In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Pictures
Signals
Other Nearby Cities
Norman
Brownstown
Sparksville
 Vallonia
 Floobydust
USGS Maps
 

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In General

Location / Name:
Seymour IN, Jackson Co.

What's Here:
Diamond Crossing
Former B&O Depot
The Louisville & Indiana RR

Data:
GPS Coordinates: 38.958587, -85.888585
Phone A/C: 812
ZIP: 47274

Access by train/transit:
None, closest Amtrak is in Louisville KY, about 50 miles south, or Indianapolis IN to the north, about 60 miles away

The Scoop:

At one time, the Pennsylvania RR, the Baltimore & Ohio RR, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific RR (the Soo Line, and then the Milw) came into Seymour.

Today, CSX runs east and west (former B&O), and the Louisville & Indiana comes thru N/S on the former PRR trackage on their way between Louisville KY and Avon yard in Indianapolis IN.  This is CSX's Indiana Sub-Division, which runs from Cincinnati OH west to Washington IN.

A block away from the diamond is a former B&O depot, now used by the Chamber of Commerce as their visitor center.

The town also had a number of other stations and freight sheds as can be seen below, most are a distant memory but shown here for historic purposes.

A little south of the diamond is a concrete grain silo, complete with a Chessie System caboose.  A number of towns are setting these things up as tourist" sights, another one can be found in Grand Haven MI , and forms part of a very complete, very cool railroad park.

The B&O had a tower at the diamond, JO.  Not sure when it was taken down.

A quick note about signals, since that is the main reason I do my guides..... On the B&O we still have the infamous B&O CPL signals (which stands for Color Position Light).  CSX has had a replacement program going on now for at least ten years, but probably closer to 15.  They are replacing them with standard color light signals.  It appears that the L&I is using color light signals when used, having replaced the Pennsy PL signals (Position Light).  These can be seen in the photos down in the JO Tower section.  If you want to find out more about signals, check here: http://position-light.blogspot.com/ or my railroad signals site.

A special thank you goes to Denver Todd for taking the pictures below.  He had sent me just a GPS location for one of the signals in Seymour, and I took that number, looked it up on Google Maps, and took off runnin to make this page because of all of the CPL signals still there... BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!  Then, after I got the page done, he volunteered to take a field trip to visit Seymour for some up close and personal pictures.  We need more railfans like Denver!

If you are searching for additional information, be aware that there is also a Seymour CT and a Seymour in Australia.

Acknowledgements:
John Burkhart
Alicia Froedge
Joe Schneid
David Ingles
Dan Maners / North American Interlockings
Indiana Historical Society  (the two older City maps, north and south)
Jeff Wilson
Michael Spoor
Trey Kunz
Ron Stuckey
Jeff Gast
Sara Marling Thomas/collection of Seymour Public Library
Denver Todd
University of Indiana for their map collection
University of Texas for their map collection

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://condrenrails.com/JDI/Lexington-2011/index-6.html
http://northamericaninterlockings.com/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville_and_Indiana_Railroad

Getting Here

South out of Indianapolis on I-65.  Take exit 50, and go west on US 50 about 2 miles into Seymour.

Map


Above map in PDF format here






Sights

  Seymour Diamond

GPS Coordinates: 38.958587, -85.888585






  former B&O Freight House

GPS Coordinates: 38.959479, -85.885807
http://www.jacksoncountyin.com/
http://www.jacksoncountyin.com/visitor-center/history/

The former Freight House houses the Jackson County Visitor Center.  On their website, there isn't much on the building (not that there is a whole lot to say about :-):

The Jackson County Visitor Center is located in a historic railroad freight house that was built in 1905.  Part of a network of rail lines and depots owned by John Walsh, a Chicago banker and a Bedford IN native with ties to the limestone industry, the depot is a classic example of industrial transportation architecture.  Located on approximately an acre and adjacent to downtown Seymour on land in the original plat, the freight house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 22, 2003.

The railroad has a very rich history in Seymour and Jackson County and, at times, a shady one.  It was here in October 1866 that members of the Reno Gang committed the first moving train robbery.  Near the location of the freight house, three of the gang boarded the O & M train and robbed the Adam’s Express Messenger of between $12,000 and $18,000.  The secret of the gang's ill-gotten gains in multiple robberies remains a mystery.  The Reno brothers died in 1868 after they were caught, arrested, and hung; and are buried in the old Seymour Cemetery.

Thanks to Ms. Froedge and Mr. Burkhart for the information they provided Denver on his visit to the Visitor Center.











The following picture is looking SW towards the interchange track and the L&Irr.










  former MILW Freight Shed




  Former Minneapolis-St Paul RR Depot

This photograph is in the Seymour Library collection, and was taken by Sara Marling Thomas in 1900.




  Former train Depot

Another Sara Marling Thomas photo from the Seymour Library, with no date or railroad information.




  Former B&O JO Tower

These pictures come from Dan Maners' North American Interlockings website.

JO Tower was a B&O tower that watched over the diamond between the B&O and the Pennsy.  The first shot below is looking north along the Pennsy with a SB Conrail freight - you can tell it's former Pennsy track because of the all yellow PL (position light) signals.  Does anyone know when it came down???










  Grain Tower and Chessie System Caboose

GPS Coordinates: 38.957095, -85.887575












 CSX Freight Shed

At the diamond....




Pictures

A Louisville and Indiana train crossing the Portland canal.  The north bound train is shown immediately prior to entering the vertical lift portion of the Fourteenth Street Bridge.  From left to right: LIRC #220 (GP38-2), #1802 (GP11), #1803 (GP11) and #223 (GP38-2).

  Joe Schneid


Signals


  EB CPL

EB B&O CPL signal for the Diamond






  WB CPL

WB B&O CPL signal for the Diamond








  EB CPL

EB B&O CPL signal for the Interchange












  WB B&O CPL signals

Here we have a high CPL on a bracket post installation, and HAD a dwarf CPL for the secondary/interchange track, before they did away with the secondary track and had the interchange track go right into the mainline.










  SB Colorlight

SB L&I Colorlight signal for the Diamond








  NB Colorlight

NB L&I Colorlight signal for the Diamond






  NB/SB Colorlight

Dual Direction L&I Colorlight signal for the CSX Interchange.  If you notice, this is a "small LED Colorlight" signal, the kind that seems to enjoy popularity with shortline railroads, presumably because of the cost factor (and we're not running 70MPH trains over perfect track).  I have also seen similar signals like these in Union Bridge MD on the Maryland Midland)








Other Nearby Cities




Norman IN

About 21 miles almost due west, give or take.

 


Brownstown IN

11 miles to the west.  The CPL signals would date the depot scene to at least 1920 or so at the earliest - there is no date on the sepia tone photo.  The B&W depot pic is dated the 1940's. 

It looks like in 2013 someone was renovating the freight shed, and earlier, it appears that CSX removed the western switch for a siding, which, in looking at Google Maps, was about 4100 feet long.  If we visit here today, there is a good chance most if not all of the signals are gone.

  Sara Marling Thomas

  Sara Marling Thomas













 






Sparksville IN

Sparksville is about 22 miles to the southwest.

  Sara Marling Thomas


 Vallonia IN

Vallonia is about 14 miles to the southwest. 

  Sara Marling Thomas

Floobydust

Seymour, at the junction of two great railways (at the time), made its way into railroad history on October 6, 1866 when the Reno gang committed the nation’s first train robbery there.  The historic incident was reported a week later in the Seymour Times.  The Reno Gang boarded the Ohio & Mississippi train in Seymour and committed the robbery as it was moving, heading east out of town.

 






A parking lot sign adjacent to the Diamond



  Seen around town....




Historical USGS Maps

Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.







Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert. 

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here

Aerial shots were taken from either Google Maps or www.bing.com/maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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