BULLETIN 8 DECEMBER, 1939 Northern Indiana Railway, Inc. South Bend Notre Dame Mishawaka Osceola Elkhart Goshen Niles Buchanan Berrien Springs St. Joseph Lydick New .Carlisl~ Rolling Prairie· LaPorte Waterford Michigan Cj BULLETIN OF THE £1:""T~.4L------r:LI:~T~I(: ~.4ILIf.4~5· 4~Sf)(:I.4TI() ©1939, 2008 Central Electric Railfans' Association 1 £111£.Et>.www.cera-chicago.orgILLIIlIlIt>IS GENER'AL INF.ORMATION Northern Indiana Rail'Waylnc. IIIS'l'CRlQALTbe' stor7'ot etreet railway lervice in the city of Sou,th Bend dates back to September '10.• 18()9 when the South Bend & Mishawaka Bailway Company --.s formed, but actual construc­ tion wal dela7~d: by lack Qf capital"until the. formation of the South :Bend Railway Comp~y on January 18~ 1885 which began' actual traCk work on WaAhington Street. The following April the fir8t car. a small black and whiteho~.e--drllwnvehlcl.e.madethe fir~t trip. and later single track 'lines on Michigan St. 'from Navarre .outh ..~o:'()h10, ~d on.aahington west to Circle followed. Then came the Chapin St. line. the Portage line,'the' Lincoln~(!4ichlganAvenue) line. and a line on Lafayette St. south to the Lake Shore & Michlgan SOut~.x:n·.. d,Pot. Sou·th~,~en(rhad,·one of the earliest experimental electric railway inatallatloDs.uein« the Van de Poele ~ysteil.lt::.but.1t:was not BUcc81slul and the ~ree were taken down until methods were imprOTed and electrifi.cat19n ,co.lDpleted in, 1894, when the General Power ~ Quick Transit Company -.organized to conetruct a llne":~.etween South,Bend and Mishawaka. along the south side of the river. The "Clulck" line .was headed by-J.e"u~Q"., Smith. under whose reign the Indiana Blectric Railway was launched to build interurban lines' 'between· Goshen, J:lkha;rt •. Mishawaka and other cities in this area, this in 1894. Another epmpany with similar intentions. the South Bend Ie Elkhart Railway CODlpany incorpprated in March. 1898. was finally merged ~ith the Indiana Electric Rail~y. the South ~end Street Railway and the "~lck" line and·the combiDed traction interest. of South ~end. Mi8ha~a. Elkhart and Goshen became known as the Indiana Railway COmp&n7. 'After seve~l abortive attempts to build a line connecting South !end to Michigan City , the ~ortA Ie Michigan City Tract\onCompani in 1904 succeided in constructing a line bet~een the toWDS of its name and in 1905 the South Bend LaPorte & Michigan Ctty Railway Company acquired the assets. of the former company and -of,th~ other two "hich had not built. anything. This compan'y in turn was acquired b7 the Northern Indiana RailWay, Incorporated which pushed :tJ'le wo~k to completion and began operation from South Bend in August. 1908. It is of interest to note that the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway actually completed its line bet,.een Michigan City and S~th Bend in July, 1908, PRICR to the Northern Indiana Line. 1d1ich no.. a110 included the formf!r Indiana Railway Company. In the meantime. in February 1901 the South Bend~ Sauthern Michigan Railway Company had bp-en .formed to acquire ,,~perty in Michigan and the South 'Bend Northern ·Rail1f8.Y to acquire rights­ of-_7 in Indiana for the interurban to St. Joseph. In 1906 the line was opened to Blles and became the Southern Michigan Railway. but it W&sthree ~rears before the line was fina.lly compl~ted into St. J08eph. ~ltho affiliated in thA.t 1t 1mB sponsored byallledinterestl with the Northern Ind.iana. the Southern Michigan operatedaa"an inllependent, road at' first, wi th separate shops at Scotdale and a ear - shed at the north edge of South Bend. The company 'operated a sul)urbail service from South Bend to Rose­ land and also acquired but did not use t~1! franchi,es of the Niles ~ Buchanan Railway. a line projected between those towns. '" . In 1907 the Northern Indiana Railway became ',the Chicago South Bend Ie Northern Indiana Railway Company. controlled by tbe Murdoch SlJldicate. backed by "stern capital. and under this manage­ ment gre.. to a ~~78tel1 of 160 mile. of line. 140 care and possessed a valuation of $15.500.000. Profits peaked in 1923 ~th revenueBamounting te" $1,814,000 and carrying a patrenage of 22,570,538 pas~engers in addition to con.iderable freight tonnage. After 1910 the Southern Michigan was ltnder direct control of the CSMNIR7. ,": ,.. In 1925 the' Murdoch Iyndiaate was broken by the death of the crotbersand this combined with the mu8hroom~11ke grorih o,f unregulated competing bus service over the entire system brought on financial troubles. To protect itself the company finally bought out competition ,and operated bUies paralleling the railroad. bu~, dwindling returns resulted in rec-.ivership. Reorgani~ation gave birth to the Northern Indians. Railway, Incorporated which now included the CSMNIBy and the Southe~ Ml~higan Ry. The new company in 1930 acquired modern light-weight interu.rbanand ~ltycars.put on store (loor pick up and delivery service, extended the Bend.ix city line and rerouted the interurban thruthe western edge of South Bend. but no.twithstanding the8~ imp~ovements it went into Recel~ershlp on December 31. 1931. The' Receiver made retrenchments. such aBo the:ahandonment, of local service in Michigan City in 1932, in an effort to conserve the assets but fInally petition was made to discontinue thA entire interurban system and the Elkhart city lines. On June 1. 1934 the last intf!rurban cars ran on the 110rthern Ind.iana 'Ry. and the linea were subsequently dismantled. Today. whi,le there has been some substitutiOn of buses on certain local car lines in South Bend. 'there is still street ra,ilway service radiat1.ngin all princ:tpal directions from the heart of the city. SBRVIC:BS PERFOBMED: While the bulk of the traffic of the Northern Indiana Ry. -as its passenger bU8ines8•.largely local traffic in the prine'~al cities . moved at fares aa 10wa8 51'untilrecent years, the com- ~an7made &D~ffort to get a share of lucratiYe freight bus'lnells. Bowever it _,a handicapped in· restrictions illpOsed b:Y .treet operation and l1aited iDtercbange fActIities and ...eUilable to handle IlUch yolume of carload freight. The adjacent sketch. which appeared in some of the rail_7' spublicity, gives an idea of A typical freight train of the company. altho the ~~f'~~~~a~r~t~i~.;t:a~l..l~·lceD.e he. definite17 -hopJ)ed up" the ";1 actual.-appearance of the train. The use 0 f the 'llUIlbere ::~fl~~~~~~~....... 1200 an4 1201 can DOt be eXplained.• 2 ©1939, 2008 Central Electric Railfans' Association 2 www.cera-chicago.org Northern Indiana Railway Inc. The construction of the Southern Michigan Ral1.yand. the Northe.rn Indiana Railway wac carried out along the samegener_l lines. Privat~ right-of-way was secured except thru towns where the lin.es were located on the public streets. Construction was ~airly heavy wi th 8. view.toWard fast operation. cute and fill. of 30 to 40 ft. depth being made where needed. The rail was 70 lb. section. tie plateE being used on curvee. Bridge struc­ tures werp. ~b8tantially built. the largeBt being the e span, 16~5 ft•• truss over tlle St. Joseph river near Berrien ~prlngs. Shortly after ", the completion of the Rai.lway it was planned to dam the river a. short distance belo\Y the railway crossing 80 it ws.!! necessary to erect a bridge that -as 60 ft. above the mean river level prior to daDming. Another inte.resting stI1lcture on the t lines was the thrp,e 1evel separation bet1Veen the Southern 1. Michigan .Railway, i41chigan Central R.R., and. the Big Four "Line.s, in tha.t order from top to bot.tom. located near Niles. The standard siding was double-ended with number 6 turnouts. The original feeder system conetsted of 000 trolley wire and one 300.000 em. bare copper feeder. and 0000 bonds yere used. Power wal supplied to the SouthArn .M1Ctl1.~ frolD.Squth Bend and aleo from its «enerat,iD« -plant at' Seotdale. a small installation. eontatning two Corliss ste811l engines belt-drt\"ing500 kw. 600 Tolt DC generators. Th~re .W8~ uao a single 300 k"'f1 sub.tq,tion eODYerter operatln~ fro. the generators to fur­ nish AC at 19.100 Toltl for 8 trRnsmi88ion lir.p. to another 300 kw. converter feeding the line at Ji1eR. Thjs inefficient eystem. to@'@ther rith the ear sho." at Seotdalftf waA later dispen8ed with in f'aTor of faeil!tie! at South Bend. The car barns at Michigan C1 ty and Elkhart were in the later dRY8 ueed. only for the care of city cars and for housing idle equip.ent. ROLLING STOCK The earliest rollJ:ng stock used.on·the·city llne8 was ~f the 811811 single truck variety, both open and cl"eed bodle8 being tried. Later cars were typieAl double truck double end closed cars. In 9. we.Y 1t ~8 R fOJ'tunateaeeident when i.n 1921 e. disastrous fl"~ I'ltted theColtl'lbt"A. AVE-n119 (eit~) car·bBrn. destrQyiuc much of the C)ld '~A.ll equipment. :lAking it necessar7 fo~'t~e company to cbtain new ear~ i1DJI!~dlately. A number of second band ears were secttred from Cleveland and AkronI part ot them were run all the way to South Bend OD their own Wheel~ over the net~rk Of traction .lines then in op~ration. A curious cha~cteristie of South Bend city carl is the odd paintschemPt which while neat and well kept up ba.s a tend.enc,.to empha8ize the old style ot some of the cars.