I had had my eye on photographing Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal from this bridge carrying U.S. Route 231 over the CSX Monon Subdivision for several weeks.
But a road construction project had reduced traffic over the bridge to one lane.
The work was completed in early August and that gave me an opportunity.
No. 51 had left Crawfordsville, Indiana, on time but lost about 12 minutes in a CSX work zone before it reached my position.
Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal is ferrying equipment from the Beech Grove shops to Chicago today and as a result No. 51 appears to be two trains in one.
The front half of the train is P42DC No. 77 along with two Superliner cars and two Viewliner baggage cars.
Behind that is the normal consist of No. 51 of P42DC No. 205, two Amfleet II coaches, an Amfleet food service car, Viewliner sleeper and Viewlier baggage-dorm car.
The two trains were combined at Indianapolis Union Station.
The image was made on Aug. 6, 2020, at Cherry Grove, Indiana, on the CSX Monon Subdivision.
The stop sign is for a spur into a grain elevator out of view to the left.
I’ve photographed Amtrak in countless places over the years but never shortly after sunrise and coming out of a rising sun.
Glint photograph is a staple of railroad photographers, particularly when a train is coming out of low light at sunrise or just before sunset.
I’ve made many glint images of freight trains but never an Amtrak train.
Doing a glint with Amtrak was more challenging than I expected. I soon learned that the stainless steel sides of Amtrak cars reflect light like a mirror.
I found that getting a glint of Amtrak seemed to work best when part of the train was in a shadow such as that cast by an adjacent building.
That was particularly the case with the top image of the westbound Capitol Limited arriving in the station in Waterloo, Indiana.
No. 29 was an hour and a half late, which was why I was able to capture it in the first place.
Had it been on time it would arrived before sunrise. As it turned out, The Capitol motored into Waterloo just after 8 a.m.
About a half hour behind it was the westbound Lake Shore Limited, which was nearly an hour late.
As seen in the bottom image, there was more ambient light by then, but I learned from photographing the Capitol Limited to under expose the image to compensate for the bright reflection from the sides of the passenger cars.
That also drew out the sky and clouds a bit more.
Amtrak’s westbound Capitol Limited was about an hour and a half late when it arrived in Waterloo, Indiana, on a Friday morning.
The sun has just climbed over some low clouds in the eastern sky, creating nice warm light.
The rear of No. 29 cleared North Center Street, which afforded me an opportunity to photograph the train from both sides.
The top image was made from the south side of the tracks at the grade crossing. It had more direct sunlight on the side of the eight-car train.
The bottom image was made from the platform on the north side of the Norfolk Southern tracks and the side of the train is in shadows although quite a bit of direct light illuminated the platform.
No. 29 was on Track 2 following a double stack train. About a half hour behind the Capitol was the Lake Shore Limited on the same track.
All of the NS traffic was going west on this morning around the time that both Amtrak trains showed up with Track 1 devoted to slow unit trains hauling coal and tank cars.
Boarding has begun for the Chicago-bound Hoosier State on June 25 at Indianapolis Union Station.
By the time I arrived in Indianapolis Amtrak’s Hoosier State had just one week left to live.
I would experience No. 851 three times before it made its final trip on June 30, riding it once and photographing it trackside twice.
I have ridden the Hoosier State several times but not since August 1991.
Interestingly, my purpose for riding the Hoosier State nearly 28 years later would be the same as why I rode it in 1991.
I was moving and needed to go back to my former hometown to pick up a car and drive it to my new hometown.
In 1991 I had driven from Indianapolis to State College, Pennsylvania. In 2019 I drove from Cleveland to Indianapolis.
Boarding of No. 851 began shortly after I arrived at Indianapolis Union Station on the morning of June 25.
I was the second passenger to board the Horizon fleet coach to which most Indy passengers were assigned. The car was about two-thirds full.
The consist also included an Amfleet coach, an Amfleet food service car and two P42DC locomotives, Nos. 77 and 55.
We departed on time but a few minutes later received a penalty application near CP Holt that required a conversation with the CSX PTC desk.
We would later encounter a delay between Crawfordsville and Lafayette due to signal issues.
Yet there was no freight train interference en route that I observed. We stopped briefly in Chicago so a Metra train could go around us.
That was probably because we were early. We halted at Chicago Union Station 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
I had heard the former Monon can be rough riding, but I didn’t think it was any worse than other Amtrak routes I’ve ridden.
There wasn’t any of the abrupt sideways jerking that I’ve experienced on other Amtrak trains.
The journey did seem to be slow going at times, particularly through the CSX yard in Lafayette; on the former Grand Trunk Western west of Munster, Indiana; through the Union Pacific yard on the former Chicago & Eastern Illinois; and within Chicago.
Overall, the experience was much the same as riding any other Amtrak Midwest corridor train although it featured an entrance into Chicago that I had not experienced before in daylight.
The crew said nothing about it being the last week of operation for Nos. 850 and 851.
My next encounter with the Hoosier State came in Lafayette on June 28.
No. 851 arrived on time with a more typical consist that included cars being ferried from Beach Grove shops to Chicago.
These included a Superliner sleeping car, a Viewliner baggage car, a Horizon food service car, and a Heritage baggage car in addition to the standard Hoosier State consist of three cars. On the point was P42DC No. 99.
I was positioned next to the former Big Four station at Riehle Plaza so I could photograph above the train.
Although a sunny morning, the tracks were more in shadows than I would have liked. Nonetheless I was pleased, overall, with what I came away with.
After No 851 departed – it operates on CSX as P317, an original Hoosier State number – I went over to Fifth Street to photograph it sans railroad tracks.
One stretch of rails has been left in the street in front of the former Monon passenger station.
My last encounter with the Hoosier State would be my briefest.
I drove to Linden to photograph the last northbound run at the railroad museum at the former joint Monon-Nickel Plate depot.
No. 851 was 24 minutes late leaving Indianapolis Union Station and about that late at Crawfordsville.
It had a consist similar to what I had seen in Lafayette two days earlier. P42DC No. 160 had a battered nose with some of its silver paint peeling away.
I wasn’t aware until I saw them that two former Pennsylvania Railroad cars had been chartered to operate on the rear of the last Hoosier State.
They were Colonial Crafts and Frank Thomson. The latter carried a Pennsy keystone tail sign on its observation end emblazoned with the Hoosier State name.
It was a nice touch and after those cars charged past the Hoosier State was gone in more ways than one.
That’s my Horizon coach reflected in the lower level of the Lafayette station.
Watching the countryside slide by west of Monon, Indiana.
The Hoosier State has come to a halt on Track 16 at Chicago Union Station. That’s the inbound City of New Orleans to the left.
A crowd lines the platform in Lafayette as the Hoosier State arrives en route to Chicago.
The former Big Four station in Lafayette was moved to its current location to serve Amtrak. At one time it also served intercity buses.
Pulling out of Lafayette on the penultimate northbound trip to Chicago.
P42DC No. 160, which pulled the last northbound Amtrak Train No. 851 had a well-worn nose.
Two former Pennsylvania Railroad passenger cars brought up the rear of the last northbound Hoosier State.
Operating on CSX as P317, Amtrak’s northbound Hoosier State passes through Linden, Indiana, between Crawfordsville and Lafayette on Sunday.
Amtrak’s Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State made its last trips on Sunday with two private cars riding on the rear of the train to mark the occasion.
The cars, both of which are painted in a Pennsylvania Railroad livery, were the ex-PRR lounge car Colonial Crafts and blunt-end observation car Frank Thomson.
The latter carried a tailsign in the shape of a Pennsy keystone with the Hoosier State name on it.
The cars were chartered by Keiwoon Krause and Gideon Comanse, who sold tickets to 40 passengers.
Otherwise, the last trips of Nos. 850 and 851 were just another day on the railroad even if it was the last day.
Seven passengers boarded the last northbound Hoosier State in Crawfordsville while the trip was sold out between Chicago and Lafayette.
The consist of the train was its usual two coaches and a business class/café car along with a deadheading Superliner sleeper, a heritage baggage car and a Horizon fleet coach.
In Crawfordsville, there was a banner thanking the Amtrak crews who worked the train.
No. 851 was 24 minutes late departing Indianapolis and 31 minutes late arriving in Chicago.
The Chicago-Indianapolis route will continue to be served by Amtrak’s Chicago-New York Cardinal and Greyhound has added a few additional Thruway bus trips between the two cities that will stop in Lafayette.
Amtrak’s Hoosier State boards passengers at Indianapolis Union Station on June 25 during its last week of operation.
The Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State will make it last trips on Sunday.
Amtrak is “suspending” the train effective July 1 because the State of Indiana declined to renew its funding.
Nos. 850 and 851 operate on the days that the Chicago-New York Cardinal does not operate.
From Indianapolis to Chicago, No. 50 runs on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. In the other direction No. 51 operates on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The Cardinal will continue to operate after the Hoosier State is discontinued.
The Hoosier State appeared to be doomed once Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb sent a budget request to the state legislature last February that omitted funding for the train, which was also funded in part by various online cities and counties.
Holcomb cited falling ridership for ending the funding.
The Hoosier State began in October 1980 as a demonstration route. It was discontinued in September 1995 as part of a major Amtrak service restructuring and retrenchment but reinstated in July 1998 in part to give Amtrak a more reliable means of ferrying equipment between Chicago and the Beech Grove shops in suburban Indianapolis.
The Hoosier State has skated on thin ice since 2013 when Indiana became the last state to agree to a funding plan mandated by the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 that required state and local governments to pay for Amtrak routes of less than 750 miles.
Initially, the Indiana Department of Transportation chose Corridor Capitol, a Chicago-based rail passenger services development company, to manage and operate the Hoosier State.
However, INDOT severed ties with Corridor Capitol in November 2014 and Amtrak continued to operate Nos. 850 and 851 on a short-term contract.
INDOT said the following spring that the Hoosier State would end on April 1, 2015, due to regulations of the Federal Railroad Administration that would have required the state to act as a rail carrier, despite the state owning no tracks or trains.
INDOT appealed to the FRA and the Hoosier State continued to operate under a short-term agreement.
In August 2015, INDOT reached a four-year agreement with Iowa Pacific and Amtrak to operate the train.
IP was to provide providing and maintain the rolling stock as well as provide food service and marketing.
Amtrak would provide ticketing services and train operating crews.
Iowa Pacific said in January 2017 it was withdrawing from the contract after INDOT refused to increase its financial compensation.
Starting March 1, 2017, the Hoosier State became an all Amtrak operation.
Efforts to emend the budget in the legislature to put back funding for the Hoosier State failed and Amtrak said in April that the train would be “suspended” on July 1.
At one point Amtrak said it has reached an agreement with CSX to reduce the running time and that the Hoosier State would be rescheduled in late April to provide better times at Indianapolis.
But those changes were never made and it is unclear if they will eventually be applied to the Cardinal.
The Hoosier State is thus poised to become the Amtrak train to be discontinued in several years and the first to end due to PRIAA requirements.
The Indiana Department of Transportation held a conference call this week to inform communities along the route of the Hoosier State what they already knew.
The train will be discontinued on July 1 and INDOT could not promise that the state would do anything to keep the quad-weekly Chicago-Indianapolis train going.
The conference call was made a day after Gov. Eric Holcomb approved a two-year $34 billion state budget that did not include any funds to continue supporting the Hoosier State.
The conference call was made to officials in Crawfordsville, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Rensselaer and Tippecanoe County. Those communities collectively contributed $500,000 annually along with INDOT’s $3 million to pay for the Hoosier State.
Holcomb had recommended earlier this year cutting the state’s funding of the train, citing low ridership.
The House and Senate concurred with amendments to reinstate the funding either voted down or not considered.
“I’m not aware of any new information on the status of the train,” INDOT spokesman Scott Manning said. “Our INDOT team briefed local officials this morning to reiterate that service will continue through June 30, but not beyond that date.”
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton also said there was nothing new to report.
“There’s no new contract proposal to send to you and we appreciate everyone’s hard work over the past five or six years and that was about it,” Barton said, characterizing INDOT’s remarks.
However, Barton said he disagreed with an INDOT claim that it lacks discretionary funds that could be used to fund the Hoosier State.
He said he wants to meet with other leaders along the route to discuss what to do next to try to save the service.
All communities served by the Hoosier State will continue to have Amtrak service from the tri-weekly Chicago-New York Cardinal.
Efforts this week to save funding of Amtrak’s Hoosier State fell short when the Indiana General Assembly approved a two-year budget that does not include continued funding of the train.
The legislature approved a $34 billion budget on Wednesday night that did not include funding for the quad-weekly Chicago-Indianapolis train.
The state’s $3 million annual funding of the Hoosier State will end on June 30.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Sen. Ron Alting, of Lafayette Republican who said he had worked in the closing weeks with three other legislators whose districts are served by the train to find continued funding for it.
“I thought it was a small amount of money in a $34 billion budget, quite honestly,” Alting told the Lafayette Journal & Courier. “But the Hoosier State wasn’t in (Gov. Eric Holcomb’s) budget, and it wasn’t in the House version of the budget. So that was hard to overcome, at the end of the day. We gave it a 100 percent effort.”
One local official involved in the efforts to save the Hoosier State offered a glimmer of hope that an alternative funding source might be available.
“Oddly, there’s more funding for bringing a train back than for preserving one, which is totally backward,” said Arvid Olson, head of Greater Lafayette Commerce’s transportation committee. “Smart heads are working toward that right now.”
“If this, according to Gov. Holcomb, isn’t working, which is a valid thing to say, what will it take to make passenger rail work here?” Olson said.
Olson said that might mean such things as having the train make additional stops or the even the possibility of having a private operator take it over.
He cited the case of Richard Branson – owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Hotels, and Virgin Galactic – buying the Brightline intercity rail line in Florida.
In addition to state funding, the Hoosier State also received $500,000 annually from local governments served by the train.
The Hoosier State is slated to make its last trips on Sunday, June 30. Amtrak has also ready given notice that it will be “suspended” the next day.
“We’re open to any continued discussions with the state and the communities,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said about preserving the Hoosier State.
However, Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Manning said the state legislature having decided not to continue funding the train there is no state budget mechanism to continue funding beyond June 30.
“If the service were to continue beyond that date, it would need to be without state funding,” Manning said.
State officials have been saying since early this year that the Hoosier State’s ridership has been disappointing. INDOT said ridership fell in each of the past four years.
In fiscal year 2014 the Hoosier State carried 33,930. That had fallen to 27,876 by FY 2018.
Olson said Lafayette area leaders have been careful to avoid being too critical of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision to end funding for the Hoosier State, “because he was making a good point.”
Although the Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance sought to drum up support for continued Hoosier State funding, the group’s president said he knew that was a long shot.
“Most likely, it’s going away, but for how long it will be gone is an interesting question,” said Steve Coxhead. “I think the battle is far from over, though. We know there are other ways, and we’ll be looking at them. If nothing else, the state opens a new budget cycle in two years. We have to be prepared to go the distance, if it goes that far.”
House speaker Brian Bosma said he would have “loved” for the Hoosier State to have worked, “but it’s just a subsidy that doesn’t appear to be taking hold.”
Magliari said the underlying problem that the Hoosier State faced was a slow schedule that was not competitive with the Chicago-Indianapolis drive time.
Coxhead described that as a “kind of a catch-22” in that slow service and low ridership led to funding cuts for a service that was initially under-funded.
“The governor says ridership has been disappointing, and we make the case that you have to have at least two trains in each direction each day, possibly three, in order to have a realistic chance of generating enough ridership to cover an operating cost,” Coxhead said.
Backers of the beleaguered Hoosier State met at Amtrak’s Beech Grove shops in suburban Indianapolis on Wednesday in what they termed a last-ditch attempt to secure state funding for the train.
They met with elected officials hoping to somehow secure funding of the quad-weekly Chicago-Indianapolis train.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb recommended earlier this year ending the state’s $3 million funding for the service and neither chamber of the Indiana General Assembly has added funding to its version of the state’s biennium budget that will take effect July 1.
The budget is now being worked out by a House-Senate conference committee and is expected to be approved by April 29.
In the meantime, Amtrak has posted noticed that the Hoosier State will be suspended after that date.
Holcomb cited declining ridership, saying it fell 18 percent between 2014 and 2018.
But Steve Coxhead, president of the Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance, said the train faces a dilemma because the state has done little to improve the service.
Coxhead said the route needs to have at least two roundtrips a day and possibly three in order to generate enough ridership to cover its operating costs.
Also attending the meeting were officials with Amtrak Midwest, Indianapolis and the Beech Grove shops.
Coxhead called the $3 million cost for the Hoosier State a relatively small part of a $34 billion budget.
“The governor is planning to spend something like $80 million on hiking and bike trails in the state and while there’s certainly nothing wrong with that and they’re probably needed, it seems disproportionate when you talk about what’s potentially the most important passenger rail corridor in the state,” he said.
Supporters of the train have argued that it generates about $10 million annually for local communities.
Greater Lafayette Commerce Transportation Chair Arvid Olson said nearly one-third of the Hoosier State ridership is to Purdue University in West Lafayette.
“For many of them, this is a lifeline to communication, especially for international students, this is their lifeline back to O’Hare to go international, back to the Pacific countries they come from,” said Olson.
Senator Ron Alting of Lafayette unsuccessfully sought to offer an amendment to restore Hoosier State funding.
Although he has continued to support efforts to save the Hoosier State, he said Wednesday’s rally might be a little too late.
“We are going to do a full court press and try to get out of here tomorrow night, so that means the budget will probably be printed and out no later than possibly noon tomorrow,” he said. “That’s going have to be put in that budget by noon tomorrow [Wednesday] or it’s probably not going to be put in.”
It was the second rally for the Hoosier State following one held at the Statehouse on April 17 that was sponsored by the Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance.
All of the stations served by the Hoosier State will continue to have Amtrak service by the tri-weekly Chicago-New York Cardinal.
Amtrak in the Heartland 