Proposed Track to Service International Harvester Co. Indianapolis, Ind.

An official lease between the NYCRR and the International Harverster Company in Indianapolis.

This rare legal document details the terms of a 35+ year sidetrack agreement arranged between the New York Centrail railroad (and its successor, the Penn Central) and the International Harvester Company (today’s Navistar). Originally executed in 1936, the contract was cancelled in 1972 – likely as part of the Penn Central’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings (the largest in the world, at the time).

The packet includes a copy of the cancellation letter, a copy of the 1936 agreement, and a blueprint map (also dated 1936, but probably a later copy). The last shows the various tracks in question adjacent to the Moorefield Yard on the West Side of Indianapolis. Several plots owned by International Harvester Company are outlined, in addition to property of the Hoosier Petroleum Filling Station and the Pennsylvania & Erie Railroad roundhouse.

Around the same time the map was first issued, International Harvester began production on a massive engine plant in the Irvington neighborhood, on Indy’s East Side. The original blue paper covers indicate that only thirteen copies were originally issued; this example was intended for the Assistant Division Engineer in Indianapolis.