For what it's worth...about three months ago I wrote about Kevin Keefe's article in the Summer 2019 Classic Trains and how he loved the Monon.
In the Fall issue, a Glenn Olsen responded. I too was a Freshman at Purdue in 1967 and his response reminded me our MRHTS 2013 Convention Amtrak trip from Lafayette to Chicago. Good times!
"I enjoyed Kevin Keefe's commentary on the Monon.... In 1967, I was a freshman at Purdue.... On the evening of September 30, I was, as usual, in the student union basement with the Purdue Railroad Club. A group of us, including Tony Koester, master modeler, future author, Railroad Model Craftsman editor, and Model Railroader columnist, drove over to the Monon depot to witness the last run of the Thoroughbred.
A business car that had been on the rear was switched out. Its attendant was washing dishes in the galley while important railroad business was being discussed around the table. We piled back into the vehicles and barreled down to Lafayette Junction to catch one more glimpse of the fleeting train.
Like Keefe, I too thought that I may never ride the Monon, but in 2014 I rode Amtrak's Cardinal from New York to spend a day on my old campus, then on to Chicago the next day. The Fifth Street trackage is gone except for a few yards in front of the old Monon deport....
I boarded the northbound Hoosier State realizing we weren't following the route of the James Whitcomb Riley and then it dawned on me I was on the Hoosier Line! As a student, I had ridden the NYC to Chicago. (I used to take the JWR to Indy.) I was finally experiencing the Monon. The train wasn't painted in the old gold-and-black of my alma mater as it was on the Monon, but is was a special trip for me 47 years after watching the Thoroughbred disappear into the night."
