The Indiana Transportation Museum was a railroad museum that was formerly located in the Forest Park neighborhood of Noblesville, Indiana, United States. It owns a variety of preserved railroad equipment, some of which still operate today. ITM was Located in Logansport, Indiana. ITM ceased operations in 2018 and the line is now owned and operated by the Nickel Pkate Express.
History[]
The Indiana Transportation Museum was an all-volunteer not-for-profit museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing railroads of Indiana, and sharing the equipment and information with the public, as well as operating trains to show how people traveled across the country in the past.
While located in Noblesville, the Indiana Transportation Museum operated excursion trains on 38 miles (61 km) of a former Nickel Plate Road line, originally built for the Indianapolis and Peru Railroad and, when evicted, owned by the Hoosier Heritage Port Authority (HHPA), which is made up of the Indiana cities of Indianapolis, Fishers, and Noblesville. Excursion service on the line had been suspended due to a dispute with the HHPA. The museum submitted a proposal to HHPA requesting authorization to resume service.
The museum operated out of Forest Park in Noblesville and traveled to the northern terminus of the line in Tipton, Indiana, and to the southern terminus at approximately 39th Street in Indianapolis. The rail line originally extended further south but had been abandoned.
The museum is home to many pieces of railroading history, with primary emphasis on locomotives and equipment relating to the Nickel Plate Railroad. Most passengers are carried in the museum's restored Budd cars that date back to 1937 and were originally in service on the Santa Fe Railroad and the New Jersey Transit Authority before being sold to the museum as scrap in the early 1980s. Several cars have been restored and others await funds for restoration.
The rail line originally connected to the Norfolk Southern railroad in Tipton and to the CSX railroad in Indianapolis via the Belt Line. The railroad line had also been operated as a freight railroad by the Indiana Rail Road, hauling coal to the power generating plant in Cicero, Indiana, until the plant's conversion to natural gas in 2003.
In 2018, the museum was evicted from its home in Forest Park by the city of Noblesville. ITM moved all retained equipment to a site in Logansport, Indiana. In 2019, ITM struck a deal with the Logansport & Eel River Railroad to purchase the LER's 1.6-mile (2.6 km) rail line in Logansport. In 2021 however, the museum became involved in another lawsuit. The deal to purchase the Logansport & Eel River Railroad fell through and ITM was evicted from the LER property. ITM sold and scrapped its remaining assets of their collection and ceased operations in 2022.
Equipment[]
Locomotives[]
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Built | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72C | 
|
Milwaukee Road | EMD F7 | Electro-Motive Diesel | 1950 | Stored | It was originally numbered #83C. |
| 68B | 
|
Milwaukee Road | EMD F7B | Electro-Motive Diesel | 1950 | Stored | |
| 96C | 
|
Monon Railroad | EMD FP7 | Electro-Motive Diesel | 1951 | Stored | |
| 200 | 
|
Indiana Transportation Museum | EMD GP9 | Electro-Motive Diesel | 1954 | Stored | It was originally built for the Union Pacific Railroad. |
| 99 | 
|
Nickel Plate Road | Baldwin VO-1000 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 1945 | Display | |
| 91 | 
|
Nickel Plate Road | GE 44-Tonner | GE Transportation | 1950 | ||
| 4293 | 
|
Chicago Elevated Railway | Rapid Transit car | Cincinnati Car Company | 1922 | Stored | It was the last electric car to operate at ITM back in the late 1990s. |
| 4453 | 
|
Chicago Rapid Transit | Rapid Transit car | Cincinnati Car Company | 1924 | Stored | It operated at the museum during the 1980s but was then sidelined. |
| 4 | 
|
Twin Branch |
Former Locomotives[]
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 587 | 
|
Nickel Plate Road | Steam | Baldwin Locomotive Works | Sold to the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation for storage. |
| 1613 | 
|
Milwaukee Road | Diesel | Electro-Motive Diesel | It was Scrapped in 2018. |
| 1 | 
|
Indianapolis Power & Light Co. | Steam | H.K. Porter | It's stored at the Hesston Steam Museum. |
| 83A | 
|
Nickel Plate Road | Diesel | Electro-Motive Diesel | Sold to NPE. |
| 426 | 
|
Nickel Plate Road | Diesel | Electro-Motive Diesel | Sold to NPE. |
| DS-50 | 
|
Monon Railroad | Diesel | Electro-Motive Diesel | Moved to Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum; restoration pending. |
| 154 | 
|
Evansville & Ohio Valley Railway | Electric | General Electric | It was Scrapped in 2018. |
| 172 | 
|
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee | Electric | General Electric | It was sold to Illinois Railway Museum in 2018. |
| 437 | 
|
Union Traction | Electric | St. Louis Car Company | It was sold to the Hoosier Heartland Trolley Co. in 2018. |
| 1 | 
|
Singer | Electric | Moved into storage in Francesville, Indiana. |
Trivia[]
- The museum offered custom school tours, which included a tour of the museum grounds and an excursion train ride.
- While the museum was in Noblesville, it had in its collection the 1898 private railcar of Henry Morrison Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) #90.
- While in Noblesville, the Indiana Transportation Museum operated different excursions, ranging from holiday trains to shuttles in freight cabooses.
- The connection in Tipton was cut by Norfolk Southern in 1997 and the bridge connecting the line to CSX was removed by the Indiana Department of Transportation during the rebuilding of Interstate 70 in Indianapolis. In spring 2010, CSX railroad removed the diamonds connecting the southern portion to the Belt Railroad, thus isolating the line from the U.S. rail system.
- The original LE&W depot is used by the museum known as Hobbs Station today.