(rshsdepot) Lafayette, IN: Party to celebrate last train rumbling through downtown

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

Not quite depot related...
-From The Lafayette, Indiana Courier...

Party to celebrate last train rumbling through downtown
By Joe Thomas, Journal and Courier

Moses Fowler worked as hard in the 1840s and '50s getting railroad tracks to
run in front of his Ninth Street mansion as James Riehle and Dave Heath have
worked in the 1980s and '90s to remove them.

Heath will meet Fowler, played by David Lahr, at 4:04 p.m. today amid
confetti, balloons and cheers as the last train to travel through central
Lafayette will make its way to a community celebration marking Railroad
Relocation's culminating moment by passing on the tracks that Fowler fought
for.

It took 30 years and more than $182.5 million to move CSX Corp. and Norfolk
Southern Corp. tracks from the downtown to a new rail corridor along the
Wabash River.

The CSX tracks, which once ran down Fifth Street, moved in 1994. The last
Norfolk Southern freight train used the downtown corridor on March 11. Those
tracks will disappear over the next year in Railroad Relocation's final
task.

The three-car ceremonial Norfolk Southern train will make three stops to
close prominent grade crossings. It will arrive at the Sixth Street crossing
at 3:53 p.m., where residents will have attached balloons to the tracks. The
train will pop each balloon as it passes.

The train arrives at the Ninth Street crossing at 4:04 p.m., where Kevin
O'Brien, executive director of the Tippecanoe County Historical Association,
will introduce Fowler to Heath and Riehle.

The train will continue north, reaching the Ferry Street crossing at 4:15
p.m., greeted by representatives from the Perrin, Centennial and Historic
Jefferson neighborhoods.

It will arrive at Market Square at 4:30 p.m., unloading its passengers.
Speakers include former U.S. Rep. John Myers and Ed Pease and U.S. Rep.
Brian Kerns, R-7th District.

After the speakers finish, the train will pass the Greenbush Street crossing
for the final time, and Railroad Relocation will have succeeded in removing
41 grade crossings across Lafayette where vehicles and trains once met.

Then, the party begins.

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #39
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