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Penn Central Railroad underpass US 31

Miami County, Indiana
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Photos 

Looking West-Northwest January 2005

Photo taken by James Norwood

Map 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Concrete stringer bridge over US 31's dual lanes. on Abandoned Conrail Railroad in Bunker Hill
Location
Bunker Hill, Miami County, Indiana
Status
Closed to all traffic
Future prospects
Trail groups want to include this in their American Discovery Trail in a segment from Logansport to Bunker Hill to connect with the nearby Nickel Plate Trail. Railroad reportedly still owns structure, but is only currently used by Peru Utilities to access line poles.
History
Built 1969. Old Rail line once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system's Panhandle route, later Penn Central and Conrail's Columbus(Ohio)Secondary track, formerly double tracked.
Design
Interesting is the "PC" worm logo embossed into the concrete on either side of the bridge that crosses US 31 besides the old Grissom Air Force Base.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 66.6 ft.
Total length: 138.8 ft.
Also called
Grissom railroad underpass
Conrail underpass
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.67167, -86.12833   (decimal degrees)
40°40'18" N, 86°07'42" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/573671/4502675 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Onward
Inventory numbers
INNBI 009850 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 42274 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Average daily traffic (as of 2004)
20,399

Categories 

Available for reuse (162)
Beam (6,056)
Built 1969 (63)
Built during 1960s (1,217)
Bunker Hill, Indiana (4)
Closed (2,075)
Concrete stringer (271)
Continuous (902)
 Indiana (3,348)
Miami County, Indiana (56)
Owned by railroad (4,052)
Penn Central Railroad (36)
Rail-to-trail (496)
Railroad (4,084)
Span length 50-75 feet (6,996)
Total length 125-175 feet (4,137)

Update Log 

  • April 13, 2009: New photos from James Norwood
  • April 9, 2009: Added by James Norwood

Sources 

  • James Norwood
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Comments 

Penn Central Railroad underpass US 31
Posted November 14, 2009, by Anonymous

What memories. My father flew B-58 Hustlers out of Bunker Hill Air Force Base in the early 60s. We moved to the base in May of 1959 with the transfer of the 305th Bomb Wing from Mac Dill AFB, Tampa Fla. The wing flew B-47s out of Mac Dill. We departed BHAFB in June of 1964 for Walker AFB, just south of Roswell NM. I have been under that RR bridge a hundred times (before PC built the new one in 1969). As a kid, I used to routinely hang out on the double tracked main line just a few miles east of Onward Indiana, by the Position Light Signals, and watch trains all day. Mostly GPs, and 6 to 8 at a time. We'd count the engines as they went by. As the trains went right by Randall School, I always had to look up and watch out the window...........much to the dismay of Miss Lish. Oh well. What great memories. If anyone reads this and relates, give me an email at gskeney@surfside.net.