Northern Division Operations
If Shops yard in Lafayette was the nerve center of the Monon, then
South Hammond regulated the pulse of the Northern Division. Nine
daily switch and transfer jobs worked aournd the clock at South Hammond
in the mid-60s, making up and breaking up mainline trains, locals and transfers
to the Chicago connections.
The primary mainline freight trains were 70 and 72 northbound and
71 and 73 southbound.
Occasionally, extras were run to handle traffic to and from
trains 90 and 91, which served the Indianapolis branch out of its mainline
connection at Monon. These road trains often worked the EJ&E
interchange at Dyer, which typically ranked third in total traffic handled,
after the L&N and Southern at Louisville. Dyer was also Monon's
entry point into the Chicago Switching District and a train register station,
and as such it was an important location operationally.
In addition to these road trains, daily locals ran between South
Hammond and Monon, switching the granger towns in between. Such
towns represented on this layout include Munster, Dyer, St. John and Lowell,
which is seen in this photo taken in 1971.
Until September 30, 1967, the Thoroughbred, passenger trains
5 and 6 between Chicago and Louisville, often changed power at South Hammond,
eliminating the expensive practice of servicing and turning locomotives
at Dearborn Station.
Transfer runs departed South Hammond for the Belt Railway of Chicago's
massive Clearing Yard as well as the Chicago Junction (later Chicago River
& Indiana) in Chicago, Indiana Harbor Belt at Blue Island and Calumet
City, and the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal. It was not unusual
to see trains from these roads at South Hammond as well. Switch jobs
at South Hammond served to make up and break up these trains, as well as
serve a handful of customers between Hammond and Munster.
See why it's a great prototype for the operations-oriented modeler?
Now let's take a look at the
trackplan development
.
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