Rensselaer, IN (REN)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$45,421

Station Ridership

FY 2011

2,042

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The Amtrak stop in Rensselaer is a simple enclosed shelter with wooden benches, lighting, and electrical heat that stands by the platform. The previous Monon Railroad passenger depot, built in the early 1900s, had been a modest hip-roofed brick building that was razed in 1981. The shelter, built by Amtrak in the early 1980s and recently maintained by volunteers from the local Lions Club, replaced the station. Today, some of the brick paving and red tile flooring of the original station can still be seen peeking out of the grass near the shelter.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Rensselaer station has received a new 550', concrete platform compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act funded at $500,000. The completion of the facility work was celebrated at a ribbon-cutting on April 20, 2011, with federal, state and local officials and a grade school choir.

Originally called Newton, the town was platted on June 12, 1839 and the small farming community established at the rapids of the Iroquois River. After the financial Panic of 1837, the merchant James Van Rensselaer, having lost his business in Utica, NY, came to Jasper County and took over land previously owned by Joseph D. Yeoman—who became the area’s first postmaster. On August 9, 1841, the name was changed to Rensselaer. The city was incorporated on June 12, 1858.

A narrow-gauge railroad came through as early as 1879; however, a foreclosure sale in 1880 passed the line to the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway, which would eventually become the Monon. The original depot was rebuilt around 1900 as a two-story wooden building. Photographic evidence suggests the next brick depot was built about ten years later, to be demolished in 1981. The Monon Railway operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana, from 1896 to 1956; and was merged with the Louisville and Nashville in 1971. Much of the Monon Right-of-Way is still used by CSX, the L&N’s successor.

Rensselaer was also home to the Miniature Train and Railroad Company factory, which built its plant there in 1948. The original 7.24” gauge train was built by Phillip Allan Sturtvant of Elmhurst, Ill. in 1928. Mr. Sturtvant's interest began when he built a large backyard empire for his young son. The railroad came to the attention of the Sears, Roebuck & Company, and a new Sears store, opening on State Street in Chicago in 1932, installed a Sturtvant electric train for Christmas as a special attraction. The success of this installation led to the establishment of the Miniature Train & Railroad Company, a partnership between Sturtvant and R.D Robertson, Sturtvant's brother in law. The company was sold in 1956, but parts are still made for these popular train sets. The original 1928 train set is still in existence in a private collection in Illinois.

Rennsselaer has been selected as one of Indiana’s top five small cities and is the Jasper County seat. It is the home of St. Joseph College, a Roman Catholic liberal arts college with about 1,000 students and is claimed to be the only post-secondary institution in the United States with the puma as its mascot. Fair Oaks Farms, a family-owned business that is one of the country’s largest dairies, is also in Rensselaer and hosts a Dairy Adventure tour of every step of the dairy production process, called from “Grass to Glass.”

Amtrak does not provide ticketing or help with baggage at the Rensselaer station

Rensselaer is served by two daily trains on the combined Cardinal and Hoosier State routes. It is one of two stations in the Amtrak network with Rensselaer in the name, with the station in Rensselaer, New York, located across the Hudson River from Albany, New York, known as the Albany-Rensselaer station.