Return to David P. Morgan Article Awards
Eric Powell, Carmel, Indiana, received the 2010 David P. Morgan Article Award, named for the former editor of Trains magazine, for “When Race Fans Took the Train to the Indy 500,” published in Classic Trains (summer 2009).
Powell, who has worked for the Indiana Rail Road in Indianapolis since January 1, 2011, wrote about special trains that operated on the Peoria & Eastern to and from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway through 1963. “This is an enjoyable and informative article about a little-known operation,” Lyle Key, Nashville, Tennessee, CSX (retired), wrote in the award citation. He is a member of the article awards committee.
“The P&E route between Union Station and the Speedway was described in detail, and Powell even included some quotes from an interview with a retired P&E engineman who hired out in 1945 and was familiar with the operation of the shuttle trains. At peak times, the shuttle trains ran on 10-minute headways, so ‘After a while you would get to know the crews and learn the operation so you knew what to do by instinct,’” Key said.
The announcement appeared in Railroad History, Fall-Winter 2012.