Seymour Train Webcam – Watch Freight Trains in Indiana

The Seymour Train Webcam watches the railroad from the corner of 2nd Street and Indianapolis Avenue in historic downtown Seymour, Indiana, where the Louisville and Indiana Railroad runs between the two halves of the avenue. Two cameras share the page. The south-facing view runs down the tracks and the street beside them, past low downtown buildings, with a tall concrete tower on the skyline. The north-facing view takes in the John Mellencamp mural above Mellencamp Plaza, with the tracks running off to the right past a row of parked cars and pickups. The stream’s caption bills it as featuring the Louisville and Indiana and the CSX Indiana Subdivision, which crosses the line a short walk south. Freight keeps no public timetable, so a quiet street can become a busy crossing within minutes.

About Seymour

Seymour began at a railroad crossing. Landowner Meedy Shields laid out the town on April 27, 1852, where the north-south Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad met the east-west Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and he agreed to name it after a railroad civil engineer. That meeting of two lines earned Seymour its nickname, the Crossroads of Southern Indiana. Today it is the largest city in Jackson County, with 21,569 residents at the 2020 census, at an elevation of 177 meters (581 feet). Louisville lies about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south and Indianapolis roughly 97 kilometers (60 miles) to the north.

The two routes still cross here under new owners. The old Jeffersonville line passed to the Pennsylvania Railroad and later to Conrail, and since 1994 it has been the Louisville and Indiana Railroad, a 171-kilometer (106-mile) freight line between Indianapolis and Louisville owned by Anacostia Rail Holdings. The east-west line is now the CSX Indiana Subdivision, a former Baltimore and Ohio route from Cincinnati west to Washington, Indiana. The two meet at a diamond about 100 meters (330 feet) south of the camera, beside Saint Louis Avenue, where the B&O’s JO Tower once watched over the crossing. A connecting track lets northbound trains leave the Louisville and Indiana for the CSX line toward Cincinnati, and CSX trains from Louisville use the Louisville and Indiana to reach it.

John Mellencamp comes from Seymour, and the city unveiled the mural in the north-facing view in November 2019. It shows the singer with an acoustic guitar beside the words I Was Born In a Small Town, a line from his song Small Town, and it looks down on Mellencamp Plaza, a grassy pocket park with tables a few steps from the tracks. The surrounding blocks form the Seymour Commercial Historic District, with 79 contributing buildings. The town has a darker railroad story too. On October 6, 1866, the Reno Gang held up a train near Seymour, a robbery often described as the first of a moving train in the United States in peacetime.

Weather and Climate in Seymour

Summers in Seymour are hot and humid. July averages a high of 32 C (89 F) and a low of 18 C (65 F), and summer afternoons can bring heat haze above the ballast or a passing thunderstorm. January averages 5 C (41 F) by day and minus 5 C (23 F) at night. The city collects about 1,064 millimeters (41.9 inches) of precipitation a year, including around 43 centimeters (16.9 inches) of snow, so the tracks and the parked cars in the north view can turn white after a winter storm.

Spring and autumn are the mild seasons in between, and during the autumn Oktoberfest the south view can fill with food stands and a Ferris wheel. Seymour sits well west in the Eastern Time zone, so the sun does not set until after 9 PM in late June but is down before 5:30 PM in December.

Things to Do Near Seymour

Start with the railroad itself. The diamond at Saint Louis Avenue is a short walk south of the camera along Indianapolis Avenue, and the Jackson County Visitor Center occupies a former railroad freight house listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Seymour Museum Center is a block west of the tracks on North Chestnut Street, and Crossroads Community Park displays the 15-tonne (16.5-ton) iron flywheel from the Blish Mill. Railfan guides also list Brownstown, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) away, as a nearby trackside spot.

Outside town, Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge was set up in 1966 to give migrating waterfowl a place to rest and feed. It covers more than 3,150 hectares (7,800 acres) of wetland, forest and grassland, with hiking trails and more than 280 bird species recorded. The Seymour Oktoberfest, held in the downtown streets every autumn since 1973, brings a hot air balloon race, a brat-eating contest, a flea market, craft vendors and live bands to the blocks around the tracks.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

More railroad and Indiana cameras worth opening next:

• Bergenfield Webcam
• Amherst Webcam
• Bloomington Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Seymour Train Webcam located?

The cameras sit at 2nd Street and Indianapolis Avenue in downtown Seymour, the largest city in Jackson County, Indiana. That is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Louisville, Kentucky. This is Seymour in southern Indiana, not Mount Seymour in British Columbia.

What can you see on the Seymour Train Webcam?

The south-facing camera looks down the Louisville and Indiana tracks toward the CSX diamond, with downtown streets and a tall concrete tower on the skyline. The north-facing camera shows the John Mellencamp mural and Mellencamp Plaza on the left and the tracks running away to the right past parked cars, with a US flag over the rooftops.

Which railroads run through Seymour, Indiana?

Two. The Louisville and Indiana Railroad runs north to south between Indianapolis and Louisville on the old Pennsylvania Railroad route, and the CSX Indiana Subdivision runs east to west between Cincinnati and Washington, Indiana, on the former Baltimore and Ohio. CSX trains also use the Louisville and Indiana, and a connection in town lets them switch between the two.

Where is the railroad diamond in Seymour?

The CSX and Louisville and Indiana tracks cross at grade about 100 meters (330 feet) south of the camera, beside Saint Louis Avenue. The B&O’s JO Tower once watched over it, but the tower has since come down.

Why is Seymour called the Crossroads of Southern Indiana?

The town was founded in 1852 where two early railroads crossed, and the same two routes still meet downtown, now run by the Louisville and Indiana and CSX.

Where is the John Mellencamp mural in Seymour?

It is painted on a downtown building wall above Mellencamp Plaza, just west of the tracks at 2nd Street, and it fills the left side of the north-facing camera view. The city unveiled it in November 2019.

What is the weather like in Seymour, Indiana?

Summers are hot and humid, with July highs near 32 C (89 F). Winters are cold, with January lows around minus 5 C (23 F) and about 43 centimeters (16.9 inches) of snow a year.

Source: Seymour Trains