In General
Getting Here
Map
Pictures

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In General


Location / Name:
Terre Haute IN, Vigo County (county seat)

What's Here:
The Wabash Valley Railroad Museum
Haley Tower
Spring Hill Tower
Turner Depot

Data:
GPS Coordinates:  39.485915, -87.396932
1316 Plum St, Terre Haute, IN
Phone: 812-238-9958
ZIP: 47804

Access by train/transit:
None

The Scoop:

Haley Tower was one of the last operating towers in Indiana.  Operating towers are becoming fewer and fewer, so it is a good thing this one was saved.  Because of my business traveling, I had a chance to stray away from Indianapolis and head over to Terre Haute, and got these pictures.  These pictures are scans of prints I took in July 1999.

The tower was acquired from CSX by the Haley Tower Historical and Technical Society, which is associated with the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum where the towers now reside.

The tower was moved about 50 feet to it's present location on Friday, January 14th, 2000.  On Saturday, August 26th, they had a grand opening celebration.

The society also managed to save Spring Hill Tower, which was purchased in 2000 and moved to the site in 2001.  In 2003, the society also saved the ex Pennsy depot in Turner IN, and moved it to this site.

The museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays, June thru October.  The hours are 12am to 4pm.

Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd, pictures from Denver as noted
T. K. Kraemer

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://www.haleytower.org/ this is the old page for the museum, but it still has a redirect on it to take you to the address  below
http://www.wvrrm.org/ this is the current page for the museum
http://rrsignalpix.com/haleytower.html Zach's cool page on Haley Tower
http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2017/11/terre-haute-in-spring-hill-tower-c-vs.html


Getting Here

Terre Haute is on the far western side of Indiana, and the museum is 7.2 miles from the IN/IL border.  It's also about 70 miles southwest of downtown Indianapolis IN, and right off Interstate 70 at exit 7.

Take exit 7 and go north on US 41, 3.7 miles to 8th Avenue and take a right.  Go slightly less than a mile and then a left onto N. 13th St.  One block to Plum St, take a right, and you're there.

From the Chicago area, I would probably jump off I-65 at Lafayette IN, and hop onto US 231 and go south to either US 40 or I-70 into Terre Haute.




Maps














Pictures



Haley Tower

My pictures were taken in 1999, before the tower was moved to its current location.

















 













Spring Hill Tower





In its native setting before being relocated here.





Turner Depot

Turner Depot was the freight agency and depot in Turner, Indiana, located about 10 miles east of Terre Haute.  Surviving in use until the 1940s, Turner was moved to the museum in 2005.  It was built in the late 1800s by the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad.







Around the grounds







Outside on the Mainline

If you're looking for the double-slip switch, it is gone......










Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given!  Please be NICE!!!  Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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NEW 10/18/2009, APR27/2014, OCT09/2020
Last modified: 10 Oct 2020