The Monon Connection Museum and Whistle Stop Cafe - Incredible Railroad Collection

[@hoosiertours]

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[@connerrolofson1585]

Me and my family had definitely visited this museum and restaurant back on July 14th, 2019. We enjoyed it.

[@Rebel9668]

I had to laugh when I saw that voting booth in there. We were still using ones just like that here 20 years ago. I'm 53 myself so I remember using them quite well. They certainly worked a lot better than the ones we use now.

[@Rebel9668]

The wheel on the back of the caboose is a hand brake. You crank it down when the cars are parked so they don't roll away on a grade. Even modern rail cars still have them. In old times they were placed on top of the rail cars and the brakeman would walk along the tops of the cars setting the brakes on steep grades to help keep the train from racing down steep grades.

[@Rebel9668]

That's pretty cool. We have a Monon museum down here in Salem, Indiana too! Our part on the Monon main line was originally chartered in 1847 as the New Albany & Salem Railroad. The building is a reconstruction of the old depot in Salem that was torn down in the early 1980's but had its sign and most of its original furnishings saved for years at a local man's (Cecil J. Smith) property and were re-used in the reconstruction of the depot about 2-3 blocks from it's original site. There's a nice layout in the basement of the line through the County circa the 1950's in HO scale. while the main part of the building houses basically all the stuff Mr. Smith saved for so long. There's also a speeder or two and a wood Monon caboose and one of the 1910 era semaphore signals. A couple years ago they added a large meeting room to the back side of the depot.

[@AlexNunes-z6v]

WOW! ❤❤❤ joplin Mo Oklahoma needs this just super awesome

[@jefferykeeper9034]

I was there some years ago before the layout was built, and the owner said that the steam crane still works.

[@Rebel9668]

I can tell you by the sound of his voice that that Edison cylinder playing is sung by Billy Murray. I don't have a cylinder player but I have lots of old 78's from basically the same era and Billy recorded a LOT of songs on disc records as well as on cylinders. I wish I had a cylinder player with a horn like that but the oldest player I have only dates back to 1917 and is a large Brunswick floor model player.

[@Rebel9668]

One more thing. If you ever make it down to the Kentucky Railway Museum they have a very rare Monon BL2 locomotive there that's still operational and they use it on their excursion rides occasionally. :)

[@jeffshutters236]

Great and very informative video. I didn't know this place existed.

[@hoosiertours]

Thank you, this place is definitely a hidden gem!

[@Rebel9668]

That British telephone kiosk, while itself from Britain has an American pay phone in it from around the 1950's. Easy way to tell, look where the coins go in and the slots say 25 cents, 10 cents and 5 cents. Britain back then would have been using farthings, half pennies, pennies, shillings & pounds back then.