On my recent journey home from school i made a little side trip in Wabash, Indiana. Realizing this was the home of the famous "Big Four Cut," I had to find it for myself. The first photo is looking north through the actually cut, and the grade out of the Wabash valley. This reef stone material covers about 5.26 acres and is mostly on private property today, except for the cut, which now belongs to NS. The line that you see in the picture runs south towards La Fontaine and through Marion, Indiana. I'm not sure were the line heads north, but will look it up in the near future.
The second photo is the site where the Big Four Depot and Hotel once sat shortly after 1910. Today, as you can see it is a small maintenance and storage for NS. The track in the foreground runs into downtown Wabash on the south side of town but north of the river. It looks very inactive, but all is intact up to a large manufacturing facility on the cities west side. The track in the foreground use to run across a diamond and into a yard in the area (If I understand it correctly). Today, it has been replace by a switch off of the mainline and is mostly used for storage.The third and fou
rth photos are that of the span over the Wabash River. The bridge has a natural curve built into the structure. It has seen better days as the center support column in the middle of the river has a new concrete cap as well as additioanl steel bracing. On site by the switch there were several pieces of new steel and deck plate walking girders. A possible restoration?
rth photos are that of the span over the Wabash River. The bridge has a natural curve built into the structure. It has seen better days as the center support column in the middle of the river has a new concrete cap as well as additioanl steel bracing. On site by the switch there were several pieces of new steel and deck plate walking girders. A possible restoration?The thing that I did not get ph
otos of was the interchange of this track with that of the more prominent mainline through town. The north track actually travels under the east/west main and levels out with that same main over the distance of 1.5 miles or so. It is quite impressive to see a concrete arched bridge stuck back in the middle of some woods with the north/south tracking producings an "S" type curved going under the bridge and up the grade.
