One of Starke County’s major tourist attractions is reporting a big increase in visitors this year. The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum says almost 2,200 passengers have ridden its regularly-scheduled trains so far this year. Museum President Todd Flanigan says the museum typically only sees about 1,650 during an entire season.
“If this trend continues, we’re on track to have like 3,600 riders just in the regular season,” Flanigan told the North Judson Town Council last week. “That’s not any special events, any kind of school groups, or anything like that, so, yeah, we’re pretty excited about that.”
Flanigan noted that a couple of locomotives arrived during the town’s Mint Festival. But even more important to Flanigan was how they got there: The Chesapeake and Indiana Railroad agreed to use their equipment to bring them all the way into town, something he said hadn’t happened in about eight years.
“I worked really hard at trying to get these locomotives brought in,” Flanigan said. “It was a huge ordeal that I don’t even want to discuss. When they finally showed up it was kind of emotional. But I was more taken aback by the CKIN being in town. That meant more to me, actually, because it was like the end of the whole stagnant CKIN/museum/town thing. It was new beginnings.”
Flanigan has reported a much better relationship with the railroad since its sale to Midwest & Bluegrass Rail. He said about four railroad employees have even joined the museum as volunteers.
