1928, South Bend to Louisville via Interurban

[daveklepper]

Research from INDIANA RAILROAD, THE MAGIC INTERURBAN, a CERA Bulletin

 

South Bend - Elkhart - Goshen:   Northern Indiana Railway, probably change in Elkhart

Goshen  - Warsaw- Peru:  Winona Railway, probably a through car without change.

Peru - Indianapolis:  Union Traction of Indiana, probably boarding a two car train, possibly one a parlor car, that came from Fort Wayne on the Indiana Service Corporation and ran through with a change of crews in Peru.

Indianapolis - Seymore:   Indianpolis, Columbus and Southern, leased by Interstate Public Service Co.

Seymore - Louisville    Interstate Public Service Co., a through car or two-car train through from Indianapolis.

Everything south of Peru becane part of the Indiana Railroad in 1930.

[artpeterson]

Hi Dave -

Northern Indiana and Winona had agreements on through operations from 1907, however, despite those agreements I think there were still instances where one had to change trains in Goshen.  By 1928, IPS was through trains from Indy to Louisville, several "Dixie Flyer" departures each way each day, many with the Parlor-Diners, and the two overnight trips with the section sleepers, which killed several hours on line in order to provide a reasonable arrival time at either terminal.  That's not to say that there might not have been trips where one had to change cars in Seymour at this point.  Just as you've noted for the UTC leg of the trip, "timing was everything" in terms of being able to enjoy a one-seat ride, etc.!

Take care,

Art

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Don't forget the connection at South Bend with the newly re-electrified and re-equipped South Shore Line providing direct service to Randolph St. in Chicago, some with parlors and some with diners.

[daveklepper]

And according to the CERA book, although there was no through passenger service, some freight cars were regularly scheduled all the way from Chicago to Indianapolis via interurban.  This was high-value LCL freight, the kind most vulnerable to truck competitions, once the road were improved.

[artpeterson]

Hi Dave -

It's interesting to read "Electric Railway Journals" of the era as well.  With the Insull interests controlling both Public Service Company of IN (Interstate's parent) and the Indiana Railroad System lines, there was some early speculation that the section sleepers might be going further than just their normal Louisville-Indy run. 

As far as through passenger services, many of those trips that might appear to be through trains in the timetable frequently required a change of car en route.  Of course, from the perspective of your hypothetical 1928 trip, using the "name" trains on a particular leg of the journey was probably the best way to avoid that inconvenience.

In the Summer 1999 issue of "First & Fastest" Shore Line published an August 22, 1926 letter Oliver Wynn had written to his dad about his electric railway trip from Milwaukee to Indianapolis (steam on the IC at that time hauling CLS&SB trailers to Kensington).  He comments on having missed the South Bend-Goshen car by just seconds, but notes that the real pain was that by missing that connection he then missed the through Goshen-Indianapolis car (which was then runnning twice a day).

Art

[daveklepper]

And of course, after reading the Magic Interurban again, one is really sad that the last of lines, from Seymore through to Fort Wayne, could not have hung on for a nine more months, and then the ODT would have prohibited abandonment and there would have been plenty of wartime profits.   But, of course, after the war the same fate would have occured, just like it did with the IT, CNS&M, and CA&E.  At least a few more of the highspeeds would have been saved.   They would have been a natural for the San Francisco San Mateo interurban for one.   Or Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley, which did have loops both in Scranton and in Willks-Barre.

[artpeterson]

It's really unfortunate that IT didn't go after the highspeeds, especially considering that they spent $1 m a few years later on the streamliners, which really were the death-knell for their passenger service with all the restricitons they forced on terminal operations, etc.  For that same $1 m, IT could have bought every last one of the IR highspeeds and still had money left over to do rehabs on the cars, etc.