By Eric Berger
NORTH JUDSON, Ind. — The Chesapeake & Indiana Railroad has donated a rebuilt SD9 to the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum. The donation comes just days after the short line finalized a new operating agreement with the Hoosier Valley that will allow the museum to run excursions.
The unsolicited gift was both a surprise and a relief to HVRM President Todd Flanigan, who had heard concerns from area railfans about the future of the railroad’s SD-M locomotive, CKIN 818, in the wake of the 2020 sale of CKIN and other short lines owned by Indiana Boxcar to Midwest & Bluegrass Rail, a short line holding company formed in 2019.
“We’re very excited to accept this locomotive,” Flanigan said. “This is a big donation, and it illustrates the renewed spirit of cooperation we have with Chesapeake & Indiana. We are so happy to be partnering with them to preserve this piece of railroad history.”
The locomotive was built as Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 172 in April 1959. It was among 22 SD9 and SD18 locomotives rebuilt by DM&IR to SD-M class at its Proctor, Minn., shops, beginning in 1979. Nine of them would later go to Elgin, Joliet & Eastern and be renumbered. Locomotive 818 became one of the few to get EJ&E paint. Several were acquired by Indiana Boxcar and quickly became fan favorites. The scrapping of two SD-Ms stored at La Cross earlier this year elevated concerns that they might all be gone soon, but this donation ensures that at least one SD-M will remain.
The donation was announced on August 18, just two days after the museum publicly thanked the railroad and its new owners for offering a new five-year lease and operating agreement that will allow the Hoosier Valley to run trains over five miles of track between North Judson and English Lake. Chesapeake & Indiana purchased the track from the city of North Judson earlier this year.
“It’s awesome to see everybody working together,” Flanigan said. “We both want our respective operations to be successful, and we’re doing everything we can to make that happen. It really is an exciting time for everybody involved.”
The museum will be running trains on Saturdays through October, with holiday train schedules undecided at this writing.
