Hammond Freight House

[Tom Kepshire]

On May 1, 1954 the new Hammond Freight House was opened. Tim Swan photograph, from the Tim Swan Collection CD (Available through the MRHTS Company Store.)

[Rick Dreistadt]

Hey, Tim.  How long did you have to wait for the "trailer maid" trailer to pull by?  Neat photo.  By the way, the operators and yardmasters offices were on the bottom floor, left corner.
Rick

[Ron Marquardt]

Interesting Rick, I didn't know that the operators and yardmasters had moved to that building.

Ron

[Mark Baker]

Rick,
When I worked out of there, the bottom floor was lockers and lunch room and a small workshop on the side nearest the tracks.
The other side was paper storage and such. The contractor that loaded pigs had an office on that side. The operators and clerks
were on the top floor nearest the tracks and the other side was always closed. I didnt go upstairs very much but spent lots
of time in the lunch room with Mike Brown(the hostler) and the car knockers. We had a cot in the storage room and stayed overnite
there in the winter so we could sweep all the switches for the yard crew by 7:00am.

Mark 

[Tim T Swan]

Rick, as I remember things, there seemed to be SEVERAL Trailer-Maids on the premises just about every time I rode my bike across those 13 tracks.  But of course, I was just 12 or 14 at the time.  I took a couple more shots of the freighthouse and trailers that day and there were definitely at least two on hand then.  I just wish I could have had the foresight to take more, but a 'tween's allowance those days couldn't afford much film, not even B&W!

[Rick Dreistadt]

Mark, I don't remember going upstairs to work there, but it's possible.  I worked there a couple of times around 1962-63.  When were you there?
Rick

[Rick Dreistadt]

Tim, I know exactly what you mean about the expensive film.  I was in the same boat.  I wish I had taken more photos around Clay City and some of the depots when I first began.  I have woefully few photos.  Thankfully some guys did have the foresite to take some photos.
Rick

[Joe Land]

Hindsight being 20/20, we all regret not taking more photos of the things we assumed would always be there....
 Like Tim and others, the price of film and developing was the major factor in the number of photos we took during our youth.

[Mark Baker]

Rick,
I'm sorry I missed your question. I was there in the winter of 78-79. I was there off and on the summer of 79 also. By that time I was mowing weeds and trying to keep us out of Hammonds courts. We were getting tickets because the weeds were too high and people were dumping trash everywhere in the yards. I kept my mower in the west freight shed. We stayed away from the east shed because the roof was falling in. If anyone remembers the winter of 78, it snowed every day at Hammond and the snow was about 4 feet deep in most places including the roof on the east shed. It was loud when it fell. One of the last times I was there as an employee, a contractor was cleaning up around the roundhouse area. I watched them remove the turntable. I remember the crane swinging to far and it hit a power pole. The wires started bouncing and when they touched the top one exploded in a fireball. It fell and hit the next 2 and they exploded also. The lights and all of the machines in the office upstairs went alittle crazy. I wish I had taken pictures of all of the things Monon that we tore up or tore down in the years I worked for the L&N. 
Mark