Month: May 2025

AMTRAK’S Hoosier State, racing towards Indianapolis splits the semaphores. Nearly all of
America’s semaphore signals are gone. They had motors and mechanical moving parts, the bane of
management. Newer models have LEDs and other gizmo’s and are driven by computer chip
technology. So capture those digital images soon folks.
This line is the former MONON, officially named the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville
Railroad, how dull. No wonder they used the Potawatomi Indian word meaning “tote” or “swift
running.” The Monon rails connected Chicago with Indianapolis, and Michigan City and Louisville,
forming a big “X.” The City of Monon marks the “X.” Indiana claimed the railroad as its own,
calling it the Hoosier Line. Someone even coined a poem:

Up and Down the Monon
everything is fine,
cause that root’n, toot’n Monon,
she’s a Hoosier Line!

What I miss about the semaphores is that as a railfan trekking around the country you could see the
position of the semaphore from adjacent highways. The color indicator was not pertinent. If they
were pointing toward the sky, tracks were clear. If one was horizontal there was traffic nearby,
either coming or going. (Now maybe one of you can tell me why one semaphore is pointed, and the
other squared ?? Really, I don’t know.). Gary Ostlund.

The graphic below was the rear cover of a timetable on the Northern Pacific Railway in 1942. It
caught my eye while perusing through my collection of magazines. We lived in Butte for four years
in the late 60s and early 70s. An extremely interesting place, loaded with history. Few realize that
back in the second half of the 19th Century, Butte was an equal to San Francisco in importance,
competing for its rightful share of trade and commerce, even traveling entertainment venues.
Take the quiz, first covering up the answers.