North Platte of Bust: Part 3, Lima to Homewood

WB local Lima, OH

We began the day in the former home town of Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, OH.  We found a few trains moving about and then headed west.  We would end the day at Homewood, Il so we had plenty of road ahead.

Our first mission of the day was to go into town, recon the various diamonds and stations then move west.  Somewhere along the way we wanted to pass the vacant lot that was once the Lima Locomotive Works.  As it turned out, there were a few trains rolling through town and enough local activity to distract us.  

EB entering the city.

Pearl St. Diamond

Lima once played host to several railroads.  The B and O seems to be the most active today.  We enjoyed looking over all the former B and O color position signals guarding the various junction points in the city.  The signals here guard Pearl St. where the PRR once crossed.  An old restored depot sits where the connecting track joins in.  We drove around an found remnants of the DTandI too.  Not much worthy of photos but plenty of leftover infrastructure around.

Lima Locomotive Works

We were watching some passing freights, using some active steel mills as a backdrop when we got our chance to eye the old locomotive works.  The lot is pretty much vacant with piles of old concrete and masonry heaped up and vegetation running rampant.  We spotted some switching in the neighboring yard too.  We drove around to the other side so Charles could go up to the bridge for some video.  I stayed with the car and watched some strikers across the street watch me.  The break gave me a chance to look over the maps.





We eventually found our way out of town.  Lima is full of small neighborhoods with their own grid of streets.  The way west was a small route directly west which would eventually lead to Lafayette, IN.  We passed through countless small rural towns and began to see drying corn fields.  Corn actually looked better in Maine this year.  We kept the SPV atlas handy and our "short range sensors" (Magellan GPS) showed various rail lines crossing our route.  In Gas City, IN we stopped at some crossing gates and encountered this lone TPandW unit crossing our path. 

Getting to Lafayette:  We would have been fine except for detours and a few minor errors.  No harm done but we drove many a mile across the grid road network of rural Indiana trying to go west.  Detour signs led us astray and into Kokomo, IN.  What a dump.  NS was in the process of removing a branch in the vicinity and we kept crossing the branch in various states of dismantling.   We went miles north and into town when the signs seemed to run out and we decided to go back and "play the grid" and make our own detour.   This took us back toward Lafayette finally.  Rural roads are in square grids to we just went one square south and paralleled our original route until we passed the expected detour.  Country roads are pretty solitary but out there they were straight and well maintained.  Some were gravel and some were paved.  Unfortunately, not all are wide enough to pass when you encounter farm machinery. Eventually we arrived at Lafayette.  The "short range sensors" got us to the Amtrak station.

Lafayette, IN is an interesting place.  It's the home of Purdue University so it has that college atmosphere downtown.  The depot area is now a fairly busy downtown transportation hub with some pedestrian infrastructure to tie it in with the riverfront.  The station is raised above track level with plenty of bridge and platform area for watching trains.  We caught a WB autorack and an EB roadrailer while we sat around.

Apparently the depot area once hosted the Wabash and the Monon.  Just out of sight behind some trees and bridgwork was a line now owned by the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern.  We saw all we needed by the time we left.  Not much sight or sound of CSX so we didn't hunt much farther.  Apparently there was some street trackage around.  But, it was that or getting to Homewood. 

The Homewood Railroad Park was worth everything it took to get there.  We started on the west side of the tracks at the Amtrak and Metra station to get our bearings.   Here we found the display unit and the station buildings.  It also had some nice parking.  We began our stay by photographing the frequent electric Metra commuter trains.  We also saw some EJandE units kicking around the yard and a passing CN southbound featured a pair of blue LMS/IC units.  It was just after 5pm so trains were about 7-10 minutes apart.  Eventually we relocated to the east side of the tracks to where the railfan platform was located.  The sun was on the wrong side but it wasn't that bad.

The Homewood platform is a great location to watch trains.  We caught and EJandE local, a couple of CN southbounds and later a pair of Amtraks met at their platform.  The location is relatively clean and safe.  Plenty of traffic and police.  A handy Starbucks is across the street.  Metra has some parking and a bus pull out there next to a pedestrian underpass for the train station.  We were the only ones using the plush platform.  A scanner was squawking constantly, which was helpful.  We couldn't make out much of the meaning but it sounded like there was plenty of car kicking in Markham Yard nearby.   We did get some good clues about approaching freights and Amtrak through the clutter.  For Amtrak, the 800 number was useful too.

The remaining shots are from the area.  I took dozens of shots of the electrics trying to get something worthy or showing off.  The few I have here are from those experimental angles.    The signal bridge shots were tough because the trains flew by and timing was critical.  I tried a few that included the Metra station too but many were badly timed.  Luckily, there were many trains for trial and error.

BC