Rating:
3 votes

Big Four Trail - Coal Creek Bridge

Fountain County, Indiana

Photos 

Big Four Trail, Veedersburg, the west end

Big Four Trail, Veedersburg, following the route of the rail road, and crossing the Conrail - Coal Creek Bridge.

Photo taken by Colin J Parker in April 2016

Enlarge

BH Photo #355285

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Abandoned Closed-spandrel arch bridge over Coal Creek on abandoned Conrail Railroad in Veedersburg
Location
Veedersburg, Fountain County, Indiana
Status
Abandoned
History
Abandoned ca. 1982
Railroads
- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (CCC&StL; Big Four)
- Conrail (CR)
- New York Central Railroad (NYC)
- Penn Central Railroad (PC)
- Peoria & Eastern Railroad (P&E)
Design
Closed-spandrel arch
Also called
Conrail - Coal Creek Bridge
NYC - Coal Creek Bridge
PC - Coal Creek Bridge
Big Four - Coal Creek Bridge
P&E - Coal Creek Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.11191, -87.25579   (decimal degrees)
40°06'43" N, 87°15'21" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/478201/4440209 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Veedersburg
Land survey
T. 19 N., R. 7 W., Sec. 7
Elevation
601 ft. above sea level
Inventory number
BH 53994 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Abandoned (3,959)
Arch (12,737)
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (204)
Closed-spandrel arch (4,289)
Conrail (1,753)
Continuous (2,667)
Deck arch (11,963)
Fountain County, Indiana (75)
 Indiana (5,201)
New York Central Railroad (1,027)
Penn Central Railroad (1,574)
Peoria & Eastern Railroad (18)
Rail-to-trail (1,661)
Railroad (16,675)
Veedersburg, Indiana (3)

Update Log 

  • June 19, 2016: New photos from Colin J Parker
  • June 2, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Conrail"
  • June 2, 2013: Updated by James Norwood: Corrected Railroad ownership from Chicago Attica and Southern to correct Peoria and Eastern/Conrail line
  • May 17, 2013: Updated by Clark Vance: Added category "New York Central Railroad"
  • October 19, 2012: Added by J.P.

Sources 

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Comments 

Coal Creek Railroad Bridge
Posted June 2, 2013, by James Norwood

One of the North South line's is the former Cloverleaf division of the Nickel Plate Road, later Norfolk Southern and abandoned about 20 years ago. The other North South line was the Chicago Attica and Southern(former C&EI), but it runs near or close to the NKP line through town and was abandoned about 1948.

This Bridge is along the former Peoria and Eastern Railroad, later part of the Big Four aka New York Central properties, and later Penn Central. It made it into Conrail until about 1982 when abandoned here, and line today doesn't run West of Crawfordsville despite many of the bridges remaining intact. Interesting enough some of the original bricks for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway came from Veedersburg in 1909 via the P&E Railroad's customer "Wabash Clay Company" and would have crossed this bridge en route to the famous "Brickyard" track.

Coal Creek Railroad Bridge
Posted May 17, 2013, by Clark Vance (cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com)

1967 topo shows RR as Penn Central and N-S as Norfolk and Western.

Coal Creek Railroad Bridge
Posted May 17, 2013, by Clark Vance (cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com)

1958 topo shows RR as New York Central.

New York, Chicago, and St. Louis runs through town N-S.

Coal Creek Railroad Bridge
Posted May 17, 2013, by Jeff Wieland (jjwieland [at] gmail [dot] com)

I'm thinking that this bridge was on the former Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (Big Four). The Chicago, Attica, and Southern was further west, and ran north-south.