A Short Line to model

[wd45]

My wife and I were just up at the museum in Noblesville about 3 weekends ago, and got a tour of the Flagler car. That thing is incredible! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of the interior (didn't have my flash with me). The interior is just beautiful; the best way I can describe that car is a "Biltmore mansion on wheels".
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[Anonymous]

Wow,

Gotta model that run through the cemetary - I'll let you know if I manage to do it
Kev

[rogerhensley]

I have been busily adding more pages and photos to my Railroads of Madison County web site. Some of the more delightful pages have concerned a little known short line, the Central Indiana Railway. It's gone now and someone else (CIW) now operates the last remaining 10 or 12 miles, but I have been having a fair amount of success finding photos of its better years in the 50s including some rare shots of the Flaggler Car, the CI's Dutchess.

The CI at one time ran from Muncie Indiana in the East across the state to Brazil Indiana on the West. It was purchased jointly by the Big Four (NYC) and the Panhandle (PRR) as a route to by pass Indianapolis. It never fulfilled that purpose, but in the 1950s it did well under control of Ike Dulley. Of course there is much more, but if any of the CI material interests you, drop by http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ci_1973.html and take a look around. I still have more to put up, but what is there should be interesting. It would make a great short line to model.

The Flaggler Car was built by Henry Flaggler of the FEC lines and purchased by Ike Duffey of the CI. The Flaggler Car is currently in the 'barn' at a museum in Noblesville Indiana and has a bad roof. There is no lighting in there and it is packed in close quarters so you cannot actually see the outside well. But even without lights and just using my flash, I was able to take some fantastic interior shots without being able to see what I was shooting!!

It was built by Jackson and Sharp in 1899 for Henry Flagler, the colorful President/builder of the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC). Originally built as a wooden car, it had been steel sheathed and rebuilt with a steel underframe. Ike Duffey of the Central Indiana had the car air-conditioned at considerable expense to retain the carved and inlaid mahogany interior of the car.