01/19/2026
This is a story about the B&O and the town of Seymour, Indiana.
“Seymour Railroad Underpass”
Sometime in the early 1970’s, the town of Seymour, Indiana in Jackson County, was experiencing growing pains. The population was around 13,000 and they were getting new industry. Interstate 65 was completed in Seymour in 1960 and industries were popping up around it. They had also built the second largest gymnasium in the United States in 1970 and the people on the south side of the B&O track traveling to school, had to cross the railroad at grade either on the Airport Road or at Brown Street, both steep crossings. Brown crossed the railroad at a 30-degree angle, not the safest way in the world to get to school.
The city petitioned the B&O for a new underpass. In exchange, they would give up both grade crossings. The new street would be called Community Drive and connect Tipton Street (U.S. 50) with the High School and points north of the track.
Many negotiations were had, as the City, State, Railroad, and Feds would share the cost, which would amount to a lot of money.
When the details for the financing were all worked out, my boss, Division Engineer Roger Silbaugh, told me that I would be in charge of the Project. I was the Project Engineer, headquartered in Washington, Indiana.
I soon met with Mayor James L. Laupus in his office and worked out the details for detours and traffic control. He was a nice guy, quiet, and we got along well. He knew this project would take quite a while to complete and the peoples’ patience would grow thin.
The main track would be temporarily relocated to the south side of its present location and this would take a lot of dirt since the track was elevated in this area. The old fill would then be removed in the area of the new bridge that would be built between Brown Street and Airport Road. All the work would be done by contractors and I would keep check on them.
In 1972, Seymour got a new Mayor, Christopher D. Moritz. I dreaded meeting with him because things had gone so well with Mayor Laupus, and I was not really a people person. I made an appointment with the new Mayor and when I met him, sure enough, he was the complete opposite of the former mayor. He reminded me of that big rooster in the cartoons, Foghorn Leghorn. “Come on in Son, and make yourself to home” he yelled out.
“So, you’re wanting to build a new underpass bridge in my town, are you? Well, let’s get some things straight. When I was a kid growing up in the Great Depression, me, and a lot of other kids here in Seymour, were starving, and in the winter, we almost froze to death. We young kids would stand by the track along about the area that you’re wanting to build that bridge of yours, and we would wait until the next eastbound train would come up the grade and we’d stand there with our little buckets until some nice Fireman on one of those big steam engines would take pity on us and throw off a few lumps of coal. If it weren’t for them, we would have probably frozen to death. So, you see, Son, anything that the B&O Railroad wants to do in my town, is A-OK with me.”
I sit there in disbelief.
We built the runaround track around a quarter mile long and 20 feet high, moved the main track over, built the underpass bridge, moved the main track back, and removed the fill. All this without a glitch. The new Community Drive was opened in 1974. Mayor Chris was great to work with. He was defeated in 1975 but was re-elected in 1980; but he was convicted of accepting bribes in 1983 and he had to serve a jail term.
P.S. The next grade crossing to the west of Airport Road was Hangman’s Crossing where several members of the infamous Reno Gang were hung on a huge beech tree. The Reno Gang pulled off the first train robbery in America in Jackson County Indiana.
Larry McLin, May 12, 2025
