The Rail History of Elwood, Indiana - Elwood’s Third Rail Line EA&L RR

The Rail History

of Elwood, Indiana

Elwood’s Third Rail Line

EA&L RR

Revised: 17 March 2013

Elwood, Anderson & Lapelle Railroad

ELWOOD, ANDERSON & LAPEL RAILROAD

1898 -- 1929

Elwood actually had a third railroad. The American Sheet and Tin Plate Company

opened in Elwood in 1892 and was said to have been the country's largest tin plate

producer. It also owned and operated the Elwood, Anderson & Lapel Railroad, the

EA&L RR, although some maps of the day indicated the rail line as the EA&L Ry.

The railroad of The Elwood, Anderson and Lapelle Railroad Company, hereinafter called

the carrier, is a single-track standard-gauge steam railroad operating as a switching

road in the town of Elwood, Ind. The carrier owns 1.412 miles of main line. The carrier

also owns yard and side tracks totaling 3.434 miles. Its road thus embraces 4.846

miles of all tracks owned. In Appendix 1 will be found a general description of the

property of the carrier.

Corporate history — The carrier was incorporated under the general laws of the State

of Indiana, with principal office at Pittsburgh, Pa. Its organization was perfected

September 29, 1897. Control of the carrier is vested in the American Sheet & Tin Plate

Company through ownership of its entire outstanding capital stock.

APPENDIX 2

DEVELOPMENT OF FIXED PHYSICAL PROPERTY

On May 17, 1898, the carrier acquired by purchase from the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,

Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company approximately 1.296 miles of track

connected with the railroad of that company. These tracks were located on land

owned by the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company at Elwood, which land was, on

May 17, 1898, leased to the carrier. During the period from November, 1898, to

November, 1904, the carrier constructed 0.258 mile of track to effect a connection

with The Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, and during the same period

constructed 3.292 miles of yard tracks and sidings to serve industries located on its

line of railroad.

The switching line was chartered on January 12, 1898, to connect the tin plate mill

located on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (The Pan Handle, a

Pennsylvania Railroad component) with the Lake Erie & Western (subsequently the

Nickel Plate Road, Norfolk & Western and Norfolk Southern) in Elwood. Although the

actual line was extremely short, it extended north from So. L Street between 25th

and 27th Streets and operated over several miles of track in Elwood.

The Elwood, Anderson & Lapel RR was to have eventually run from Elwood to

Anderson and then west to Lapel. Maps from 1901 do show it as proposed though

track was never extended beyond Elwood. Rather than travel through Frankton,

however, the EA&L Ry was to veer almost due east and around a settlement known

as Quick City and then turn south again to parallel the PCC&StL tracks to Florida

(Station) and Anderson. The proposed tracks were never intended to go through

Frankton but around it.

From 1901: Elwood, Anderson & Lapelle R. R.

ELWOOD ANDERSON & LAPEL. -- This company proposes to complete its road from

Elwood to Lapel, Ind., about 26 miles, this coming summer. Three miles of the track

are already laid and in use by the American Tin Plate Company as sidings for freight

cars. The line has been surveyed to Anderson, 15 miles from Lapel. D. B. Edwards,

general agent, Elwood, Ind.

The following maps are from 1901 . . .

EA&L Map 1 – Elwood

EA&L Map 2 – Elwood to Frankton

EA&L Map 3 – Frankton to Anderson

As an aside, Quick City was established for residents who worked for a glass factory.

This factory was owned by a man named Quick, thus the name of the city. These

factories came to the area to take advantage of the natural gas boom and cities

erupted. Once the gas ran out, companies left, as did the Quick company, taking

with them the workers and the houses in Quick City. Nothing remains of Quick City

and the site is nothing more than farm land these days.

So, the EA&L RR was to remain an industrial track located primarily in Elwood to

service the tin mill, glass plants, canning factories and for exchanging cars between

the PRR and NKP.

--------The plant of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Co. at Elwood, Ind., is all enclosed by a

fence, all of the tracks within which were formerly owned and operated by the P. C.

C. & St. L. R. R., by which all the plant switching was performed. In 1897 the

industry purchased the tracks for $50,000, incorporated the E. A. & L. R. R., with a

capital stock of $50,000, and transferred the tracks to the railroad company in

exchange for its capital stock. There are 4.51 miles of track, all within the plant

enclosure, except the track extending about 7,000 feet from the north end to

connection with the N. Y. C. lines, through the actual track connection is only 300

feet from the plant. All of the right of way within the enclosure, and most of that

without, is leased to the industry, the lease providing that the E. A. & L. R. R. shall

have the exclusive railroad right of entrance into and upon the grounds of the plant.

The tracks of the P. R. R. extend along the property line of plant. The equipment of

the E. A. & L. Ry. Consists of 2 locomotives, 1 flat car and 2 coal cars. The principal

service performed is interchange switching; it does only a small part of the intermill

switching. Inbound shipments of raw material must be placed promptly when

actually required to meet the needs of the industrial service, and the E. A. & L. Ry.

adjusts its switching service to meet the demands of the plant. It charges $2 per car

on inbound and $4 on outbound business, which are absorbed by the trunk lines.

The charge for intermill switching is $2. On interchange the trunk lines charge

demurrage against the industry. In 1911 the road handled 14,785 cars, from which

it derived $20,201; $5,530 from the industry and $14,671 from the trunk lines.

The following entry provides a little information about one of the EA&L Railroad's

employees:

William Bateman Leeds (September 19, 1861 – June 23, 1908) was born in

Richmond, Indiana in 1861.

1904: After hearing Wall Street rumors of dissension among the Directors, Mr. Leeds

resigned from his position as President of the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad in 1903,

his resignation becoming effective January 1, 1904. While President, his reported

annual salary was $32,000. After his resignation, he continued to play an active role

in business and was made a Director in several other companies, including the

American Tin Plate Company, the American Audit Company, the Ellwood, Anderson

and Lapelle Railroad, the Nassau Gas, Heat and Power Company, the United States

Mortgage and Trust Company, and the Windsor Trust Company.

The E. A. & L was highlighted in an August 2, 1905, article in the Elwood Daily

Press:

SHORTEST RAILROADS TROUBLES

COMPLAINT MADE THE TIN PLATE ROADS CHARGES ARE EXCESSIVE

Commissioners Will Hear Complaint at the City Building August 8.

For several days it has been known to the railroads and others interested that the

state railroad commission would meet in the auditorium in the city building in the city

of Elwood on August 8, to inquire into certain complaints that had been made in regard

to switching charges, and excessive coal rates. Who made the complaint could not be

learned, everyone seemingly interested, denying all knowledge of the affair. It became

known today, however, that the complaint is made against the Elwood, Anderson &

Lapel railway, but who preferred the charge is a mystery.

None of the coal dealers seem to know anything about the matter and as there is no

others who could be interested the facts will not come out until the commission meets.

The Elwood, Anderson & Lapel line is one of the shortest railroads in the state, if not

in the country, being less than one mile in length, yet it has its network of side tracks

and its equipment, consisting of the necessary rolling stock, being one engine, flat

cars, gondolas, and box cars sufficient to carry on the business. The only railroad stock

that usually belongs to railway equipment that it does not carry is coaches. As it runs

no passenger trains this part of the usual railway equipment is unnecessary. The road

has its own officers, telegraph lines, telephone service, the same as roads of a hundred

miles in length and does more business according to its length and equipment, than

any road in the state. Its work consists largely in switching cars between the tin plate

works and the Panhandle and the L.E. & W. railroads, and it makes it especial rates

for this work. It is presumed that some shippers have concluded that these charges

were excessive, hence the complaint. It remains to be seen the complaint.

Whatever there is in an interchange between two roads there is always an extra charge

for switching, the cars from one road to the other, otherwise the railroads would find

themselves swamped and from one to three crews kept transferring cars from one line

to the other for which the various companies would receive no compensation

whatever, and in order to cover the cost of handling this excess business an

interchange rate has been adopted. This rate runs from 50 cents to $2, according to

the work required to place the cars, etc.

In the case of the E. A. & L., the cars have to be hauled at least three-fourths of a

mile before the necessary switching is done and it is quite probable that the

commissioners will find that the rate charged by this short line is not excessive under

existing conditions.

In 1918, there was an office listed for the EA&L in the Tin Plate Yards (phone *Main

87*) and another at S. J. and 25th Street (phone *Main 276*). Shortly before being

abandoned, it was known to have 2 locomotives and 6 freight cars of its own. The

freight cars were not employed in commercial service.

The *Lapel* in the corporate name was spelled *Lapelle* and *La Pelle* in some early

records and was apparently a misspelling of the town of *Lapel.* Some records are

hard to find because in some instances, Elwood is also misspelled as *Ellwood.*

The Nickel Plate Road eventually purchased the EA&L but abandoned it in 1929. It

is known that portions of the rails from the connecting tracks to the tin mills lasted

into 2002.

*But here's a stunning exclusive -- this Nevada Consolidated Copper Company

locomotive #600 was a 1902 Schenectady 0-6-0 steam locomotive originally built

new as U. S. Steel's Indiana subsidiary Elwood, Anderson and Lapel Railroad's

No. 3!!! In a sense, Elwood had its own steam locomotive!

c1930-1931

12 July 1936

11 July 1939

The locomotive as delivered to the EA&L Ry was believed to have included a wooden

cab. The EA&L RR sold No. 3 to the N. C. C. Co. in October of 1916! A rebuild

around 1930 included a new steel cab and the only photos available are after the

rebuild and the new steel cab.

*The EA&L RR was wholly in the city of Elwood, had no depots, no train dispatcher,

ran no excursions, issued no passes, sold no tickets or mileage, owned but three

engines and one car – that a work car, and handled nothing less than car lots.

Marvin Crim

WLWHS 1957

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