The Bicycle Car

• Ride in northern Hamilton County without riding TO northern Hamilton County.
• Ride the paved paths in Fishers without riding TO Fishers.
• Stay for 90 minutes or stay for eight hours.
• Combine your bike ride with a train ride.
• Relive history from over a century ago.

As seen in old timetables from one of our predecessor roads, the Lake Erie & Western, around 1900 the railroad promoted train trips to cities with paved streets so "wheelmen" could ride their "wheels."  Today, thanks to CIBA and via a specially equipped baggage car, cyclists can transport their bicycles to distant areas via our trains so put your bicycle in its rack and drive to the Museum.

Ride in Fishers, Indiana

Take our Nickel Plate Limited to Fishers and ride your bike back to the Museum at your own pace.  You can also spend the 90 minutes while the Limited remains in Fishers riding in town, then put your bike back onto the train for the return to Forest Park in Noblesville.

The bicycle car will travel with the Nickel Plate Limited on June 13th and 27th and July 11th.  No later trains will run to Fishers on those days so you must either be at the train by 2pm or ride your bike back to Forest Park.

Reservations are required at least two days in advance so that we can notify train crews about who will be returning via train and who via bicycle.  However, trains will depart Fishers on schedule.  Reservations must be made by calling our office at (317) 773 6000.

Ride in northern Hamilton County

Many choices await you if you take this option.  The bicycle car will be attached to the A Train and you have the choice of stopping in Arcadia or Atlanta.  In either town you can ride your bike in that area for about 90 minutes and catch the train back to Noblesville.  The train departs Atlanta at 2pm and Arcadia at about 2:15pm.  If you like you can skip the return train and ride directly back to Forest Park.  This option is your only option on July 18.  No later trains will run through these towns on that day.

In order to assure that the crews of returning trains know how you will return to Forest Park we are requiring reservations for this train.  Reservations must be made at least two days in advance by calling the ITM office at (317) 773 6000.  We will ask for your itinerary and payment for your tickets.

How did this come about?

From the cycling promotion of over 100 years ago by the Lake Erie & Western, travel many years toward today.  Cyclists in Hamilton County thought that bicycles and the Indiana Transportation Museum could create a great partnership by traveling together.

In 2008 the Museum was approached by the MS Society.  A major fundraising activity of the society is bicycle rides where the riders pledge to raise monies as they participate.  In 2008 the route of Cruisin' the Crossroads paralleled a portion of our line.  We were asked to carry those riders that felt they could not go the whole distance.

Plans were made to restore a former Pennsylvania Railroad baggage car and equip it to carry bicycles.  With a grant from the Central Indiana Bicycling Association Foundation, work began August 11, right in the middle of WFMS FairTrainŠ.  Volunteers began sandblasting of the 1,562 square feet of the car body. Then two paid welders were joined by 14 other volunteers, who tackled the heavy work. In the midst of the stifling August heat, machinists readied brake systems, bearings and couplings.

Others welded, did body work and put old doors back in operation. Skilled electricians restored the electrical systems and prepared the car to carry a generator. The finishing touch was painting the car Tuscan Red and black, the colors of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the original owner of the car.

Eighteen days and more than 646 labor hours later, the historic 1925 baggage car was restored and converted. The car debuted on September 27th for the MS fundraiser carrying 62 bikes and riders from Forest Park in Noblesville to Atlanta, Indiana.  On Sunday about 20 cyclists took the train back from Atlanta.