As soon as the M&I tracks arrived in Indianapolis, there was a temporary lull in construction activity. The effort and money of the company was now concentrated on more new locomotives and cars and the improvement of existing property.

Beginning January 3, 1848, the northbound passenger train left Madison daily except Sunday at 8:00 am and arrived in Indianapolis at 2:00 pm. The southbound train left Indianapolis at 7:30 am and arrived in Madison at 1:30 pm. Daily freight trains left Madison and Indianapolis at 5:00 am. The cutoff for shipments to be tendered at Madison was 3:00 pm the preceding day. In addition to scheduled trains each way daily, there also were extra seasonal trains and specials.

However, the trains were rarely on time. At the depot at Madison (which was on the Ohio River, fronting the steamboat landing) the passenger train was supposed to leave at 6:00 am but usually didn’t. If everything was ready to go before six, the train left. On the other hand, if some important person had not yet arrived at six, the train waited. Not until after John Brough became president in August 1848 did M&I passenger trains usually leave on time.

Instead of tickets for passengers, waybills were used. The waybills were slips of paper with the passenger’s name written on it when he paid his fare at the station. The slips were then checked by the conductor on the train.

Since it was then the custom to name locomotives, the M&I named many after towns along its route. The American type 4-4-0 steam locomotive (four drivers with a four-wheel leading truck) was the most common. It had a huge balloon stack to arrest the sparks from its wood fire. Locomotives were always painted in gaudy colors. Sometimes brooms were tied in front of the leading truck to sweep the track. At first there were no cabs or cow-catchers. As time went on, the increasing number of collisions with cattle, sometimes derailing the whole train, made it necessary to install cow-catchers. The cabs to enclose the engine crew did not come until much later. The cab was thought to be dangerous because it hindered the engineer’s vision, thus reducing the safety of the train.

The track was greatly improved. The original track built by the state from Madison to Griffith’s was laid with iron T rails, but the track on the line built by the M&I from Griffith’s to Indianapolis consisted of wood stringers with flat bar stock on the top. A hazard of this type of track was what was known as “snakeheads.” This was the sudden and dangerous upward thrust of one of the iron bars through the floor of a passenger car or locomotive cab, whenever one of the bars worked loose at the end. It happened frequently enough. However, by 1851 under President Brough, the M&I had re-laid its entire main line with iron T rails weighing 60 pounds to the yard, mostly rolled in the United States and known as American Compound.

About this time the first recorded restriction of pass privileges took place. The M&I board of directors on April 23, 1850, ordered that only officials of the M&I and captains of Ohio River packet steamboats would be allowed to receive passes.

The railroad was serving a useful purpose and doing so efficiently. For example, in November 1850, 1,365 hogs were transported from Franklin and Edinburg to Madison in a single train with one locomotive. The train numbered 28 cars, the engine was the Governor Whitcomb, and the engineer was a Mr. Sherburne. According to newspapers at the time, this was “the greatest haul ever made over the road, and probably has never been excelled on any road in the Union. The train was compelled to overcome, for two and a half miles, a grade and curvature equal to sixty feet per mile [a 1.1% grade].” By then the incline plane was in operation, so it was even more remarkable that the M&I had moved 28 cars carrying 1,365 hogs down the 5.89% grade into Madison.

Invention of the telegraph led to its use by the M&I starting in 1853 to control its train movements between stations. Before this time, lookouts were established to watch for trains. Long-gone practices of “smoking a meet” (running for the nearest siding when another locomotive’s plume of smoke appeared in the distance) and “cornfield meets” (a collision of two trains) were common in those days. In addition to the hazards of operation, locomotives often ran out of water. When this happened on smaller railroads, such as the Shelbyville Lateral, the passengers had to get off and bail water into the engines from a nearby creek with buckets furnished for the purpose. From this practice originated the term “jerkwater railroad.”

John Brough, president of the M&I from August 1848 until February 1853, had an interesting life. Born in Marietta, Ohio, on September 17, 1811, he was an orphan at eleven. As a youth he apprenticed himself to a printer for his board and room. His formal schooling included only three years as a part-time student at Ohio University. From 1831 to 1833 he owned the Marietta Western Republican newspaper. Strongly Jacksonian, the paper helped to form his political views. In 1833 he and his brother purchased the Ohio Eagle newspaper of Lancaster, Ohio.

In 1835 Brough was elected clerk of the Ohio Senate by a margin of one vote. At the same time he was the correspondent in the capitol for his own paper and for the Ohio Statesman newspaper. In 1837 the Whigs deposed him, although he continued to have strong support from the Democratic Party. He was elected to the General Assembly in 1838 and immediately became chairman of the committee on banks and currency. His firm stand on financial affairs won him the position of state auditor in 1839. As state auditor he tried to carry out a policy of strong banks, financial honesty and integrity, and hard currency, but the effects of the Panic of 1837 resulted in Ohio’s debt increasing from $12.5 million to nearly $20 million while he was state auditor. In spite of this, it was said that Brough fought to halt speculation and inflation, punish dishonesty, and secure payment of indebtedness. The sweeping victory of the Whigs in 1844 ended his political career until he returned to Ohio from the M&I and was elected governor in 1863.

In 1841 he and his brother bought the Cincinnati Advertiser and renamed it the Cincinnati Enquirer, which is the city’s morning newspaper today. He was its editor until he became president of the M&I in August 1848. He resigned from the M&I in February 1853 to become president of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad. At Marietta, Ohio, on June 10, 1863, he made a speech that returned him to the political limelight. Brough became the standard-bearer against the threat of the copperhead political movement and was elected governor of Ohio in the fall of 1863. As governor he fully supported the Union and successful prosecution of the war. In the 1864 election he opposed McClellan and the Peace Democrats and supported Lincoln as a symbol of union. In the spring of 1865 he announced that because of failing health he would not seek renomination. He died that August, four months before the end of his term.

Brough worked tirelessly to solve problems he saw around him. He was known for his integrity, perseverance, and public spiritedness, although he held partisan political views and lacked polish and dignity. He was a big man, physically and otherwise.

His accomplishments during 4½ years as president of the M&I coincided with the period when the M&I enjoyed a practical transportation monopoly in southern Indiana between the Ohio River and Indianapolis. During his tenure the M&I sponsored the construction of four feeder railroads: the Shelbyville Lateral Railroad, the Shelbyville and Knightstown Railroad, the Rushville and Shelbyville Railroad, and the Columbus and Shelbyville Railroad. He attempted to complete the state’s sale of its interest in the M&I to private investors, but this did not occur until after he left the M&I. Brough was an organizer and the first board president of the Indianapolis Union Railway, which pioneered the concept of a joint railroad facility to better handle the trains of different railroads that served a city. He organized M&I operations so passenger trains ran on time and so all M&I main line strap rail was replaced with iron rails. However, his single-mindedness sometimes got him into trouble. One time was his strong promotion of the project to bypass the incline plane that later became known as Brough’s Folly.

In 1848 the M&I chief engineer, Colonel Thomas A. Morris, had made three surveys to bypass the Madison incline plane. Two routes were up the valley of Clifty Creek, and one was up the valley of Crooked Creek. Afterward, when the Indiana Legislature on February 28, 1852, provided for sale of the state’s interest, it required the M&I to construct a new line that would climb to the bluffs on a much easier grade than that of the incline plane.

The adopted plan ran from the main line at the foot of the incline plane, crossed Crooked Creek, and passed westward along the side of the hill to Clifty Creek. From there it followed Clifty Creek up the hill to the Cabin Mill Fork. The line crossed the glen at the foot of the present Clifty Inn and passed through a tunnel visible from the inn. Farther on was a second tunnel. After passing through the second tunnel, the line went through Dean’s Hollow and then to the main line four miles from Madison. Total distance of the new line was to be 4.75 miles. Nearly 700 men were employed in the building of the line in 1853. The estimated cost of the project was to be $250,000, but the amount finally expended was $309,479.70 when it was abandoned in 1855 with no returns. The project became known as Brough’s Folly.

To his credit, however, Brough was farsighted enough to realize that, to better serve Indianapolis, all the railroads in that city – including even his competitors – needed to work together for the common good. Consequently, the Indianapolis Union Railway Company was organized December 19, 1849, by representatives of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad, the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad, the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad; and the M&I. John Brough was the first president of the board of the Union Railway, and Mr. W. N. Jackson was the first secretary, treasurer, and general ticket agent. The Union Railway and its Union Station were the first of their kind in the United States. The Union Railway had as its purpose to construct a railroad that would be owned by all the railroads entering Indianapolis. It would act as agent for the owning railroads and undertake the common hauling of their passengers and freight. Its goal was to eliminate duplicate stations and minimize yard expenses.

The Union Railway in 1852 began building a Union Passenger Station at ground level that was 420 feet long and 100 feet wide. There were five passenger tracks inside and two freight tracks outside. Its large train shed was illuminated by gas lamps. The station cost $30,000, a sum difficult to imagine given what it would cost to build such a facility today.

The new Union Station was completed and opened September 28, 1853. On the opening day the station was used by the trains of four railroads: the M&I, the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine, the Terre Haute and Richmond, and the Indiana Central (whose line from Richmond to Indianapolis later became part of the PRR). Later that fall, the trains of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad, the M&I’s competitor that was the successor to the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad Company, entered the station. In 1854 the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad and the Indianapolis and Lafayette Railroad began using Union Station. In 1855 the Jeffersonville Railroad, using M&I tracks from Edinburg, entered the station as a tenant. Thus, by the end of 1855 there were eight railroads serving Indianapolis, all using the Union Railway and its Union Station.

In September 1853 it was estimated that an average of 4,000 passengers changed trains daily in the Union Station. The time each train was scheduled to leave was shown on a large directory. Tickets for all railroads were sold in the Union Station ticket office by one person. Arrivals and departures of trains were regulated by the station superintendent. While freight stations were located on each railroad’s own tracks, the freight trains moved on and off the Union Railway tracks as required to reach their destinations.

In 1866 the original Union Station was enlarged by the addition of a two-story, 48-foot-wide building on the south side. In 1888 the original station was replaced by the present head house. At the beginning of the 20th century, 200 passenger trains used the station each day. To reduce conflicts at the many street grade crossings on the approach tracks to the station, the approach tracks and the station tracks were elevated between 1913 and 1918. By 1922 a new train shed had been built and connected to the 1888 head house. The tracks being used in 2004 by Amtrak’s passenger trains in the elevated station lie above the location of the original five tracks built 151 years ago.

To tap the rich agricultural areas in Shelby, Rush, Hancock, and Henry counties southeast of Indianapolis, the M&I promoted construction of three railroads. They were the Shelbyville Lateral Railroad, completed in 1849 between Edinburg and Shelbyville; and the Shelbyville and Knightstown Railroad and the Rushville and Shelbyville Railroad, both opened in late 1850. The three railroads totaled 61 miles.

In May 17, 1853, the M&I leased the Martinsville and Franklin Railroad for five years. After May 1858 when the lease expired, the line was idle until 1865 when General Ambrose E. Burnside acquired control and extended it eastward from Franklin to connect with the Indianapolis and Cincinnati at Fairland. The line became part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the “Big Four” Railroad), and subsequently part of the New York Central System.

Madison’s position as the sole rail gateway on the Ohio River for Indianapolis and Indiana was challenged by the other Ohio River cities of Cincinnati and Louisville. While the M&I enjoyed its monopoly in the 1850s, three railroads were being constructed rapidly from these two cities into Indiana.

The Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad began near Cincinnati and passed through Greensburg and Shelbyville. Although it had not built any track by 1850, the railroad had reached Indianapolis by the fall of 1853.

The Jeffersonville Railroad began construction across the Ohio River from Louisville in late 1848 and reached Columbus in October 1852. It was intent on reaching Indianapolis as soon as possible.

The third railroad, the New Albany and Salem Railroad (later the Monon) began construction at New Albany across the Ohio River from Louisville and reached Salem on January 14, 1851. Construction continued to Bedford and Bloomington, and the NA&S reached Lafayette in 1852. While it did not directly serve Indianapolis, it strengthened Louisville as a river port relative to Madison.

The M&I with its feeder railroads at Edinburg and Franklin fought hard to prevent construction of the Lawrenceburg and Jeffersonville railroads. But on July 1, 1851, even though its track still had not reached halfway from Jeffersonville to Columbus, the Jeffersonville Railroad in a strategic maneuver suddenly extended its influence into the rich feeder territory the M&I had claimed as its own by purchasing the Shelbyville Lateral Railroad and leasing the Shelbyville and Knightstown Railroad for five years.

Attempts previously had been made to get the city council of Madison to approve purchase of the two railroads, but to no avail. Instead, two wealthy Madison citizens, M. G. Bright and John Woodburn, turned renegades and exchanged their majority stock interest in the Shelbyville Lateral Railroad for shares in the Jeffersonville Railroad on July 1, 1851. In 1853 they were rewarded for their deed when they became directors of the Jeffersonville Railroad.

With the M&I faced with a serious threat to its traffic, Brough decided to build a competing railroad from Columbus to Shelbyville. The Madison City Council agreed to subscribe $50,000 for stock in the Columbus and Shelbyville Railroad, in spite of the opposition of Bright and Woodburn. Ultimately, the C&S was owned mainly by the city of Madison and the M&I.

Construction of the C&S began June 1, 1853, and was finished the last week of December the same year. The C&S was formally opened December 27, 1853. A tribute to Brough’s single-mindedness of purpose, the entire railroad of 23¾ miles was built in only seven months – an average of less than nine days for each mile built mostly on flat land. The line crossed Lewis Creek and the Flat Rock River on wood covered bridges.

The C&S immediately had a friendly connection with the Shelbyville and Rushville Railroad, whose first train had entered Rushville September 10, 1850. The C&S, the S&R, and the Rushville and Cambridge City Railroad (which was not built until 1866 and 1867), eventually formed the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Columbus-Cambridge City Secondary Track.

As described above, the M&I and the city of Madison enjoyed their greatest boom times from 1847 to 1852, due to their monopoly for Indianapolis traffic. The boom times might have lasted longer except for several factors. The Jeffersonville Railroad, about which more will be told in the next chapter, was becoming a strong competitor of the M&I. In addition, the new line from Indianapolis to Lawrenceburg on the Ohio River – later part of the New York Central Railroad – had begun to divert traffic and revenue from the M&I.

The future prospects for the Madison railroad might have been enhanced if Brough had accepted a proposal circa 1851 from the directors of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad to build its new railroad across southern Indiana from Cincinnati by way of Lawrenceburg and Madison to Vincennes. In return, the O&M asked for M&I’s financial support. However, Brough was supposed to have replied that “the Madison and Indianapolis could not father all the paupers in the country.” Later, the O&M route became part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad main line between Cincinnati and St. Louis and is now part of the CSX System. About the same time Chauncey Rose, president of the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad, proposed that the M&I lease its line between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, but he received the same reply from Brough. If the stories are true, the fate of Madison and her railroad might have been different if Brough had replied otherwise.

Also during the boom years, the M&I was weakened financially by a venture to build a railroad about 40 miles from Columbus to Bloomington via Nashville. Brough promoted this new line with his usual vigor. The idea was conceived in 1849 and quickly mushroomed, so that in 1850 surveys were being made between Columbus and Bloomington. But the railroad was never built because not enough stock was subscribed to begin construction. There was strong opposition from the New Albany and Salem Railroad, which was building north from New Albany toward Bloomington. That railroad undoubtedly influenced Monroe County and its county seat of Bloomington to withhold their support of the Columbus and Bloomington Railroad. In November 1850 the idea of building a railroad from Columbus to Bloomington was abandoned. The reason given by the Madison Daily Courier was that Monroe County had failed to put up its share of the capital.

On September 1, 1851, the Adams Express Company inaugurated service on the M&I, placing one of their cars on the daily passenger train.

In February, 1853, E. W. Ellis succeeded Brough as president and served until February, 1856. The last president of the M&I was F. H. Smith of New York, who served until June 18, 1866, shortly after the Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad was formed by merger of the Madison railroad with the Jeffersonville Railroad.

The glory years of the M&I were about to end. At the close of 1853, Indianapolis had three competitive rail routes to the Ohio River: the railroad from Indianapolis to Lawrenceburg, the M&I, and the Jeffersonville Railroad. The Jeffersonville Railroad had built its own line from the Ohio River 77 miles north to Edinburg. From Edinburg the Jeffersonville Railroad finally obtained the right to operate its trains over the tracks of the M&I to Indianapolis in August 1853. This occurred after a long controversy that wasn’t settled until after John Brough left the M&I.

On January 1, 1854, the M&I was consolidated with the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad Company, later a part of the Nickel Plate Railroad. The P&I Railroad had then been completed from Indianapolis 54 miles northeast to Kokomo. The arrangement was attacked by some stockholders of the Peru and Indianapolis, and the consolidation was terminated under court injunction on September 4, 1854, only eight months after it had begun.

There was much public support for privatization of the M&I by sale of the state’s stock interest, but with the M&I facing two new competitors, there was a question about its true worth. The Indiana Legislature on February 28, 1852, had provided for sale of the state’s interest in the M&I for $300,000 to the privately owned M&I Railroad Company, but the resolution was shelved until February 28, 1856, when the assets of the M&I finally were sold for $65,832.
The table on the next page is an inventory of the rolling stock assets of the M&I at this time. It lists the 22 locomotives, 291 revenue passenger and freight cars, and 22 pieces of non-revenue rolling stock owned by the M&I on April 2, 1855. The equipment operated not only on the M&I, but also on its connecting lines.

Due to its deteriorating financial condition, the M&I went into receivership and was sold at foreclosure on March 27, 1862. The next day its assets were conveyed to the Indianapolis and Madison Railroad Company, which issued its securities, in reduced amounts, to creditors and stockholders of the former company.