Edward St. Area

SouthBend3RR

This screen capture from Bing shows the three parallel railroads (IN, SJSB&S, and NJI&I) along Edward St. The photos in this article are all from this area.

Tribune's Warehouse

Boxcar spotted on the spur at the South Bend Tribune's warehouse along Prairie Avenue. This customer is serviced by NS using a combination of mostly former St. Joseph, South Bend, & Southern (NYC subsidiary, later PC/Conrail) trackage and former NJI&I trackage.

SJSB&S track west view

Looking west from Prairie Avenue along the former SJSB&S (NYC) track with a boxcar on the spur alongside the South Bend Tribune warehouse. This track will be abandoned soon east of this point according to a filing by NS with the STB.

SJSB&S track east view

This view looks east along the former SJSB&S track in the NS era where it crosses Prairie Avenue, just north of Indiana Avenue. This track will soon curve south to reach what is left of the former PRR Vandalia Line to where it is severed a mile away at the Hanson Cold Storage facility. NS recently applied to abandon this track east of this point due to no freight traffic over it for at least two years. To the north and parallel to this track ran the NJI&I which serviced Studebaker and later Allied Stamping that took over much of the Studebaker plant until Allied went under in 1999.

Scrap Yard Operation

The track that continues forward from Walnut Avenue is the NS line that went to Hanson Cold Storage via the former PRR Vandalia Line connection. Indiana Avenue is to the south. It is using the ROW of the former SJSB&S (NYC). The NJI&I paralleled it to the south and on the other side the shortline Indiana Northern paralleled it on the north. The spur that curves off to the left services today the Omnisource scrapyard which has its own switcher. At one time the NYC had a freight station and yard on the site occupied by the scrap yard operation.

Walnut Ave grade.

It might not look like much but to the right of the metal shed housing the grade crossing protection equipment for Walnut Avenue is a gate across the former Indiana Northern shortline. Until a track consolidation project by NS circa 2006 this track was still visible outside the gate. According to Google Maps the Indiana Northern tracks are still there past the gate and almost all the way to Sample Street. The Indiana Northern was owned by Oliver Chilled Plow for in-house switching on the north side of Sample Street. It also served other industries like the Wilson Brothers Shirt Company. The NJI&I eventually acquired the Indiana Northern. Another surviving bit of Indiana Northern tracks are in the former Wilson Brothers Shirt Company complex which was a customer.