Lake Shore Railroads... Who's Who?

[wm3798]

Enjoying a quiet couple of days on the dunes near Gary, Indiana.
Within the 2 miles from our rental on the lake shore to US 20, there are three active lines, and one abandoned one, and south of there there are at least two more.

I'm operating solely on theory, so bear with me if you're more familiar with this turf than I am...



The map has been corrected offers my assumptions as to what I'm looking at.  I'm pretty comfortable with my assumption of the South Shore line.  It is electrified for the commuter trains the run into Chicago, and I caught a train switching a bit to the west of here today.

Then next three are educated guesses.

There's a grade crossing right through the downtown block of Miller Beach, within view of the South Shore, double track, high speed.  I'm assuming this is the old NYC main.  I did see a train operating across here, but only the endless string of double stacks, not the power.  I'm guessing that CSX operates this now post-Conrail.

North of here is another line, which crosses Lake Street on a very substantial steel beam bridge, looks to be at least two, maybe three tracks wide (the bridge at least), with very substantial concrete abutments.  I can't help but wonder if that's not the original PRR line along the Lake Shore, just because it's bigger and brassier than any of the other lines.

Finally, there's the remains of another bridge across Lake Street a short distance north of here, represented by a set of concrete abutments under what must have been a single track line.  I believe the Nickel Plate also ran through this area, so I'm guessing this must have been it, probably operated by NS up until the Conrail Split, then abandoned in favor of the bigger PRR route.

Now I also know that the Erie, and also the Lackawanna passed through this vicinity, so the abandoned route may have been either of those, not to mention odd ducks like Pere Marquette.  (The Marquette Park is literally a stone's throw from where I'm sitting right now... same name, but I have no knowledge of the PM or its routes, so I throw myself to you, my trusted and wise advisors.

So how wrong am I?

Lee

[wm3798]

Okay, so a little Wikipedia reading leads me to believe the blue line is actually the B&O.  The only two railroads noted in the article are the South Shore and the B&O, and since they both cross close to the downtown, that would make the most sense.

That throws open the conjecture relating to the other tracks.  Now the Big One may in fact be the NYC.  I better do some more digging.
Lee

[nickelplate759]

Don't think that's the Nickel Plate.   They ran through South Gary.

[wm3798]

I found it!  Mr. Google to the Rescue!


It turns out the abandoned line is the Indiana Harbor Belt, which makes perfect sense, since it traverses between the two major steel mills that are still burbling away to the east and west of us.  That's pretty cool...  That means that maybe my 0-8-0 may well have passed just a few hundred yards from where I'm sitting right now!

And the rest is as I suspected in my second guess.  NYC occupies the heavy bridge, and the B&O crosses main street.

It turns out that at the time of this map at least, Lake Street featured an electric street railway to the lake!  I'll have to look around for some evidence of that...

I'm going to say the Wabash is completely gone... with the exception of a couple of industrial remnants east and west of here, but I believe the Michigan Central track is alive and well... I saw an autorack train pulled by a CSX unit there today heading toward Chicago.

This is fun.  There's such a tangle of rail around here, and according to this map, it was even worse a few decades ago!

Lee

[wazzou]

Almost every railroad’s goal at one time or another, was to reach Chicago.

[Point353]

Go to: https://www.historicaerials.com/

Click on the box "View images".

In upper left corner of the map, where it says "geo coordinates or street address", type in 'Gary, Indiana' and click on "go".
Drag the map over to your exact location.
That current map should be labeled with the present owners of the rail lines you see.

Click on "topos" to seen a list of dates for various topological maps from years past that will indicate who owned the tracks at that time.
You'll also see any lines that may have existed back then but are abandoned today.

The historic aerial maps may be of interest, as well.

[Chris333]

1951:

[dem34]

Guess Hi-Rail spaghetti bowls make more sense if the railroads you can see at the time are actual spaghetti bowls.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sometimes I get frustrated that it doesn't always behave like Google Maps, but this is incredibly helpful while traveling.

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

It includes details like location names, line names, etc... pretty handy!

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[wm3798]

Guess Hi-Rail spaghetti bowls make more sense if the railroads you can see at the time are actual spaghetti bowls.

It's quite true...  And here I always imagined that it was easier to model a multi track scene with bridges and tunnels poking through the mountains...  This place is like someone took a 4x8 sheet of plywood and just dumped a box of snaptrack all over it.

Lee

[wm3798]

Perhaps we could pin a post at the top of this forum with those mapping apps and other available antiquities.  They're pretty cool... and very useful.
Lee

[C855B]

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

How has your experience been with it versus the real world? Doing the usual "how good is it where I live?" test, there are some awfully big misses, with numerous errors of commission and omission. Having created and sold similar (tho' non-RR) digital map products, I sure as hell know the pitfalls of relying on "available" geodata sources (Census Bureau and USGS, for instance), but in this case I really have to wonder how they are classifying lines.

[davefoxx]

How has your experience been with it versus the real world? Doing the usual "how good is it where I live?" test, there are some awfully big misses, with numerous errors of commission and omission. Having created and sold similar (tho' non-RR) digital map products, I sure as hell know the pitfalls of relying on "available" geodata sources (Census Bureau and USGS, for instance), but in this case I really have to wonder how they are classifying lines.

I can’t speak for Ed, but my experience has been good with that map.  It’s allowed me to even do some railroad archeology on some of the abandoned routes near my home .

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I can’t speak for Ed, but my experience has been good with that map.  It’s allowed me to even do some railroad archeology on some of the abandoned routes near my home .

DFF

Mine too. As Big Mike says: No complaints.