The Town of North Judson may be willing to donate part of its short line railroad to the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum. The town council brought up the possibility to museum leadership during a July 27 executive session, according to Council President John Rowe.
During Monday’s regular council meeting, Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum President Todd Flannigan said the museum’s directors and membership were all in favor, and some were interested in taking ownership all the way to LaCrosse. The museum used to run excursions to LaCrosse from North Judson, but they’ve been limited to English Lake since 2016. Flannigan told council members that while the museum is technically allowed to operate to LaCrosse, the current agreement limits it to just six trips a year and would require an annual insurance cost of $50,000.
Rowe said a donation of that entire section is on the table, but there are legal questions that have to be answered by the town’s team of attorneys. “Your biggest attraction is riding the train, not just the museum,” Rowe added. “It’s really twofold, and you have to have the riders. That’s the whole thing. If you guys can just have the museum and show things, well that’s okay, but if you don’t have riders, then you don’t have a museum.”
Flannigan noted that the LaCrosse trips carried over 1,000 passengers in 2014, and made up 40 percent of the museum’s operating revenue that year. He was confident that the museum could handle that section of track, although officials were still working on a more specific operating plan, as requested by the town. He pointed out that Hoosier Valley had undertaken tie replacement efforts in the past and had gotten grant funding to do more work, but ultimately had to pay it back, when it was restricted from operating past English Lake. Flannigan felt that owning the railroad would open the museum up to even more grant opportunities.
The potential donation is part of a larger effort to sell the line, which North Judson has owned since 2004. Rowe said the town’s main goal is to put the railroad into the right hands, while also allowing the museum to benefit. “It isn’t about money for us on that, obviously,” Rowe explained. “I don’t think there’s anybody sitting up here that’s thinking, ‘Man, I gotta get that money.’ No, we just want to make sure that if we do leave it in your hands, that you’re going to be fairly compensated and you’re going to be able to operate on that line and there’s not going to be any issues with our current operator.”
As for the sale process, Rowe said Town Attorney Justin Schramm is still waiting for appraisals to come back. Once those are done, the attorneys can start working on a request for proposals.
