Location Of The Month

Want to contribute? Do you have a favorite Monon location and pictures? Or, do you have pictures from the featured location and would like to add them to this page? Send them in jpg format to the Webmaster and we will add them to this page, or use them as a upcoming location of the month. Webmaster's Note: Michigan City was the December 2004 Location Of The Month. The 2006 Annual Meeting and Convention is being held, September 29 through October 1, 2006 in Michigan City, therefore it is our September 2006 Depot and Location Of The Month.

The 1915 inventory of the railroad showed a combination station 48'x30'x29'. It was brick construction with a ready roof.

Timetable #61, November 22, 1931, no longer listed first class trains on the Michigan City Branch. This ended scheduled passenger service on the line. Pictured is the "Run Through" freight house in Michigan City. This freight house was the northern terminus of the Monon Railroad. It was been speculated that this freight house also served as the passenger depot until service was discontinued on the line. This freight house was the location where passengers on the special excusions started or ended. A restaurant now occupies the location.

On the date this picture was taken in 1963, the Michigan City freight house was over 100 years old. A sturdy building which at one time permitted freight cars to be unloaded inside.

Michigan City, founded in 1830 was a principal traffic interchange. Named for the Michigan Road for which is the northern terminal. When built it was the most important north-south highway in Indiana. Because of the harbor, Michigan City was chosen as the northern terminus of the Louisville, New Albany and Salem Railroad.

Michigan City Harbor, circa 1900. This picture shows the run through freight house. It also shows the Michigan Central depot to the right side of the photo. Between Trail Creek and the Monon freight house was the Michigan Central shops complex. Photo was most likely taken from on top of the Hoosier Slide sand dune.

LEFT: Birdseye view of Michigan City, circa 1960's. This picture was taken from the observation tower in Washington Park. RIGHT: The famous "run through" freight house in Michigan City. A restaurant now occupies the location.

Michigan City harbor was the terminal for passenger and freight steamers until the 1920's and ended forever during the depression of the 30's. Unsuccessful attempts were made to secure a U.S. Navy installation for Michigan City. The city still has close to 100 manufacturing plants. Until 1945 Michigan City was the home to one of the Smith Brothers Cough drop factories. Between 1852 and 1970 the Haskell-Barker Car Manufacturing company, later Pullman-Standard, was the city's largest employer.

Pullman Standard Plant, circa 1970's, prior to the 1973 fire that destroyed this part of the plant.

LEFT: Monon action on the old Michigan City Branch. F unit sits on mainline west of the freight house. RIGHT: BL2 switching cars in the yard south of 10th Street near part of the Pullman Standard Complex. Water tower pictured is at the final assembly building.

The importance of this factory to Michigan City's economy can be seen from the size of the site. Makers of railroad cars, the firm was begun in 1852 by three men from New York. In 1855, John Barker, an established Michigan City grain dealer, joined the firm which then became the Haskell-Barker Car Company. In 1869, John H. Barker took his father's place in the firm where his use of ruthless business techniques and the importation of labor from Turkey, Syria and Poland caused the company to expand rapidly. Haskell-Barker was employing 500 men and producing 1,000 freight cars a year by 1879.

In the early 1900's the industry was the most complete factory for the construction of freight cars in the United States, manufacturing 10,000 cars annually. The Michigan City plant also employed the largest number of workers of any Indiana manufacturing firm. More than 3,500 men worked in the car shops, earning $12 for 72-hour work week. Many west side homes were painted boxcar red or refrigerator car yellow. Haskell-Barker was purchased by Pullman-Standard in 1922. During WW II Pullman-Standard manufactured sleeper cars for Allied troops. Labor troubles and other problems forced the factory to close in the 1970's. In 1973 most of the 100 acre plant burned.

Much of the property where the plant once sat is now Lighthouse Place Outlet Mall. The area north of U.S. Highway 12 has been completely redeveloped. Today's emphasis is on summertime recreational boating and fishing. Casino gambling has become a popular attraction with the opening of the Blue Chip Casino and hotel.

Left: Michigan City roundhouse, circa 1940's. Roundouse was north of Earl Road on the south side of the yard facilities in Michigan City. (MRRTHS Photo) Right: Michigan City roundhouse, 1946.

Left: Michigan City roundhouse, circa 1940's. Picture is looking towards the turntable from inside the roundhouse. Right: Michigan City roundhouse turntable, date unknown.

10th Avenue crossing, date unknown. Looking east along the South Shore. The tracks in the foreground are those of the Michigan Central. The Monon are the last set of tracks.

Part of the former Pullman Standard plant in Michigan City. The photo is looking northeast. The north end of the building is about a block south of 11th St, and it is almost a 1/2 mile long. On the north end of the building there was a Pullman Standard sign above a rail car sized door that looked like it was converted to a truck dock. The vacant land pictured was once the yard complex where all new cars were shipped from.

Former Michigan Central Depot, circa 2002. South facade of building. This structure was the third depot of the Michigan Central. The original depot , built in the 1850's, was located on the opposite side of the tracks. It was in front of that depot that the funeral train bearing the body of Abraham Lincoln stopped at 8:25 A.M. on May 1, 1865. The train arrived in Michigan City on the Monon and halted under a 35 foot memorial arch which had been constructed over the tracks. The people of Michigan City were able to enter the funeral car to pay their last respects to the great man before the train continued on to Chicago and eventually Springfield, Ilinois. Current Amtrak Depot is to the north of this structure. Looking to the northeast.

Switching at Michigan City. Exact date unknown. This location is somewhere in the Trail Creek area around Route 12 and US 35. On the building in the background is the company name, Blocksom. The buildings are still there, just south of the new Highway 12 bridge west of the Blue Chip casino. These industries were off the tracks that once ran to and through Pioneer Lumber. Some of the tracks still exist.

F3 #111, teamed with a BL2 at the freight house in Michigan City, April 19, 1963.

Michigan City depot. Company fan trip excursion extra at Michigan City. Exact date unknown.

Swing bridge over Trail Creek. Any railroad related visit to Michigan City must include the swing bridge on the old Michigan Central at Trail Creek. This was NOT on the Monon, but it is very interesting and so I included it here. It is possible that Monon trains did use this bridge once or twice, but for the most part it was not on the Monon. Pictured is the Wolverine.