This narrative is in two parts. The first will deal with the town of North Judson itself, and the second with the museum.
North Judson, Indiana was once one of the busiest railroad towns in the world! At one time, FOUR railroad lines intersected here, three of them busy main lines. The PRR Chicago-Cincinnati "Panhandle Line" ran parallel to the C&O of Indiana mainline though town. The Erie Lackawanna's Chicago-Buffalo mainline crossed both lines on a severe angle. The NYC's "Kankakee Belt Line" came in from the south and crossed the PRR, then crossed the EL and C&O almost in the same spot! Family friends in nearby Knox told us that during World War II, the frequency in this town was 150 trains per day! Today this town is very quiet. The NYC was abandoned by Conrail in 1983. The EL was shut down in 1979 after two short line operators failed, and was removed west of here in 1981. The PRR was abandoned in 1984, and the C&O was abandoned south of town in December, 1987. Between 1974 and 1986, Amtrak's James Whitcomb Riley, (later renamed the Cardinal), passed through here on the C&O until it was rerouted in April, 1986. The Floridian ran on the PRR from January 1972 until August, 1974, when the FRA declared the line unsafe for passenger trains. Neither of these trains stopped here. In 1980 the Tippecanoe Railroad was formed to operate a 17-mile segment of the EL east to Monterey to serve a grain elevator. The line became known as the J&K Lines, and was eventually bought by RailAmerica, who promptly abandoned the line in 2004 when the grain elevator closed. The museum had one mile donated to them. The C&O continued to be used by CSX to serve a grain elevator at Malden, just west of here, and to interchange with the J&K lines. With no interchange at North Judson, CSX filed to abandon the trackage in 2004. Not wanting to be land-locked, the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum contracted with Rail Boxcar to purchase the line. It is now known as the Chesapeake & Indiana.
The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum was begun in 1988 to preserve a C&O steam locomotive that was displayed in Peru, Indiana. They set up their displays on the EL right-of-way, and obtained an interesting array of equipment over the years. Note the custom-built depot, new trackage on the EL grade, and the South Shore cars. Heavily-vandalized car #108 has since been scrapped. The museum does run occasional excursions on the C&O line to La Crosse.
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