Status of former PRR main line Crestline, OH-Valparaiso, IN (now Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern)

[gesparky]

The NS is still running several trains thru Bucyrus on this line. They updated the signals for PTC at Colsan. Mostly oil trains west of Bucyrus. But they do run some mixed freight. They use the Y in Bucyrus to go east off the NS mainline. They also use it for trains coming from the east on the NS mainline. I live close to the NS main so I keep an eye on it daily

[Convicted One]

timz

East end of four tracks was ... Hobart? Tolleston?

You're most likely correct, but it "puffed back up" to 4 tracks again in other locations to the east.

The area I was speaking of would be thru Fort Wayne between 'Junction' and 'Mike'.  20 years ago I walked the whole thing, east past Mike all the way to what was then the Triple crown yard.....And the thing that struck me most notable was all the line side industrial buildings that had "dock hi" doors all along the side of the facing buildings....that  were a good 50-60 feet away from the single remaining main. All those sidings just gone. Of course many of the buildings were long empty as well. But at one time I'm sure it was quite a spectacle.

It's too bad that when I was younger I didn't realize that I was living  through the end of an era.....or I would have paid  better attention.  

[CShaveRR]

The east end of four tracks out of Chicago was before Clarke Junction (crossing of the B&OCT), I believe, at the west end of Gary.

This is the sad part of the tale: through Gary, the number of tracks on this line is now down to zero.  There's still a crossing in the pavement at Clark Road, but no tracks on either side of it.  This would probably be the last glimpse that people on the Broadway and 20th Century Limited would have had of each other in the race out of Englewood (at this grade crossing--intervening growth would preclude much of it).

[Convicted One]

Thinking of this thread topic  in the context of "the way it used to be"....I noticed a parallel with the interurbans. I recall as a child passing by derelict infrastructure that once was core to that industry's operation. Of course as someone who had never seen the interurbans operate...a lot of it did not make complete sense. I had to spend a few years learning what an interurban was, before "what it no longer was" started to make complete sense.

I think the same can be true in regard to the current freight railroads with their shift away from a customer intensive (team tracks, freighthouses, passenger service, etc) business model, to their current preference for long haul to the point they have disdain for anything  strictly local.

[Deggesty]

Yes, indeed, it used toi be.... M/ mother,  who went to a girls' school in Northfield, Massachusetts, in the teens, once told me that back then it was possible to ride all over New England for a nickel if you knew where to transfer. (Of course, she did not mean up into northern Maine.) 

[alphas]

Approximately 30 years ago, PA established a Rail Commision to look into HSR from Pilly to Pittsburgh.   [I worked under its Chairman later in my university position.]   It eventually was established that it wouldn't work due to (1) the on-going loss of population in Pittsburgh and (2) every state politican along the line wanted a stop in his/her district so HSR would have been a HS local!  [Sound familiar CA?]

Anyway, he did tell me that if HSR would ever occur in the east other than NYC-DC which he felt was a "given", he believed the best would probably be a HSR from NYC-Philly-Pitt-Columbus-Indianapolis-Chicago with possibly a HSR connection to St. Louis from Indy.    His thinking was that the majority of the HSR passengers would probably not be traveling the entire distance since the HSR couldn't compete with the jet airplane.   He visualized something like 8-9 hour service from NYC to Chicago but shorter distances would be favored over plane travel (examples: approx. 1 hour or so Pitt-Col. and Col.-Indy).    The in-between stops would have been Newark, Philly, Harrisburg, Pitt, Columbus, and Indy.    Possibly it would work if some of the HSR trains would take longer with other stops: Lancaster, Altoona, Dayton, Richmond, and around Lafayette were possibilities he mentioned. 

The interesting thing is that though the commission was made up of rail enthusists and was under pressure from outside interests who wanted it, they did reject the idea as too expensive and impractical.    He told me he felt the idea was "20 years too late or maybe 20 years too early".