South Bend Branch

Last updated
South Bend Branch
Locale South Bend, Indiana to Logansport, Indiana
Dates of operation 18831974
Track gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The South Bend Branch was a Pennsylvania Railroad line that ran from South Bend, Indiana to Logansport, Indiana. The line was built in 1883 and was then a part of the Vandalia Railroad. The route was about 60 miles long and it passed through many towns.

Pennsylvania Railroad former American Class I railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was so named because it was established in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Contents

Stations

Industries served

The route was a very important link for Studebaker Auto since it ended at their factories in South Bend, Indiana. The line also had several grain elevators, which several are still in business. One of the reasons it was built was for people going to Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver, Indiana when it was a resort town.

Studebaker former car manufacturer

Studebaker was an American automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the military.

Grain elevator grain storage building

A grain elevator is an agrarian facility complex designed to stockpile or store grain. In grain trade, the term grain elevator also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo or other storage facility.

Lake Maxinkuckee lake of the United States of America

Lake Maxinkuckee is the second largest natural lake in the U.S. state of Indiana, covering 1,864 acres (8 km2). The Town of Culver, Indiana, in southwestern Marshall County is located on its northwestern edge. Lake Maxinkuckee has a maximum depth of 88 feet and an average depth of 24 feet. Local residents and visitors do many things including ice fishing on the lake.

Abandonment

After Studebaker closed in 1963, rail traffic started declining and the last daily freights were gone by 1969. The first part of the line to go was between Nutwood and Culver, which was abandoned in 1973 and removed in 1974. The second piece to go was from Culver to Logansport which was abandoned in 1974 and removed in 1976. For a while in Plymouth, Indiana, they used the line for the old industrial park, but this rail was gone by 1990. Track still remains in South Bend, where it continues to be used by a couple of local businesses. However, that is all that remains of the old South Bend Branch.

Related Research Articles

Niles, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities in the Niles-Benton Harbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, an area with 156,813 people.

Monon Railroad Defunct American Class I railway

The Monon Railroad, also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway from 1897 to 1956, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1971, and much of the former Monon right of way is owned today by CSX Transportation. In 1970 it operated 540 miles (870 km) of road on 792 miles (1,275 km) of track; that year it reported 1320 million ton-miles of revenue freight and zero passenger-miles.

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage is still used as a major rail transportation corridor and hosts Amtrak passenger trains, with the ownership in 1998 split at Cleveland between CSX to the east, and Norfolk Southern in the west.

Florida Central Railroad (current)

The Florida Central Railroad is one of several short line railroads run by the Pinsly Railroad Company. Its only interchange point is with CSX in downtown Orlando, Florida; it has trackage rights from there south to Taft Yard. The railroad is based out of the Plymouth freight station.

South Shore Line rail line in Indiana

The South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend International Airport in South Bend, Indiana, United States. The name refers to both the physical line and the service operated over that route. The line was built in 1901–08 by predecessors of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, which continues to operate freight service. Passenger operation was assumed by the NICTD in 1989.

Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad

The Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, also known as the South Shore Line, is a Class III freight railroad operating between Chicago, Illinois, and South Bend, Indiana. The railroad serves as a link between Class I railroads and local industries in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. It built the South Shore Line electric interurban and operated it until 1990, when it transferred it to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. The railroad is owned by the Anacostia Rail Holdings Company.

Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad

The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacksonville west through Tallahassee and south to Tampa. Much of the FC&P network is still in service under the ownership of CSX Transportation.

Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad

The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route, was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, which began at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and continued west to Bradford, Ohio, where it split into a northern line to Chicago and a southern one through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois.

Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad

The Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad (M&NB) was chartered in the mid-19th century as a seven-mile long branch line from New Brunswick, New Jersey to East Millstone, New Jersey. Construction was completed and the line began operation on December 19, 1854. In 1871, under the order of the company's president Martin Howell, the M&NB signed a 999-year lease with the United Jersey Railroad Company, which would later become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad known as the Millstone Branch. In 1915, the company was dissolved and became part of the United Jersey Railroad Company.

Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway short-line railroad in Illinois & Indiana

The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway is a short line railroad that operates 247 miles (398 km) of track from Mapleton, Illinois, through Peoria across Illinois to Logansport, Indiana. TP&W has trackage rights between Galesburg, Illinois, and Peoria, between Logansport and Kokomo, Indiana, and between Reynolds, Indiana, and Lafayette, Indiana. TPW has connections with UP, BNSF, NS, CSXT, CN, CP, CERA, CIM, KBSR and T&P. The railroad is now owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.

Indiana State Road 17 highway in Indiana

State Road 17 is a north–south road in Northern Indiana. Its southern terminus is at State Road 25 in Logansport. Its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 30 in Plymouth.

Indiana Transportation Museum

The Indiana Transportation Museum is a railroad museum that was formerly located in the Forest Park neighborhood of Noblesville, Indiana, United States. It owns a variety of preserved railroad equipment, some of which still operate today. ITM is currently moving to Logansport, Indiana.

Butler Branch (Indiana)

The Butler Branch is a historic railroad line that operated in Indiana, USA. It ran between the city of Logansport on the Wabash River in north central Indiana and the namesake town of Butler near the Ohio border in northeastern Indiana.

The Columbus to Chicago Main Line was a rail line owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The line ran from Columbus, Ohio northwest via Logansport, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois. Junctions included the Columbus to Indianapolis Main Line via Bradford, which split at Bradford to reach the Pittsburgh to St. Louis Main Line at New Paris, Ohio; the Fort Wayne Branch at Ridgeville, Indiana; the Richmond Branch at Anoka, Indiana; and the South Bend Branch and I&F Branch at Logansport.

The Kankakee Belt Route is the nickname for the Illinois Division of the New York Central Railroad, which extended from South Bend, Indiana, through Kankakee, Illinois, and westward to Zearing, Illinois. This line was sometimes referred to as the "3 I Line", in reference to a corporate predecessor, the "Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad". That portion of the line west of Kankakee to Moronts, Illinois, roughly parallels the Illinois River in Northern Illinois and was used, in large part, to transport corn toward eastern markets. See Kankakee Outwash Plain

Michigan Road

The Michigan Road was one of the earliest roads in Indiana. Roads in early Indiana were often roads in name only. In actuality they were sometimes little more than crude paths following old animal and Native American trails and filled with sinkholes, stumps, and deep, entrapping ruts. Hoosier leaders, however, recognized the importance of roads to the growth and economic health of the state, and the needed improvements. They encouraged construction of roads which would do for Indiana what the National Road was doing for the whole country.

The Woburn Branch Railroad was a branch line of the Boston and Lowell Railroad ("B&L") that connected the city square in Woburn, Massachusetts to the main line.

Central Railroad of Long Island was built on Long Island, New York, by Alexander Turney Stewart, who was also the founder of Garden City. The railroad was established in 1871, then merged with the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad. It was finally acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1876 and divided into separate branches. Despite its short existence, the CRRLI had a major impact on railroading and development on Long Island.

The Vandalia Railroad Company was incorporated January 1, 1905, by a merger of several lines in Indiana and Illinois that formed a 471-mile railroad consisting of lines mostly west of Indianapolis.

References