The story
1847: The New Albany and Salem Railroad (NA&S) is organized with James Brooks as president.
1854: The NA&S trackage stretches from the Ohio River (at New Albany) to Lake Michigan (at Michigan City).
1859: The overextended and struggling NA&S is renamed the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad (LNA&C).
April 30, 1865: The LNA&C becomes one of twenty railroads to haul Abraham Lincoln's funeral train, its portion being from Lafayette to Michigan City, Indiana.
1873: The LNA&C Railroad is reorganized as the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway.
1881: The LNA&C consolidates with the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway, and the trackage of the new division is soon extended to reach into its namesake cities.
July 1, 1897: The LNA&C is reorganized as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway.
1932: The 300 pound (136 kg) Monon Bell is first presented as the trophy of the annual football game between DePauw University and Wabash College.
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1946: John W. Barriger III becomes president of the Monon, bringing aggressive plans for modernization.
June 29, 1949: Final day of steam locomotive service, as the Monon becomes one of the first Class I railroads to fully convert to diesel motive power.
January 11, 1956: The CI&L officially adopts its longtime nickname, Monon, as its corporate title.
1959: The Monon's passenger service between Chicago and Indianapolis is discontinued. By 1965, only the Thoroughbred remained, with its single daily roundtrip from Chicago to Louisville.
September 30, 1967: Final day of regularly scheduled passenger train service on the Monon.
March 21, 1968: Merger with Louisville and Nashville Railroad announced to placate the Monon's fear of lost business due to L&N's acquisition of a competing route, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad.
July 31, 1971: The Monon is merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
1972-1979: Amtrak operates the Floridian Chicago-Miami service over the former Monon Railroad's tracks in Indiana. With the termination of this service in 1979, Bloomington, Indiana, and the rest of southern Indiana lose passenger railway service.
1999: Portions of the line around Indianapolis are converted to a bicycle and pedestrian trail known as the Monon Trail.
2004: CSX Transportation stops using the former Monon Railroad's tracks through Bloomington, Indiana. Over the next decade, Bloomington sections of the tracks are converted to the B-Line Trail (within the city proper) and the Rail-Trail (south of the city).
After 2009, the tracks between Munster and Hammond, Indiana, are removed and the line converted into another section of the Monon Trail.
2024: CSX unveils ES44AH No. 1897 (ex-CSXT 3058), from the CSX paint shops in Waycross, Georgia. The unit is designed with the cab staying in YN3C and the long hood being painted in the Monon Gold and Black scheme used on freight locomotives. It was numbered #1897 in homage of when the Monon was formed.
2026: The South Shore Line (of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District) opens its Monon Corridor line using a rebuilt and newly electrified portion of the old Monon Railroad's route from Hammond through Munster to the northern edge of Dyer. The project included constructing some new and relocated sections of the adjacent Monon Trail.
From Wikipedia’s article on Monon Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4