Eastern Railroad Discussion > PRR Chicago-Logansport

I have some questions about passenger service through Schererville, Indiana, on this line. I believe that the Pennsy and later Penn Central ran several passenger trains a day on this line, according to a some timetables from the 60's I have. As a young boy living there I remember the mail hanging next to the station waiting for pickup by the RPO car.

When did Schererville have passenger service? (I don't think it did when I lived there in the 50's).

Did passenger service on this line cease when Amtrak started or did it end before that?

Did Amtrak ever have service on this line?

Many thanks.

Yes, Amtrak had service on this line; I rode the Floridian on it. If my memory serves me correctly, they started out on the IC/NYC (Big Four) route thru Kankakee and Lafayette. That route proved to be deteriorated badly. They then moved over to the PRR line. I rode this in the Fall of 1973. It was slow and rough, but double track. Finally they moved the train to the Monon.

Meanwhile the Cardinal first operated on IC/NYC line but moved over to the C&O line thru State Line Tower, Hammond & Griffith, IN in 1973?. They remained on that line for quite a few years. When that line was abandoned, they used the Monon to Crawfordsville; fixed up the NYC track from Indianapolis to Crawfordsville. Continued east of Indianapolis on the B&O to Hamilton, OH and thence down into Cincinnati.

Thanks for the reply. I thought that Amtrak must have used the route in the early days. I wish that I had just taken a short trip on that route...much of it is gone. Part of the ROW in Schererville is a parking lot.

Ah, the missed opportunities...

My 1946 Pennsy timetable shows that the NB "Ohioan" - train 109 stopped at Schererville at 6.20 AM on the way to Chicago.

A little more detail: the PRR "Panhandle" line started on the SW side of Chicago, and ran southeast to Schererville and thence to Logansport, where it divided, with the I&F Branch running south to Ben Davis Tower just west of Indianapolis, and the "main line" running to Cincinnati via Richmond.

Passenger trains left Union Station on the PRR main, ran to Colehour Yard just across the Calumet River, and then used the SC&S Branch to get to the Panhandle. Amtrak used the SC&S to get to the Monon for several years after the Cardinal was rerouted from the C&O of Indiana; the route was down the SC&S to the remains of the Panhandle, thence to Munster, IN where connection was made with the Monon. The Panhandle from SC&S junction into Chicago was abandoned very early in the Conrail era. From Schererville southeast, the line lasted into the 1980s IIRC.

In 1995, Amtrak stopped using the SC&S and rerouted the Cardinal via the former C&EI from 35th Street to Thornton Junction, thence GTW to Munster and onto the former Monon. That's the first Amtrak service over the C&EI since the Floridian was detoured for several months in 1974.

Didn't the PC actually mothball a part of that double-track line, shifting traffic to the Ft. Wayne line into Chicago instead? It was one instance where PC actually performed a major route abandonment (operations-wise, not to be confused with actual track abandonment) long before CR started doing the same in earnst to most of the western Pennsy. CR later did officially abandon the track, but I recall PC removed all the traffic.

I think this line is still in from Van (Logansport) to Winimac and is run by a shortline. Aside from the chunk missing from Winimac north, there are pieces missing south on the "main line" to New Castle and Richmond and a short piece missing from just south of Logansport to just north of Frankfort, IN. PC/Conrail were experts at making sure a line couldn't be revived when they abandoned it! It would make a decent enough route from Indy to Chicago for rail passenger operation if it were still there, even though Lafayette would be missed. The old PRR was the shortest route between those two cities, if I'm not mistaken.

I think that line was also the route of the "South Wind," an excellent Chicago-Florida train of the fifties and sixties. As an aside, I believe there is a small museum in Winamac by the old Panhandle depot--no rolling stock, but still interesting. A few miles north (in North Judson), there is a nice museum on old Erie trackage (the Erie, Pennsylvania, NYC and C&O all used to junction in North Judson). The museum has a C&O steamer and several other interesting pieces of equipment.

Am not familiar with SC&S. I am presuming this is what we used to call the Bernice Cutoff which ran south from Colehour along the state line down to Bernice.

EMFrimbo wrote:
>
> Am not familiar with SC&S. I am presuming this is what we used
> to call the Bernice Cutoff which ran south from Colehour along
> the state line down to Bernice.

Yep, that's the line...SC&S stands for South Chicago and Southern.
Only part of it left is between Hegewisch Junction and Calumet Park.
The NS hot-metal train and the IHB use it for access to the Calumet
River line (which leaves the SC&S at Hegewisch Jct) and runs along
the Calumet river to CP 509 on the Conrail (now NS) Chicago line.

We were just railfanning at Hegewich and a CSX way freight on March 21 2016 backed south with a caboose in the lead on the SC&S.   Does anyone have an idea how fast the "South Wind" ran on this line.  Indieanapolis is about 200 miles from Chicago and the "South Wind" made it in 3hours and 15 mnutes compared to Amtrak today at over 5 hours.  They must have run at least 60MPH on the SC&S, but I do not have any employee timetables.

I didn't know Trainorders was happening way back in 2001, long before I ever got online.
Where was the Schererville depot?  Somewhere near what is now downtown, or perhaps
around Hartsdale Tower?  I rode the Amtrak George Washington from Chicago to DC in
January 1974, and our route was via the SC&S and PRR/PC to Indianapolis and Cincinatti.
We got nailed two hours for freight train interference at Logansport and past Indy the slow
orders were so bad I thought we would never get to Cincy.  Still, it was a great trip.

The Schererville depot was on the west side of the tracks, just south of Joliet Street. I think that the police station and parking lot occupy the spot now. When I was in 2nd and 3rd grades, I would walk to school and cross those tracks every day. I don't recall much about the rail traffic (it was nearly 70 years ago) but I do recall the mailbag hanging near the station. I believe the post office was just around the corner. Back then, Schererville was more or less a farm town and we had to pick up our mail at the post office. As they say, things have sure changed!

I started this thread 20+ years ago and was surprised -- and pleased -- to see your post. 

                 I remember seeing the James Whitcomb Riley ( Amtrak ) through Griffith Ind. Have only a few photos of it. If I remember correctly it came out of Chicago and at Griffith ot turned onto the C&O, and the reverse coming west.

I used to frequent a tavern in "Sherryville" next to the police station earlier this century.  It would have been a convenient
location when the depot was still in use.  That would have been far out to see the US Mail picked up from the hoops there.

Some excellent history of the SC&S is in the incomparable "The Pennsy In Chicago" by Edward DeRouin,
one of my all-time favorite railroad history books.

I too recall the Riley coming through Griffith in the mid-70's.  Time for me to begin looking for my old Amtrak
time tables to better recall when it used to pass by.  In 1977 or '78 the Chessie Steam Special ran over the C&O to
Peru, Indiana; the Riley caught up with us somewhere along the way and a great side-by-side runby was held for
all of us to enjoy.  Those were great years to be out fanning.

Pre-Amtrak South Wind ran via Logansport.
May 1971, Amtrak's South Wind ran via Kankakee.
November 1971, renamed Floridian.
January 1972, ran via Logansport.
August 1974, ran via Evansville.
September 1974, ran via Logansport.
February 1975, ran via Evansville.
March 1975, ran via Lafayette.

This doesn't include various changes in Florida, or the ill-fated operation with Auto-Train, or changes in Chicago after using the Monon. Nor does it include the slips between one overnight and two overnights. All the sordid details at http://www.trainweb.org/kentuckyrailtaskforce/railhist/page5.htm.