Second Childhood

Generations of Hoosiers knew the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. (the Monon*) as a rickety single-track line that was chiefly notable for carrying Lincoln's funeral train in 1865. For years it carried little other traffic. Although the Monon's 541 miles of track tapped the rich Chicago and Ohio Valley areas, the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads carried the region's freight and passengers. In 1933 the Monon went into receivership. It all but stopped carrying passengers; they were a nuisance. It ran freight trains only when there was enough freight to fill them. Then the war brought an inescapable transfusion of freight traffic and a $12 1/2 million surplus.

To rejuvenate the Monon, the trustees last year brought in a new president, John W. Barriger III. Barriger, a stocky, cheerful hustler, had been an assistant yardmaster for the Pennsylvania, railroad analyst for Kuhn, Loeb & Co., adviser to RFC, and operator for about a year of the strikebound Toledo, Peoria & Western (TIME, May 18, 1942). He had some young ideas for Monon, and he put them into effect as he traveled over the Monon in his business car (purchased secondhand from the Southern Pacific in 1887). As a result, when the Monon celebrates its 100th anniversary this week, it will be as frisky as a pup.

When Barriger took over, the Monon had 72 old coal-burning locomotives and 3,000 boxcars. He had 1,300 of the boxcars scrapped immediately and ordered replacements. He also ordered 33 diesel engines. Already the Monon's monthly revenue figures are showing a 50% gain over last year. To get his railroad back into the passenger business, Barriger bought 23 hospital cars from the Government and hired Manhattan Designer Raymond Loewy to turn them into streamlined coaches and diners. Soon diesel-powered passenger trains will begin regular runs on the Monon's two main lines, Chicago-Indianapolis and Chicago-Louisville.

Because of cash spent on improvements, the Monon is operating at a loss, but Barriger expects earnings to pay for improvements by 1949 and leave a little over for profit. He is well on toward that goal. In the first quarter this year, the Monon set aside $517,296 for new equipment, showed an operating deficit of $128,475. And by the end of the year, Barriger hopes to retire all his steam locomotives and make the Monon one of the first full diesel roads in the U.S.

* After Monon, Ind., the railroad's main junction.

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