PRR Gary Station sign for sale - big bucks

If you're a fan of the Dummy (PRR's CHI-Gary-Valpo commuter train), here's an auction for the Gary station sign. Not sure if this is the Chase street station or the Broadway station. I believe Chase was the more important station. I have no interest in the sale of this sign, just thought you guys would like to see it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PENNSYLVANIA-RA ... 924wt_1396

14 bidders competed and the final price was $1848.88 plus shipping...

The price jumped about $600 in the last few minutes and more than $250 in the final minute... not unusual with eBay.

FWIW, a 1950 Official Guide shows only the 2 Valparaiso locals stopping at Broadway; all other trains stopping at Gary stopped only at the "Gary" station (I presume that's Chase?). From my recollection of the little I saw of Gary, Broadway was more downtown (and may only have been a 3-sided wooden shelter, though I can't be sure), while the main station, the one the sign came from, was the one close to the B&O and NYC.

That's interesting. I gathered the Chase Ave station was the more important of the two, but not sure why. Broadway is THE main street in Gary, even today. Most of PRR's Gary passenger traffic was US Steel bosses coming from Pitt. One of PRR's trains was timed specifically to pick up passengers in Pitt after work, travel overnight across OH and IN, and drop passengers in Gary in the morning. Obviously that was for steel company execs.

Chase station was on the cement pad in the center of this map. The big factory to the south was Budd Company, but I believe it was automotive stamping and not railcars.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=gary,+in& ... gplus-ogsb

Broadway station was on the cement pad in the center of this pic:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=gary,+in& ... gplus-ogsb

Tadman wrote:I gathered the Chase Ave station was the more important of the two, but not sure why. Broadway is THE main street in Gary, even today. Most of PRR's Gary passenger traffic was US Steel bosses coming from Pitt. One of PRR's trains was timed specifically to pick up passengers in Pitt after work, travel overnight across OH and IN, and drop passengers in Gary in the morning. Obviously that was for steel company execs.

The Chase station is on 5th St, the current US 20, giving east west access along the lake front operations of USS. While Broadway is the main north south artery, 5th St is the main east west artery.

I'm surprised to see the Dummy not use Chase. It seems like a class division ... intercity passengers (those with means) have their nice station and local commuter passengers (working class) have their "shelter". The Broadway station would have better served the residential community of Gary with a lot of housing on the south side. The Chase station would have better served east west connections to US Steel and other cites.

If you're referring to the schedules I mentioned, the dummy stopped at both stations. I didn't mean to suggest that it skipped Chase, only that it was the only one to make Broadway.

ExCon90 wrote:If you're referring to the schedules I mentioned, the dummy stopped at both stations. I didn't mean to suggest that it skipped Chase, only that it was the only one to make Broadway.

Thank you for the clarification.