Downtown Hammond view

[Eric Reinert]

A unique view from the light tower in the Erie yard. Quite a telephoto view. Makes my feet tingle just thinking about climbing that tower!
Photo taken by Mark Stanek I think. It s very similar to the ones on the monon.monon site from the light tower at South Hammond.

Eric Reinert

[Eric Reinert]

Another downtown view c.1950ish from an airplane no doubt: Monon passenger train stopped at the downtown station. Lots of details of the east side of downtown here: The Minas store, the NKP station inside the sweeping curve at left, the Indiana Hotel in the top right corner, etc.
The F's have black roofs and the limestone station (razed 1954) is still there. The cars I can make out seem to be 40's vintage mostly.

Eric

[Tim T Swan]

You stole my thunder on the color shot from atop the E-L tower, Eric!  My favorite of them all.

The abandoned E-L tracks are in the center, the MONON main on the left.  About half of IHB's Hohman Tower is visible peeking out from behind the Indiana Hotel building.  That small parking lot next to the MONON ijust this side of the dark brick building was where the triangular limestone Sibley St. once stood.  The switch in the lower left on the MONON was once the Hammond house track--by this time it was for setting out boxcars of newsprint for the Hammond Times.

I like especially the more distant view of the Grand Calumet River bridges and their approaches, and the curving of all the tracks to the left toward Stateline Junction.  And is that Stateline Tower barely visible in the extreme upper left?

[Eric Reinert]

Tim,

Sorry to steal your thunder on the telephoto shot! 
I also think that is Stateline tower in the extreme upper left. Initially it seemed to me like it ought to be a little further to the left. It does seem to be a pretty long building, and that tower certainly was long.

Eric

[Tim T Swan]

Another great photo of Hammond back in the day!  I have other aerials of downtown taken in 1949 (attached) and at first thought this one must be from the same group.  Note that Train 12 is making its station stop in both your photo and in one of mine!  But a closer look reveals that the trains are not quite the same.  Some of the cars and the F3's in 1949 still have gray roofs while the roofs in your photo are all black, setting the time at least a year or two forward into the 50's.

The E.C. Minas department store on State St. is centered in your shot.  My dad sold home appliances there for around 10 years after WW2 which is how I was able to spend lots of time downtown train-watching in my more tender years.  Minas's had an employee lounge at the rear of their second floor with a big picture window overlooking the parking lot off Sibley and the curving NKP tracks crossing it, plus the Erie/C&O and MONON tracks beyond.  Here's a photo taken from that window--the MONON's old downtown freighthouse is clearly visible.  I spent a lot of late afternoons looking out that window, not minding at all having to wait there for my dad to get off work!

[Eric Reinert]

Tim,

Thanks for posting your shots, especially the one out of Minas' back window! That is an exceptionally clear photo that withstands some enlargement.
I wonder what's with the passenger car sitting on the Monon siding? It looks like a bad kitbash job, with two halves of completely different types of car stuck together in the middle!

Eric

[Tim T Swan]

That car is an old diner, Eric, and judging from its color, it's in MofW service.  If the year is 1953 (and judging by the autos it could be), then perhaps it is there for the crew closing the Sibley St. station.

How about those NKP crossing gates, cantilevered to clear the overhead wires!  Try modeling THAT!

[Eric Reinert]

Tim,

One can see from your Minas pic why they built that parking garage on that piece of land, based on the number of cars parked all over the place.

Here's another picture that might be a Brady photo of a C&O Mike southbound crossing State Street while a cut of cars on the Monon moves north. Circa 1930's. Among highlights here: The Monon still has semaphores mounted in front of the gate tower that are partially obscured in steam. You can see the NKP station (inside of the big curve) and NKP freight station (outside of the curve, further down) toward the upper right corner. There's also the odd looking two story Erie station at the right edge of the photo on the other side of the Erie tracks. 

Eric

[Tim T Swan]

Yep.  The NKP station, just ous of view to the left in the photo from Minas's, is also visible in one of the 1949 aerials, the one looking southwest.  The MC-NYC station is also.

Here's another photo, a MONON one, showing that odd 2-story Erie depot.  It burned down sometime around 1940 and the Erie (and C&O) used the MONON station from then on.

[Eric Reinert]

I never knew the Erie and C&O used the downtown Monon station. Thanks for that info.

Eric

[Eric Reinert]

Another view of Downtown Hammond: This time from the late 1880's. This is Hohman Avenue looking south. That is the Monon trackage in the foreground just before crossing the Michigan Central tracks. You can see in this era they must have interchanged with the MC directly through the SW quadrant of the crossing, judging by the track diverging off to the west. This is also during the pre-Hohman Avenue Tower era.
This picture is from the Hammond Public Library archives.

Eric Reinert

[Bob Lalich]

The 1880s photo is remarkable. Hammond grew up fast shortly afterward. Here is an old map of downtown Hammond. The 1875 date may have been true for the original plat but obviously it had been updated in the 1880s when the LNA&C, C&E and NKP were built. The packinghouse was built by G.W. Hammond.

[Bob Lalich]

Eric, I believe the C&O photo was taken by O.W. Bodie, who was on a mission to fix the traffic problem due to trains blocking the street crossings.