Vandalia Railroad (1905–17)

Last updated
Vandalia Railroad
Locale Indiana
Illinois
Dates of operation 19051917
Track gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Vandalia Railroad pass (1908) Vandalia Railroad pass 1908.JPG
Vandalia Railroad pass (1908)

The Vandalia Railroad was formed in 1905 by a merger of several lines in Indiana and Illinois including the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Rail Road and the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad which covered a route from Indianapolis, Indiana, to St. Louis, Missouri. Another route between Terre Haute, Indiana, and Toledo, was created with the inclusion of the Terre Haute & Logansport and Logansport & Toledo branches. [1]

Indianapolis State capital and Consolidated city-county in the United States

Indianapolis, often shortened to Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion County was 872,680. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-autonomous municipalities in Marion County, was 863,002. It is the 16th most populous city in the U.S. The Indianapolis metropolitan area is the 34th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., with 2,028,614 residents. Its combined statistical area ranks 27th, with a population of 2,411,086. Indianapolis covers 368 square miles (950 km2), making it the 16th largest city by land area in the U.S.

St. Louis Independent city in the United States

St. Louis is an independent city and major inland port in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is situated along the western bank of the Mississippi River, which marks Missouri's border with Illinois. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River just north of the city. These two rivers combined form the fourth longest river system in the world. The city had an estimated 2017 population of 308,626 and is the cultural and economic center of the St. Louis metropolitan area, which is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, and the 22nd-largest in the United States.

Missouri State of the United States of America

Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States. With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state of the Union. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City. The state is the 21st-most extensive in area. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center of the state into the Mississippi River, which makes up Missouri's eastern border.

Contents

In 1917 the line was acquired by the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad giving the Pennsylvania Railroad a direct route from New York City to St. Louis. In 1968 PRR merged with NYC to become Penn Central and in 1976 becoming part of Conrail. Much of the North-South line was abandoned with the Conrail formation but parts of the East-West line survive as part 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.

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.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Route

The East-West line ran from Indianapolis to St. Louis with a major branch connecting Decatur, Illinois, and Peoria, Illinois. The line was double-tracked for much of its length serving the coal region of southern Illinois and as a passenger route for the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Blue Ribbon named trains The St Louisan, the Jeffersonian, and the Spirit of St. Louis . [2]

Decatur, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 76,122 as of the 2010 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2017, the city's estimated population was 72,174.

Peoria, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Peoria is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, and the largest city on the Illinois River. Established in 1691 by the French explorer Henri de Tonti, Peoria is the oldest European settlement in Illinois, and is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007. The Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 373,590 in 2011. Until 2018, Peoria was the global and national headquarters for Caterpillar Inc., one of the 30 companies composing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and listed on the Fortune 100; in the latter year, the company relocated its headquarters to Deerfield, Illinois.

<i>Spirit of St. Louis</i> (train) passenger train operated by Penn Central and later Amtrak

The Spirit of St. Louis was a named passenger train on the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors Penn Central and Amtrak between New York and St. Louis, Missouri. The Pennsylvania introduced the Spirit of St. Louis on June 15, 1927, replacing the New Yorker (eastbound) and St. Louisian (westbound); that September its schedule was 24 hr 50 min each way.

The North-South route from Logansport, IN, to South Bend, IN. Logansport was a PRR hub, with six branch lines radiating in many directions. Logansport also featured a yard and engine terminal. From Logansport, the line proceeded northward intersecting every major east-west trunk line including the PRR's main east-west route and PRR's "panhandle" route. Upon reaching South Bend, the line proceeded northward through an industrial corridor toward the Studebaker plant to a depot just short of South Bend Union Station. Because the New York Central (NYC) trackage was elevated, interchange with NYC and tenant Grand Trunk Western (GTW) was indirect via a west-routed branch that reached the Studebaker plant railroad, New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois (NJI&I) subsidiary of the Wabash Railroad, GTW, and NYC's Kankakee Belt Railroad subsidiary. PRR maintained few facilities other than the depot in town as there were no other connecting PRR lines in South Bend.

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.

Wabash Railroad transport company

The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; and Toledo, Ohio.

Equipment

The Vandalia Railroad was a PRR subsidiary for most of the twentieth century. PRR was known for equipment standardization and as such, all properties and subsidiaries operated with standardized PRR equipment. No known photographs of Vandalia-lettered equipment exist.

Traffic

Freight traffic was the primary use of the Vandalia Railroad. Studebaker loaded trucks for shipment south. Passenger trains were operated, including football specials for the University of Notre Dame. The university is located a few miles north of the station.

University of Notre Dame Catholic university in South Bend, Indiana, United States

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana. The main campus covers 1,261 acres (510 ha) in a suburban setting and it contains a number of recognizable landmarks, such as the Golden Dome, the Word of Life mural, the Notre Dame Stadium, and the Basilica. The school was founded on November 26, 1842, by Edward Sorin, who was also its first president.

Abandonment

Despite the shutdown of most Studebaker operations in South Bend, abandonment was delayed until the Conrail consolidation. At that time, Conrail had three routes to/through South Bend and the Vandalia Railroad was deemed redundant. It has been abandoned piecemeal from the city border northward, with online industries served from trains based on the former NYC territory.

Remnants

The depot in South Bend still stands as a business. The tracks to the South still stand to Ewing Street, but are not in use. The tracks west to the Kankakee Belt connection still stand and are rarely used.

See also

The Pennsylvania Company was a major holding company, owning and operating much of the Lines West territory of the Pennsylvania Railroad, including the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, the PRR's main route to Chicago. It also owned but did not operate the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, another line to Chicago.

A holding company is a company that owns other companies' outstanding stock. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies to form a corporate group. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow the ownership and control of a number of different companies.

Conrail defunct American Class I railroad

Conrail was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name, and while it no longer operates trains it continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.

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New York Central Railroad defunct American Class I railroad

The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.

The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, extending the PRR west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, Illinois. It included the current Norfolk Southern-owned Fort Wayne Line east of Crestline, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, and the Fort Wayne Secondary, owned by CSX, from Crestline west to Tolleston in Gary, Indiana. CSX leased its entire portion in 2004 to the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad (CFE). The remaining portion of the line from Tolleston into Chicago is now part of the Norfolk Southern's Chicago District, with a small portion of the original PFW&C trackage abandoned in favor of the parallel lines of former competitors which are now part of the modern NS system.

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.

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The New Castle District is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of Ohio and Indiana. The line runs from Cincinnati, Ohio northwest and north to Fort Wayne, Indiana along former Pennsylvania Railroad and New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad lines. Its south end is at Evendale, where it meets the Dayton District and Indiana and Ohio Railway's Oasis Subdivision. It runs along a piece of CSX Transportation's Toledo Subdivision from Hamilton north to New Miami, Ohio using trackage rights. The New Castle District junctions the Frankfort District at Muncie, Indiana. In Fort Wayne, it crosses the Huntington District and ends at the Chicago District.

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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.

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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.

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The Indianapolis Union Railway Company, is a terminal railroad operating in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was organized on May 31, 1850, as the Union Track Railway Company by the presidents of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad (M&I), the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad (TH&R), and the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad (I&B) for the purposes of establishing and operating joint terminal facilities in Indiana's capital city. The name of the company was changed to its present one on August 12, 1853. The next month, on September 20, Indianapolis Union Station opened its doors, becoming the very first union railroad station in the world. Since 1999, the company has been owned and operated by CSX.

References

  1. Staufer, Alvin F.; Edson, D. William; Harley, E. Thomas. Pennsy Power lll. Staufer. ISBN   0-944513-10-7.
  2. Walsh, Joe (1999). Penny streamliners: the Blue Ribbon Fleet. Kalmbach Publishing Co. ISBN   0-89024-293-3.