preservation of the depot.

The second depot was located in Leiter's Ford, Indiana, which was known on the Erie simply as Leiters. HVRM also had a bit of history with this depot, as soon to be explained. Also built as a frame, board and batten siding structure, the slightly smaller, simpler building was also built in 1883. Purchased by a private individual years ago, it was moved about 100 feet off of the right-of-way to be used as part of a local bar/cafe. When that plan fell through, it was donated to the Fulton County Historical Society which was headquartered in Rochester, Indiana. The FCHS did not need the depot for its historical collection of buildings, as it had the old Nickel Plate Road Rochester depot at its site. Thus the Leiter's Ford depot was an "orphan". When HVRM decided to put up a depot at its museum site, Shirley Willard of FCHS offered the building to the railroad museum with the understanding that the museum try to help them acquire some old railroad equipment and put a short section of track in front of their NKP depot. HVRM successfully lobbied NS for an old N&W caboose and also secured an old steel ice bunker refrigerator car from Merchants Despatch Transportation. Unfortunately, before a transfer of the depot could even be arranged, the former owner sued FCHS stating that he did not want the depot moved out of the county. The former owner eventually won that court case and so the depot sat, the former owner eventually passing away. More recently, a new owner of the bar, and thus the depot, decided he had no need for the depot, now rapidly deteriorating. A model railroad organization tried to secure it and arrange to move it, but that effort failed. The owner was then going to demolish the structure but Mrs. Willard stepped in and asked to hold off while she tried to find a home for it. She eventually contacted the Wabash & Erie Canal Park in Delphi, Indiana. People from that group came out to look at it and decided to accept it. An Amish organization was contracted to take the building down in pieces and move it to Delphi. The old Monon Railroad runs at one edge of the park property (the track is now privately owned by a stone company) and when funding is secured, the depot will be re-erected. BTW, the only active section of the old Wabash & Erie Canal still in existence, is that section in Delphi where canal boat rides are given to the public. The not-for-profit canal organization seems to be very successful, so it appears to be good news for one more old Erie depot.

Les

what was it in the transcontintal railroad... they built 10 miles in one day....

if your interested in extending it out, you just go out with a few ties every so often and a short stretch of rail, and go for it, youll get there eventually.

That is good news about those old depots. And HVRM is an impressive organization.

Someone recently asked me about the Leiters depot and I had to admit that I have no idea as to the progress of the Wabash & Erie Canal group in Delphi, Indiana and their plan to rebuild the Leiters depot on one of their myriad of trails there in Delphi. Unfortunately, there is nothing about the depot on the groups website which makes me a bit concerned that perhaps the plans have fallen through. Has anyone heard anything?

As for the depot in Monterey, the owner has done some work on it, although it's hard to tell of any progress. This is understandable due to the fact that the restoration is a "one man show" and he is also involved with museum work at HVRM.

Les

I recently sent a note to the Wabash & Erie Canal group and got a nice reply from Dan McCain of that organization. Mr. McCain sent me a photo of the Leiter's Ford depot as it appeared in 1909 and as it appears now after restoration. The depot is to be dedicated in a ceremony at the Canal Park on Saturday, October 17th. The restoration appears to be well done and very accurate. Hopefully we will get some photos in the future that we can post here on RyPN.

Les