Eastern Railroad Discussion > SCIH (Chicago Short Line) Operations?

I'm interested in learning some detail about the operations of the (elusive!) SC&IH/Chicago Short Line - in particular, what traffic, if any, do they run to and from the Indiana Harbor Works?

The information I've cobbled together is:
- Their main yard and shops are at 95th Street, and they serve the adjacent port at Iroquois Landing (which CN also serves).
- They serve the Indiana Harbor Works, doing a fair amount of switching, particularly of coke trains coming off CSX and NS.
- Interchange manifest with NS, either at Colehour or Whiting Yard, presumably depending on NS' preference.
- Interchange manifest with the BRC at Commercial Ave Yard.

Are the above accurate? Am I missing any major operations? Other open questions:
- Do they serve both halves of the Indiana Harbor Works, or just the west (ex-LTV/ISG)?
- Do they operate as an intermediate carrier for traffic coming out of the works? Their BRC interchange doesn't seem to include much steel traffic, but the NS interchange is almost all coil cars. Does all traffic between the works and NS move via the SCIH? How is it decided what traffic moves via the SCIH, IHB, and CN?

Thanks in advance - hopefully someone's got the answers to these very specific questions about a very obscure shortline!

I used to live in Whiting and it was always a treat to catch CSL/SCIH trains coming through. If memory serves, they used both the EJE and CSX tracks. They always seem to have a caboose, given the reverse moves. A crew member would operate an air whistle when heading in reverse. And those gorgeous, always well tended locomotives...

50 years ago, I was a student working at Youngstown Sheet and Tube. I don't recall much about rail operations back then. The YST mill I worked in -- No. 2 Tin Mill -- was still operating the last time I was back in Whiting. It belonged to US Steel then, and was still served by rail. 




 

Does SCIH handle all outbounds from Indiana Harbor Works? Or is some of that traffic handled by GRW, IHB, etc?

subchief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does SCIH handle all outbounds from Indiana Harbor
> Works? Or is some of that traffic handled by GRW,
> IHB, etc?

GRW serves only the Gary Works.  IHB also handles outbounds from the Harbor plants, and I think NS might handle some too.

calumet Wrote:

> GRW serves only the Gary Works.  IHB also handles
> outbounds from the Harbor plants, and I think NS
> might handle some too.

The traffic being interchanged at Colehour and Whiting from SCIH to NS is definitely at least partly steel traffic, which makes it seem as if NS might not switch the plant directly.
So then the route from Harbor Works to class Is other than NS is all via IHB?
Or does CN also get traffic directly from the plant at the former EJE yard there? I think that yard is named Lakefront Yard, adjacent to IHB Lakefront Yard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/21 19:22 by subchief.

subchief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> calumet Wrote:
>
> > GRW serves only the Gary Works.  IHB also
> handles
> > outbounds from the Harbor plants, and I think
> NS
> > might handle some too.
>
> The traffic being interchanged at Colehour and
> Whiting from SCIH to NS is definitely at least
> partly steel traffic, which makes it seem as if NS
> might not switch the plant directly.
> So then the route from Harbor Works to class Is
> other than NS is all via IHB?
> Or does CN also get traffic directly from the
> plant at the former EJE yard there? I think that
> yard is named Lakefront Yard, adjacent to IHB
> Lakefront Yard.

The "Bottle Train" that runs from Indiana Harbor to a steel mill in Riverdale is an NS train even though it operates mostly on IHB tracks..  Whether NS handles any more traffic directly I'm not sure, but I've seen NS power idling on Arcelor-Mittal trackage at CP502.

With that exception and the CN exception that you noted, I'm pretty sure all other non-SCIH traffic is handled by IHB.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/21 07:55 by calumet.