John Woodard and I found Chicago South Shore & South Bend GE 2-D+D-2 No. 801 sunning itself in Michigan City, Indiana, on March 30, 1969. Running mate No. 802 is now on display at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Although most South Shore freight operations through Michigan City, Indiana, continue to occur at night, at least once the Chicago South Shore & South Bend has a sent a train down the street during daylight hours.
Trains magazine posted on its website a photograph of six locomotives hauling four covered hopper cars through the construction zone on 11th Street in Michigan City on April 10.
Since late February, South Shore Line passengers have been riding a bus shuttle between the Carroll Avenue station in Michigan City and the Dune Park station in Porter.
Workers are building a new double-track line through Michigan City that will eliminate the street running on 11th and 10th streets.
Most of the street running will have been eliminated by this fall when trains will resume running through Michigan City.
Members of the SMART Transportation Division at the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad have ratified a new contract.
The five-year pact covers 32 workers, including locomotive engineers, conductors and brakemen.
The contract runs from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2026.
The South Shore is a unit of Anacostia Rail Holdings and provides freight service on 127 route miles between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana, and Chicago and Kingsbury, Indiana.
It transports 60,000 carloads annually of steel products, chemicals, coal, grain, minerals, scrap metal, pig iron and roofing materials.
Although it uses some of the same tracks as the South Shore Line commuter railroad, the two operations are separate and not under the same ownership.
Some freight trains of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend have been detouring via Canadian National to avoid the street running in Michigan City, Indiana, which is now a construction zone.
Railfan & Railroad magazine reported on its website that some South Shore freights have been detouring during daylight hours on a CN line between Chicago and Stillwell, Indiana, where it connects with the South Shore.
South Shore freights are allowed to use the street running during nighttime hours when construction is halted for the day.
The R&R report said detour moves have been made using South Shore’s own locomotives.
South Shore Line passengers are riding a bus bridge between Michigan City’s Carroll Avenue station and the Dune Park station.
South Shore commuter trains continue to operate between Chicago and Dune Park, and between Carroll Avenue and South Bend.
The bus bridge began Feb. 28 when a multimillion project got underway to double track the South Shore through Michigan City and end the street running on 11th and 10th streets that has existed since 1908.
The project involves construction of 26.6 miles of double track between Michigan City and Gary, Indiana, and the construction of a new station in downtown Michigan City on 11th Street.
Once completed, the station complex will be a four-story mixed use commercial and residential complex.
The previous South Shore station on 11th Street was razed on Jan. 31, but its terra cotta façade was saved and will be incorporated into the new facility.
The 11th Street station had opened in 1927 and closed in 1987. However, South Shore trains had continued to stop there until April 20, 2021, with passengers boarding in the middle of the street and the station being a bus shelter-type structure in a parking lot.
A land transfer agreement completed in late December has enabled an Indiana commuter railroad to clear another hurdle in the South Shore double tracking project.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District and Chicago, South Shore & South Bend completed a transaction with Northern Indiana Public Service Company that will enable double tracking of 17 miles of the South Shore between Gary and Michigan City to proceed.
In a news release, The CSS&SB said the double tracking will also boost its freight service.
NICTD oversees the South Shore Line commuter service between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana, while the CSS&SB is a freight railroad owned by Anacostia Rail Holdings.
The $300 million double-tracking project is expected to be completed by April 2024.
Currently the line has eight miles of double-track between Gary and Michigan City.
Funding for the project is coming from a variety of federal, state and private funds.
In a news release, Anacostia said trains face a congestion at Burns Harbor where CSS&SB and NICTD trains share a single-track main line.
The release said once double tracking is completed, freight switching will be conducted north of the main line.
“This will allow CSS&SB to use some of NIPSCO’s now idle Bailly Generation Station property to foster business development in Northwest Indiana,” the news release said.
The wayback machine has landed us in Michigan City, Indiana, On March 30, 1969. We’re standing on the North Roeske Avenue bridge that spans the tracks of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend facility. This is where the South Shore used to maintain its venerable interurban cars.
More than six decades later this shop building has been razed and made way for a modern facility. The South Shore is separate entities with the passenger operations known as the South Shore Line and the freight operations still called by the railroad’s original name but also known as South Shore Freight.
Each has its own maintenance shops in Michigan City with the passenger equipment maintained on the east side of Roeske and the freight locomotives maintained in a modern shop on the west side.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Elsewhere on this page is an image Bob Farkas made in 1969 of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend shops in Michigan City. Shown above is a July 2021 image made in Michigan City from the same bridge but showing the shop used by South Shore freight.
Although the passenger and freight operations share the same yard, they each have their shops.
In the image above, a South Shore passenger set maneuvers in the yard. The shop to maintain passenger equipment is behind the photographer.
The wayback machine has landed us in Michigan City, Indiana on March 30, 1969. In the top image here are three Chicago, South Shore & South Bend boxcabs and a Chesapeake & Ohio cow/calf/calf set along with other interesting equipment.
In the bottom image CSS&SB 702 and some other units are sitting in the sun.
The South Shore Line in Indiana is the nation’s largest survivor of the interurban era.
It’s actually two operations, both of which use the South Shore name. The freight railroad operates with diesel locomotives whereas the passenger trains still use electric power and are overseen by a public transit agency.
But for today’s two for Tuesday feature, we’ll climb aboard the wayback machine to go to the era when the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad operated freight and passenger trains alike under wire.
In the top image, we are looking down on the South Shore shops in Michigan City, Indiana, sometime between 1969 and 1972.
At that time the older style interurban cars were still in use.
The bottom image was also made in Michigan City but a few years earlier and showcases the electric motors the railroad still used in the early 1970s.
The Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad has named Anthony S. Kazakevicius as its director of sales and marketing.
He will report to Eric Jakubowski, Anacostia Rail Holdings vice president and chief commercial officer.
Kazakevicius previously worked in marketing positions for the Indiana Rail Road, Rail America, and Iowa Interstate.
In a news release the Michigan City-based South Shore said Kazakevicius has 20 years of railroad marketing experience.
“His solid understanding of Midwest customers and commodities will help CSS grow its business base,” South Shore officials said in the news release.
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