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• CN channel 72 at Hammond, Louisiana. This is the southern end of the former Illinois Central Main Line of Mid America.  The fabled Panama Limited and City of New Orleans trains ran on this route, which orignally was double tracked for most of the passage north of here.  The portion of the route from Ponchatoula south, that runs through the Manchac Swamp along the western edge of Lake Ponchartrain was always single track up to the point where it joined the Y&MV trackage to Baton Rouge, today near New Orleans Louis Armstrong airport. 
• This line is dispatched by RTC Desk 5 out of Homewood, Illinois.  There are multiple radio towers along here, you generally hear LaPlace, Manchac, Hammond, and Kentwood.
• Mileposts are out of Chicago.  Amtrak still uses the St. Charles airline route into Chicago Union Station.  This requires a back and forth movement, since the airline route passes over the 21st street yard on a flyover and joins the BNSF doubletrack westbound main. 
• Originally the IC used Chicago Central Station at Grant Park, the present site of Millenium Station where the South Shore Line still has a stop on its way to Randolph Street Station. It was built for the Columbian Exhibition (World's Fair) in 1893, but torn down after Amtrak moved the remaining service to the present union station in May 1972. This move of stations required use of the St. Charles airline for the City of New Orleans, although there is talk now of the CN building a new entrance point at Grand Crossing for the six trains that now travel the Chicago-Carbondale route.
• You can almost hear Arlo Guthrie or Willie Nelson singing as you listen to this stream! 
• The most interesting time to listen is in the early afternoon when the Amtrak City of New Orleans come through, trains 58 and 59 often meet here.
• The receive site is near mile post 855.2 on the McComb Subdivision and the detector at that location will alert you to trains passing between Jackson, Mississippi and Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana.

• Amtrak Trains 58 and 59, the City of New Orleans, usually pass each other here around 2-3 PM each afternoon on the CN.  Between 1 and 4 PM local time is when the most activity occurs on this railroad.  You will always here the detector at 855.2 near Tickfaw, and the 844 detector will usually come in from Amite.  The majority of the freight traffic currently is at night.

• The Canadian National now owns this line and also the Hammond Subdivision that heads out west of Hammond to Baton Rouge.  Baton Rouge and New Orleans are connected by theYazoo) Valley Subdivision that services the chemical and agricultural industries along the Mississippi River.  Traffic originating here consists mostly of chemicals.  Traffic destinating here consists mostly of grain and sometimes coal. CN has curtailed regular trains 319 and 320 due to economic conditions, so the number of trains passing through this area is now less than in the past.  They may still run as extras, and on day's they don't most of the traffic is on 301/302 which generally travels the Hammond Subdivision to and from Baton Rouge instead of the using the McComb Subdivision that Amtrak uses.

• The old IC was noted for fast punctual passenger trains.  The zenith of the passenger train era was probably around 1944, when the nation's military and industrial might almost entirely moved by rail.  Troop train movements were the norm, yet throughout the Wartime period, regular passenger train services continued uninterrupted.  There was a moritorium on building of new equipment, though, and so the IC could not start trying to modernize its fleet until late in the 40s.  There were four trains per day each way in 1944, the Panama Limited streamliner, the Creole, the Louisiane, and the City of New Orleans.  All of them stopped at Hammond.  The Louisiane and Creole both stopped at Amite , while the Creole had additional stops at Ponchatoula and Independence.  Trains 5 and 6, the Panama Limited, and Trains 1 and 2, the City of New Orleans, ran right up through Amtrak in May 1971.  At that time, service was reduced and trains renumbered to essentially what we have today.  As late as the early 90s, the City of New Orleans still had vista-dome cars, which had started on the IC as a winter bonus for some years in the 60's.  They were not IC-owned cars, buth IC leased them from other railroads.  Amtrak obtained domes from various railroads, and scattered them all over the country.  But the domes went away in 1993 when Superliner equipment came to trains 58/59.  In recent years, the baggage car, diner, and most of the sleeping cars have gone away, as have the double-headed power.  Now there is normally one P42 engine, a crew car, a microwave lounge, two coaches, and one revenue sleeper.

• Some other changes to the original passenger route have take place north of here over the years.  In particular, the IC passenger route in Mississippi used to pass through Grenada on the Grenada Subdivision.  It was moved to the Yazoo City line in anticipation of downgrading of the old Grenada sub.  Recently, new auto plants north of Jackson have breathed some new life into the Grenada, but it still remains on the endangered list.

• From 1972-1987  the IC operated as the Illinois Central Gulf as a result of a merger with the Gulf Mobile and Ohio.  The ICG at the time was a part of a conglomerate whose main business was selling life insurance and Midas mufflers.  It had little impact on passenger traffic, because Amtrak had been formed the year prior, and there was no longer passenger traffic on the GM&O.  The ICG scrapped a good deal of trackage, and sold off even more, including, fatefully, the now significant Meridian Speedway, which after passing through shortline ownership, was purchased by the KCS and now operates as a primary Norfolk Southern runthrough interchange between east and west at Shreveport, Louisiana and Dallas, Texas.  There has been taok of an east-west passenger line on this former IC trackage from Meridian to Dallas.

• An impact took place with the GM&O merger in that the IC obtained another route into Chicago, through Joliet.  At Alton Junction (21st Street) passenger trains can also use the CN to go south from Union Station.  Future impacts will no doubt take plac as CN consolidates its trackage as a result of the recent acquisition of the EJ&E.  Part of this may be relocation of the passenger entrance to Union Station from the present St. Charles airline.  From Alton Junction Amtrak owns the trackage into Union Station.  South of there, it is former Pennsy now owned by the NS.

• The IC ripped out its double track on the Main Line of Mid America in an economy move, either selling the rail for scrap or resurfacing it for their then-ongoing ribbon rail program.  The railroad management claimed it could run trains faster on single track due to reduced maintenance demands of a double track system.  At least that is what they told everyone at the time.

• At the New Orleans end of the line, there formerly were several passenger stations scattered through downtown.  The IC station was just one.  But under the Chep Morrison administration, the city was able to consolidate stations into one, built next to the old IC station.  Known as the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, its ground and the trackage leading to it from Shrewsbury were transferred from the IC to the city in 1954 when the old IC station was razed.  Now Amtrak occupies part of it with the city's bus station, while the post office and an abandoned mall/hotel complex (since Katrina) occupy some of the rest.  The mail tracks that used to allow access to the post office have all been removed and today this area is occupied by automobile parking lots and the New Orleans Hornets arena.  Plans to implement a light rail system that would connect downtown, the St. Charles streetcar, the Armstrong Airport, and other areas were prepared decades ago, but have not been priority under recent city administrations.

• The stream coverage will be upgraded again in the future as more antenna improvement is being planned.  Presently a Kenwood VHF Hi-band base station radio is feeding an instreamer on a cable internet connection.  The antenna is a Cushcraft yagi up about 30 feet.

   

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INDIANA NW

MONON, INDIANA (LAFAYETTE-DELPHI-RENSSELAER, INDIANA) CANNONBALL- HOOSIER STREAM

http://railaudio2.railroadradio.net:7282

• NORTHWEST INDIANA HOOSIER CANNONBALLThis is a new site under development that so far has NS, CSX, and TP&W coverage from north of the city of Lafayette, Indiana (home of Purdue University).   Like most of the midwest, railroad traffic is a shadow of its former self, when at one time it was a major junction point between the Wabash and Monon Railroads.  The Monon route formed a big "x" with its two north-south lines crossing here (the Yeoman-Frankfort line is now severed, as is the portion of the line north of Monon.  There is a really cool railroad museum at Monon. www.mononconnection.com
• So what are we doing on the New Orleans page?  Well we will be moving soon to the eastern time zone page.  The dividing point between time zones is at approximately milepost 80 because Jasper County stays on central time, but White County where Monon is located was moved by the federal government into the eastern time zone in 2007.
• If you are patient you will here a locomotive or too, but this is not a yackity yack stream.  The NS is the busier of the two railroads, including Triple Crown roadrailer trains.  The part of the line we here the most from is around Rockfield and Delphi.  Whether you hear an engineer or not also depends a lot on whether he has a good radio in his cab, and how clearly he enunciates.  We have noticed a lot of cab radios and handsets just don't sound very clear, and you almost have to know what you are listening for.  Both NS and CSX usually call out signals.
• This historic Monon Railroad route until quite recently had 1917-style sepaphores on it.  It was originally chartered as the New Albany and Salem. On May 1, 1865 the Abraham Lincoln Funeral train passed trough here and is said to have stopped for coal in the little town of Reynolds.  Even though it was very early in the morning, there were reportedly thousands who turned out to line the tracks.  The train moved at 5 mph for its entire journey on 20 different railroads.
• Currently the line is operated under block signal authority granted by the Calumet City dispatcher.  Blocks in our area of the former Second Subdivision include Lafayette Yard Limits, Brookston, Chalmers, Junction, Monon, Surry, Lowell, and Dyer.
• The Monon was also known as the Hoosier Route.  It became the Monon officially in 1956, but long had been known as the Monon even though it officially was the CI&L.  A derailment took place in 1951 at which time the Thorobred crashed thru and destroyed the second depot.  A third one was then built. As late as the 50s there were three passenger trains each way daily between Indianapolis and Chicago, and one between Chicago and Louisville.  The Monon was one of the first railroads to fully dieselize, and there was an engine house here at Monon at least way up into the 1960s.
• The namesake Hoosier passenger train left Chicago and Indianapolis at approximately the same times, just after 5 PM in opposite directions.  It was known as #14 or #15 in those days, and consisted of coaches, a diner, and a lounge-observation.  The Chicago train ran in about the same time frame as the Hoosier of today, but in Monon days it left Chicago at 5:35 and arrived Indy at 10:30.  Because of the Crawfordsville detour and the time changes now to eastern time at Monon, it now takes an hour and a half longer, arriving at a scheduled time of midnight.  There are some differences between the present Hoosier Amtrak route and the former Monon.  The portion of the line between Dyer (Maynard) and Hammond is gone, so Amtrak uses the NS and the CN (GTW) to get from Union Station to Dyer, Indiana.  There also is a slight deviation in downtown Lafayette.
• Today the majority route is owned by CSXT as a result of past mergers with the L&N.  The Monon became part of the L&N in 1971. Now Amtrak Hoosiers and Cardinals run between Chicago and Indianapolis on the CSX former Monon Line here. CSX still calls them by their old train numbers 317 and 318 for the Hoosier, even though Amtrak now calls them 851 and 850.  As opposed to the original Hoosier route, which went through Monticello and Delphi (on a portion of the line now taken out), the current Hoosier goes on the western portion of the X to Crawfordsville, where it then turns east on old New York Central (Peoria & Eastern Corn Belt Special) trackage to Indianapolis.  You can hear the Cardinal/Hoosier arriving and departing Clermont/Indianapolis on the radio stream that serves that area.
• There used to be several other alternatives for taking a train between Indy and Chicago.  The Pennslyvania Railroad ran trains through Logansport (east of Monon) and North Judson.  Trackage between North Judson and Winamac is now gone. The New York Central ran trains through Lebanon, Lafayette, Fowler, and Kankakee, on a now-truncated route that runs west of Monon (The KBS still has the trackage from Lafayette to Kankakee, but the portion from Boone to Altamont (Lafayette) has been removed. 
• By the 1960s there was no longer passenger train service on the Monon between Indy and Chicago.  The last passenger train was the Thoroughbred, train 6 left Louisville at 6:30 AM, departed Monon at 11 AM, and arrived Chicago 1:05 PM.  The sister train, #5 which departed Chicago at that same 5:25 PM time slot, departed Monon at 7:26 PM, and arrived Louisville at 2:10 in the AM.  The Monon had become freight-only prior to Amtrak, therefore there were nothing for Amtrak to take over in 1971.  But the remaining Chicago-Indy service still in operation on other railroads was consolidated by Amtrak, and eventually moved over to the former partial Monon route used today by the Hoosier/Cardinal.
• In 1967 there were still two passenger trains on the Wabash, which by then had become part of the Norfolk & Western.  The two trains were 301/301, still known as the Cannonball, and 303/304. The Cannonball lasted until Amtrak time in 1971, at which time passenger service ceased.  For a while Amtrak ran the National Limited on an Indy to St. Louis route, but eventually it became impossible to cross Indiana on a passenger train to western points without going through Chicago.
• There is still a switcher and a small yard office at Monon.  Other than grain traffic there is not much freight activity.  The road channel for CSX is 84 (161.37) and the dispatcher out of Calumet City, Illinois is channel 12.  CSX practice is for the engineers to call out signals. 
• The NS Decatur dispatcher here is usually a female on 160.44.  The line is south of here connecting Fort Wayne with Lafayette and Decatur and is pretty busy. 
• The east-west TPW line connects with the NS at Logansport and is virtually unused. 
• The Hoosier and Cardinal run southbound around 9 PM (50/850) and northbound (51/851) around 9AM eastern time..  The time zone changes here, as the train crosses the county line and leaves or enters the eastern time zone.  Very confusing to passengers we must guess, since the arrival times at Lafayette and Renssselaer are virtually the same northbound and 2 hours different southbound. Here are the mileposts for the Monon Subdivision, which are based on the old passenger route (now truncated on both ends).
• HERE IS THE INFORMATION FOR THE MONON SUBDIVISION.  CURRENTLY WE ARE RECEIVING CAB RADIO TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE CHALMERS, JUNCTION, AND MONON BLOCKS, APPROXIMATELY MP 80-100
• Mileposts are from Dearborn Station in Chicago, although the Monon originally used terminal trackage of the C&WI (Chicago & Western Indiana) within the Chicago city limits (as did other lines using Dearborn Station). The C&WI here is now owned by Chicago METRA for commuter service.
• Hohman Crrossing - Hammond, Indiana, original trackage still remains but out of service, parallel to the existing NS (former Nickle Plate) 
• Stateline Crossing - Trackage removed - Originally paralleled the Nickle Plate and ran with the Erie to the C&WI
• Amtrak and CSX Monon sub freight traffic currently cross over to the CN (GTW) at Munster.  Amtrak transfers over to the UP briefly at Thornton Junction and passes through the UP Dolton Yard prior to switching over to the NS (former Pennsy) for the balance of the track into Chicago.  NS ownership ends at 21st Street (Alton Junction) and Amtrak now owns the tracks from there into Union Station.  
• 27.6 Dyer (Amtrak Code is DYE)
  29.0 Dyer Siding (EJ&E crossing)
  33.2 St. John (NS crossing)
  44.8 Lowell
  52.6 Shelby (NS crossing)
  54.1 Thayer
  56.5 Rose Lawn
  65.8 Parr
  68.1 Surrey
  73.1 Rensselaer (Amtrak Code is REN)
  77.0 Pleasant Ridge
  88.4 Monon (junction block)
• 92.8 DEFECT DETECTOR - too weak to hear beyond 1/2 mile but engineers will acknowledge
  95.8 Reynolds (TP&W crossing) and former Monon Trailer Factory - Short Siding Located Here
  98.2 Smithson
  102.1 Chalmers
  106.2 Brookston - Grain Industry Switching
  110.2 Ash Grove
  112.9 Battle Ground
  118.1 Lafayette
  120.1 Lafayette (Amtrak Code is LAF)
• NS DELPHI TO LAFAYETTE This coverage is from the old Second District of the Wabash Railroad, which is now a main line of the Norfolk Southern.  The milepost range is between 225 and 240. The Wabash line from Kansas City to Detroit became part of the Norfolk Western in 1964 and eventually was merged with the Southern.  Additional lines were added after the Pennsylvania-New York Central-Conrail breakup to become the present day NS.  Most of the cab radio and MOW transmissions heard are from just east of Lafayette at Colburn, Delphi, Rockfield, Burrows, Clymers, and over east towards Logansport.
• Wabash passenger trains that frequented this route included the Cannonball, trains 1 and 2 between St. Louis and Detroit.  In later years, only Attica and Lafayette had passenger stops on the Wabash.
• TPW RAIL AMERICA So far we have never heard a train on this railroad.  There is an occasional 3 or 4 car local, once a week or so, we have seen pulling tank cars from west to east, but no radio transmissions have ever been heard.  For all practical purposes the line seems to be abandoned.
• CSX MONON TO MONTICELL0 - This used to be the main line between Indy and Chicago. We have never seen or heard any trains on this line, which seems to be for all practical purposes to be abandoned.  The tracks from Monon to Monticello are still there, but from Monticello to Indy Belt Junction and Mass Avenue they are gone.
• CSX NORTH OF MONON - The disconnected former Monon route to the north of Monon now serves only a couple of industries, and we have never seen or heard any trains on this line.
• Lafayette Yards - There are three rail yards and several industries at Lafayette.  The Amtrak Cardinal/Hoosier passes through the old Monon Lafayette yard north of the present Amtrak station.  NS has two yards, East and South.  One of the biggest traffic sources now is the Subaru factory.

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TROPOSPHERIC ENHANCEMENT SUMMER ESPECIALLY

Things sometimes go nuts on the VHF radio around here due to weather and water conditions.  Stuff that is nor normally heard on the radio may show up (DX in ham-speak). For a discussion of tropospheric activity along the coast, check out the links povided in the forum pages.  We have Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas near by, as well as the Gulf of Mexico not too far away from the eastern feed.  On the western feed Toledo Bend Reservoir and Sam Rayburn Reservoirs frequently create temperature inversions that act as reflectors of radio waves. If you are interested in that sort of thing, as we are, I'm sure you will find the links and discussion of interest.  One of the links we have is to the tropospheric activity maps generated from amateur radio packet transmission paths.  This is relatively real-time, and shows the reception paths of various stations, which can routinely reach several hundred miles at this time of the year.  While much of this is at 144 mhz, which is below the rail radio band at 161 mhz, it is relevent, as when there is an event that affects 144, it often spreads to and from other frequencies as well. Here is a link for almost real time maps.

http://tiny.cc/tropo217