About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

July 30, 2003
Right off the bat, I have an omission from part one that needs to be mentioned. In guiding you all through the tour of the route, I forgot to mention the fact the South Shore passes over the EJ&E with yet another short, steep grade. This accomplished east of East Chicago near the west end of the Gary city limits. If driving east along the parallel Indiana Toll Road, this crossing would be a little west of the Cline Avenue interchange. I recalled this as I was on the way to work the morning after I sent part one out. Hey, at least I even remembered it on my own.

I did receive a note from one reader who tells me the Shore and GTW did not interchange at South Bend. According to the South Shore system map I have there is no physical connection between the two roads. However, I recall talking to a couple of the Trainmasters while I worked there and they told of receiving cars from the GTW at South Bend. I can only figure that perhaps Conrail was forwarding these cars across town. I would like to hear from anybody with factual information about this interchange.

I’ve also been told that the original route in East Chicago, before the relocation and elevation of the line in 1956, was from Calumet Avenue to the east end of Parrish. The east end of Parrish is just west of Cline Avenue, Indiana Route 912. The connection to the B&OCT at East Chicago was part of the original route as was some of the track going to Harbison-Walker that was just an industrial lead in my days there. The East Chicago street running was on Chicago Avenue. After being reminded of this fact, I recalled my uncle telling me of catching it on Chicago Avenue.

It is good that so many readers are just full of information. I appreciate all of you that have written in with various tidbits and morsels of information to fill in the blanks and jog my memory. Having left the South Shore over seventeen years ago, it is easy to forget some of the details.

In 1984 the Venango River Corporation purchased the South Shore from Chessie System. The employees of the South Shore frequently referred to them as “the new owners.” Prior to coming forth and making their offer to purchase the property, there had been serious talk of NICTD (Northern Indiana Commuter Transit District and pronounced “Nicta”) purchasing the South Shore. There was a proposal to use freight revenues to subsidize shortfalls in government funding for the passenger operation. There was concern about a government agency owning a profitable freight railroad and channeling funds towards the passenger operation. Being that the Venango River boys came along, this conundrum was averted.

Thanks to the efforts of NICTD, Venango River acquired a South Shore with a physical plant that had been significantly upgraded. In the seven years since the creation of NICTD, numerous improvements included a new substation at Hegewisch, all the other substations upgraded with new switching equipment to sustain even distribution of power, smooth riding track equipped with welded rail between Michigan City and Kensington with thick ballast and good ties, newer motive power, a new passenger car fleet, and a virtually rebuilt Shops Yard. There was a new car washer built at Shops Yard as well to keep the coach fleet cleaners.

When Venango River took possession of the railroad, they had a vision of growth in the freight business. A plan was undertaken to market the railroad as a competitive route. They had every intention of encouraging development on along the route which, in turn, would grow the business for the railroad. We will look at some of their ventures and goals here in part two of this lesson.

The Venango River boys decided to showcase the railroad and facilities to bring current shippers, potential shippers, car owners and media onto the property, giving them a grand tour of the road. In the spring of 1985 an excursion train was operated for these very people. This run originated at Shops Yard in Michigan City, first operating east to South Bend with a brief layover there. Then it was west to Ice House crossovers. Upon arrival at Ice House, the train was run around using the crossovers both here and at Griffin (a little east of the Calumet Expressway, I-94). The train was then operated east back to Michigan City.

Each person boarding the train was given a media kit. This kit contained information about the current operations of the railroad. There was a small map of the route, leaflets with information about available services. There was also information about locating and developing along the South Shore and a deck of what resembled playing cards. This deck of cards was called “A Little Train Trivia.” Each one of these cards had a bit of information about the history and present information about the railroad.

There were munchies and refreshments served. The drinks were of both the soft and hard variety. These goodies were served up by members of the 20th Century Railroad Club which provided their services for the train.

This train was pulled by two of the South Shore’s GP38-2’s, 2000 and 2001, freshly repainted into a new version of the classic orange and maroon scheme. I’ll get into the paint scheme a little later. The train consist was comprised of a fleet of private owner passenger cars brought in for the trip. I recall there being at least one domeliner car, perhaps there may have been more. I also recall that one of the cars was painted into a New York Central lightning strip scheme. I believe this car was once MoPac #20, their air brake car that I attended annual air brake training classes aboard. I worked this excursion train and will talk more about this in part three.

Venango River did achieve some success in capturing new business to the South Shore. They began to market their freight shops nationwide as a contract repair facility. An on-car wheel truing machine which allowed for wheels to be turned without having to remove them was a major selling point. This would allow for that car to be returned to service in a timelier manner. A new drop table in the car shop allowed for wheels and trucks to be removed from cars without having to jack the cars up. This saved time again, returning cars to revenue service faster. Some cars (aside from bad orders discovered on line) were brought in for contract service and repairs.

A contract was secured with the AM General to haul military vehicles constructed at their South Bend, IN plant. Most of these vehicles moved on 89 foot flatcars or on bi-level auto racks that were leased from the Soo Line. Venango’s aggressive marketing staff was able to gather up some smaller contracts with a few on line shippers. Venango also had their eyes and thoughts fixed upon getting into Midwest Steel in Portage. This business required a connection to be built with Conrail; a connection to the Chicago Line and then access to the plant via a lead from the Chicago Line on the north side of their tracks. Eventually, this goal was accomplished, but long after I had departed the place.

During the interim, the South Shore did manage to land a contract to haul the scrap steel produced by Midwest. A siding near the plant just south of the main track and high speed siding was used for loading bales of scrap into gondolas. A crane with a magnet was used to pluck the bales off trucks and drop them into the gons spotted on the siding for loading. It was common to get eight or ten gons loaded with scrap per day from Wilson. These cars were hauled to Burnham Yard and weighed. If not overloaded, they were then hauled up to the interchange with the ICG. Any cars that were overloaded were sent back to Wilson to have some of the bales removed to lighten the load. ICG handled the loads to Granite City, IL and Midwest Steel’s parent company, National Steel. A group of gondolas of Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and Delaware & Hudson heritage were acquired for the service.

A contract to handle bottle trains loaded with molten iron was secured. Bethlehem Steel was rebuilding a blast furnace. As a result of this project, they needed to purchase the iron they needed for production into steel iron from US Steel in Gary. A joint operation with the EJ&E was inaugurated and lasted for the duration of the furnace rebuilding project. The iron was delivered to the South Shore at Miller by an EJ&E crew. The J had obtained trackage rights over the B&O between Curtis Yard in Gary and Miller to effect this move. EJ&E switch engines were used in this move. This business was a bit of a coup for the Venango River boys as they were bidding head to head against Conrail.

Venango also looked at growth in other methods aside from on line industries and services. They began to focus on acquiring other lines or obtaining trackage rights. An unsolicited bid was placed with Amtrak to purchase their line between Porter, IN and Kalamazoo, MI in 1985. This venture did not materialize though as Amtrak was not looking to sell. Conrail was handling all of the on line freight business under a perpetual trackage rights agreement. Eventually Venango did acquire the former GM&O line between Joliet and St Louis and the route to Kansas City. This transaction included trackage rights between Joliet and Chicago on the former GM&O as well as trackage rights from Chicago (Bridgeport) and Kensington and the connection to the South Shore from Illinois Central Gulf. This transaction was a major contribution to the end of Venango River Corp. However, I will not cover that episode as it occurred after my departure,

The Venango River boys did make a serious attempt to improve their connections to the outside world through direct access to the Belt Railway of Chicago. They were negotiating with the parent companies of the Chicago & Western Indiana to either obtain trackage rights on or purchase outright the CWI Main Line between State Line and Pullman Junction. The goal was to reach either the BRC’s Commercial Avenue Yard in South Chicago or up to 80th Street to allow direct access to Clearing Yard in Bedford Park. The remaining portion of the trip would have been over the BRC main line between 80th Street and Clearing Yard.

While MoPac, Seaboard System, Grand Trunk Western and N&W were in favor of this proposal, Conrail was dead set against it. The structure of the CWI required unanimous agreement of all five of its owners, not just a majority in such issues. My guess was that Conrail was afraid of the South Shore getting a new outlet for business and becoming more competitive with them. This could have directly affected Conrail’s dominance of the business with Bethlehem Steel. If the South Shore now had a better outlet on the west end, they could possibly have competed head to head with Conrail for the lucrative business out of Bethlehem going to western connections in Chicago. If the South Shore had improved connections to roads like Soo Line, Chicago & Northwestern and Burlington Northern via the BRC, they could very well compete on a much more leveled playing field with Conrail for this business. With Conrail putting the kibosh on this venture, it spelled the death of the CWI main line between the east end of N&W’s Calumet Yard and the State Line. No traffic was moving across this portion of the line anymore since the MoPac Hammond Local was discontinued. As a result of Conrail’s no vote, this segment of the CWI wound up being abandoned.

Another line under consideration for purchase was the N&W’s Michigan City Branch. The coal trains from the N&W and a local out of Argos, IN were the only traffic on this line. There were several industries that received rail service including a couple of them in Michigan City. In 1985, N&W parent Norfolk Southern was not ready to peddle off the line. Eventually the South Shore did obtain trackage rights over the Michigan City Branch to Stillwell, IN and a connection with the Grand Trunk Western. This agreement led to the operation of steel trains with the GTW. Eventually the owners that succeeded Venango River were able to obtain the line from NS.

There was a strong desire by Venango to erase the C&O era image. The old rigid drawbar former C&O Magor-built cabooses were replaced with a group of former Santa Fe models. These cabooses, equipped with cushioned draw bars were much smoother riding. They had full electrical service with operating interior lights. Step lights, porch lights and red marker lights were also part of the package. They were also radio equipped. One of them even managed to get painted into the traditional South Shore colors. The rest wore their Santa Fe red scheme with the circle and cross emblem painted over in solid yellow paint with a South Shore logo applied over it.

The idea was proposed to replace the blue and yellow paint scheme on the locomotives. An employee vote would be taken on a new paint scheme. Three different paint schemes, all created by employee Mitch Markovitz (who has created many of the colorful South Shore posters) were presented to the employees. Every employee was given the opportunity to choose between a new variation of the current yellow and blue, an orange and gray scheme and the classic orange and maroon scheme of the Insull era. By a margin of something like 90%, the orange and maroon scheme was chosen. Shortly thereafter a couple of locomotives, the 2000 and 2001 (used on the excursion train) were repainted into the “new” scheme. Eventually, the entire locomotive fleet received this treatment, but it took years to accomplish. I believe the 2007 was the last one to get the look and that was well into the 90’s.

A new car reporting system was developed. A new track numbering system and industry spotting code system was also developed. This system was patterned after the Santa Fe’s “CLIC” system and was called “CLUE.” Unfortunately, I cannot recall what the letters of the CLUE acronym stood for. A new payroll system was also developed in latter 1985. Up until the new payroll system was implemented Chessie System continued to perform the timekeeping and payroll functions for Venango River. In fact Chessie System time slips were still being used during this period. All South Shore employees hired during Chessie ownership and after Venango River took over used identification numbers assigned to them by Chessie’s payroll system. I still recall my number and even use it as a password for my CN account today.

Venango River also amassed a respectable fleet of rolling stock. Aside from the former Santa Fe cabooses, gondolas (mill, scrap and trough style), additional covered coil cars and flat cars were added to the fleet. This gave the South Shore a larger piece of revenue as cars costs were reduced. An employee recognition plan was also begun. The names of employees were also applied to side of each car. Each car bore the name of an employee. I didn’t last there long enough to see my name applied to a car though. The cabooses bore the names of the five partners of Venango.

A group of F45’s was acquired from Burlington Northern in 1985. They were stored for quite awhile, first at Burnham Yard and then at Shops Yard. Only one or two of them ever saw any service while I was there and they didn’t work out. Having been stored so long in a humid climate led to the rusting up of electrical contacts among other problems. I would bet years of service on BN and its predecessors also took its toll on them as well. Railroads do not get rid of motive power because it is in good mechanical shape. And when power becomes short on time, maintenance tends to become less than essential to them. Eventually this power was disposed of.

The two NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Service Company) plants, one at Baillytown and the other in Michigan City, received unit coal trains almost daily. A fleet of NIPSCO owned NORX high side gons and coal hoppers were used for these trains operated in 100 plus car sets. There was also a sixty-six car train set made up of MoPac hoppers. Many of the coal trains using the NORX sets and of course the sixty-six car set came from mines located on the MoPac in Central and Southern Illinois. I operated some of these very trains in my days there. We also got coal trains from the Illinois Central Gulf using either NORX or ICG hoppers. On occasion, a train of Southern Indiana coal would appear from the Milwaukee Road. There were a few trains of western coal from CNW, but I never once worked an assignment that handled any of the loaded trains. I did work a job that pulled an empty though and it was comprised of CNW and UP hoppers. These trains were handled via the B&OCT at East Chicago.

The Baillytown Generating Station was located just east of Bethlehem Steel. It was accessed using the north siding at Bailly. The Michigan City Generating Station located on the northwest side of Michigan City along Lake Michigan and just east of neighboring Mount Baldy. A siding that broke from the main track at Michigan City to reach the Michigan City plant was known as Power. Conrail could, and occasionally did deliver coal here as well. NIPSCO operated their own locomotives to handle these trains once they were delivered by the railroads. Car Inspectors from the South Shore inspected these cars at both locations when they were released back to the railroad.

The trains to Baillytown had to be delivered in three tracks. Space constraints at the plant required the train having to be cut and pulled into the yard in three pieces. This was due to the lack of a long lead at the north end of the receiving yard to use for head room to allow the train to be doubled into the yard from this end. There was a five or six track yard for receiving trains and also a stub track for storing a few cars. Outbound trains were doubled up at the south end and pulled out. The outbound trains could either use the siding to the west end or use the crossovers from the siding to the main track at the road crossing used by traffic into and out of Bethlehem and the power plant. These switches had to be lined back manually as they were not equipped with spring mechanisms. .

The Michigan City plant had two long tracks and an entire train could be delivered on one track. Outbound trains were run around and the caboose left just east of a switch at the east end of the yard, The Conductor and Engineer would run the engines back to the west end, couple on and pump the air. When ready, the Brakeman on the caboose would have them shove the train back and couple onto the caboose. When given their train orders, they could pull right out onto the main track using the spring switch and heading west. When delivering a train into the plant, the train would be stopped to clear the switch at Power and it was lined back. The caboose would be cut off and the train pulled into the plant.

When the crew cut away from the train, they would come back to the west end through the other clear track and back up to the caboose. When they received their authority, the could shove back out onto the main track and head back to Shops Yard.

The coal trains from the MoPac were delivered via the Indiana Harbor Belt. MoPac crews would deliver these trains to the IHB’s Calumet City Yard and a Harbor crew would then forward the train to South Shore’s Burnham Yard which was essentially right around the corner from Calumet City Yard. In my days at the IHB I handled these trains between Calumet City and Burnham, so I really had the opportunity to participate in almost every facet of this business. The only thing I missed out on was working the jobs that loaded these trains. Although from what I’m told by those who did load them, I didn’t miss much.

A job out of Michigan City would double up (triple up actually as the cars were placed on three tracks) and pull the train delivered by the Harbor. The Harbor also delivered the trains from the Milwaukee Road as well. For a time, the empties returning to the MoPac were returned via the B&OCT at East Chicago. The B&OCT would then pull these trains and deliver them back to the MoPac at Yard Center. Eventually this method was changed and the empties were brought back to Burnham and the IHB came over and pulled them back over to Calumet City Yard.

In the late 70’s MoPac delivered the loaded trains to the B&OCT for delivery to the South Shore. In the early 80’s these trains were being delivered to the BRC at their 87th Street Yard in Chicago and the Belt then forwarded them to the Shore at Burnham. I recall observing a Belt crew delivering a train to Burnham Yard the day I took my promotion exam on the CWI. Little did I know that someday I would be working these trains out of this yard to points east on the South Shore.

Coal trains from the ICG were delivered at Kensington. The ICG would leave them between Kensington and Fordham on what were then their tracks five or six (now known as three and four thoroughfare). A South Shore crew would come up, run around the train and add their caboose, run back around it, tie on and take it east.

There were coal trains from Chessie System’s Baltimore & Ohio interchanged to us at Miller on the east side of Gary and from Norfolk & Western at Michigan City. These trains were destined for Bethlehem Steel’s Burns Harbor Works. The station on the South Shore near Burns Harbor was called Baillytown, named for the pioneer Bailly family that settled and developed that area. These trains would be pulled into the coal receiving yard. A connection through a location called “Jackpot” was used. Jackpot was at the east end of Conrail’s Burns Harbor Yard. Even though this was all yard and industry track, permission was needed from the Conrail Trainmaster that controlled Burns Harbor Yard. There were numerous Conrail jobs working the area and the permission was needed to assure there wouldn’t be any mishaps.

B&O trains would either be delivered into the interchange yard located at Miller or a meet was set up with both railroads. The B&O would pull the train right onto the South Shore main just west of the connection. The South Shore crew would couple onto the east end and take it to Baillytown where it would be run around and then pulled into the mill. On some occasions the empties would be returned in the same method using a meet with the B&O. And other times the empties would be placed into the interchange yard.

The Brakeman of the South Shore job would act as the pilot for the B&O crew. A loaded train would be pulled out onto the South Shore main heading west to clear the crossover switch from the west end of the yard. The B&O crew would cut off and the South Shore crew would couple on to the east end of the train, and if this meet was taking place during daylight hours a red flag would be stuck onto the rear car. When it was dark, a red flashing light (a holdover that was used with the old Magor cabooses) was placed on the rear car and the train headed east to Baillytown and Bethlehem. The train would be run around at Baillytown and then pulled into the mill.

Empties, sometimes accompanied with loads of steel out of the mill for Chessie would be pulled west of the connection to the yard and also Lake Street which crossed at grade at Miller. A B&O crew would enter the South Shore main behind this train and couple on after the South Shore crew cut away. They would pull the train back through the yard and double it to their caboose which was either left on the other track in the yard or out on the B&O main track. The loads of steel were always placed on the east end of the train out of Bailly. This would have them on the head end of the train when the B&O crew took the train east on their line. This made for much better train handling for them. The only really problem spot with the loads on the rear for the South Shore was right at Miller. When the loads came over the hill, they would run in on the head end, but the speed was generally lower as the train was usually going fairly slow at this point.

This interchange yard was an interesting set up. The B&O crossed under the Shore at an angle at Miller. The east end of the yard actually passed under the South Shore main here as well with the Shore using a short, steep grade to pass above the B&O here. The interchange yard made a bend to parallel the South Shore main track on the north side. The west end of it was across from the Miller station which was located on the south side of the main track. A lead to the yard also extended west a bit of Lake Street. There were two tracks in this yard and often times it was stuffed full of cars. Other freight such as steel and lime was also interchanged here as well.

On some occasions all of the interchange was not handled with a meet, the cars were just set out in the yard. As the train pulled by the connection, the Conductor would drop off the engine to make the cut from the rest of the train. The Brakeman would drop off west of the bridge over the yard and B&O main and head down the hill to the east end of the yard. He would protect the shove as the yard would usually be filled up with all the empty coal hoppers and other cars when all was said and done. I had a situation here one evening that I will recount in part three.

Coal trains from the N&W would have their motive power consists, made up of all N&W units or sometimes with Southern units (and some locomotives painted into the new Norfolk Southern scheme) as well as N&W cabooses, run through onto the Shore. I don’t recall seeing any Southern cabooses though. This power would then be used in any and all freight service until the empties were ready to be delivered back to the N&W and would return at that point in time. In some cases, the empties would be returned in small blocks to the N&W gradually filling the N&W interchange yard located just west of South Shore’s Shops Yard in Michigan City. This yard was located on N&W’s branch that extended from Michigan City to Argos, IN (near Plymouth). The power was usually a combination SD35’s, SD40’s, SD45’s, U30C’s and C30-7’s. On occasion, a Union Pacific locomotive would show up in the N&W consist.

Being these were the days before the 97 channel radios, a device was fashioned to allow a South Shore handset radio to be connected to the locomotive radio antenna and it usually worked quite well.

To compensate them for horsepower hours, the South Shore 2008 was sent to the N&W. This engine was a free runner on the N&W for months at a time before coming home, usually for 92 day inspections. It would then hang around the Shore for a few days and then go back to the N&W.

Depending on the time the N&W loads arrived, a South Shore crew might meet them there at the connection. The train would be pulled west on the N&W past the connection switch which, on their railroad, was just west of the crossing, then shoved back through the connection and onto the South Shore main. A Shore crew could then take right over and head west. Other times the train would be shoved around and onto the main track and left for a South Shore crew when they came on duty or into town. On occasion the train would be left in the interchange yard and a South Shore crew would bring it around later.

After a Bethlehem crew dumped these cars and rolled them into the empty yard, South Shore Car Inspectors would come out and work the cars. A freight crew would be called to pull them when they were ready. Light weighers, cars that were due to be weighed while empty and then restenciled with the new weights would be switched out and sent to Burnham Yard. The determination for weighing them was based upon either the build date of the car or time span between last light weighing. Now there were some Chessie System cars that had a star next to the light weight. These cars were not to be weighed regardless of the last weighing date. I never did find out what the exemption was on these cars. There was a scale at Burnham Yard and a job working the yard would weigh the cars. The scale tickets on them were brought back and turned in with the usual paperwork by the Conductor. Depending on the amount of cars weighed either the Car Department would come out and then stencil the new light weight and load limit weights on these cars or they would be hauled back to Shops Yard for this treatment. Once this process was completed these cars would then be returned to their owners. Bad ordered cars would also be switched out and sent to the car shops in Michigan City for the required repairs. All the remaining cars would be returned to their respective roads.

The Car Inspectors used a pick up track laden with necessary supplies like spare brake shoes. An oxy-acetylene torch kit which could be used for burning or repairs was also part of the equipment. An air compressor was towed behind their truck and used to charge the brake pipes on the cars. These cars were worked with air and tested. These roaming Car Inspectors worked many of the cars received at various interchange locations.

There were other industries on line including Georgia Pacific, Bulkmatic, Carborundum, Browns, Erb Lumber, Bendix and Fruit Growers Express. There were several others as well. Georgia Pacific had a facility in Gary, along side of Conrail’s Fort Wayne Line and the parallel N&W Gary District. Bulkmatic had a trans loading facility in Gary along US Route 12 near the South Shore/EJ&E interchange. Carborundum was located between South Bend and Michigan City and Bendix was in South Bend. Erb Lumber was on the east side of Michigan City east of the yard. Fruit Growers Express had a facility located at the east end of Burnham Yard. This facility made repairs to FGE’s large national fleet of refrigerated, insulated and specialty box cars.

Conrail had the lion’s share of business from Bethlehem including a significant share of in-plant switching. However the Shore did have a very respectable amount of business from the mill. A healthy amount of steel coils and plates were shipped from Bethlehem via the South Shore. This steel was then interchanged primarily to Chessie System and ICG. A few loads would go to the N&W while some went to the IHB as well. A yard used by the Shore, although owned by Bethlehem, was known as the 430 Yard was the source of loads out and empties and some loads of scrap into the mill. Conrail jobs that switched the mill would leave the outbound cars for the South Shore in the 430 Yard. South Shore crews left inbound cars for the mill here for Conrail jobs to pick up. We had a big derailment here with a coal train one Sunday afternoon and I’ll talk about that in part three.

The IHB and South Shore also interchanged other business at Burnham Yard. Cars to and from customers on the South Shore in addition to all the coal were handled here. Paper, steel, scrap and flour were just some of the commodities interchanged with the IHB. There was other business as well.

South Shore effected interchange with Illinois Central Gulf in Chicago at two different locations. Coal trains loaded and empty were interchanged at Kensington and other traffic near a station called Ice House on the portion of the railroad known as the Kensington & Eastern. I believe there was another name for this location but I cannot recall its name. Interchange with N&W was affected at both Michigan City and Chicago (again, near Ice House), B&OCT at East Chicago, B&O at Miller, C&O at Michigan City, Indiana Harbor Belt at Burnham, Conrail at Burns Harbor and South Bend and the EJ&E at Goff Jct. in Gary. All of this interchange was business that originated or terminated on the Shore, though none of this was bridge traffic. All of these roads could and did interchange with each other and did not require the services of the Shore.

As I had mentioned in part one, there was an interchange at one time at Clark Road with the Pennsylvania that was a victim to mergers and removed. There was also an interchange with the Wabash near the Georgia-Pacific plant but it too, was eliminated. The N&W downgraded the Wabash and severed it as a through route in 1978 and the interchange tracks and connection were removed.

At one time the South Shore marketed themselves as a bridge route. The line was touted as an alternative and bypass to the congestion of the Chicago terminal. Mergers and consolidation within the industry dried up virtually all of the bridge traffic. Venango was making efforts to recapture some of this business. Their efforts started with several grain trains from the brand new Chicago Central & Pacific. Beginning in early 1986 about four or five of these trains were received from the CCP at Kensington and hauled east across the system, then interchanged to Conrail at South Bend.

Being these were the days long before there was electronic data interchange (EDI) and automatic equipment identification (AEI), business received from other railroads would need to be physically checked and the waybills accompanying these cars worked up. A roving clerk from Shops Yard would make a trip to the various interchange points. They would check the deliveries from the interchanging roads and work up the waybills. From this information the clerk would then write up switch lists and leave them in the phone box at that location. The freight jobs would come out, pick up the lists and perform any and all switching on these cars as prescribed by these lists. There was no computer system used, these lists were all written by hand.

Many of the Conductors did not give a copy of the list to their Brakemen. In the chores of their switching they would just tell you how many cars to let go or what switches to line as you proceeded with the work. While we did have some pretty good Conductors, there were a few that were less than optimum performers. If you were keeping track of what was going on, you could sometimes see that you were double or triple handling some cars during your switching. I surmised they figured if the Brakeman didn’t see the list, the Brakeman couldn’t see how much extra work the Conductor’s were creating for the entire crew.

A freight job heading west from Shops Yard would stop and pick up cars at Bailly (either going directly into the 430 Yard at Bethlehem or cars pulled by another job and left there in the siding for pick up), Miller and East Chicago. The pick up at Bailly often had the cars for the B&O already blocked so that they could be set out at Miller while heading west. The rest of the cars would be taken to Burnham where they were classified. Cars for the ICG would usually be taken up and delivered. Some Conductors would switch out everything and have the eastbound train ready to roll before going to the ICG. On the way back, they would just stop, pick up the train and then proceed. Others would come back and switch some more and then head east. Some of these cars would be set out en route for the Gary Switcher while others were set out at Bailly to go into Bethlehem. Some of the cars went back to Shops Yard bound for the RIP Track or industries in and east of Michigan City. A few cars might be held in the yard at Burnham or even set onto the State Line Siding on the north side of the main tracks.

The Gary Switcher was a local that used to work Monday through Friday, going on duty in the morning at Shops Yard about 0800. It normally worked the Bulkmatic plant in Gary and Georgia Pacific. Oftentimes they would switch out Harbison-Walker as well. Depending upon the situation, they might leave westbound cars pulled from industries at Parrish Siding and a westbound would pick them up and take them to Burnham.

There was another switch run that worked east from Michigan City. If I recall correctly, this job used to go to work about 0930 or so. They worked the C&O interchange and Carborundum as required. They would then turn back west and go to Bailly. They might stop and work industries as required around Michigan City including the old Monon. At Bailly, this job would work the 430 Yard pulling outbound cars. Any eastbound cars would either be brought back to Michigan City of left at Bailly for another freight job to pick up.

There were several freight pool jobs as well. These jobs could do about anything from switching industries to handling coal trains. Oftentimes these jobs would handle pulling the empties from Bethlehem and taking those cars required to be weighed to Burnham and handled the weighing chores. They could also head out to South Bend and work the industries there as required. They might work industries anywhere on the system including on the former Monon line. There were a couple of industries in Chicago just east of Kensington the pool jobs would often work. There was virtually nothing these jobs didn’t do, except switch the yard at Shops. While there were two tracks on the south side of the main track at Shops Yard that could be used for switching, none of the freight jobs actually worked the yard itself where cars were spotted in the RIP track. The Terminal Carmen performed these duties, including switching out the inbound train when it arrived and preparing the outbound train for a freight crew.

And all of the work performed by the freight crews was while having to dodge passenger trains. While much of the freight was moved in the evening and overnight hours, some of it moved under daylight sun.

These freight pools were just like those of the big railroads. They were on call and worked in a rotary style, first in and first out. It was sort of like an extra board, only with a complete crew that always worked together. There were three of these turns and in the last few months I worked there, a fourth turn was added as business levels demanded it. Each one of these turns had two rest days. And just like the big roads, the days off tended to get shortened. It was not unusual to be called out very late in the evening on your Friday.

I was on a regular freight turn for a while with Tuesday and Wednesday off. We would almost always get called out just before midnight on Monday (which was our Friday) and frequently work ten to twelve hours. So then you didn’t get home until 1100 or later on your rest day. Now you get to spend the first part of it sleeping. Then on Thursday we would get called out early, like shortly after midnight. So you needed to be rested in the evening on Wednesday because you just knew that the phone would be ringing around 2215 or so. As a result two rest days turned out to be closer to about one day and one quarter. And oftentimes we would get called out twice in a twenty-two and half hour period, so we commonly worked six or seven starts in our five days.

During my days at the Shore, it was all one operation. The commuter passenger service was operated by the South Shore with NICTD overseeing and subsidizing the operation. The Engineer and Conductor/Brakeman extra boards protected both freight and passenger assignments. You could bid back and forth between the two classes of service. There was no bind to freight only or passenger only so we could and did work both freight and passenger. In my days on the extra board there it seemed I actually worked freight more than passenger. And that was for a reason I will also get into with in part three. Today, NICTD owns the line and fully operates the passenger service. They perform all the maintenance of the track, overhead catenary and signals. Anacostia & Pacific Corp owns the freight operations and has perpetual operating rights over the road. This came about as the result of the Venango River Corporation’s financial failure.

NICTD acquired the railroad from the bankruptcy estate and Anacostia & Pacific purchased the freight operations. As part of this acquisition, they negotiated the perpetual trackage rights arrangement to assure they would always be allowed to operate freight service.

At the time of these transactions, the transportation employees as well as some other crafts were required to make the decision as to who they wished to work for, South Shore or NICTD. They cannot just flow back and forth; however, those hired prior to the split up of the line have flow back rights. Should passenger service be reduced or eliminated, which would call for a downward adjustment of the work force, those prior right employees affected and displaced by such a reduction have the right to make a move back into freight service.

The five Venango River boys were highly visible and very accessible. They made it a point to rub elbows with the help. They sought input from us and listened closely to any and all suggestions and ideas. And they made it a point to know our names and something about all of us. There weren’t any body guards and fear of the help. They were hands-on owners.

With the background of the South Shore complete, we will close out today’s lesson. I’ll get into some of my situations and experiences in part three.

And so it goes.

Tuch