Whitewater Valley Railroad

By Francis H. Parker, Judy Clem and Whitewater Valley Railroad

The Whitewater Valley Railroad is a historic line in scenic southeastern Indiana. It was completed to Connersville in 1867, linking the towns of the Whitewater Valley to Cincinnati over the former towpath of the Whitewater Canal (1836 1862). Originally named the White Water Valley Railroad, the line went through several name changes before being absorbed by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (the Big Four ) in 1890 and later by the New York Central, the parent company of the Big Four. After merging with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968, the line became the Penn Central before closing in 1972 between Brookville and Connersville. It was slated for abandonment when a group of volunteers stepped in to create the Whitewater Valley Railroad, which ran its first tourist passenger trains in 1974. The nonprofit volunteer organization celebrates its 40th anniversary of operations in 2014.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Mar 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439644928

Francis H. Parker

Francis H. Parker, a recently retired professor at Ball State University, has been with the Whitewater Valley Railroad since 1978 and currently serves as a training officer and the editor of Towpath Tracks. Judy Clem visited the railroad as a young child in the 1970s and joined the railroad in 2000. She is now the railroad�s archivist, as well as a library manager with the Indianapolis Public Library. Both coauthors are qualified locomotive engineers and conductors on the Whitewater Valley Railroad.

Book preview

editing.

INTRODUCTION

This history of the Whitewater Valley Railroad covers the period from 1972 to the present, with a brief introduction to its predecessors, including the Whitewater Canal and the original White Water Valley Railroad. It focuses primarily on the efforts of dedicated volunteers who for 40 years have worked to preserve, maintain, and operate a historic railroad.

The Whitewater Valley Railroad (WVRR) is located in scenic southeastern Indiana. It was created by local organizers who incorporated the Whitewater Valley Canal and Railroad Restoration Association in December 1972. Their objective was to operate the unused Penn Central Railroad between Connersville and Brookville, on the towpath of the former Whitewater Canal. Public passenger trains first operated in May 1974 over 24 miles of track between Connersville and Brookville. Service was cut back in 1975 to 16 miles, from Connersville to Metamora, plus two miles beyond Metamora.

Today, the Whitewater Valley Railroad owns and operates 19 miles of track, from the south end at milepost 50 to the north end at milepost 69. Mileposts describe the distance from Cincinnati, although track no longer exists between Metamora and Brookville. The communities on the line include Connersville (mileposts 68 and 69), Laurel (milepost 57.7), and Metamora (milepost 52).

The railroad has always been operated by volunteers. The Whitewater Valley Railroad was not the first line to be preserved and operated by volunteers, but it was among the early examples. The railroad was inspired by the pioneering Talyllyn Railway in Wales in 1951 and the Strasburg Railway in Pennsylvania in 1958. The Whitewater Valley Railroad was among the early US organizations to think in terms of operating an entire railroad rather than simply a static railroad museum. With its initial 24 miles of line, it may also have been the longest example of a volunteer-operated railway.

The Whitewater Valley Railroad is known as the canal route, because its tracks are located on the towpath of the former Whitewater Canal. The canal, built between 1836 and 1847, followed the banks of the Whitewater River, an early trade route into Indiana. Authorized by the Indiana Internal Improvements Act of 1836, the canal was opened by state construction between the Ohio River and Brookville in 1839. The overly ambitious internal improvements program forced the state government into bankruptcy the same year, and the canal was completed to Connersville in 1845 by the private Whitewater Canal Company, headquartered in Connersville. It was completed to Hagerstown in 1847.

The canal struggled with droughts, floods, washouts, and winter closures. By the 1860s, it was essentially defunct. It was purchased in 1863 by the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad (I&C), which used it as a track bed to enter Cincinnati. A subsidiary of the I&C, the White Water Valley Railroad, built north on the towpath through Brookville and Metamora. It reached Connersville in 1867 and terminated in Hagerstown, milepost 88, in 1868.

By 1870, the White Water Valley Railroad had become the White Water Valley Division of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railway. It was reorganized again in 1878, and in 1890, it was absorbed by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. This line, also known as the Big Four Railroad, was a part of the Vanderbilt-controlled New York Central System, into which the Big Four formally merged in 1930.

The Whitewater Division was abandoned between Beesons and Hagerstown in 1931, and all passenger service on the division ended in 1933. Daily freight service continued, with a local switch engine stationed in Connersville to serve industries.

In 1968, the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads merged to form the Penn Central Corporation. The firm filed for bankruptcy protection in 1970. In 1972, the Penn Central ceased operating the 24 miles between Brookville and Connersville. Service continued between Valley Junction and Brookville, as well as an isolated Penn Central switching operation in Connersville.

In 1972, the Whitewater Valley Canal and Railroad Restoration Association was formed, with an eye to operating the dormant tracks between Connersville and Brookville. The group saw an opportunity for tourist traffic, stimulated by the growing popularity of recreation along the Whitewater River and the establishment of the Whitewater Canal State Memorial at Metamora in 1945. Metamora was becoming a tourist destination, and the tracks ran right through the heart of it on the old canal towpath. The combination of a train ride and an interesting destination seemed promising.

In 1973, the association leased 24 miles of Penn Central track between Brookville and Connersville and began to assemble some passenger cars and cabooses and a diesel locomotive. Limited demonstration runs were performed in 1973, and in May 1974, regular weekend train service commenced. Although a washout in 1975 cut the track north of Brookville, the line continued to operate 19 miles from Connersville through Metamora.

Every season since then, the railroad has operated weekend service from May to October, plus an increasing variety of special events such as Day Out with Thomas, the Polar Express, and, for the first time in 2013, Dinosaur Train. The railroad has added equipment and now owns 10 diesel locomotives, four of which are currently operational and three that have been used or are under restoration for future use. Since 1974, five different steam engines have operated on the Whitewater Valley Railroad, and four steam engines are currently on the property but inactive. A fleet of eight passenger cars and eight cabooses carry passengers, supplemented by service and maintenance cars.

In 1983, the railroad was able to purchase 18 miles of line outright, to which was added one further mile into downtown Connersville in 1989. A new station was opened in downtown Connersville in 2000, and two historic structures were brought in: an interlocking tower from Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and a wooden depot from Rushville, Indiana. Both have been meticulously restored as the first components of the railroad’s interpretive center complex. In 2013, a nearly 12,000-square-foot maintenance building was opened, allowing year-round indoor work on locomotives and rolling stock for the first time.

The Whitewater Valley Railroad mission statement describes it as An operating railroad museum dedicated to the preservation of a historic branch line railroad, to the restoration of railroad equipment, and to the conduct of educational railroad programs. The railroad in its early