May 2008 Features
Station Of The Month
1-01-2008 Disclaimer: By definition, according to the Monon Railroad Operating Rulebook: A station is a location identified in the Timetable by name. (As information, a station may or may not have a sign identifying it by name, and if there's a depot there, the sign may or may not be on the depot. )
M.P. 224.2 - 5th Subdivision - Ck
Clear Creek depot, circa 1950's.
Clear Creek depot. View from the cab, May 1971.
| DOTM Archive | Inside A Depot | Surviving Monon Depots |
Submitted By Steve Dolzall
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Monon View From The Cab
Passing the depot at Wallace Junction -Dick Fontaine Photo-
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Location Of The Month
CWV 22.0 - 9th Subdivision - Phone (MP Val 102.0)
The Chicago and Wabash Valley Railroad was built by Benjamin Gifford, who came to northwest Indiana in 1891. Benjamin Gifford started to acquire land in the southern portions of Lake County and the northern part of Jasper County, until his holding were around 36,000 acres of the low-lands, known as the Black and Copperas Marshes. Gifford had located the divide between the Kankakee and the Iroquois Rivers. His dream was to transform the swamps into gardens to supply the city of Chicago with fresh vegetables. He drained the marshes by building miles of dredge ditching. Gifford also constructed public roads, dug smaller ditches, and divided his land into farms of 80, 160, and 320 acres. Each farm contained a set of farm buildings. By the late 1890's the annual harvest in the area was nearly one million bushels of corn, oats, onions and potatoes, with the prospect of annual crops topping that. The Chicago and Wabash Valley Railroad formed on September 10, 1898.
Kersey, Indiana, two miles east of DeMotte, became his center of operation, where Gifford built a depot, general store, elevator, school and engine shed, and several homes for his employees. He started building his railway to the south, and crossed the now abandoned Chicago, Attica, and Southern Railway, creating stations at Laura, Gifford, Newland and Moody. Soon after acquiring engines and rolling stock, Gifford's railroad operated two to three daily trips, with Kersey, Indiana, as headquarters. The line served the adjoining land for many years. After Gifford's death in 1913, the line was sold to the Monon Railroad. Gifford's ultimate aim was to build his railroad into Gary, but he died before this dream was realized. The line was never completed north of Dinwiddie Station. The right-of-way was graded to a point south and east of Crown Point. In September of 1935. the Monon Railroad was given permission by Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the Gifford Line. The loss of this railroad caused great inconvenience to the area. Two grain elevators east of Lowell, the Lowell Grain Company, at Dinwiddie, the Fifield Elevator on Range Line Road eventually went out of business.
Left: Former C&WV crossing at 600 W. In this photo you are looking northwest from 600 W. Right: Former mainline heading southeast into Kersey. The line crossed the old NYC beyond the trees in the background of the photo.
Kersey Indiana, the former right of way looking northwest from the former NYC mainline.
Derailment of a New York Central train in 1912. Pictured is the tower at the NYC-C&WV. The tower was maintained by the Chicago and Wabash Valley.
Left and Right: Chicago & Wabash Valley depot, circa 1910. Frank E. Lewis is pictured in both photos to the right. Lewis helped build the railroad and owned a farm next to Mr. Gifford. -Courtesy the Lewis family history files-
Chicago & Wabash Valley surveying crew at Kersey. Not known if the building is associated with the railroad. Circa 1910. -Courtesy the Lewis family history files-
Kersey Indiana, sometime in 1933. Monon Engine #135 sitting on the former C&WV line. Monon Engine #132 is behind #135. -Charles Huffer Collection, MRHTS-
Kersey Indiana, the center of the Chicago and Wabash Valley operation. The rails which are visable in this picture follow the old right of way of the C&WV. They may not be original C&WV, but they follow the mainline right of way. The Jasper County Co-Op Elevator is in the background. The Co-OP sits on the site of the C&WV engine and shops facillity. There was once a "wye" for turning locomotives. Picture taken from the County Road 600W crossing. The northeast leg of the wye began about where the crossing ends. Although no tracks remain, there is a fence line that follows the curve of the old leg of the wye.
Kersey Indiana, old tracks follow the original C&WV mainline northwest from downtown. These tracks would cross the former NYC line east of DeMotte.
Left: Kersey Indiana, this location is believed to be the location an old coal company and, or, elevator. Looking toward the southeast. Right: Another view of the old C&WV mainline. Picture was taken from just south of the former NYC track, looking towards downtown Kersey.
Left: Looking at another leg of the wye. This is the leg of the wye that ran southeast and joined to the mainline east of the current elevator. There is a perfect curve which also follows the field to the right side of the photo. North of the white building the two old legs of the wye come together. Right: The end of the line? These tracks are part of the old ROW. By the trees in the background was the connection with a "wye" that was part of their locomotive service facillity. Beyond the trees in the background is County Road 550W. With development and farms, the old ROW has vanished and is hard to pick back up.
To learn more about Kersey, the Chicago and Wabash Valley, or other Monon locations, check out Bygone Places Along The Monon.
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