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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.