NS/NKP and Aban/Erie+C&O Bridge over Grand Calumet River

(no Bridge Hunter?, Satellite)

Pete Fileca posted
Late 70s
Dennis DeBruler Looking at a 1967 aerial, which has decent resolution, you are looking North. But what were you standing on? They did not have drones back then.
Bob Lalich The photographer was likely on the EB home signal for Hohman Ave.

It is hard to believe that at one time, a long time ago, this river was navigable.

Street View

Josh Lemier posted

Here in this epic photo Tom Golden got this shot on top of the Grand Calumet River Bridge with an Erie Lackawanna Westbound passing underneath in 1976.

Collection Of Sam Beck.
Mark Bilecki Sr. The Erie, Nickel Plate bridge was replaced with a culvert bridge by NW around 1983.
Mark Bilecki Sr. There was a control shack up there that was considered a tower.
Bob Lalich The operator on the bridge controlled the interlocking that allowed the railroads to jointly use the bridge and swap positions. West of the bridge, the EL was north of the NKP. East of the bridge, the NKP was north of the EL. Going way back, the operator also controlled the opening of the bridge. This portion of the Grand Calumet was navigable in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
Joseph Tuch Santucci This bridge continues to be used regularly as NS schedules numerous trains on the former NKP daily.

Update:

Ira Silverman posted
Can anyone identify this location? "I believe" it is in Hammond IN and that's the Amtrak Floridian coming at you.
William Vandervoort Couldn't have been the Floridian, at the time the only semaphore on the Monon in Hammond was the northbound home signal at State Line. Maybe this is the James Whitcomb Riley or Cardinal, which used the Erie through Hammond connecting with the C&O.
William Vandervoort Erie/EL called it CA Tower. The bridge was shared with Nickel Plate, those railroads traded places there. On April Fools Day 1976, Conrail was formed and they basically abandoned the EL line. C&O didn't want responsibility, having had trackage rights, and started rerouting the freight trains via B&O to Wellsboro, then the former Pere Marquette La Crosse Subdivision to join the C&O at La Crosse. For about a month the James Whitcomb Riley was bussed between Chicago and Peru IN, until arrangements were made to use the former Erie. In 1977, the train began using the Wellsboro routing and was also renamed the Cardinal.
William Vandervoort Wellsboro to La Crosse was not signaled. Though as I recall it had welded rail in decent shape. Here is a train order from one of my trips on the Cardinal, authorizing Amtrak to run "extra". What seemed strange was the angle at which we crossed the PRR main line at Hanna, and the fact that the crossing over paralleling US 30 had no gates, just flashers and bells. The westbound Cardinal was actually traveling slightly northeast at that point. Theoretically a straight line north from La Crosse to the B&O to would have been the Monon Michigan City Branch, which crossed the B&O at Alida. Wellsboro is 7 miles east of Alida, a 7 mile displacement which needed to be compensated over the La Crosse Subdivision.
Jon Roma I've read that, in the rush of getting Conrail underway, someone had forgotten about the joint Erie-C&O trackage, and the shutdown of that route had to be corrected after the fact.

Jon Roma commented on Ira's posting
Since many people are having a hard time visualizing the location of Ira Silverman's picture, I've taken a scanned page from the 1915 Sanborn fire insurance atlas and overlaid it with blue bullets that show the three pertinent interlocking towers. (Erie's "HY" Tower is out of frame and hence is not shown.)

The approximate angle the photographer was facing is depicted with a red arrow.

Josh Lemier posted

Here in this new cover photo we see two Erie Lackawanna Manifest Freights passing at Hammond, Indiana crossing the Calumet River Bridge. Date Unknown.

Photo Credit To Mike Raia.
Michael Mireles HD tower sits above....
Bob Lalich The EB likely originated at either 51st St Yard or Clearing on the BRC.
[A swing bridge that hadn't swung for years.]

Michael Dye posted
NKP 763, at 'ED' drawbridge. Hammond, FEB57.
[Monon's bridge is on the left.]

Michael Dye posted
RR East view of 'ED' drawbridge, Grand Calumet River. Hammond, FEB57.
[Monon's bridge is in the background.]

Michael Dye posted

A photo, looking North, taken from a floodlight tower in the Erie's Hammond yard, in JUN 1957. The single Monon track to the left with the Erie's main and yard leads to the right. I believe that is Douglas Street in the foreground. [Actually, it is Clinton Street back when it still went across the tracks.]

Nice view of the layout of the Monon and Erie/NKP Calumet bridges, in the far background.

Photo taken by my late Grandfather, C.L. Coates, Signal Gang foreman, Erie Signal Gang 33.

One of nine photos posted by Michael Dye
Photo 9: A photo, most likely taken from atop the Northernmost floodlight tower in the abandoned Erie Douglas Street yard, looking North towards the Monon (Left) and Erie (Right) bridges over the Grand Calumet, Hammond, IN, 1980. Photo credit: Unknown.
Note: The site of the parking lot (between 1st and 2nd streets from the bottom), from 1878 to the mid-1950s, the was the location of the Erie's Hammond Passenger Depot. To the left, where the red brick building is, was the site of the Monon's original depot. Both were torn down when the Monon and the Erie moved to the 1950's era depot, located South on Lyman Avenue.